Mackenzie had not stepped foot into a church since the wedding of her college roommate. After her father died, her mother had tried dragging her and Steph to church on numerous occasions and it was for that very reason that Mackenzie did everything she could to avoid it.
Still, as she entered the sanctuary of New Life Methodist Church, she had to admit that there was a certain degree of beauty here. It was more than the stained glass windows and the ornate altar-there was something else entirely that, quite frankly, she could not put her finger on.
As she neared the front of the sanctuary, she saw an older man sitting in one of the pews to the front. He had apparently not heard her enter because he had his head down, reading in a book.
"Pastor Simms?" she asked. Her voice boomed like the Almighty in the cavernous sanctuary.
The man looked up from his book and turned to face her. He was a man in his fifties, dressed in a button-down shirt and khakis. He wore the sort of eyeglasses that instantly made him appear to be infinitely kind.
"Detective White, I presume?" he asked, getting to his feet.
"You presumed correctly," she said.
He looked a bit shocked but met her at the head of the sanctuary all the same.
"Forgive my surprise," he said. "When your Chief Nelson called to request some of my time for your research, I wasn't expecting a woman. Due to the heinous nature of the crimes, I find it rather odd that a woman would be heading it up. No offense to you, of course."
"None taken."
"You know, Clark speaks favorably of you."
The name Clark threw her off and it took her a moment to realize that he was talking about Nelson-Police Chief Clark Nelson.
"I've heard that a lot lately," she said.
"Well then, that must be nice."
"And unexpected," she said.
Simms nodded, as if he understood perfectly. "Nelson's a bit of a blowhard at times. But he's also extremely kind when he needs to be. I imagine that's a hard part of himself to show at work."
"So he attends this church?" Mackenzie asked.
"Oh yes," he said. "Every Sunday. But I digress. Please," he added, gesturing to the pew he had been sitting on. "Have a seat."
Mackenzie did so and looked to the book Pastor Simms had been reading from and was not at all surprised to find that it was a Bible.
"So, Chief Nelson tells me that you have questions about scripture that may be able to lead to the arrest of the man that has been killing these poor women."
She pulled out her cell phone and pulled up the picture she had snapped of the old Bible from the abandoned house. She handed it to him and he took it, adjusting his glasses as he looked at it.
"Numbers, chapter five, verses eleven to twenty or so. Do you think you could tell me how you interpret the verse?" she asked.
He glanced at the picture briefly and then handed the phone back.
"Well, it's pretty self-explanatory. Not all Biblical passages need to be decoded. This one simply speaks of adulterous women being forced to drink bitter waters. If they were pure, no harm would come to them. But if they had engaged in sexual relations with anyone other than their husbands, the waters would bring a curse upon them."
She pondered that.
"The killer has carved N511 on each post he has hung a victim from," she said. "And based on the sort of women he has been choosing, the allegory seems pretty fitting."
"Yes, I'd agree," Simms said.
"He's also carving J202 into the posts. There are too many books of the Bible that begin with J for me to make an educated guess. I was hoping you'd have some insight?"
"Well, Numbers is an Old Testament book and if this killer is killing based on what he thinks is Old Testament law-however misguided his interpretations and actions may be-I think it's safe to say that this other reference would be Old Testament as well. If that's the case, I feel certain that it's referring to the book of Joshua. In Chapter Twenty of Joshua, God speaks of Cities of Refuge. These were cities where people who had accidentally killed others could flee to without prosecution."
Mackenzie chewed on this for a moment, her heart racing, something starting to click inside. She picked up the Bible and found Joshua and dug up the passage. When she found it, she read it out loud, a bit creeped out by the sound of scripture coming out of her voice in this empty church.
Then the Lord said to Joshua: Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood. When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state their case before the elders of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them. If the avenger of blood comes in pursuit…
She trailed off here, astounded, knowing she had finally figured out the source of the numbers. It was both thrilling and deflating. She had a window into his MO now-and yet it was still so vague. None of this could bring her to his front door.
"There's more, you know," Simms said.
"Yes, I see that," she said. "But I think that's enough. Tell me, Pastor, do you know how many of these Cities of Refuge there were?"
"Six in all," Simms said.
"Do you know where they were located?"
"Roughly," he replied.
He picked up the Bible and turned to the back, showing her a series of glossaries and maps. He came to a map that represented Israel in biblical times and, adjusting his glasses again, pointed out six locations.
"Of course," he said, "these locations may not be exact, but-"
Her heart started beating hard as she made a connection that almost seemed too good to be true. She gripped the book tightly.
"May I take a picture?" she asked.
"Of course," he replied.
She photographed it with shaking hands.
"Detective, what is it?" he asked, studying her. "Have I been of help in some way I don't understand?"
"More than you know," she said.
