was nothing else. M.J. had the dispatcher make a CD of the recording. Although they didn’t advertise it, the TipLine also had caller ID and she wrote down the number.
She figured there weren’t many Bibles in the building, so she went back to her desk and looked up the passage online. There were several different versions, but the English Standard translation appeared under the heading “Atonement for Unsolved Murders”:
If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord , and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O Lord , for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’
Creepy, she thought, but the phrase bring the heifer down to a valley with running water . . . and . . . break the heifer's neck there in the valley certainly caught her attention. It sounded a lot like Difficult Run, not to mention the reference to neck breaking.
She did a reverse number lookup from the caller ID. It came back as a pay phone at a convenience store in Sterling, Virginia. She went to her car and started driving.
The voice on the TipLine could be that of the killer, she thought, and the biblical reference could be the motive she had been looking for. Perhaps this was a psychopath who felt his actions were directed by God. Worse yet, it could be some kind of religious cult that performed ritual killings. Of course, it could also just be some religious nut.
The pay phone at the convenience store was outside and there was no security camera in view. There was one inside, however, and she persuaded the manager to let her replay the tape from earlier that morning. She watched the customers from thirty minutes before the call until thirty minutes after. There were lots of Hispanic landscape workers, a few harried commuters grabbing coffee or cigarettes, but no one who came even close to the description of the killer. She asked the two clerks who had been behind the counter during that time period if they had seen anyone acting strangely, particularly a tall person with bulging muscles. They said they had been very busy during that time but didn’t remember anyone like that.
M.J. went back to her car. She looked at the biblical quotation again: . . . someone is found slain . . . and it is not known who killed him. In other words, she thought, an unsolved murder. She took out her cell phone and called Fairfax County Police Headquarters. She was put through to Ted Sommers, a detective she had worked with in the past.
“Hello, Ted, this is M.J. Powers from the Park Police. Are you going to be around long enough for me to stop by, say in thirty minutes?” she asked.
“No sweat, M.J.,” he said. “See you when you get here.”
She drove to the Judicial Center in Fairfax and parked outside Police Headquarters. Ted met her in the lobby. He was short with a smiling face and wore his hair in a badly designed comb-over
She figured there weren’t many Bibles in the building, so she went back to her desk and looked up the passage online. There were several different versions, but the English Standard translation appeared under the heading “Atonement for Unsolved Murders”:
If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord , and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O Lord , for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’
Creepy, she thought, but the phrase bring the heifer down to a valley with running water . . . and . . . break the heifer's neck there in the valley certainly caught her attention. It sounded a lot like Difficult Run, not to mention the reference to neck breaking.
She did a reverse number lookup from the caller ID. It came back as a pay phone at a convenience store in Sterling, Virginia. She went to her car and started driving.
The voice on the TipLine could be that of the killer, she thought, and the biblical reference could be the motive she had been looking for. Perhaps this was a psychopath who felt his actions were directed by God. Worse yet, it could be some kind of religious cult that performed ritual killings. Of course, it could also just be some religious nut.
The pay phone at the convenience store was outside and there was no security camera in view. There was one inside, however, and she persuaded the manager to let her replay the tape from earlier that morning. She watched the customers from thirty minutes before the call until thirty minutes after. There were lots of Hispanic landscape workers, a few harried commuters grabbing coffee or cigarettes, but no one who came even close to the description of the killer. She asked the two clerks who had been behind the counter during that time period if they had seen anyone acting strangely, particularly a tall person with bulging muscles. They said they had been very busy during that time but didn’t remember anyone like that.
M.J. went back to her car. She looked at the biblical quotation again: . . . someone is found slain . . . and it is not known who killed him. In other words, she thought, an unsolved murder. She took out her cell phone and called Fairfax County Police Headquarters. She was put through to Ted Sommers, a detective she had worked with in the past.
“Hello, Ted, this is M.J. Powers from the Park Police. Are you going to be around long enough for me to stop by, say in thirty minutes?” she asked.
“No sweat, M.J.,” he said. “See you when you get here.”
She drove to the Judicial Center in Fairfax and parked outside Police Headquarters. Ted met her in the lobby. He was short with a smiling face and wore his hair in a badly designed comb-over
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