Chapter 2 A Past Case Summarised
1041 Words
As three broken, but happy heroes James, Adam and Thomas returned to the police station a month later. To their great relief, the impressive Michael Fuller had solved another challenging case. Persumably while drinking whiskey in his bathtub. This would give them at least a few quiet days to recover before the heat started again.
The police policy rewarded staff members for solving cases quickly. This was to encourage staff to work a lot of overtime in the critical first days of a murder case. Cases were divided equally between the different murder investigation teams. Since Michael Fuller was a very dedicated detective, the team members had to work very hard until the solution came to Michael's head. Michael often found the solution while he was drinking whiskey in his bathtub. An internal joke was that if Michael had whiskey in his office, then he would never need to go home and the rest of the staff would not need to come to work. This joke was not entirely accurate as it happened that James Locker solved a case or two. Regardless, Michael Fuller was an exceptional talent and more than 90 per cent of the cases assigned to his team ended up with a conviction.
Michael Fuller greeted the talented trio:
- Good day, mates. It is great to see you all. I solved another tricky case last Friday so this won't be the busiest return to work week for you. Let's go to the lunchroom and have a chat about your holiday and my latest case!
They went into the lunchroom, and they each had a cookie. James Locker started the talking:
- Hey, Michael, I can't get how you solved that last case so fast. From the media reporting, the case was very bizarre.
Thomas Anderson interrupted the conversation:
- Sorry guys for not following the news while enjoying my life 8000 kilometres away, what was the case?
Michael Fuller
- It was the Father Walker case; a senior Anglican priest was killed and found mutilated.
Adam Smith
- Yeah, we get those cases sometimes, what was the full story?
Michael Fuller
- We found the priest tied to the altar. His genitals were first corroded away by boiling sulphuric acid, and then half his face was burnt away using a blow torch. After that, the numbers 666 were tattooed on his forehead, and finally, a sharpened crucifix was driven straight through his heart.
Thomas Anderson
- That's psychotic, how did you solve it? Was it an escaped patient from a mental institution?
Michael Fuller
- No, it wasn’t an escaped patient. You see this act took a lot of planning. Firstly, the perpetrator would have to sedate the priest to get him tied up on the altar. Secondly getting all this equipment would be difficult for a person chased by the government. Thirdly I got a feeling this case was very personal against this specific man and not aimed at any priest.
James Locker
- Yeah, I agree with all these claims, but I don't understand how you could find Agnes Montecristo so quickly. I mean, they had not met in seven years.
Michael Fuller
- Because I am better than you are mate. I am more experienced, and I have a wealth of knowledge. You see, I am not only lying alone in my bathtub listening to classical music and drinking excellent Scotch. The bath and whiskey help my thinking, but to have a method of reflection a man also needs input from the outside.
- So, I read a lot, and I have read most of the literature related to my job as a crime detective.
James Locker
- I see. What source of ancient wisdom did you apply this time?
Michael Fuller
- I found the solution in the third amendment to the Anglican religious law. A book written by the Archbishop Humphrey Godspeed during the witch hunts in 1734…
- I found out that the murder resembled an execution method for a very particular horrible crime.
Adam Smith
- So, the priest was a child molester? That seems like an old story these days.
Michael Fuller
- Not exactly, the punishment was for a man who raped his sister and the outcome was a ‘demonic child’. IE a child suffering from incest-related diseases
James Locker
- So, you found his sister then?
Michael Fuller:
- Yes, but it was not easy since no sister existed in father Walkers family history. But I realised one thing, that the perpetrator must be a woman in father Walkers past. I asked the church administrator for the names of devout churchgoers who suddenly stopped going. That how Agnes Montecristo's name came up. I checked the registry, and I found out that Agnes had a daughter born approximately nine months after she stopped going to church. These events took place, seven years ago.
Adam Smith:
- So how did you proceed?
Michael Fuller
- I confronted her with what I knew, and as I expected, she broke down immediately. But don't worry even if she changes her mind, we have a lot of evidence against her now! If you are interested, you can read about in the report when it's time for her trial.
James Locker:
- I am sure I will, but until then I have one question. Why did she act the way she did?
Michael Fuller:
- Well. She was very religious, and abortion was out of the question. So, to protect her unborn baby from the truth, she left and kept the secret to herself. She did well; she moved to the USA and set up a religious bookshop, which was flourishing. This changed a year ago when her daughter got sick, and the hospital deemed that it was due to incest-related diseases. The social services took custody of her child, and this shattered her life. She decided to go back to Australia and get revenge on the man who ruined her life.
Thomas Anderson:
- A tragic and scary story
Adam Smith:
- Indeed, but let’s now focus on something uplifting instead. Let us tell you the great story of our wonderful month in Asia!
- Writer
