Shadows of the Night

The Devil You Know-4

The next day, the local newspaper carried the headline "FATHER RODRIGO TO ENTER SANITORIUM AFTER VICIOUS ASSAULT. The storyline that followed stated quite briefly that Rodrigo would be unable, due to his injuries to ever return to his ministry and so, the story of Father Rodrigo and The Devil was quietly allowed to fade into the background with the tacit assistance of the Church and the Hidalgo del Parral Police Department. Merced, myself and all involved with the case were sworn to secrecy about our findings and though rumours, as always in these cases, abounded about Satan appearing in Parral, eventually the case was pretty much forgotten. Of course, the families of the boys mourned and returned as best they could to their everyday lives, but never forgot their loved ones, and Rodrigo lived for fifteen years in a world of his own, still haunted daily by the terror which had taken away his life, his work, and, perhaps most sadly of all, his faith. I remained a captain from then to this day and perhaps will soon retire, or maybe not. Maybe I"ll grow oranges in a small pueblo on the coast.

* * *

Hotel Moreira, Hidalgo del Parral, March 2005

Hotel Moreira, Hidalgo del Parral, March 2005“So, tell me, Captain, did Father Rodrigo really see El Diablo? Did The Devil really stalk the streets of Parral? You were there, no-one knows better than you. Tell me, please”

El Diablo?“Señorita, have you not realised yet what I have been telling you? Father Rodrigo may not have seen The Devil, but he certainly came into contact with A devil. When he said that The Devil was in his church, he was telling the truth, but in his ramblings and delusions, what no-one realised to begin with was that Rodrigo was himself that devil. He was the killer! When he looked in the mirror that day he jumped from the bell tower, he found himself so disgusted by what he had become that he tried to end it all, to put an end to his and everyone else"s suffering. Father Rodrigo was suffering from a deep psychotic illness. The boys were, so he thought, the purest in his flock. He thought he was sending them to God, to a better life. He was saving them! He tried to stop himself, he jumped!

TheAHe was the killer!“But, why was there no trial?”

“Señorita, Maria, here was a man who had spent the greater part of his life caring for the poor, the children, he had ministered to the people of this town for so many years, would justice have been served by publicly condemning him? The cardinal and the bishop arranged for Father Rodrigo to be confined within the seminary, with the best possible psychiatric and medical care the church could provide for the rest of his natural life. He never saw the outside world again. Was that not in itself the equivalent of a life sentence?”

“And you colluded with all this, knowing that your job would be at stake if anyone had found out you had been part of a cover-up?”

I sighed. The time had come for me to tell her the last part of my story, to explain to her just why I had done all I could to preserve intact the public perception of Father Rodrigo.

“Ah, Señorita, it is a little more complicated than that. You see, I had known Rodrigo for many years, from the time when as children, we would play together around the old mine workings, Even as a boy he was always the pious one. I think it was never in doubt that he would grow up to become a priest. I grew up to be the wild one, always in trouble, ready to pick a fight with anyone, though I was physically quite small. Believe it or not he was the one with the muscles and despite his love of Christ and all things holy he would stand up for me, and would fight off those who were bigger and stronger than I. Of course, by the time we had grown up things had changed. I had become physically stronger and a little more law abiding. He had left home to enter the priesthood when he was just twenty and I became a policeman two years later, on reaching the same age. We were always close.”

“But that still doesn"t explain…”

“Wait, please, it will all become clear. When I received the call from the chief to go to the hospital in the beginning it was evident that Rodrigo no longer recognised me. That told me that something serious had befallen him. As my investigations continued they led more and more towards the conclusion that Rodrigo had to be the perpetrator of the crimes, though he had no knowledge directly of what he had done. His mind had effectively split into two halves. Throwing himself from the bell tower was probably the last act of his real self, desperately trying to find salvation in the arms of his beloved God”.

“Captain,” she interjected, “This is all very interesting, and I really do feel immense sorrow and sympathy for Father Rodrigo, you obviously knew him for a long time, but I don"t see why he couldn"t have been tried and perhaps sent to a mental institution where he would still have been looked after and the case could have been properly closed.”

“I knew him more than a long time, Señorita. I knew him all my life. He was always known simply as Father Rodrigo, which he preferred. Even you have never asked his full name. It was Rodrigo Morales! He was my brother!”

Now it had become her turn to sigh. She looked into my eyes for what seemed an eternity. I saw so much in that look, pity, understanding, sorrow, and perhaps most of all, a sense of closure in her heart. Maria López slowly reached her hand across the table until it rested gently on mine, looked down at the floor for a moment, then back at me, and, just before rising to leave, she leaned across, lowered her eyes, and whispered softly to me,

“God bless you, Captain Juan Morales, may your brother rest in peace.”

“Yours too, Señorita,” I said, very quietly as she turned away, walked slowly towards the door, and disappeared from my life forever.

“The Lord is my shepherd………

The Lord is my shepherd………