Rapture Falls by Matt Drabble Page A

surrounding area checked for footprints, fibers and any other evidence . The priest had been attacked in the rear office, the weapon used was a small silver letter opener that the sturdy housekeeper had identified as belonging to Father Jacobs, so the assailant had not brought a weapon with him or her making the attack somewhat less premeditated an escalating argument perhaps, the blood trail led to a small service door that had been surprisingly destroyed, presumably the attacker had fled this way and the good father had followed chasing off his invader, McCullum felt an admiration for the guts of the older man. Eventually he had managed to extricate himself from the clutches of DCI Jones taking a rain check on the man’s offer of a booze sodden lunch with explanations of prior unbreakable commitment , he finally sat alone in his car attempting to separate in his mind the evidence of the scene from the inane prattle of his alleged superior. All he needed after his strange experience with the Priest was the chance to centre himself again, to breathe slowly and deeply. The housekeeper had provided him with a saintly picture of Andrew Jacobs, which whilst flattering the priest as the second coming , provided him with very little knowledge of the man. He had tried surreptitiously talking to some isolated members of the outside crowd, apparently the more questions that he had asked of the congregation the more he was told of the communities and the populations’ redemption and salvation at the sole hands of one white haired priest, his flock truly flocked around his reputation. He had been unable to find a single word against the man that could be construed as anything other than perfect, this sort of adulation made him a little uncomfortable. Jones was already convinced that Jacobs had tried to convert the wrong scumbag teenager and got left with a tasty reminder of keeping your nose out, either that or he stuck his hand up the wrong cassock. McCullum headed back into the city centre with only one lead rattling around his head, Baine, the name had cropped again and he did not believe in coincidences.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER V
     
    SUBTLETY 101
    God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule
    over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over
    the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
    So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.
     
    Genesis 1:24-27
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Delores Griffin was sixty, broad and proud , with strong working sho ulders that testified to a life time of hard labour, her thickly callused hands were clasped together in prayer as she looked down at the church office’s crimson stained floor , her life had nearly ended when she found dear Father Jacobs. The sight of all that blood first thing this morning had momentarily shocked her right down to her stocky ankles, she cursed herself for even for a second, doubting God’s plan and her part in it. Father Jacobs was by all accounts making a rapid recovery from injuries that she had been told were far less severe than had first seemed. One of the young adults from Father Jacobs’ youth group “The Samaritan Knights”, had supposed to be helping her but had not turned up . Justin Marsh was bright eyed and normally eager to help around St Paul’s, h e was a local boy from a poor family who had all but abandoned him and he had been drifting as so many of the lost children had done since her day. Growing up Delores had been raised in a hard but loving home, her parents had instilled a life of God and work in her with an iron fist, unlike many of today’s lax families who seemed to believe that discipline was a dirty word. Before Father Jacobs had come to their parish the area had long