It was not the waiting that he hated. Bob was the bishop after all. He had many things to attend to. It was the things going through his head as he sat outside the bishop’s office that he did not like. It was all too sudden and the person directly responsible for Cain, the situation wasn’t looking good.
“Tony?” He heard the bishop call, peeking out his door.
Father Anton Ramirez got up and walked towards the door of the bishop’s office. Finding that the bishop had already taken his place behind his desk, he closed the door behind him and locked it.
“It’s a mess Tony, I was not expecting this.”
“I’m sorry Your Excellency. I was… this is a first.”
“Drop the formalities. I know it’s not your fault. Well, maybe a little bit. A little bit our faults. Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
Father Anton sat first then opened the satchel he had with him and began taking out folders and placing them on the bishop’s desk.
“Let’s deal with those later. Just tell me what you saw and what you think happened.”
“After our call, he called me again later that night to report on his findings. This was after he conducted interviews. He was still confused.”
“Yes, I remember you told me about this. Even after interviewing though? He could tell when people lie right?”
“Not even psychopaths can, could lie to him. Or is it sociopaths? Anyway, that’s what he reported. It seemed to him that everyone in the family was being primed for possession. He was convinced they were either at the last part of the second stage or just waiting for the third stage. He decided to stay the night and wait it out and told me he would at least do a cleansing before the night was over. That was the last I heard from him. Unfortunately.”
“How are we going to get our hands on that report without raising questions?” The bishop asked.
“I don’t think we need it, Bob. It really looked to me like he killed himself. He also seemed to have sustained a beating of some sort.”
“That damned report will still be useful. It’s not only about Cain. We need to know what the official findings are for the family. And… and that friend of his. Jon Purdy?
“Yeah, that’s his name.”
“Walk me through how you handled it when you got there.” The bishop requested, taking a pen out.
“I went to the address the next morning, like I said, took my car and drove to the address. Immediately, right outside, barely got out of the car, I noticed that things were off. The door was open, for one, and you can see inside. Everything was a mess. Even some of the sofas were broken and toppled over. Sofas Bob. Dividers, cupboards, tables, chairs. Everything was destroyed.
The father looked like he had been stabbed to death, the mother had a wound on her neck. The children sat on the stair, going up. Both were catatonic. Wouldn’t even respond when I shook them. How long has it been since you went out to do an exorcism yourself, Bob?”
“More than a decade. Why do you ask?”
“You remember the feeling? You, know, the one you feel when its really authentic? When there’s really something paranormal going on?”
“Yeah. I hope never to feel that again. Was it strong?”
“That’s just the thing. Aside from, of course, the dead people around, I didn’t feel that. I actually felt safe. Especially when I went to the children.”
“What’s the latest on those two?”
“They seemed to have broken out of it already. The older one is… confirmed.”
“Lord God! What does your contact say?”
“That everyone they have talked to so far, close friends and family, say that this is impossible. That there was nothing to indicate that the father had such leanings. They all say he was devoted to his children, more than to his wife even, which they say he loved a lot.”
“And this contact you have, you can’t ask him if it’s possible to get a peek at the official report?”
“I already asked. She made no promises. CPS and the police are two different departments after all. Though, I doubt we’ll have to wait much. It should be on the news soon enough.”
“You know as well as I do that most things don’t make it to the news Tony. Speaking of which, how sure are you that you won’t be traced?”
“Not my first rodeo Bob, I know a thing or two about making a clean exit.”
“Probably a blessing that the children were catatonic when you arrived.” The bishop commented. “You sure you were able to get all recordings?”
“As much as I could find. I would have taken all the equipment if I could, but these old bones couldn’t make the many back and forths anymore. So, I just took the tapes and the laptop. Once I located Cain’s bag I was out of there. Thankfully, his phone was with him so it wasn’t hard finding it.”
“Police will still wonder who placed the call.”
“Let them wonder then. I’m sure they’ll be coming around one of these days, to ask questions and poke anyway.”
The bishop was silent for a while as he jotted his notes down on a leatherbound notebook. Once he stopped, he stared at his friend and the ceiling pensively. Father Anton waited.
“What do you think it was, Tony? I’m gonna be honest with you, I am baffled as well. I don’t think I would have been able to handle it myself if I were still capable.”
“You really wanna know what I think?”
“Everything’s turned to shit Tony, we lost our best investigator. I wanna know what you think.”
“Good demons.”
The bishop almost made a joke, his expression changed from serious to amused then back when he saw his friend was not joking.
“God Tony! There’s like what? Five? Six records of such a thing? And all of them from a time when we can’t be sure the information can be trusted!”
“You asked me. I told you.”
“Well? Don’t stop there.”
“Alright. But I gotta tell you Bob, it’s a hard thing to swallow.”