I said, “He’s stressing you by doing things that way.”
She nodded, “That’s what I feel is happening.”
Amber said, “Have you told him?”
“He says the stress I’m feeling is because we haven’t buried mom and dad. He says I’ll feel better after we do that. He always adds, ‘Trust me’, after he says it.”
Amber said, “I think he means well.”
Bodhi nodded, “That’s what Jericho says, too.”
Hondo said, “He’s there at the house?”
“He and Troy talk a lot, so, yeah.”
I said to Hondo, “That seems odd.”
Hondo said, “I can’t figure him out.”
I said, “I know. Lately, though, he seems to always be near Troy.”
“We can check him out a little closer.”
“I think so, too.”
We made sandwiches and soup, and ate in silence at the table, each thinking their own thoughts. We all left an hour later, and Amber and I drove to my home.
I thought about what Archie had said, so I made a call. I talked to the homicide detective, John Sandoval, who worked the Topanga Canyon murder. I told him who I was and why I called, and he said he understood. I asked, “What can you tell me about the words written on the wall in the victim’s blood?”
Sandoval said, “The killers wrote three words: Rise, Revolution, and, Piggy.”
“The first two of those showed up at the Artell murder.”
“I know. There’s a lot more inter-departmental information sharing today than in Charlie Manson’s time.”
I said, “Is there anything unusual about the murder?”
“They stabbed, cut, and tortured him for three days before they killed him. They aren’t pros. They’re sloppy but dangerous as hell. In the end, they had to put a plastic bag over his head and suffocate him because all the stabbing didn’t work.”
“Man…”
Sandoval said, “I remember one other thing, the blood on the wall, the person who wrote it is left-handed.”
“How about any forensics?”
“The house had a fire extinguisher in it and the killers sprayed down everything with it, including the body. We found nothing.”
“Thanks.”
He said, “You find something out, let me know.”
“I will, and thanks.”
I hung up and made Amber and I a light drink. We took them into the living room to watch something on the television so we didn’t have to think. After several series episodes and one movie, we went to bed. She left her hand touching me until she drifted to sleep. If I changed position so the contact was broken, she moved until she touched me again. I lay awake for a long time, thinking about Amber, about the murders, about Bodhi, and for a long time, about Jericho Moon.
~*~
We drove to the Artell Mansion the next morning. It felt odd to go inside and see no evidence of the violence that occurred a few days earlier.