Jamison said promptly, “It’s from the First Epistle of Peter, two-eighteen.”
Green looked at her in surprise. “That’s right. How did you know that?”
“My favorite uncle was a minister. I helped him teach Sunday school.He got me to read the Bible backwardand forward. He was also a respected religious scholar and introduced me to a lot of writing and arguments on the subject.”
“So, can you put on your religious scholar hat and give me some context on the verse?”
“Peter was imprisoned and beaten for his beliefs. So he might have been talking about keeping his own faith through that terribleexperience. And there were a lot of slaves back then. It might have been a justification for keeping slaves and trying to tamp down any sign of insurrection. I mean, if God says it’s okay?” She frowned. “Pretty diabolical, actually.”
“Anything else?”
“Many religious scholars don’t believe that Peter even wrote that epistle.”
“Why?”
“Because the writing indicatedan advanced knowledge of the Greek language and a scholarly background in philosophy that Peter simply didn’t have. And widespread persecution of Christians didn’t commence until long after Peter’s death.”
Green smiled. “Well, you’re a fount of knowledge. Thanks.”
However, Jamison frowned again. “But I don’t see how that gets us any further along with the case unless you haveany slave rings operating around here.”
“It could be that it’s a warning. Cross us and this will happen to you. But killing people who didn’t even know each other and have no demonstrable connection? I don’t get that. It could just be random, I guess.”
Jamison mulled this over. “Look, Baronville isn’t exactly a huge metropolis. Yet you have three separate crime scenes occurringvery close together involving a pair of victims at each. Here there’s a cryptic Bible verse written on the wall. Then there’s animal blood at the crime scene we stumbled onto. What about the place where Decker and your partner are now?”
“A guy had a death mark on his forehead,” said Green. “I guess that counts as weird.”
“My point is, I can’t believe that all these murdersare not connected somehow. I really think we’re dealing with one killer, or one set of killers, Detective.”
Green sighed resignedly. “Great. Serial killings in Baronville. The town is trying to get back on its feet and this crap is going to hit the national pipeline at some point and make it a lot harder for us to attract people here.”
“You ever think about calling in reinforcements?State police?”
“Frankly, they’ve got their hands full. We’re not the only town with problems. And state budgets have shrunk.” He paused. “Decker sounds like he’s good at this, though.”
“He’s the best I’ve ever seen. I think he’s the best the FBI has ever seen.”
“Well, then maybe we have a chance. Despite a few biting comments he’s made, Decker seems easy enough towork with.”
“Oh, just give it time,” said Jamison, hiding a smile.