He shook hands all around, offered them coffee, and pointed them to the very long gray sofa that lined half the wall. It must have been at least eighteen feet long. There were chairs facing that sofa, all of them gray, and three coffee tables spaced out to form separate sitting groups.
Frank Pauley said, waving toward the sofa, “I just took over. I inherited this office and all the gray from the last executive producer. He said he liked a really big casting couch.” He grinned at Nick, who didn’t grin back, and said, “You called, Inspector Delion, because you believe that the murders in The Consultant that played last night are similar to murders that were committed in San Francisco over the last week and a half.”
“That’s right,” Delion said. “But before we discuss any more of this, we’d like to see the show, compare all the points, make a final determination. Ms. Jones is the only one of us who’s seen it so far.”
“This is, naturally, very disturbing. Just a moment, please.” Frank Pauley turned to the gray phone, punched in a couple of buttons.
Nick said, “Thank God you’ve only aired two of the shows.”
Dane said, “We’ll watch both episodes, Mr. Pauley. If we’ve got a match with San Francisco, we’ll find out whether there have been any crimes that follow the first episode. We have no way of knowing whether the murderer would continue if you stop showing the episodes. But I presume the studio will announce that the show’s been canceled?”
Frank Pauley cleared his throat. “Let me be up front here. Our lawyers have recommended that we immediately cancel the show and provide you with complete cooperation. Naturally, the studio is appalled that some maniac would do this, if, indeed, we discover that the episode does match the murders in San Francisco.”
Dane said, “We appreciate it. Naturally you will have to be concerned about legal action.”
“We always are,” Frank Pauley said. “They’re waiting for us in room fifty-one.”
“Room fifty-one?” Nick said.
“A little joke, Ms. Jones, just a little film joke. It’s our own private theater. We can see the first and second episodes now, if you wish.”
Delion said, “Later, perhaps we can see the third episode as well.”
“That’s not a problem,” Pauley said, waving a left hand that sported four diamond rings. Dane felt a man’s instant distaste. Hey, maybe four different wives had given them to him, one never knew, here in LA.
They sat in the small darkened theater and watched the second episode of The Consultant. The city was Chicago, the church, St. John’s, the priest, Father Paul. Dane watched Father Paul as he listened to a man telling him about the murder he’d just committed-an old woman he’d bludgeoned to death, no sport in that, was there? But hey, she was another soul lost from Father Paul’s parish, wasn’t she? Two nights later, a black activist was garroted in front of a club, ah, yes, yet another soul lost from Father Paul’s parish, and what was the priest going to do about it? The murderer mocks the priest’s beliefs, claims the Church is the perfect calling for men who can’t face life, that the priest is nothing but a coward who can’t even tell a soul, because he’s bound by rules that really don’t make a whole lot of sense, now do they?
In the fourth and final meeting, after two more murders, the priest loses it. He sobs, pleading with the murderer, raging against God for allowing this monster to exist, raging against his own deeply held beliefs, hating his own helplessness. The murderer laughs, tells him you live like a coward, you die like a coward, and shoots the priest in the forehead.
Dane leaned forward and shut off the projector. He said to Pauley, “Your writers made a mistake here. A priest is bound to silence only when it is a real confession, that is, when the penitent truly means to repent. In a case like this, where the man is mocking the sacrament itself, the priest isn’t bound to silence.”
Pauley stared at him. “But I thought-”
“I know,” Dane said. “Everybody believes that. But the Church makes that exception. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be out in the hall.”
The truth was, he couldn’t bear the show another minute. He leaned against the wall, his eyes closed, trying to get a grip on himself. But he kept seeing the man firing that gun, shooting the priest in the forehead.
He felt her hand on his arm. They stood still, saying nothing, for a very long time. Finally, Dane drew several deep breaths and raised his head. “Thank you,” he said.
She only nodded.
Delion came out of the small theater. “You didn’t miss much. We have this big-shot consultant dude with some mythical agency in Washington, D.C., come riding into town-the guy’s real sensitive, feels people’s pain, all that crapola-he cleans the whole mess up because the local cops are stupid and don’t have any extrasensory abilities, and he can ‘see’ things, ‘intuit’ things that they can’t. It ended good except for five dead people.”
Dane said, “He killed two more people in the show than he did in San Francisco.”
“Yes. And maybe that means then that your brother didn’t stick to the script and that’s why the guy shot him after the two murders. Remember, your brother told Father Binney that he was going to make a decision that would change his life forever. There’s only one threat your brother could have made to shut this guy down.”
“Yes,” Dane said. “Michael told the killer that he was going to tell the police about what this man had done.”
Nick said, “And the guy had no choice but to shoot him. Father Michael Joseph wrecked the guy’s script. He stopped him.”
“Your brother must have told him what he was planning to do on Sunday night and the guy had no choice but to kill him. The other two people in the show were a guy who owned a bakery and a prominent businessman. If it hadn’t been for Father Michael Joseph, there might be two more dead people in San Francisco.”
“The guy kept saying that this Father Paul had lost another soul from his parish,” Dane said. “Do we know if the two victims in San Francisco attended Saint Bartholomew’s?”
“They’re not on the membership list,” Delion said. “But if the guy was following the script, the chances are good that they did attend mass occasionally. That would tie it all up with a pretty bow, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes,” Dane said, “it would. Not that it’s any help.”
Delion just shook his head. “I don’t believe this. A damned script. The guy’s copycatting a damned TV script.”
“Not copycatting,” Dane said. “Don’t forget, the murders took place before the show aired. Look, at least we know for sure the guy has to be here, has to be somehow involved with the show. No outsider would know the scripts that well.”
Savich typed on MAX’s screen: Episode One of The Consultant-set in Boston, three murders: a secretary, a bookie, and an insurance salesman, about two to three weeks ago. “Dane, I’ll check-Hey, wait a second. Ah, Sherlock, who was reading over my shoulder, just said these murders were not in Boston, but actually happened two and a half weeks ago, in Pasadena, California.”
“Bingo,” Dane said. “I’ll tell Delion and he can call the cops in Pasadena. Nice and close to Los Angeles.”
“Dane, the guy’s officially taken this show on the road. You’re now formally FBI, working this case. If you want to use the San Francisco field office, call Bert Cartwright, coordinate with him. You will remain in charge of the Federal part of the investigation, all right?”
“Yes, all right, but the thing is, Savich, the killer has to be here in Los Angeles, someone working for the studio, someone working on this specific show, or with access to it.”
“Yes, of course, you’re right. I’ll let Gil Rainy know-he’s the SAC down in LA-that you’ll be coordinating with him. But you’ll be calling the shots. I’ll make sure everyone’s clear on that.”
“Thanks, Savich.”
There was a brief silence, then a chuckle. “And that means you’ve got MAX at your disposal.”