"Dominus Infernus vobiscum," Schuyler "The Infernal Lord be with you.”
And the children responded, "Et tecum. And with you.”
And the assemblage rose to its feet and s tumultuously and victoriously, "All hail Satan, hail Satan!”
Detective Meyer Meyer was in the sq only by trying up on chance to catch half reports that were already weeks late. when a blond young man wearing a dark pencil-stripe suit materialized on the other side of the wooden rail divider to the squadroom.
"Excuse me," he said.
"Yes?" Meyer said, looking up from his typewriter.
"I'm looking for whoever's investigating the priest murder. Sergeant downstairs told me there might be somebody in the squadroom.”
"Not on the priest case," Meyer said, and thought Never turn away a volunteer. "Come in, please," he said, "I'm Detective Meyer. Maybe I can help you.”
Hobbs opened the gate and walked into the room.
Judging from the way he looked it over, he'd never before been inside a police station. He shook hands with Meyer, accepted the chair he offered, introduced himself, and then said, "I'm the one who painted that garden gate.”
Which, as it turned out, was the opening gun in a salvo aimed at Hobbs's mother, who to hear him tell it - was the cause of all his miseries.
Not only was she responsible for his homosexuality... "I'm gay, you know," he said.
"Wouldn't have guessed," Meyer said.
"Yes," he said, "Which of course is Abby’s fault, dressing me up in little girl's dresses and forcing me to wear my hair in a long blonde pageboy...”
At which point Meyer, while still wondering about the garden gate, was treated to the recitation of a childhood atrocity story no more horrifying than most atrocity stories he'd heard except that it had resulted in what Hobbs described as a human being "not moving left, not moving right" a great homosexuals knew Sondheim Lyrics by heart.
Hobbs kept referring to his beloved mother "Abby," sarcastically spitting out the word as thou they were great good buddies whereas he hadn't se her since she'd moved to Calm's Point six ago, and neither knew nor cared to know her address or telephone number. It was clear that despised her and blamed her exclusively for current life-style, which incidentally include, worshipping the Devil. So, naturally, he had an inverted pentagram on St. Catherine's gate.
"... to let her know I'd worship wherever I well please," he said. "It had nothing to do with priest.”
"Then why'd you pick his gate?" Meyer asked.
"To make a point," Hobbs said.
"What was the point?" Meyer asked. "I be missing it.”
"The point was she went to this priest complained about me going to Bornless...”
"Bornless?”
"The Church of the Bornless One, when she no right to do so. And incidentally, he had no n either, preaching about our church to congregation. No one was telling his con.
which church they should go to. Nobody at Bomless was running around saying Jesus is a menace, which by the way, he is, but we keep that to ourselves .”
"But Father Michael wasn't keeping his beliefs to himself, is that what you’re saying?”
"Only in passing, don't get me wrong. I had nothing at all against Father Michael. Though I must tell you, after Abby went bleating to him, he gave a few hot little sermons denouncing the Devil-worshippers up the block.., well, four blocks away, actually, but close enough if you're wetting your pants worried that Satan's going to come burn down your shitty little church.”
“So what you did," Meyer said, "was paint the Devil's sign...”
"Yes.”
"On the priest's garden gate...”
"Yes.”
"But not as a warning to the priest.”
"No.”
"Then why?”
"To let Abby know she should keep her big mouth shut.”
"I see. And now you want us to understand you didn't paint that gate in malice.”
"Correct. And I didn't kill that priest, either.”
“Who said you did?”
"Nobody.”
"Then why are you here?”
"Because Schuyler doesn't want you guys harassing us over this thing. He thought it'd be good...”
"Schuyler?”
"Schuyler Lutherson, who runs Bornless.”
“I see," Meyer said. He was thinking he'd have tell either Carella or Hawes about this pleasant morning chat, because perhaps one or the other them might wish to ask Schuyler Lutherson why was so worried about police harassment.
"Thanks for stopping by," he said. appreciate your candor.”
Hobbs wondered if he meant it.
Sitting on the third row of benches, the redhead the grey tailored slacks watched the children as rushed to escort Stanley to the altar, hurrying on each side of him as he approached with a cushioned on a black velvet pillow. Schu, grasped the sword by its silk-tasseled handle. red-head's legs parted slightly. The children back at the altar again. Schuyler raised the over his head, turned suddenly to point it at hanging sign of Baphomet, and shouted in a hoarse with emotion, "Bornless One, I invoke "Thou who didst create the universe," assemblage chanted.
"Thou who didst create the earth and heavens...”
"The darkness and the light...”
"Thou who didst create the seed and the fruit," Schuyler said, and on cue two of the acolytes the tall eight-year-old girl and the shorter eight-year-old boy stepped forward and faced each other.
Holding the handle of the sword in one hand and the tip in the other, Schuyler lowered it horizontally over their heads. The red-head in the tailored grey slacks leaned forward expectantly.
In a high piping voice, the little boy said, "Behold! My staff is erect!" and lifted his tunic to show his limp little penis.
And the little girl responded, "Behold! My fruit drips nectar!" and raised her tunic to show her small hairless pudendum.
"My poison shall erupt and engulf!" the little boy said.
"My venom shall enclose and erode!" the little girl said.
"My lust is insatiable!" the little boy said.
"My thirst is unquenchable!" the little girl said.
"Behold the children of Satan," Schuyler said .softly and reverentially.
Symbolically, he gently touched the tip of the Sword first to the boy's genitals and then to the girl's.
He returned the sword to the pillow. Stanley carded it back to where the two nineteen-year-old sub-deacons were waiting for him, the hems of their robes fastened above their waists, their hands resting on their naked flanks, palms turned outward toward the congregation.
The red-head on the third row placed her hands on her thighs and opened her legs a trifle wider.
Schuyler approached the altar.
"In thy name, oh Bornless One," he said, "I offer myself unto the altar of thy power and thy will.”
He threw up his robe.
"Glory to God," he said, "may all hail Satan.
Glory to Satan," he said, "whom we love and cherish. All hail Satan," he said, "we sing glory to thy name. All praise Satan," he said, "we sing honor to thy name. All bless Satan," he said, and positioned himself at the joining of the altar, "we adore thee, Great Lord, we thank thee, Infernal Lord, we cry unto thee, all hail Satan, all hail Satan, all Satan.”
As he thrust himself onto and into the altar, gong sounded three times and the assembla chanted in unison and in Latin, "Ave Satanas, Satanas, ave Satanas.t'' The red-head on the third row spread her leg wide.
The mass was beginning in earnest.
VII
At eleven o'clock that Sunday morning, the twenty-seventh day of May, they buried Father Michael Birney in the Cemetery of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel, all the way uptown in Riverhead, where there was still a little ground left in which to put dead people. The priest who delivered the funeral oratory was a man named Father Frank Oriella, who had been appointed by the archdiocese of Isola East as temporary pastor of St. Catherine's Roman Catholic Church. Among the mourners was Detective Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct. Father Oriella chose to read his elegy from the first letter of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians.