Prayers for the Dead (45 page)

Rina paused, then shook her head no.

Decker took a forkful of cake and appraised her. “What are you hiding, dear?”

Rina sighed. “He told me the magazines were his. But I don’t believe him. He’s protecting someone, Peter. You know it and I know it.”

“I don’t know anything,” Decker said.

“I know I’ve said this before.” Marge swallowed a mouthful of devil’s food. “But why would Bram leave explicit magazines with his name on the wrappers at the scene of a murder? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I don’t know why,” Decker said. “But Luke said his name was on the wrappers.”

“My opinion?” Oliver said. “I think
Luke’s
name was on the wrappers.”

“What are you talking about, Scott?” Decker said. “Bram just told Rina that the magazines were his.”

“I don’t believe it,” Rina said.

Decker said, “Fine, Rina. Don’t believe it. Can we change the discussion?”

Marge thought a moment, then said, “So let’s assume Bram’s name was on the wrappers—”

“Marge,” Decker said. “Please.”

Rina cried out, “Peter, this is
important
to me! How can I make you understand that?”

Decker rolled his tongue in his mouth. “What’s important to you, Rina? Proving Bram innocent or hearing the truth?”

Rina paused. “I’ll accept the truth. As soon as you can prove him guilty.”

“I don’t prove guilt or innocence, Rina. I just collect evidence. And right now, the evidence collected from your friend’s safe is incriminating.”

“He’s protecting someone.”

“And you’re repeating yourself.”

“Peter, how do you know the wrappers had Bram’s name on them? Did you see them?”

“No.”

“We’re taking Luke’s word for it,” Oliver said. “A big mistake.”

“Except that Bram admitted they were his,” Marge said.

“He’s lying,” Rina stated formally.

“Rina—”

“So Luke
claims
he saw wrappers with Bram’s name on them,” Rina said. “So what? That’s not conclusive. Someone could have
made
those wrappers, put Bram’s name on them, stuffed them with the magazines, and left them at the murder scene.”

Marge said softly, “Rina, if that was the case, why would Bram tell you they were his?”

Decker said, “Darling, what difference does it make whether the magazines were Bram’s or not. It’s the clothes that are incriminating. They tell us he was there.”

“Either he or Luke,” Marge added.

Rina said, “It’s just that Bram owning
those
kinds of magazines—”

“Especially
that
kind of magazine,” Oliver said.

“You mean the gay stuff?” Rina said.

“No, it’s not the gay stuff that makes me wince,” Oliver said. “It’s the sadomasochism and body piercing.”

“
What?
” Rina shrieked.

“Thank you, Scott,” Decker said.

Oliver turned red. “I figured she knew—”

“No, she didn’t know.”

“
Body
piercing?”

Oliver said, “Needles through everything imaginable.” He held his crotch. “Ouch!”

Rina threw up her hands. “Bram would
never
have anything to do with that kind of stuff!”

Decker said, “People have secret lives, Rina.”

“No way!” She shook her head vehemently. “No, I don’t believe it. He would never be into something so…”

“Kinky?” Oliver said with glowing eyes.

Decker said, “Rina, why are you obsessing on the magazines? They’re not the important issue here.”

“Because I know Bram. He’d never own things that glorify hurting people — gay or straight! He’s protecting someone. Either that or he’s being framed.”

“You’re turning this discussion into a screed for his innocence.”

“I’m trying to make sense out of the illogical!”

The room was quiet. Rina poured more coffee. “Okay. So I’m biased. What’s the harm in that?”

“Nothing,” Decker said. “But because you’re biased, you can’t help us. Doesn’t Jewish law state that judges may not be biased.”

“I’m not his judge, I’m his advocate.” She sat down. “I’m his friend. Friends need advocates.”

Decker said, “Can we drop the discussion?”

Rina was quiet. But a moment later, she started up. “Luke
told
you he saw Bram’s name on the magazine wrappers?”

Decker stared at her. “Yes, dear.”

“He said he
saw
Bram’s name.”

“Yes, dear. Luke said all the wrappers had Bram’s name on them.”

Rina said, “Luke told you, ‘I saw the magazine wrappers and they had the name
BRAM SPARKS
on them.’”

“Rina, for goodness sakes,” Decker said. “He said he saw magazine wrappers with his brother’s name on them.”

“Luke said the wrappers had his
brother’s
name on them, right?”

Marge said. “Do you have a point, Rina?”

“Luke didn’t say they had the words
BRAM SPARKS
on them.”

“Rina, you are beating a dead horse!”

“Can you just hear me out?”

“Go on,” Marge said.

Rina said, “Luke told you that in the back of his mind, he thought Bram was gay, right?”

Decker nodded.

“So what if the magazine labels just had
SPARKS
on them. Luke assumed they belonged to Bram. But maybe they belonged to another brother.”

Decker said, “Rina, you’re stretching—”

“Bram would protect his brothers.”

“Rina—”

Rina’s eyes got big. “Maybe, Peter, the labels said ‘
A. M.
Sparks.’ Or even ‘A.
M
. Sparks.’ You know there are more than one A. M. Sparks in Bram’s family.”

As soon as she said it, Decker knew she had hit pay dirt. “What’s Bram’s middle name?”

“Matthew.”

“Oh my God!” Marge slapped her forehead. “The
father
!”

“Azor Moses!” Oliver said. “They’re
his
magazines?”

Decker buried his head in his hands.

The
father’s
magazines.

And that was why a Fundamentalist like Azor Sparks hadn’t fired Decameron even after he had been convicted of picking up male hookers. Excusing Decameron because the old man had been wrestling with his own similar demons. Azor Sparks had either been latent or led a
very
secret life.

Had Bram known? Good chance of that. Because Azor had confided things to Bram. Perhaps he’d confessed his desires to his son. Especially after that fateful Sunday night dinner when Bram refused to equate evil thoughts with evil action.

Giving Sparks a license to fantasize.

Perhaps Sparks took it one step further and began with fantasy magazines. After all, Bram had relieved him of the guilt.

At Sparks’s memorial service, Bram had spoken to Decker about his father’s distinctions between the homosexual and the homosexual act. Decker thought about that brief interchange in the Sparkses’ kitchen. His discussion about Decameron’s moral charges, about Azor’s loyalty to his colleague despite church rumblings. And about the religious way one copes with homosexuality.

Either celibacy or
sublimation
in a legitimate heterosexual union
.

The fifth commandment spoke of honoring one’s father and mother. By enlarging upon the precept — what honoring one’s parents might mean to a man of the cloth — Decker began to put the pieces together. Abram Matthew Sparks, the priest who put God before American law, took the magazines as his own to protect his father’s name. Just as important, he was protecting his mother from postmortem embarrassment.

Marge said, “Luke told us that Decameron had called him up, early in the morning, wanting to talk about the family. But not over the phone. Right?”

“Right,” Decker muttered.

“Maybe that’s what he wanted to tell Luke. That it may come out that his father was gay.”

“He’d bother calling Luke up just to tell him
that
?” Oliver said.

Marge said, “Maybe he wanted to spare the family some embarrassment and/or ridicule.”

“Then why would he call Luke?” Oliver said. “Why not Bram?”

Rina said, “Maybe Dr. Decameron felt Luke was more worldly about human foibles… being as Luke had been a user.”

“Or the answer could have been much more pedestrian,” Decker said. “Bram had been occupied that morning. Very busy. First with Mass, then with his mother. Decameron knew Dolly Sparks hated him. He wouldn’t have called up the house.”

“Aha,” Marge said. “Maybe that’s why she hated him. She found out that her husband and Decameron were having an affair.”

“Nah, I don’t buy that,” Oliver said.

“Why not?”

Oliver said, “Margie, why would Decameron call up Luke to tell him about their affair?”

“Blackmail,” Marge suggested.

“Nah, Reggie was a good guy,” Oliver said.

“You keep saying that,” Marge answered. “That don’t make it so.”

Rina said, “So how did Dr. Decameron come to have Dr. Sparks’s magazines?”

“Could be that after Azor died, Decameron went through Sparks’s office… to clean things up.” Oliver shrugged. “Maybe he found the magazines.”

“Christ!” Decker was disgusted with himself. “The Fisher/Tyne data you two had requested. At Sparks’s memorial service, Decameron
told
me he was going to look through Azor’s files to find the most updated numbers. Could be he came across the magazines by accident.”

Marge said, “Then Decameron took them home with him, intending to give them to Luke… to dispose of them as he saw fit.”

“The magazines which had
A. M.
Sparks on the wrappers,” Rina said pointedly. “Having found them in his boss’s file cabinets, Decameron knew that A. M. stood for Azor Moses. But Luke didn’t know. He just assumed they belonged to his unmarried priest brother Bram. So I’m not so stupid.”

“No, darling,
you
are not stupid.”

Rina smiled. “You’re a good sport.”

“I’m a lousy sport,” Decker said. “I’m pissed as hell. You know, Decameron may have also found Bram’s apartment key in Azor’s files. Maybe he thought his boss had a secret hideaway for his activities.”

“What would Azor be doing with Bram’s apartment key?” Marge asked.

“I’ve got a key to my daughter’s apartment in New York. In case of emergencies.”

Marge said, “I still don’t understand why Bram would have kept his dead father’s porno magazines in his safe.”

Decker frowned. “Because he was on his way out to visit a sick kid and didn’t know what to do with them. Because you don’t toss magazines like that in your apartment Dumpster. You hold them until you figure out how to get rid of them.”

“You know what I don’t understand,” Oliver said. “I don’t understand why Dr. Azor Moses Sparks — Mr. Austere, By the Book, Elder, Pillar of the Christian Community — would have subscribed to those kinds of magazines using his real name.”

“Arrogance,” Decker said.

“Or he wanted to get caught,” Rina said. “Maybe he was planning to come out.”

They all looked at Rina. Oliver said. “You know, Loo, she’s real bright—”

“Yes, I know that, Scott.” Decker sat up. “So… if Azor Sparks were suddenly to come out of the closet… who would that impact on the most?”

“His wife, of course,” Rina answered.

“His wife,” Decker echoed. “Say she found out about her husband’s preferences. Say she confronted him. Maybe he denied it. But maybe he admitted it, even told her he was going to leave her. Think about it, guys.”

“Here’s a woman who put in forty years with a man. Bore him six children, lived her life around him, developed her identity on the basis of being his wife. His parties were her parties. His dinners were her dinners. Through him, she had a role — as a wife, as a mother, as a leader in the church, as hostess of dinners and parties. She thought he was her soulmate, her heavenly match from God.”

“Hell hath no fury,” Oliver said.

“You’d better believe it,” Decker said. “What if he decided to leave her — sort out his feelings, wrestle with his inclinations, make his own peace with God. Maybe he took it one step further. Maybe he had someone waiting in the wings—”

“Decameron,” Marge said.

Oliver said, “No way.”

“What difference does it make?” Rina asked. “We’ll never know so let’s move on.”

Oliver was taken aback. “She’s tough.”

“Tell me about it,” Decker said. “The point is that we’re assuming Sparks was going to leave his wife for a lifestyle she considered odious and sinful. He was making a fool out of her, making a mockery out of her Fundamentalist religion, out of God. Most important, without Azor, Dolores had no role in life. If that was the case, if she had lived her life around this sinner of a man, what do you think she might have done?”

The room fell quiet.

Marge broke the silence. “It’s a big leap, Pete.”

“It’s logical,” Oliver said. “She ices the old man, then maybe ices Decameron because she
thinks
he’s having an affair with her husband.”

“Throwing the magazines around the bodies,” Rina said. “Like you always said, Peter. It looked like a calling card.”

“That was me,” Marge said.

“Oh, sorry,” Rina replied. “Anyway, someone was angry and wanted the world to know who Azor Sparks
really
was. I could see a spurned, unbalanced wife doing that.”

“Why do you say
unbalanced
?” Decker asked. “Bram mention something to that effect to you?”

Rina looked down. “Just that she had been a bit nervous when they — the triplets — were growing up. She couldn’t seek professional help because it would have been an embarrassment to her husband. So she turned to barbiturates. Dr. Sparks prescribed the medication himself, but left Bram in charge of dispensing them to her. She was addicted to them for a while.”

Decker tried to keep his voice soft. “Might have helped if you would have
told
me all this in the beginning—”

“Peter, are you saying I should have implicated Dolly in her own husband’s murder based on her past drug use?”

“I’m just saying—”

“Besides, I couldn’t mention Bram without you having a fit—”

“That’s nonsense!”

“Is this really important now?” Marge asked.