Evil in Arcadia

Nicole & Dave - What! You never told me?

Nic watched as the cluster of police officers broke up and two of the new arrivals sauntered over.

‘Mr. and Mrs. Pirozzi?’ The fair skinned one had a broad Australian accent.

She watched Dave as he nodded solemnly at the two policeman. ‘Yep that’s us.’

Daniel squawked in her arms and she swung him gently, rocking her upper body back and forth, cooing gently to him.

‘We have your earlier statements but we’d just like to go over a couple of details with you please. I’m Detective Sergeant Thomson, and this,’ he indicated the younger, olive skinned man standing next to him ‘is Detective Shamon.’ His accurate pronunciation of the name spoke of much rehearsal.

Shamon acknowledged them with a casual flick of the hand. His face remained expressionless.

Dave shuffled his feet and she could tell he was irritated as he glared at Shamon. ‘Sure, but can we make it quick? My little man here is getting hungry.’

Thomson smiled indulgently at the baby and then noticed the food in Nic’s hand. ‘Why don’t we go and sit down? You can feed him while we talk if you like.’

‘Uh, yeah, okay,’ she heard herself saying. Dave’s eyebrows drew together like thunderheads.

As they shuffled past the study, a paramedic appeared. ‘Are you the D’s on this case?’

Thomson nodded. 

‘I think you had better come and see this.’

The younger, darker skinned officer followed the paramedic while Thomson stayed focused on the three witnesses.  He selected a sofa  and chairs in the sitting area near the kitchen. They sat down and Nicole started to busy herself with Daniel’s food. 

The detective called for the female constable to keep an eye on them and then headed back to the crime scene.

‘Right what is it?’

Shamon removed the bandages from the victims head and Thomson used the lords name in vain. A pentagram had been burned into the man’s forehead, the details of a goat’s head etched into the points of a star. 

‘This is Baphomet,’ said Shamon , ‘the Sabbatic Goat, a symbol of Satan worship.’

Thomson winced but remained professional. He looked at the ambulance officer. It’s a burn is it?’

‘Yeah, I think so. You can smell the burned skin. He’s been branded.’

‘Any sign of the branding iron or how it was heated up?’

‘Not yet,’ said Shamon, ‘but I have only started to look.’

Thomson left Shamon to look for the branding iron and went back to his witnesses. He  checked his notes and looked at Nicole and Dave. ‘Okay,  I think I can see how things panned out. Mrs. Harper came over to your front door after she heard strange noises in her garden. Did either of you hear anything unusual?’

She let the question pass and concentrated on shoveling puree into Daniel’s mouth.

Dave shook his head. ‘No I woke up because some fool sent Nic a text message at two in the bloody morning.’

‘Yes’ said the blonde detective, nodding his head slowly, ‘I was going to ask you about that too.’ 

Nic glanced up and saw him seeking meaningful eye contact. She turned back to Daniel. ‘That’s a good boy,’ she purred.

’So you’re both absolutely sure you didn’t hear anything else out of place?’

‘Well’ she said hesitantly, ‘the chooks were shuffling around a bit I suppose. That’s why I sent Dave down to check on them.’

Dave sighed.

‘Dave?’

He looked back at her and she was suddenly scared.

Thomson raised his eyebrows and shot a look over at his dark, silent partner. ‘Was there anything out of order with the chook’s Mr. Pirozzi?’ 

‘Yeeaah, you could say that … They’re dead — all of them. Had their throats slit. Just like Phil.’

‘What! You never told me?’

‘I didn’t have time Nic. Not with everything that was going on. Not with everything that’s happened here since then.’

The dark officer looked at her sideways. It was a sly, knowing look that made her squirm. He then turned slowly to Dave. ‘You didn’t mention the slaughtered chickens in your original statement did you Mr. Pirozzi?’ He pronounced their family name with perfect Italian inflection; a feat that, despite many years of trying, she’d never been able to accomplish.

She watched Dave shuffle his feet and look away into the night. He looked back at the pair of policemen and opened his arms in appeal. ‘Look, I’ve just found my next-door neighbour on the floor with his throat cut. What do you expect me to remember, the chooks or Phil?’

‘You could have remembered both,’ said Shamon sullenly.

Thomson looked at his partner and seemed to wince before turning back to his witness. ‘Look, I reckon that’s perfectly understandable Dave. Like you say, you had a lot going on tonight. I might get you to take me down to the coop a bit later on though.’ He scratched his head and grimaced again before addressing her directly. ‘Now Nicole, about this text message. You said in your original statement that you thought it was strange. What was so unusual about it?’

She smiled nervously at him wishing he wouldn’t use her first name. ‘I don’t know about you Detective Thomson but I don’t get many text messages at three in the morning …’

He looked unhappy and made a note.

She puffed out her cheeks and dabbed some baby food off Daniel’s chin feeling pressured to offer further explanation. 

‘It’s this new cleaner,’ Dave cut in, obviously feeling the same. ‘He’s a bit of a weird bloke. I never liked him from the start … I’ve been told he spends a lot of time down at the bookmaker … He carries two phones with him all the time ….’

Thomson noticed her flap her hand at Dave to slow down. He was starting to talk gibberish. The detective frowned down at his notes again and wrote something more. 

‘What did the message actually say?’ asked Detective Shamon, his eyes glittering in the harsh light of the kitchen.

‘The door is open,’ she heard Dave echo her own words.

‘That was all?’ His head twisted from one to the other.

‘Yep, that was all it said.’

He stuck his lower lip out thoughtfully. ‘Hmm, I can see how that could be unsettling at that time in the morning. You say he hasn’t worked for you for long?’

They both nodded.

‘He's just started with us really. I asked him to come once a month. He was here yesterday for the second time. Do think that means anything?'

'I don't know,' shrugged the officer. 'How did you meet him?'