Vengeance is Mine Ch. 02

Farnsworth: "Finally, he gave me this packet of information. It contains what he said was evidence of a Catholic priest abusing young alter boys in several churches around the State, and particularly in The City. The information may be too old for you to use on its own, but he hoped it would be a starting point to begin an investigation." He handed me the packet.

I thanked him and he left. I looked at the evidence packet first, and I gasped when I saw what it was, and who it was about...

Part 17 - Epilogue

"Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him."
------ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Hound of The Baskervilles'.

Dawn, Tuesday, April 13th. The Town & County Cemetery sloped downward from north to south, and the southeast corner was for the burial of indigents at County expense. My Police SUV led the way down the path that went between the Cemetery and the Pet Cemetery under the old oak tree.

I was driving, Teresa was riding shotgun, and Chaplain Calvin, our Protestant Police Chaplain, was in the back seat. We were all wearing our Duty Dress jackets with the metal-bordered ribbons instead of the full 'fruit salad' of ribbons, and Teresa and I were not wearing our Medals of Valor. Chaplain Calvin wore a clerical collar instead of the neckties Teresa and I were wearing.

Behind us was the hearse that belonged to the Town & County Coroner's Office, carrying the cremated ashes of George Aurus. Behind the hearse in two Police cruisers was the Funeral Detail, Police Officers that trained to act as pallbearers for indigent burials as well as honorable burials of fallen Police Officers or retired Officers that had died.

The Feds had demanded we turn over Aurus's body to them, so they could bury it inside a Federal prison. I'd arranged with Coroner John Quincy Kelly to go ahead and cremate the body, then tell the Feds that the body had been 'accidentally' cremated before it could be turned over to them, so sorry. Then the Coroner summarily denied the Feds's demand, saying the body had been claimed. Whatever they'd wanted the body for, they'd been stymied in the attempt to get it.

We had not expected anyone to attend George Aurus's funeral, and we'd scheduled it for the early morning so that any protesters or relatives of Aurus's victims would not be likely to cause disruptions. But when we arrived, we saw about forty people waiting on the hillside between the road and the grave that had been dug and awaited the coffin carrying Aurus's ashes. Most of them were wearing black t-shirts, with the logo of the defunct Wrangler Circus.

"Oh wow." Teresa said as we saw them. "How did they know?" Then she looked over at me, and realized that it was possible I'd gotten word to them through one of their members.

We all got out of our vehicles. Six men wearing Wrangler Circus shirts came down, and I told the Funeral Detail that the Circus people could be the pallbearers, then quietly told the Funeral Detail to be on watch as Police Officers securing the scene.

Chaplain Calvin followed the pallbearers and the coffin they were carrying up the slight rise between two rows formed by the other former Circus members and other attendees. Many of the men and women's looked beaten; they had endured many things and had had hard lives since the time they were children. Many had engaged in lives of crime, and some of them... of both genders... had been forced into prostitution to survive.

But George Aurus had not forgotten them, the only people with whom he'd found belonging, and a sense of family. He'd taken care of them to the extent he was able, and they'd returned the favor, shielding him from the relentless pursuit of Law Enforcement. And now they were paying their final respects to him.

Chaplain Calvin said some pretty standard words, citing how one of the criminals crucified with Jesus had turned to Him, then telling how in his last hours Aurus had helped a child find his dog. He said that Aurus had long hoped to create a charity to help others like himself and his Circus friends that had been abused as children, and that that dream was now being fulfilled in his name. I could sense that the people there were very happy to hear that.

Then one of the women, a big, heavyset woman, gave new meaning to the words about the fat lady singing. Indeed, she had a voice worthy of an Opera as she sang Steven Sondheim's 'Send In The Clowns'...

"Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground
You in mid-air
Send in the clowns..."

Others joined in, ending with the final stanza:

"I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry, my dear
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns
Don't bothеr, they're herе..."

After Chaplain Calvin made the final prayers and incantations, the funeral was over. Most of the crowd stayed, talking about their days in the Circus and about George Aurus. And then they noticed what Teresa and I noticed: one man had gone over to another grave, and was standing before it.

Some of the crowd followed Teresa as she walked over and stood beside the man. He was Johnny, the Food Services worker who'd helped Aurus hide, and had brought food to young Jimmy. Teresa had recognized the grave site: it was where Beverly's daughter, little Sarah, was buried after losing her battle with a rare and virulent illness. (Author's note: 'Centuries', Ch. 01.)

"She was your daughter." Teresa said to the man, seeing the tears streaming down his face.

"Yes." said Johnny. "Her mother left me when she was a baby, and I don't blame her; I treated my ex real bad. But I never hurt that baby."

Teresa nodded and Johnny continued to talk as others gathered around them: "I never heard from them again. I didn't even know Sarah was sick until it was too late, and she'd already died. George told me what had happened. And I... I wasn't there for her. I wasn't there for my little girl when she needed me." He broke down sobbing.

After a moment, Johnny collected himself and continued: "When George found out that prick David Palmer with the insurance company had cut off their insurance, he was mad, as mad as I'd ever seen him. And he took it out on David Palmer, he made that prick pay. George cooked that bastard alive, from the inside out. And I'm not sorry for that." (Author's note: 'Beethoven Virus', Ch. 02.)

"Neither am I." Teresa said, remembering how little Sarah had died while Teresa was singing to her. Teresa decided not to tell Johnny that, though. Instead she just patted him on the back and said "I'm very sorry for your loss."

She turned and left as the others came up to Johnny and comforted him in his moment of misery. As she came up to me and we were about to leave, several other persons in Circus shirts came up to us. I asked Teresa to join Chaplain Calvin next to my Police SUV. Thankfully, the Iron Wolf did not protest, and went to the vehicle.

"You're the Iron Crowbar, arentcha?" one man asked.

"Yes, I am." I said, holding up my red crowbar.

The man extended a manila folder to me. As I took it, he said "George Aurus told us that you're not an ordinary cop, and that you might be the only man that can bring the priest that molested us to Justice. I don't know if you can, but maybe this will help."

I said "I cannot promise you that I will succeed. But I can promise you that it will not be for lack of trying, and to the very limits of my abilities. And it may take a while, but I will not give up on it."

"Thank you, sir." said one of the women. "That's all we ask."

"We've waited decades." said the man. "A little while longer won't be much." I nodded, then excused myself and walked down to the Police SUV and got in the driver's seat.

"What's that?" asked Teresa, reaching for the manila envelope that I was about to put into the compartment between our seats.

"Ack ack ack!" I said, slapping her hand away and securing the folder in the compartment. Teresa looked shocked, and I said "I'll show it to you at the proper time." Teresa was Catholic; she did not need to see that stuff until I'd prepared her to see it.

Some of the material was a duplicate of what Aurus had left me through his lawyer, but some was different. Some was a collection of statements by people, telling what had been done to them, and the priest that had committed those acts upon them.

Most of the information was at least two decades old, but gave a clear timeline and evidence of the insatiable sexual appetite of that brutal prelate, who made Sandusky's crimes seem insignificant by comparison. And he had been promoted over the years to higher and higher positions, and now was at a level he probably thought made him invulnerable from ordinary, earthly Law Enforcement. And his current name was well known to Teresa, as the Archbishop of the diocese of The City...

Claude Cardinal O'Leery...

Finis.