The Sculptor Part 7

What Cathy found even more disturbing was that she had not put two and two together when she saw the heinous sculpture in person. Had the figure in the background been only incidental to her? Had she been that overwhelmed by Tommy Campbell, by Bacchus, by the star star of the exhibit? of the exhibit?

And so, while the Polks watched the news in stunned silence, Cathy sat across the room staring past the TV-her mind secretly scrolling with pa.s.sages from Slumbering in the Stone Slumbering in the Stone. She had not told Janet about the inscription at the base of the statue or about the possible connection between this nightmare and her book-a book that she had written not only as a testament to Michelangelo's genius, but also as a critique of a celebrity obsessed culture asleep on a featherbed of mediocrity. Had her experience with the sculpture down at Watch Hill been a mirror of that very dynamic? Had she been so taken, so fascinated with Tommy Campbell-the football player, the celebrity celebrity she had once made time for on Sundays-that she did not even she had once made time for on Sundays-that she did not even think think about little Michael Wenick, the little boy whose disappearance got nowhere nearly as much attention as Campbell's, and who ultimately, about little Michael Wenick, the little boy whose disappearance got nowhere nearly as much attention as Campbell's, and who ultimately, literally literally ended up taking a backseat to him-both in the minds of Rhode Islanders and the tableau of death in which he played a supporting role? ended up taking a backseat to him-both in the minds of Rhode Islanders and the tableau of death in which he played a supporting role?

In essence, Cathy thought, is this psycho, the sculptor of this is this psycho, the sculptor of this Bacchus Bacchus trying to say the same thing I was? Is he holding up Michelangelo's genius as the standard by which everything else should be judged? Is he, too, saying, "Shame on you world!" for accepting, for wors.h.i.+pping anything less? trying to say the same thing I was? Is he holding up Michelangelo's genius as the standard by which everything else should be judged? Is he, too, saying, "Shame on you world!" for accepting, for wors.h.i.+pping anything less?

Wors.h.i.+p, Cathy said to herself, turning the word over and over again in her mind. They once wors.h.i.+pped Bacchus, G.o.d of wine, of celebration and theatre, of s.e.xual excess; and now they wors.h.i.+p Tommy Campbell, G.o.d of a meaningless game, of empty celebrity hookups and breakups, and now the worst of all media excesses They once wors.h.i.+pped Bacchus, G.o.d of wine, of celebration and theatre, of s.e.xual excess; and now they wors.h.i.+p Tommy Campbell, G.o.d of a meaningless game, of empty celebrity hookups and breakups, and now the worst of all media excesses.

Perhaps, answered another voice in Cathy's head-a voice that sounded a lot like Sam Markham's. But perhaps you're looking too deeply in the wrong direction. Perhaps the killer not only chose his victims because they looked like the figures in Michelangelo's original, but also because only the death of a public persona like Campbell's, or the incomprehensible death of a child, could draw the kind of media attention you're witnessing now. Maybe it takes that much nowadays to get through to us. Maybe the killer is trying to show us not only where our values are, but also, by virtue of his actions, how much it will take to wake us up But perhaps you're looking too deeply in the wrong direction. Perhaps the killer not only chose his victims because they looked like the figures in Michelangelo's original, but also because only the death of a public persona like Campbell's, or the incomprehensible death of a child, could draw the kind of media attention you're witnessing now. Maybe it takes that much nowadays to get through to us. Maybe the killer is trying to show us not only where our values are, but also, by virtue of his actions, how much it will take to wake us up.

Wake us up. Yes. Wake us up in some sick way to remind us of our own potential.

What do you mean? asked Sam Markham in her mind. asked Sam Markham in her mind.

The deeper message in Slumbering in the Stone- Slumbering in the Stone-the quote by Michelangelo upon which the t.i.tle of the book is based.

Of course. The quote.

"The quotes quotes," Cathy said out loud.

"What'd you say, Hildy?"

"Excuse me, Jan. Is it okay if I use my cell phone in the kitchen?"

"Is everything all right, dear? Do you want us to turn off the television?"

"No, no, please," Cathy said. Had she known that the FBI agent had already finished reading her book in his hotel room, that he, too, had drawn his own conclusions about the killer's motives, Cathy might have had second thoughts about calling him. "I just remembered something I forgot to tell the FBI. But I'd like a little privacy. Is that okay, guys?"

"Of course," said Dan Polk. "And while you're in there, call the escort service for me. Tell 'em to send over Helga. Tall, blond, and a little Hulk Hoganesque is what I'm craving this evening."

Janet elbowed him and Cathy disappeared into the kitchen-found her purse on the table and retrieved the FBI agent's card. Samuel P. Markham Samuel P. Markham, it read beneath the official seal. Supervisory Special Agent, Behavioral a.n.a.lysis Unit-2 Supervisory Special Agent, Behavioral a.n.a.lysis Unit-2.

"Markham," Cathy said to herself a la James Bond. "Samuel P P. Markham. The 'P.' 'P.' stands for stands for 'Pretty d.a.m.n Cool.' 'Pretty d.a.m.n Cool.'" Cathy smiled-felt the blood go warm in her cheeks-and dialed the number.

"h.e.l.lo?" said the voice on the other end.

"h.e.l.lo, Sam?"

"Yes."

"It's Cathy. Cathy Hildebrant."

"Hi, Cathy. I was going to call you to see how you were doing, but I didn't want to bother you. You've had quite a day. The reporters have left you alone, I take it?"

The FBI agent sounded different, Cathy thought-his voice tired and tight.

"Yes," Cathy said. "I'm spending the night in Cranston with Janet Polk and her husband." Markham did not say anything, and Cathy had the sneaking suspicion he already knew. "Anyway, we were watching TV and I saw they released the ident.i.ty of that boy-the one who was murdered along with Tommy Campbell. Michael Wenick is his name."

"Yes. We suspected it was him from the beginning, but couldn't alert the public until we got confirmation from the medical examiner and the boy's mother. It all came together shortly after I dropped you off."

"He was a local, Sam-grew up in the same neighborhood as I did. And I feel awful for not recognizing him when we were down there at Watch Hill. It's why I'm calling you."

"What's up?"

"I just remembered that, when we were talking about the anonymous quotes in connection to my book, well, I forgot to mention that the t.i.tle of the book itself, Slumbering in the Stone Slumbering in the Stone, was also taken from a quote by Michelangelo."

"'The best artist has that thought alone which is contained within the marble sh.e.l.l,'" Markham said. "'Only the sculptor's hand can break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone.'"

"Yes, that's it," said Cathy, fl.u.s.tered.

"I have your book right here in front of me. Just finished skimming through it about a half an hour ago. Interesting stuff."

"Thank you," Cathy said, suddenly nervous. "Well, you see, Sam, upon its initial publication, Slumbering in the Stone Slumbering in the Stone was met with quite a bit of controversy in academic circles-beginning with my interpretation of that quote. What I mean is, the traditional translation of Michelangelo's Italian held that the word 'only' in the last half of the quote came after the word 'can.' Thus, for years the statement was thought to have read, 'The sculptor's hand can only break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone.' I won't bore you with the details, but through my research I discovered that the word 'only' should actually come at the was met with quite a bit of controversy in academic circles-beginning with my interpretation of that quote. What I mean is, the traditional translation of Michelangelo's Italian held that the word 'only' in the last half of the quote came after the word 'can.' Thus, for years the statement was thought to have read, 'The sculptor's hand can only break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone.' I won't bore you with the details, but through my research I discovered that the word 'only' should actually come at the beginning beginning of the sentence. Therefore, the quote should really read, ' of the sentence. Therefore, the quote should really read, 'Only the sculptor's hand can break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone.' You see how it changes the meaning?" the sculptor's hand can break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone.' You see how it changes the meaning?"

"Yes," said Markham-distantly, studying the quote. "It changes the emphasis entirely. The sculptor himself becomes of supreme importance, making him much more special special-that he and only only he has the power to release, to awaken the figures from their sleep inside the marble." he has the power to release, to awaken the figures from their sleep inside the marble."

"Exactly. Of course, Michelangelo is speaking metaphorically of the potential in a block of marble to become something beautiful, as well as the fact that only through the lens of true genius can this potential be seen. But the artist is also speaking of the magical, nothing short of divine divine connection that he felt between himself and his creations, for it was from G.o.d that Michelangelo received not only his talent and inspiration, but also his torment." connection that he felt between himself and his creations, for it was from G.o.d that Michelangelo received not only his talent and inspiration, but also his torment."

"Go on."

"The cla.s.sical tradition in which Michelangelo's artistry is steeped-that is, the humanistic tradition hearkening back to the ancient Greeks-held that the male body was aesthetically superior to the female. It is a well-known fact that h.o.m.os.e.xuality was an integral part of ancient Greek culture, but not in the way we think of h.o.m.os.e.xuality today-or during Michelangelo's time, for that matter. And remember, of course, that we are just talking about men men here, for women in ancient Greece were viewed as little better than livestock. You see, although pretty much any type of s.e.xual exploit was open to the male, here, for women in ancient Greece were viewed as little better than livestock. You see, although pretty much any type of s.e.xual exploit was open to the male, exclusive exclusive h.o.m.os.e.xuality was actually frowned upon in ancient Greece. And they most certainly didn't define a man by his s.e.xual orientation the way we do today. In fact, s.e.xual relations between men-usually between an older man and an adolescent boy between the ages of thirteen and nineteen-were not necessarily seen as a s.e.xual act at all, but as an educational rite of pa.s.sage into manhood. It was through the exploration of the male body that Greek men could experience the highest form of divinely inspired beauty-a realm, if you will, in which they could walk in the light of the G.o.ds. Sometimes the relations.h.i.+p between two males evolved into the deep, spiritual connection of love, and it is for this reason we see in Greek mythology love between two males much more highly prized than love between a man and a woman. h.o.m.os.e.xuality was actually frowned upon in ancient Greece. And they most certainly didn't define a man by his s.e.xual orientation the way we do today. In fact, s.e.xual relations between men-usually between an older man and an adolescent boy between the ages of thirteen and nineteen-were not necessarily seen as a s.e.xual act at all, but as an educational rite of pa.s.sage into manhood. It was through the exploration of the male body that Greek men could experience the highest form of divinely inspired beauty-a realm, if you will, in which they could walk in the light of the G.o.ds. Sometimes the relations.h.i.+p between two males evolved into the deep, spiritual connection of love, and it is for this reason we see in Greek mythology love between two males much more highly prized than love between a man and a woman.

"We see such a dynamic in Michelangelo's sculptures as well-the majority of which are male male. The figure of the woman is only incidental for him, and Michelangelo's lack of understanding of the female anatomy-such as his awkward placement of b.r.e.a.s.t.s and the rendering of female figures with large, manly frames-is evident throughout his career. For example, in another one of his famous sculptures, the Rome Pieta Rome Pieta, we see the Madonna not only with oddly shaped b.r.e.a.s.t.s and an unusually large frame out of proportion with the Christ figure, but the entirety of her body is covered in heavy robes-almost as if Michelangelo is hiding hiding her." her."

"Yes," said Markham. "You have some lovely photographs of it in your book."

"I'm sorry if I'm getting off track, Sam, but what I'm saying is that the male figures in Michelangelo's work are always exquisitely rendered with a kind of detail and authenticity out of proportion to the female-detail that indisputably proves the artist's obsession with the male anatomy. And so it is also through such flawless rendering that we see the cla.s.sical dynamic of ancient Greece played out not only in the final execution of Michelangelo's sculptures, but also in his experience of sculpting them, for it was only through his work that Michelangelo could come close to communing with what he saw as divinely inspired beauty-a beauty, for him, accessible only only by the sculptor's hand." by the sculptor's hand."

"So, if I follow you, you're saying that, for Michelangelo, it was as much the experience of carving as it was the finished product?"

"Yes. Think of the torment the artist must have gone through, born as he was with an inherent appreciation, an inherent love for the male-both spiritually and s.e.xually. A love that he saw bestowed upon him by G.o.d and intrinsically woven into the very nature of his gift-that miraculous gift, given only only to the sculptor, to release the figures slumbering in the stone. And thus it was the very nature of this gift that was both Michelangelo's sanctuary and his prison. This was a gift bestowed upon him by a G.o.d who at the same time forbade him to commune with his figures in the flesh-a G.o.d who condemned the kind of deep, spiritual love that Michelangelo so desperately craved with Tommaso Cavalieri; a G.o.d who gave Michelangelo the power to create beauty, but, in essence, not the permission to touch it." to the sculptor, to release the figures slumbering in the stone. And thus it was the very nature of this gift that was both Michelangelo's sanctuary and his prison. This was a gift bestowed upon him by a G.o.d who at the same time forbade him to commune with his figures in the flesh-a G.o.d who condemned the kind of deep, spiritual love that Michelangelo so desperately craved with Tommaso Cavalieri; a G.o.d who gave Michelangelo the power to create beauty, but, in essence, not the permission to touch it."

"So then Michelangelo is also speaking about himself. That he, too, is a figure trapped in the stone-a figure imprisoned in the marble sh.e.l.l of his h.o.m.os.e.xuality, and that only through the act of carving could he, for lack of a better phrase, make love with another man."

"You could put it that way, yes."

Markham was silent for a long time-a silence in which Cathy thought she could hear the special agent's brain ticking; a silence that made Cathy so uncomfortable that she told Markham the gist of her Socratic dialogue on the sofa-neglecting, of course, to tell him that he had played Socrates to her Gorgias.

"Yes," said Markham when she had finished. "In your book you quite often contrast Michelangelo's artistry, as well as the world of the Italian Renaissance, with the artistic output of our culture today-specifically with regard to the media. How it dominates our culture, how it dictates what is important, but most significantly, how it physically shapes our intellect-literally, our physiological capacity not only to process information, but also to appreciate beauty. You speak of the detrimental effects of the Internet, of television and movies, and how they are altering, actually conditioning our brains not only to focus for shorter periods of time and with less efficiency, but also to accept a standard of excellence that gets progressively lower and lower. In essence, you are saying that, today, the quality of the marble from which we as human beings are shaped is meager stuff compared to the metaphorical marble of Michelangelo's time."

"That's a lovely way of putting it, yes."

"And only the sculptor's hand-whether it's Michelangelo's or the twisted psychopath's who murdered Campbell and Wenick-can free us from the marble prison that is the media. Our society today, we children of this celebrity infatuated culture, we we are the figures slumbering in the stone." are the figures slumbering in the stone."

"Yes, Sam. That's exactly what I'm saying."

"That would explain why he chose Campbell, and perhaps even that little boy. Or maybe, as you experienced in your examination of the statue, why he chose to portray them as Michelangelo's Bacchus Bacchus in the first place; a sculpture in which the G.o.d, the in the first place; a sculpture in which the G.o.d, the celebrity celebrity-by virtue not only of his size and orientation but also of the mythology he carries with him-dominates our thoughts."

"It would also explain his contacting me via the quotes, don't you think? Like the sculpture, the medium itself was part of his message-just as the quote at the beginning of my book was part of mine. In essence, the killer was saying to me, 'I understand.'"

"And so the inscription on the base of the statue could just be the killer's way of simply saying, 'Thank you.'"

"Yes, I guess it could."

Sam Markham was silent again-the flipping pages on the other end of Cathy's cell phone the only sound.

"Thank you for calling me, Cathy," he said finally. "You can't imagine what a help you've been. I'll be back and forth between Providence and Boston over the next few days while the autopsies are being performed. Procedure dictates that we collect as much evidence as possible and then send it off to our labs at Quantico for a.n.a.lysis. The way these things go, it's better for the families to get their loved ones interred as soon as possible. I'll be in touch. Try to get some rest, okay? Good night, Cathy."

"Good night, Sam."

Click.

Cathy stood in the kitchen feeling more at ease than she had all day, and despite the topic of their conversation, Cathy hated to admit that she had actually enjoyed enjoyed talking to the FBI agent. talking to the FBI agent.

Must be the tea, said the voice in her head, and Cathy promptly told it to f.u.c.k off.

The Polks' phone rang, and Cathy could hear Janet in the living room telling Steve Rogers that yes, Cathy was there, and no, she didn't want to talk to him. p.r.i.c.k must have seen me on TV p.r.i.c.k must have seen me on TV, Cathy thought. Then she smiled, for the scene playing out in the living room was one she had seen many times over the last few months. Yes, Janet knew all too well that, no matter what the occasion, when Cathy retreated to her home the last person in the world she would ever want to speak with was Steve Rogers.

"For the last time, Steven," she heard Janet say. "I'm not going to give you her number. Now good night!"

Cathy returned to the living room to learn the a.s.sociated Press had confirmed that Tommy Campbell and Michael Wenick had indeed been found painted and posed like Michelangelo's Bacchus Bacchus. And as Janet and Dan followed the details with shock and disgust, Cathy was secretly relieved when nothing was mentioned about the little dedication to her at the base of the statue. However, after CNN showed a picture of Michael Wenick on a split screen next to a close-up of Michelangelo's satyr, the reality of what had happened that day once again came rus.h.i.+ng back to her.

And tea or no tea, Cathy knew that, when the lights were out in the Polks' guest room, it was the marble face of Michael Wenick that she would see hovering over her in the darkness.

Chapter 14.

It was not Michael Wenick that Sam Markham saw when he closed his eyes that night, or even the Baccha.n.a.lian visage of Tommy Campbell. No, there in the gloom of his Providence hotel room was only his wife Mich.e.l.le. She came to him as she usually did, her presence inextricably linked with his solitude; a jigsaw puzzle of memory-some of which was jumbled into fuzzy pieces, while other parts fit together in segments of some larger picture, the border of which was never quite finished. Tonight, however, the memories of his Mich.e.l.le brought with them the dull but crus.h.i.+ng pain of longing-a pain that was always there for Sam Markham, but that most often lurked only in the deepest catacombs of his hardened heart.

It had been fourteen years since his wife's murder at the hands of a serial rapist by the name of Elmer Stokes. Stokes-a brutish-looking but charming singer whose specialty was traditional sea shanty songs-had been performing for the summer at Mystic Seaport when he saw the pretty, twenty-six-year-old "scientist lady" taking some water samples with her colleagues. Stokes would later tell police that he had followed "the b.i.t.c.h and her scientist friends" back to the Aquarium, where he waited for her in his car until long after dark. His intention, he said, had only been to watch her, to "get a feel for her." But when he saw the lovely Markham emerge from the Aquarium alone, he was overcome with the irresistible urge to take her then.

Elmer Stokes stated in his confession that he wore a ski mask and "pulled a pistol on the b.i.t.c.h." When he ordered Markham into the backseat of her car, she screamed, and Stokes tried to subdue her. Mich.e.l.le Markham fought back-kicking Stokes in the groin and biting him hard on his forearm. She managed to tear off the ski mask, and Stokes said it was then that he panicked. He shot her twice in the head and fled the scene in his beat-up '85 Corolla. A coworker at Mystic Seaport spotted the bite marks on the shanty man's forearm a couple days later and called the police. At first Elmer Stokes denied any involvement in the murder-a murder that rocked the sleepy little town of Mystic, Connecticut, to its core. However, when police recovered the pistol from the trunk of Stokes's car, the lovable singer who had been such a hit with the kiddies that summer confessed. The authorities were eventually able to tie Elmer Stokes to nine rapes in four states going back over a decade.

Mich.e.l.le Markham, however, had been his first and only murder.

It was Sam Markham who discovered his wife's body lying next to her car in the Mystic Aquarium parking lot-had gone looking for her when she didn't come home that night. The couple was less than a week shy of their two-year wedding anniversary, for which Markham had saved enough money from his meager English teacher's salary to surprise Mich.e.l.le with a weekend in the White Mountains of New Hamps.h.i.+re. Their courts.h.i.+p had been brief-a six-month whirlwind of pa.s.sion and romance followed by an elopement and the happiest two years of their lives. And so it was inevitable that, as Sam Markham sat cradling his wife's head in a pool of blood, his entire world imploded into a downward spiral of grief.

Under Connecticut law, for the murder and attempted rape of Mich.e.l.le Markham, Elmer Stokes received the death penalty. It was of little consolation to Sam Markham, who sat numb-eyed in the courtroom while his parents and Mich.e.l.le's family wept with relief at the judge's sentence. Years later, when Markham's sorrow had leveled, he would look back on that time following the trial of Elmer Stokes and invariably think of a c.r.a.ppy Disney movie he saw as a boy called The Black Hole The Black Hole, in which the main characters, protected by a special s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p designed to resist the gravitational forces of the t.i.tle ent.i.ty, get sucked down into a hokey and ambiguous sequence where they travel through Heaven and h.e.l.l, only to emerge on the other side of the black hole in what appears to be another dimension.

And so it had been for Markham, for the black hole that had been the year following his wife's murder compressed time into a confusing and hazy journey in which he felt like a bearded s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p drifting aimlessly through the universe of his boyhood bedroom at his parents'. And although, unlike the characters in the Disney movie, Markham could remember little of the black hole that had been his mourning, he emerged on the other side with a decision to apply for a career as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Yes, a new dimension in Markham's life had begun.

With his newfound sense of purpose, the physically fit and always intellectually superior Markham quickly moved to the head of his cla.s.s at the FBI Academy at Quantico. After graduation, over the next few years he followed the normal routine of rotating a.s.signments until, while working as a special agent with the Tampa Office, he single-handedly brought down Jackson Briggs, the man the press had dubbed "The Sarasota Strangler"-a vicious serial killer and rapist who had been terrorizing Sarasota retirement communities for almost two years, and who, by the time Markham caught up with him, had a string of seven victims to his credit. Markham's efforts not only earned him a citation of merit from the FBI director himself, but also secured his position as a supervisory special agent in the Behavioral a.n.a.lysis Unit at the National Center for the a.n.a.lysis of Violent Crime in Quantico.

Yet through it all, Sam Markham walked alone. Thought simply a solitary man by some, perhaps aloof and arrogant by others, life for the special agent was his job and only his job. Unlike those who knew him, however, Markham was keenly aware of his own psyche-knew that it was his work that brought him closer to his wife; knew that, like a character in a movie, he was on a mission to avenge her death by sparing others the heartache he had suffered. And it was for this very reason that Sam Markham watched himself in his role as an FBI special agent with the same sense of detached cliche and boredom with which he had watched The Black Hole The Black Hole as a child. For underneath it all was a nagging sense of futility; an inherent cynicism and understanding that, even at the end, the movie would simply not pay off. Yes, when it came right down to it, Sam Markham knew as well as anybody that, no matter how many serial killers he brought down, he would never find peace until he joined his wife in the afterlife. as a child. For underneath it all was a nagging sense of futility; an inherent cynicism and understanding that, even at the end, the movie would simply not pay off. Yes, when it came right down to it, Sam Markham knew as well as anybody that, no matter how many serial killers he brought down, he would never find peace until he joined his wife in the afterlife.

And so-even though it had been almost fifteen years since his wife's murder and he had learned to accept his grief-Markham found it strange that, as he watched himself lying there in his Providence hotel room, the jigsaw puzzle that was the memory of his wife had been scattered across a tabletop of guilt. For tonight, mixed in with the images of Mich.e.l.le were pieces from another another puzzle-one that took Markham completely by surprise. puzzle-one that took Markham completely by surprise.

Of course, there had been other women over the last few years, but the FBI agent never allowed himself to get too close, never allowed himself to betray the memory of his wife in his heart. But now, with this art history professor from Brown, Markham was aware that something had happened; that something else else besides his grief was stirring deep down in the catacombs of his heart-a something, for all his self-awareness, Markham did not quite understand, but at the same time in the role of detached moviegoer knew all too well. And so it was that, as he gazed down at the picture of Cathy Hildebrant on the back cover of besides his grief was stirring deep down in the catacombs of his heart-a something, for all his self-awareness, Markham did not quite understand, but at the same time in the role of detached moviegoer knew all too well. And so it was that, as he gazed down at the picture of Cathy Hildebrant on the back cover of Slumbering in the Stone Slumbering in the Stone, Markham watched himself for the first time long in his heart not only for his wife, but for another woman as well; and so it was that the FBI agent had also watched himself swallow his tears of guilt upon the art history professor's phone call-a detail, Markham thought, that only added to the cliche of the movie that had become his life.

By the time he hung up with Cathy, however, Markham's mind was back on his work. The conversation-as much as it had settled him, as much as he had actually enjoyed speaking with the art history professor-confirmed for him the conclusion he had drawn from reading Slumbering in the Stone Slumbering in the Stone: that the murderer of Tommy Campbell and Michael Wenick was sending a message message that was part of a much larger purpose-a purpose that involved the public. But rather than delving back into Cathy's book, rather than contemplating the merits of Dr. Hildebrant's theories as to just what that purpose was, after he closed his cell phone Markham found himself unable to take his eyes off the book's cover-specifically, the close-up of that was part of a much larger purpose-a purpose that involved the public. But rather than delving back into Cathy's book, rather than contemplating the merits of Dr. Hildebrant's theories as to just what that purpose was, after he closed his cell phone Markham found himself unable to take his eyes off the book's cover-specifically, the close-up of David David's piercing but delicately carved eyes. Indeed, for almost ten minutes did Sam Markham become mesmerized by the visage that was Michelangelo's David David-so much so, that when his cell phone startled him from his trance, it took a moment for Markham to remember where he was.

"Yes?"

"You see the news?"

It was Bill Burrell.

"Not in the last couple of hours, no. I've been reading Dr. Hildebrant's book."

"d.a.m.n press," grunted Burrell. "Already calling the son of a b.i.t.c.h 'The Michelangelo Killer.' And worse than all the pictures of that G.o.dd.a.m.n statue floating around is the word getting out about Hildebrant, about her involvement in the case. You think one of our guys could have rolled?"

"It's possible. But I wouldn't be surprised if the killer notified the press himself."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, it's obvious that he wants attention, obvious that he's sending a message, and that he wants the public to understand this message via the lens of Hildebrant's book-almost like he intends Slumbering in the Stone Slumbering in the Stone to be some sort of owner's manual for his creation. He went through a lot of trouble to execute this, Bill-to plan the murder of a celebrity like Campbell, to construct his to be some sort of owner's manual for his creation. He went through a lot of trouble to execute this, Bill-to plan the murder of a celebrity like Campbell, to construct his Bacchus Bacchus down to the minutest details, and to risk being discovered while installing the sculpture in Dodd's garden. Consequently, I don't think the killer would want to run the risk of the public misinterpreting his efforts." down to the minutest details, and to risk being discovered while installing the sculpture in Dodd's garden. Consequently, I don't think the killer would want to run the risk of the public misinterpreting his efforts."

"All right, what have you got for me?"

"Half textbook, but the other half is unlike anything we've ever seen before. Beginning with the boilerplate stuff, he's of the highly organized, highly intelligent variety. Other than what we'll learn as a result of the autopsies, the only evidence the killer has left behind so far are those footprints-but he antic.i.p.ated the possibility of a tread match and took the time to cover them. However, unless he was intentionally wearing bigger shoes, judging from the size of those footprints I'd peg him to be between six-three and six-six-most likely a white male, probably in his mid-to-late thirties, and definitely a loner. Would need a lot of time to accomplish his work, as well as a s.p.a.ce in which to do so-perhaps a cellar or a garage. He'd also need a truck or a van to transport his creations. I would say that's where the stereotype ends, however."

"Go on."

"The fact that he carried his statue alone tells us that he's a man of incredible strength-probably either holds a job doing some kind of menial labor, or is perhaps a bodybuilder. I would tend to lean toward the latter, for not only is the killer very bright and apparently well educated, but also his apparent identification with Michelangelo in terms of both the artist's h.o.m.os.e.xuality and his genius as a sculptor might indicate a desire for the same aesthetic quality in his own physique as well."

"So you're saying now you do do think this guy is gay?" think this guy is gay?"

"I can't say one hundred percent, Bill. But judging from my conversations with Dr. Hildebrant and my cursory reading of her book, my gut tells me yes."

"That's good enough for me. What about the motive?"

"Well, barring any connection between Campbell and Wenick of which we're presently unaware, again we have a situation where our man does not fit neatly into the usual categories. Other than the fact that both his victims were male-perhaps, one could argue, only an incidental criterion that Michelangelo's Bacchus Bacchus demanded of him-on one level, the killer seems to have chosen Campbell and Wenick simply because they looked like the figures in the original." demanded of him-on one level, the killer seems to have chosen Campbell and Wenick simply because they looked like the figures in the original."

"What's the other level?"

"The killer's message. Why he went through all the trouble to kill specifically specifically Tommy Campbell and Michael Wenick in the first place. Why he juxtaposed the wide receiver's body with that of the boy's, and then made the effort to exhibit his Tommy Campbell and Michael Wenick in the first place. Why he juxtaposed the wide receiver's body with that of the boy's, and then made the effort to exhibit his Bacchus Bacchus in the garden of a wealthy banker down at Watch Hill-an obvious historical allusion to the exhibition of the original." in the garden of a wealthy banker down at Watch Hill-an obvious historical allusion to the exhibition of the original."

"And the message you're talking about is what?"

Markham gave Burrell a quick rundown of his conversation with Cathy, as well as their theories about the killer's motives-that deeper message that The Michelangelo Killer had chiseled out of Cathy's book: Only the sculptor's hand can free the figures slumbering in the stone. Only the sculptor's hand can free the figures slumbering in the stone.

"So you think then that he's a type of visionary killer?" asked Burrell. "You think he's delusional? That he read into Hildebrant's book a deeper message that told him to make statues out of people?"