The kettle came to a boil, and Marcus removed it from the heat and set it aside to rest briefly before pouring it over his tea leaves.Faith looked at Turk.He sat with his head cocked, studying Marcus.He didn’t seem suspicious, more intrigued.Faith wondered what it was about the bookish but broad-chested historian that interested him so much.
Marcus carried his tea to the dining room and joined them at the table.“I’ve developed a reputation as a somewhat nosy individual,” he said, “No doubt that’s why you two were alerted to me in the first place.I trespassed on the Candlewood dig several times to measure distances, take pictures and try to get a sense of what fighting there must have looked like.Of course, the area looked quite different in 1773, but when I do my research, I find it helpful to place myself at the scene of the battles as much as possible.
“As for the native site, it wasn’t convenient for me to be there personally.Since I lost my position at New York State University, the university has unfortunately taken a very stern stance with me.”
“Can you tell us why that is?”Faith asked.
Marcus smiled slightly.“They consider me a plagiarizer.”
“I see.”
“That might not seem serious, but in academia, it’s a death sentence.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Michael replied politely.
Marcus shrugged.“It’s not the end of the world.I’ve invested my money well, so I’m not in danger of destitution.And my book will be published with or without their approval.I will cite my sources, of course, presuming the principles in question will agree tobea source.”
He seemed slightly irritated saying that, and Faith guessed he was talking about Dr.Winters.She was more interested in the help he said he could offer them, however.If he was telling the truth about that, then they might finally be able to break through the wall that seemed to keep them from the answers they needed.
“You said you believed you could help us,” Faith said.“How so?”
Marcus grinned and folded huge hands on the table as he leaned forward.“Because I understand the warrior mindset, and like him or despise him, your killer is a warrior.”
“Go on,” Michael said doubtfully.
“He treats other warriors with great reverence,” Marcus said.“These graves, were they marked?”
“No, but they were meant to be easy to find.”
“They were shallow, but not necessarily meant to be easy to find,” Marcus corrected.“At least, Barnes’s grave was shallow.I assume the other grave was shallow as well?”
“It was,” Faith confirmed.“Not as shallow as Barnes’s grave, but shallow.”
“Then they were warriors’ graves,” Marcus insisted.
“I’m not following,” Michael said, still showing skepticism.
Marcus leaned back and adopted a professorial tone.“This specific practice of burying warriors in unmarked shallow graves on or near the site of the battle where they fell dates to Ancient Sparta.At least, that is the best attested early example of which we know.”
Faith raised an eyebrow.“I thought the Spartans carried their dead home on their shields.”
“A myth,” Sullivan announced.“The Spartans were nothing if not practical.They revered their warriors, of course, but they revered their capability.They wouldn’t have wasted the strength of their fighting men carrying dead corpses home, and those dead men, if alive, would insist on being buried where they fell rather than tire the still living men who needed to fight to defend their Kingdom.The graves were shallow because they didn’t need to be deep, just deep enough to cover the bodies.They were unmarked because the presence of the corpse wasn’t important.It was the warrior’s soul that mattered, and that soul had already gone on to Tartarus.Now obviously, your killer couldn’t take the bodies of these warriors to the sites of their own battles, so he made do with the nearest sacred ground he could find.”
“I can see where you’re going with this,” Faith said, “but our killer didn’t treat these bodies like empty shells.He treated them with great respect, posing them with their legs straight, their hands folded over their chests, and coins over their eyes.”That, of course, was only true of the second body, but Faith didn’t want to get stuck on the details right now.
“Well, our killer can’t be expected to be a thorough historian.”
Michael crossed his arms over his chest.“Let’s say you’re right.How does that help us find him?”
Marcus took a deep breath and tilted his head."I would say that you're looking for someone who is also a veteran, someone who would feel camaraderie with these wounded warriors.I would speculate that the victims suffered from severe PTSD and possibly depression.The killer also suffers from these ailments and believes the victims are better off dead.Why these specific victims is probably answered by more specific criteria to determine worthiness of death.That is beyond my area of expertise, but I would suggest starting by looking for fellow veterans with mental health issues as a result of trauma sustained during combat.Above all, this will be someone who loves and admires their fellow warriors.He isn't murdering them.In his eyes, he is granting them a warrior's death."
“A very thorough analysis,” Michael pointed out, an amused smile on his face.“Do you have a background as a criminal profiler?”
Marcus lifted a finger.“Not acriminalprofiler, Special Agent, but awarriorprofiler.”
He got to his feet with a spryness made disturbing by his size and picked a book off of one of the shelves that lined the walls of his living room.He handed it to Michael.Faith glanced at the title.The Warrior’s Mind: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Thought Processes of Humanity’s Greatest Representatives.
“That’s for you,” Marcus said generously.“I think it will help a lot.”
