Saints or Martyrs?

Smecker sat three glasses and a bottle of irish whiskey on the kitchen table. Opening his laptop he waited for it to power up. “Time for show and tell boys. Your vision means that obviously you should have this information too.” Smecker fiddled with the computer opening a file.

“This is translation of secret documents that even the Vatican Library is not aware of. Geneologies going back to the time of Christ. Basically these are all of the descendents of the 12 Apostles, Christ's family, John The Baptist, Herod, Pontius Pilate. If they were a major player in what happened 2000 years ago their family tree has been painstakenly recorded. This is the real new testament boys. Two thousand of years of begats,” Smecker typed 'MacManus' in the search bar. “But this is the 'begat' that concerns us.”

“Holy Fuck!” Connor said. “Our names are in some texts tha Vatican keeps?”

Murphy glancing over Connor's shoulder said “Yer shitting us. What tha fuck are we doing in some Vatican record.”

“Your father's line, descended from Judas Iscariot.” Smecker pressed a button. “Now your mother has an impressive line of her own. Her line goes back to King David ”

Connor whistled while Murphy poured and gulped a shot of the liquor.

Smecker said. “Every so often, the lines of David and Judas converge; and the two of you are the result of one of those convergences. According to the Pope when that happens the children are God appointed saints.”

“God appointed saints?” Connor questioned.

“Yeah, it's been happening since the beginning. During the days of the Old Testament it was the bloodlines of Cain and Abel, now in our time it's the lines of David and Judas.

When it happens the children are born with the power of divine destruction, they are God's weapons walking the face of the earth. Most of them never get called to service, but occasionally in cases like yours, God gives them a mission.”

“Is tha why ye've suddenly taken up reading tha Good book then Smecker?” Connor asked picking up the bible that was sitting on the table.

“Actually that's research, I figure if I'm going to be working with Saints I probably should refresh my memory. I haven't walked through the doors of a church since I left for college. Well except for the time I stumbled into that confessional after a long night of drinking and trying to decide what to do about the two of you.” Smecker said. “Now a question for you, Lilith. Who the fuck is she?”

“She was Adam's first wife.” Connor said “But Adam rejected her.”

Murphy poured himself another shot and gulped it down before continuing. “She ended up with Lucifer. That's where she's been ever since.” Murphy pulled up his right sleeve and looked down at the healed spot where his tattoo had been. “When I first woke up it was dark except where she had me tied and I could hear things moving in tha dark. Things tha didn't sound right. Then she came into the light and told me who she was.” He pulled his sleeve back down. “She's not happy tha me and Connor are ruinin all o Lucifer's hard work.”

*****

“Excuse me Detective Duffy,” The uniform poked his head in the door. “The FBI is here.”

“Send them in.” Duffy ordered as Dolly opened the old man's wallet and looked at his ID “Cletus Jackson, just turned 100. He's got money in his wallet and it doesn't look like anything was taken.”

“Something was taken just nothing that would be of value to most people.” Duffy said nodded at the wound on the old man's arm.

“Gentlemen,” Eunice greeted. She looked around the thblood splattered room and then to the blood soaked bed.

“This is a bad one.” Juan said noticing the condition of the room.

“Eunice, Juan.” Duffy said, nodding at them. “Guess you wondered why we called you? How many bodies does it take to officially label a serial killer?”

“Do you boys think you have yourselves one?” Juan asked.

“Officially, no. Unofficially, yes. Look at the right arm.” Dolly said.

“Technically we only have two bodies but we know that Murphy was first. David was killed somewhere and then dumped, this poor old man is laying in his bed.” Duffy pointed out. “But he was killed the same way David was.”

“I think you called it right but what connection does this victim have with the Connor and Murphy? He's not Irish and he's not a police officer. He seems to be a random victim.” Juan said.

“Believe me if someone went through the trouble of killing him, he's connected in some way.” Eunice said. “What are you holding back from the media?”

“We really haven't given much to them.” Duffy said. But I'm thinking we should keep the trophy taking to ourselves.”

“That would weed out the copycats. But the sharks are circling downstairs, you're going to have to give them someething.” Juan said. “Especially since the FBI showed up.”

“Well whatever you give them, don't connect this to the Saints in any way.” Eunice said. “I'll talk to Paul since we know it's connected. You boys might want to see if there is a connection to Connor and Murphy that we don't know about.”

*****

Murphy shrugged out of his coat tossing it over the arm of the couch before heading to the kitchen and grabbing a couple of bottles of beer. Connor tossed his own coat down next to Murphy's before flopping down on the couch and lighting a cigarette.

“Ye know ye shouldna be swilling beer before noon.” Connor chuckled. “I'm sure tis against tha Saint's Code or something.”

“Well then ye won't be needing this then.” Muphy said pullng back the bottle he was offering to his brother.

“I said it twas against tha rules.” Connor said snatching the bottle out of Murphy's hand. “Never said anything about actually followin em. I'm still not sure I believe all that stuff though.”

Murphy flopped down beside Connor snatching the cigarette from his mouth and taking a puff. “Twould explain a few things tho, like why we hear God talkin to us. And why we got started on this whole kill tha bad men thing.”

“Aye,” Connor said. “And how we miraculously walked out o our trial as free men. I mean given tha circumstances we should either be on Death Row or on the run. Instead in tha face o overwhelmin evidence we walked out free as a couple o birds.”

“I think that high powered New York law firm suddenly takin on our case mighta had something ta do with that.” Murphy laughed “I'll never forget tha Prosecutors face when our new attorney showed up in court. I thought tha fucker was gonna shit his britches.”

Connor joined his brother's laughter. “Aye, and he fumbled through tha rest of the trial. Made a right muddle o things he did. With all o his fuck up's tha only thing tha jury could do was decide not guilty.”

“God's will, me brother. We couldn't be doing our jobs if we was behind bars now could we?” Murphy said sobering up. “I have ta admit though, I'm realizin that maybe Lilith coming after us was a plan. Maybe we are throwing tha monkey wrench in tha devil's plans. Makes what we do seem a lot more important ta me now.”

“Aye Murph. It has taken on a new level o importance ta me too.” Connor answered.