Once again, Cox feigned surprise.“A woman?”
“Yes.Twelve years ago, I had a colleague, Tesha Barclay, who worked at the bank I managed as a loan officer.A good one.She had a confidence about her, an air of quiet strength that I admired.”
A gleam came to his eyes.Cox resisted an urge to lean forward and controlled the excitement on his face.“Go on.”
“Well, I wanted that confidence.I wanted it for myself.”
“Why?”
Hale shrugged.“I just did.”
Oh yes.He was perfect.“So there was no purpose to this identity theft other than your own gratification?”
“That’s the purpose of all theft, father.It’s never aboutwhatyou steal.It’s that you can take it without being stopped.For some, it’s knowing their victims are helpless and can’t take back what you’ve stolen even if they want to.For others, it’s knowing that they’re sly enough to evade detection, laughing as their victims realize that something precious to them is missing but unable to know why it’s gone.”
His voice had grown confident, eager.He may be repentant, but he still recalled the joy his sin provided him.
Fleeting joy, but he’d realize that at the end if he hadn’t realized it yet.
“For me, it was the ability to be someone else,” Hale continued.“To become an entirely different person.To usurp their life, their traits, their mannerisms and make them mine.You see, father, when I become someone else, I take the essence of their soul.I inhabit their body and make them an outsider to their own life.”
His eyes shone brightly now.A smile split his face from ear to ear.“I wanted Tesha’s life.So I took it.”
A frown pulled at the corners of Cox’s lips.This was growing close to covetousness rather than theft.He had a different punishment planned for those who broke the tenth commandment, and in any case, it wasn’t time for that correction.“And it was the confidence you wanted?You felt unconfident inyourown life, so you wantedherlife?”
Hale shook his head.“It didn’t matter.I mean, yes, at the time, the confidence intrigued me, but I’ve had a long time to think about it, and I don’t think what I was stealing ever mattered.Like I said, it’s just the fact that I could.Tesha Barclay, Frank Strohm, Georgia McMillan, Hamish Ramakrishna… none of them really mattered.I just felt…” He reddened.“Forgive me, Father.It was an almost sexual thrill each time someone believed I was one of them.I felt likeGod.”
He caught himself, reddened further, and looked at Cox.“So you can see why this has weighed on me.I don’t like this part of myself, this part that thinks I can stand in the place of God.It’s evil.I want to let it go.And the first step is to confess and seek God’s mercy.”
Cox smiled at Hale.Hewasrepentant.That was good.This could truly be an act of mercy.“Forgiveness belongs to God, my child, not to me, but I can tell you what God has shown me.”
“What?”
Cox held Hale’s gaze, basked in the childlike innocence of it.Seventy-eight years old, but when the false wisdom humanity associated with age was let go, he came to Cox for assistance just like any child.
Like a lamb.
“God has shown me that he will accept your soul.”
Hale sighed, and the weight vanished in anticipation of God’s mercy.“Oh, praise God.Oh, thank God.Thankyou, Father.”
He started to smile, then stopped.His brow furrowed as he watched Cox pull on a pair of black latex gloves.“My soul?”
“Yes.”
So saying, Cox snarled and threw himself at Hale.The old man’s reflexes were slow, his body weakened by age.Cox bore him to the ground, straddled his chest, and squeezed.Blood pulsed under Cox’s fingers, veins throbbing and bulging.Hale’s eyes reddened from the edges inward as capillaries burst.His mouth opened wide as he struggled fruitlessly to breathe.His heels beat on the floor, and his hands scrabbled at Cox’s face.
Cox straightened, putting himself out of reach of the shorter Hale’s arms.He leaned onto his hands, pushing his thumbs into Hale’s pharynx.He heard a muffled crunch as the bones gave way and watched as his fingers sank into the yielding flesh.Hale’s eyes flew back into his head, and his body trembled as consciousness left him.
Cox moaned in ecstasy and lifted his eyes heavenward, feeling Hale’s pulse weaken, soften, slow, then stop.The joy of the Holy Spirit infused and enveloped him, rushing through his body like a hurricane.He closed his eyes and imagined how good it would feel to have Kate underneath him like this, to sendhersoul to God.Thatwould betrueecstasy.
“God’s will be done,” he whispered, “Oh God, your will be done.”
A final, turgid pump pushed against Cox’s fingers.Then it was done.
Cox sighed and slumped over the body, awash with the glory of God.“Thank you,” he muttered hoarsely.“Thank you, God, for using your servant to exercise your will on Earth.”
He removed his hands.They trembled a little, and he flexed his fingers several times until they calmed.