“Even the older ones?”
“Yeah, people ask for old tags a lot.Grandkids or schoolkids doing a Memorial Day project for their town, usually.It’s not as uncommon as you might think.
Faith could feel this lead slipping away and tried to keep the desperation out of his voice.“Can you give us an alibi for this morning and yesterday morning?”
“I got here around ten a.m.,” he said hopefully.
Faith shook her head.“Before that.”
He slumped.“Well… Damn it.You’re sure it’s those dog tags?”
“Very sure.”
He swallowed and lifted his hands above the table.He tried to interlace his fingers, winced, then pressed them together in a Gable grip.They shook badly, and he finally lowered them to the table palms down.
Faith suppressed a frown.It was one thing if he walked stiffly, but if his hands were weak, then there was no way he could have strangled their victims, especially not with the exceptional force their killer showed.
“I don’t know what to say,” he told the agents.
“Why were you looking up those records?”Jessica asked.
He swallowed again.“I was gathering evidence.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed.“What kind of evidence?”
“That God doesn’t exist.”
Faith folded her arms across her chest.“Talk to me about that.Why are you trying to prove that God doesn’t exist.”
Thomas’s entire body was shaking now.His face alternated between fear and anger.“I was a medic in Afghanistan during the Battle of Tarinkot.75thRanger Regiment.I watched twenty-seven people die in my arms while chaplains fuckingprayedover them.”He said the word like a curse.
The fear was gone from his expression.Grief now twisted his face.“They looked me in the eyes and asked me if they were gonna die.And those assholes said all the same bullshit.‘You’re going to Heaven.’‘God is taking you into his arms.’‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Goddamned death.’Bullshit.”
“I can only imagine how upset that must make you,” Faith replied.
Thomas scoffed.“Yeah.That’s a hell of an understatement.Pun fucking intended.”
Faith wasn’t sure what the pun was, but it was easy to see how Thomas could have been angry enough to murder the victims.Maybe his anger was enough to temporarily overcome his suffering.“You said that you wanted the chaplains punished.Is that correct?”
“I said they deserved to be punished by their gods,” he replied.“Like I said, it was stupid stuff.I realize now that I wasn’t making anything better.I was just so damned angry.Still am.”
“And you’re taking an art class to help with that, right?”Jessica asked.
He laughed.“Yeah.That.That’s bullshit too.”
Faith raised an eyebrow.“How so?”
He grinned at her and lifted his hands.The tremors were extreme now.“What am I supposed to make with these?Can’t even draw a goddamned stick figure.”
“How are you with a caulking gun?”
“Awhat?”
“Or maybe a needle?Heavy gauge, something that could inject a thick, viscous fluid.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The victims were injected with an expanding epoxy that’s commonly used to make models for sculptors.Sometimes it’s used as a sealant for marine engines or a filler for certain structures.”
