Killer of Souls

Table of Contents Title Page KILLER OF SOULS A Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan Mystery By Brian O’Hare Published by Modus Operandi Publishing ©Brian O’Hare 2022 All Rights Reserved This book is a work of Fiction. Names, characters, events or locations are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or events, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This book is licensed for private, individual entertainment only. The book contained herein constitutes a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into an information retrieval system or transmitted in any form by ANY means (electrical, mechanical, photographic, audio recording or otherwise) for any reason (excepting the uses permitted by the licensee by copyright law under terms of fair use) without the specific written permission of the author. ~o~ Contents: Prologue: 31st July, 1995, Near Midnight Chapter One: Tuesday, 5th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Two: Friday, 8th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Three: Friday, 8th July, 2016: Early-evening Chapter Four: Friday, 8th July, 2016: Late-evening Chapter Five: Saturday, 9th July,2016: Mid-morning Chapter Six: Monday, 11th July,2016: Morning Chapter Seven: Tuesday, 12th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Eight: Tuesday, 12th July, 2016: Evening. Chapter Nine: Wednesday, 13th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Ten: Wednesday, 13th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Eleven: Wednesday, 13th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Twelve: Thursday, 14th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Thirteen: Friday, 15th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Fourteen: Monday, 18th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Fifteen: Tuesday, 19th July, 2016: Afternoon Chapter Sixteen: Wednesday, 20th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Seventeen: Thursday, 21st July, 2016: Afternoon Chapter Eighteen: Friday, 22nd July, 2016: Morning Chapter Nineteen: Friday, 22nd July, 2016: Late afternoon. Chapter Twenty: Friday, 22nd July, 2016: Evening Chapter Twenty-One: Friday, 22nd July, 2016: Evening. Chapter Twenty-Two: Monday, 25th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Twenty-Three: Monday, 25th July, 2016: Afternoon Chapter Twenty-Four: Monday, 25th July 2016: Near Midnight Chapter Twenty-Five: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Twenty-Six: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Twenty-Seven: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: Evening Chapter Twenty-Eight: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: Evening Chapter Twenty-Nine: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: Evening Chapter Thirty: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: Near Midnight Chapter Thirty-One: Tuesday, 26th July, 2016: After midnight Chapter Thirty-Two: Wednesday, 27th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Thirty-Three: Wednesday, 27thJuly, 2016: Late-morning Chapter Thirty-Four: Wednesday, 27th July, 2016: Afternoon Chapter Thirty-Five: Thursday, 28th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Thirty-Six: Thursday, 28th July, 2016: Mid-morning Chapter Thirty-Seven: Thursday, 28th July, 2016: Afternoon Chapter Thirty-Eight: Thursday, 28th July, 2016: Near Midnight Chapter Thirty-Nine: Friday, 29th July, 2016: Afternoon Chapter Forty: Saturday, 30th July, 2016: Morning Chapter Forty-One: Sunday, 21st July, 2016: Near Midnight Chapter Forty-Two: Monday, 1st August, 2016: Around 1.00 a.m. PROLOGUE 31st July, 1995: Near Midnight. Everything looks the same. The starry sky and the summer moon give the landscape a silvery luminescence. Visible in the eerie light is the glistening surface of the river that flows through a small wood at the edge of the clearing and meanders softly by.Only yards from the river’s edge sit the ruins of an old church, its shadowy outlines barely discernible. One does not have to stray far from the large towns and cities in Northern Ireland to happen upon such scenes. Long valleys and soft, rolling hills feast the eye from almost every principal highway. Detour though lesser known roads and the traveller finds the views even more breathtaking. Yet so much of this land is unspoiled, lonesome, lost, far from the tourist’s normal itinerary. So many lovely woods, so many verdant clearings teeming with wild flora and fauna, radiate their beauty only to the uncaring eyes of the small denizens who hunt and feed and live their lives there, for the most part undisturbed by any human presence. This glade, with its sad but somehow impressive ruin, is one such place. Few pass by here. The river continues to flow, the church continues to crumble, and all is peace. Everything looks the same. But not tonight. Tonight,nothing is the same. Tonight, the air has been disturbed by the sound of motor cars arriving. Small groups of people, male and female, have made their way to the church carrying boxes, packages. Those who arrived earlier are already immersing themselves naked in the stream which is more than deep enough to accommodate them. Here, however, there is no joyful chatter, no squealing splashes, no giggling shivers. Even as more naked arrivals join the early bathers, there remains a purposeful silence. The newcomers join the others without greeting. Everyone seems determined only to scrub, to sponge, to sanitise their bodies. As if responding to some silent signal, all leave the water together, drying themselves with towels left at the river’s edge. Still naked, they walk quietlyinto the ruins of the old church. There, from among the paraphernalia deposited earlier, they gather up phials of ambergris oil and begin rubbing it into their bodies, chanting continuously as they do so, “Agios o Satanas. Agios o Satanas.” They dress then in robes of black, all but one who wears red, each robe bearing the sigil of Mendes on its breast—a form of pentacle inside two circleswith a goat’s head at its centre. All pull large cowls over their heads and tension fills the air as the group moves farther into the church. This is Lughnasa, the great Sabbat festival, the most sacred night of the occult calendar, more sacred even than Walpurgisnacht. On this night, the end of the thirteenth week of the summer solstice, due homage to the Great Lord Satan demands a human sacrifice. Preparations have already been made. Black candles in silver holders, some surrounded by black lampshades, have been placed on the altar, and others have been located at intervals around the ruins, forming a makeshift circle. Rocks, reeds, and grassy mounds cover the floor of the ruined church. Rubble and masonry are strewn about, but a large semi-circle of ground in front of and around the altar had been cleared earlier to make a substantial open space for the worshippers. The coven members move