04 The Edge of Darkness (5 page)

NINE

MURPHY INCREASED HIS PACE as he neared the Memorial Lecture Hall. If there was one thing he hated, it was being late for anything. He didn’t like it when other people were late for meetings with him, and he was fanatical about promptness himself. He had traced this idiosyncrasy back to an experience in fifth grade. It was the day a field trip was planned to the Hershey factory. He loved chocolate and was excited about going. He had arrived at school about five minutes late, only to find out that the class had boarded the bus and left without him. It was devastating.

Murphy looked at his watch.
Three minutes
.

The lecture hall was almost full when he entered. Most of the students chatted in small groups. Some were on cell phones and a
diligent few were in their seats reviewing their notes from the previous week.

Murphy acknowledged a number of them with a nod on his way down to the front. He placed his briefcase on the desk, took out his laptop, and hooked it into the cable for the PowerPoint projector. Once the program booted up, he clicked on the morning’s lecture.

“Okay, gang. Let’s take our seats.”

He was about to begin, when Clayton Anderson entered, dropping his books loudly as he looked for a seat. Everyone turned to look and then laughed. The class clown had arrived with his usual entrance. He turned up his palms and opened his mouth in mock shock.
What’s the problem?
he mouthed as he looked back at them, eliciting another appreciative laugh from his fellow students.

“I’m glad that Mr. Anderson has graced us with his presence … we can now begin. Today we will be examining the subject of pagan gods. As you will recall from previous lectures, the worship of various gods was central in ancient cultures. This was an attempt to explain and deal with the forces of nature that everyone experienced. In Babylon, Enlil was the god of the weather and storms. Ea was the god of wisdom. Shamash was the god of the sun and justice. Gaia represented Mother Earth and Kishar was the Father of Earth. Presiding over all of them was Marduk, the national god of the Babylonians.”

Murphy clicked on the PowerPoint projector.

“Today we will look at a few more of the pagan gods.”

Nebo	The god of education, literature, writing, and arts
Baal	The god of the productive forces of nature
Asherah	The favorite goddess of women
Ra	The sun god
Bes	The grotesque god who watched over childbirth

“Each god had a number of priests or priestesses who would direct their followers in worship, and dedicated temples where the people would offer sacrifices. Some of the sacrifices would be in the form of grains and fruits. Others would be animals, like cows, sheep, and turtledoves.” He paused dramatically. “Occasionally the sacrifices would be human. The god of the Moabites was named Chemosh, and parents would offer their children on the altar to him. The same thing would be done for the Canaanite god Molech. In his temple, they would burn the children as a sacrifice.”

Murphy heard groans from the students and many of the women were making faces. A chorus of such comments as “Gross!” and “Sick!” swept through the lecture hall.

Murphy smiled. “If your parents had believed in these gods, maybe some of you wouldn’t be here today enjoying my lecture.”

That got a good laugh from some of them. Murphy was about to click on the next slide when the door to the lecture hall opened again. As he looked up, the words stuck in his throat.

She was tall, shapely, tan, and athletic-looking. She was wearing a baseball cap and her long blond hair flowed out the back of the hat in a loose ponytail.

All the students turned to see who had entered the room. Murphy noticed them whispering to one another. Whoever the blonde was, she was the type of woman that both men and women noticed.

She seemed older than the college students in the class. Whoever she was, she certainly looked like a professional model.

Murphy forced his thoughts back to his lecture.

“This next slide will indicate how the various gods were pictured to the people.”

Nisrosh	Assyrian god with human body and eagle’s head
Horus	Human figure with a falcon’s head
Hathor	Goddess with cow’s body and a woman’s head
Set	Man’s body with animal head
Amon Ra	Supreme deity of the Egyptians, man’s body and head of a hawk
Dagon	The Philistine god with the head and hands of a man and the body of a fish

“Many of the gods on this slide have been pictured on ancient artifacts, like jars and plates. Some were imprinted on coins. Others can be seen in paintings or reliefs on the walls of buildings. And yes, this will be on the test.”

Murphy saw a hand go up.

“Dr. Murphy? Is that Dagon god sort of like a male type of mermaid?”

“I guess you could say that, Clayton. The likenesses that have been found show him as a fish from the waist down. The upper body is like a man. He is depicted with a beard and wearing a tall and rounded hat, or crown, of some kind.”

“What kind of bait would you use to catch him?”

Murphy smiled.

“Well, personally, Clayton, I’d use wisecracking Preston University students.”

Everyone laughed and went “Oooooh.”

“He got you, dude!” said one of the students. Murphy gestured for quiet.

“Some of you may recall the story of Samson from the Bible. He gave the Philistines a lot of trouble and they plotted to capture him. His girlfriend Delilah betrayed him and his captors blinded him. Later they took him to the temple area where the priests were offering sacrifices to Dagon. They were celebrating the fact that he had been caught.”

Many who knew the story nodded their heads.

“The Philistines then brought forth Samson to make sport of him. While Samson was waiting to go before the people, he asked one of his guards where he was. He was told that he was in the temple area, standing between two pillars. Samson then pushed with his mighty strength against the two pillars, literally bringing the house down. The building collapsed, killing at least three thousand people, including Samson himself, and destroying the house of Dagon.”

Murphy continued with the lecture until the bell rang. Immediately the students jumped up and began to leave. As Murphy began to gather his things, he scanned the lecture hall.

The striking blonde had left.

Murphy was still thinking about the blonde when he entered his office. His attention was diverted when Shari spoke up.

“Guess who called while you were in class?”

“It must have been the president of the United States. I told him that I would be in class at that time. He must have forgotten.”

“You’re quite the comedian today … but don’t quit your day job. It was Levi Abrams. He said that he’s back in Raleigh and would like
to get together with you. I told him that I would call him back with a time you both could meet.”

“Levi! That’s great! After he was shot, I got him to the hospital and then he just disappeared. That was months ago. Did he say anything else?”

“No. He sounded like he was calling from a pay phone. There was lots of noise in the background. He gave me a number to call. He said it was an answering machine and he would pick up the message later.”

Murphy consulted his calendar for a good time to meet with Levi.

“By the way, Professor, I also received a call back from your friend at the FBI. He said that they could find no match for the fingerprint you got from the Reed Gold Mine. Methuselah remains a mystery. When you meet with Mr. Abrams, why don’t you ask him to see if he can help with the fingerprint? He may have some international contacts unavailable to the FBI.”

“Good thinking, Shari. It’s worth a try.”

TEN

MURPHY PARKED his old, beat-up Dodge in a spot outside the diner. As he approached the door, he smiled to himself.
I’ll bet they haven’t spent a cent on improvements since they opened thirty-some-odd years ago
.

It was moderately crowded. The décor left much to be desired, but the food was great. He paused for a moment and looked around. Rosanne, the gray-haired waitress, was moving as fast as her heavyset body could. She was in the process of clearing a table when she looked up and saw him standing there.

“Good afternoon, Professor. There’s an empty booth in the back. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“Thank you, Rosanne.”

Murphy made his way to the back, slid across the green vinyl bench, and sat down. There was no need to look at the menu. He was going to order his old standby, a chicken sandwich and a cup of coffee.

After a few minutes, Bob Wagoner entered, wearing tan slacks and a polo shirt that mostly concealed his slight paunch. His white hair was thinning but his face was tanned. He looked more like a golf pro than the pastor of the Preston Community Church.

Murphy waved and Bob nodded as he walked toward the booth. He did not appear to be his usual jovial self. They shook hands and he sat down.

“Sorry I’m late, Michael. I got a phone call just as I was about to leave the church.”

“No problem. I haven’t been waiting long.” Pet peeve or no, Murphy was too concerned to hassle him about his tardiness.

“Good. I …” He trailed off as Roseanne waddled up to the table.

“Good afternoon, Reverend. Do you and the professor want your usual?”

Both of the men nodded their heads.

“You got it,” said Roseanne as she turned and yelled to the kitchen,

“Cheeseburger and chili fries and a chicken sandwich!”

Murphy chuckled. There was no one quite like Rosanne.

But Bob was in no mood to laugh. He got right to the point.

“Michael, I’m glad you could meet with me. I need your advice on something.”

“I’m glad to help if I can.”

“During the past few weeks I’ve had a growing concern about some of the people in the congregation. I think someone could be leading them astray.”

Murphy’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Well, have you heard about the tent evangelist that has come to town? His name is Reverend J. B. Sonstad.”

“I read something about it in the paper.”

“Some of the people from the church have gone to his meetings.

When I’ve discussed it with them, they’ve told me disturbing things about what goes on there.”

“Disturbing things … like what?”

“I was told that he walks around the audience and then all of a sudden stops. Then he’ll say, ‘What, Lord? Yes, I hear you. You say that someone named George has a kidney problem that needs to be healed.’ Then he’ll look around the audience and say, ‘Is there someone named George that has a kidney problem?’ Then George will stand up and go forward to be healed. The whole thing bothers me. I don’t think that is how God works. Do you have any thoughts?”

Murphy sat there for a moment before he responded.

“You know, Bob, the Lord works in mysterious ways.”

“So you believe in all of this?”

“Not for a minute. It sounds to me like some kind of put-up job. You know the Bible says that in the last days there would be many false prophets. He sounds like he might be one of them.”

“Exactly my thoughts, Michael. Which leads me to the next question. Would you go with me to one of his meetings? I’d like to find out firsthand what’s going on.”

“Sure, Bob. Let’s get it straight from the horse’s mouth. Besides, I’ve always been curious about these so-called faith healers anyway.”

“The other thing is, I’ve heard that some of the young people might be experimenting with the occult. You know, things like using a Ouija board and table tipping.”

“That’s a starting point, Bob. I’ve seen it before.” Murphy had witnessed table tipping when he was in college. Several of the students had gathered around three sides of a small square table. At one end of the table they placed a chair, ostensibly for the spirit who would answer their questions. Then they lightly placed their hands on the table and looked toward the empty chair. They would ask yes-or-no questions. The table would lift off the ground and then come down with a slight noise. One knock on the floor for yes and two knocks for no.

“What happened?” Bob interrupted his recollection.

“It was eerie. All of the answers were correct. I remember that when a new person came into the room they did something different. They asked the new person to pull out his wallet and his Social Security card. They then asked the spirit to tap out the third number on the Social Security card. None of the students around the table knew what the number was. The table lifted off the ground and came down three times. It was the correct number.”

“What did you do?”

“I just watched and thought they were all crazy. I thought it was some type of trick. Now that I’m older and have a lot more experience with ancient gods and pagan worship, I think that some of the things are fake and some of them may be real.”

“Well, I can’t ignore it, Michael. My people are beginning to ask questions and more and more of them are starting to go to the meetings. I would like to nip this in the bud if possible. Faith healing, table tipping … it’s all very disturbing.”

Roseanne came by with coffee and overheard. “Did you say table tipping? At this table, you should tip twenty percent. At least.”

Even Bob had to smile a little. Nope, there was nobody quite like Roseanne.