Ravenswood V: So Pale the Moonlight

Prologue

Once upon a time, there was a witch in a mirror. His tale was one of dazzling magic as it was of missed chances. Having borne witness to a great many extraordinary things, he was well acquainted with possibilities. Having experienced pleasure and pain, love and loss, he was familiar with hope. But imprisoned now in glass, he gazed out at the wintry vastness of forever wondering if there were truly such things as happily ever afters...

1. GIVE IN TO SIN

"It was my first time..."

Detective Patrick Cavanaugh watched the man in a rumpled pinstriped suit and a dove gray tie fidget in his chair, eyes shifting restlessly about the room, then down at the hands firmly planted on his lap, and finally settling back on him.

"Uh...I mean with a guy." His voice dropped a notch as his lips quivered. "You gotta believe me detective. That's why I was at St. Louis, you see. I...I...uh, I went to the cathedral for confession..."

If Cavanaugh didn't know better he would've sworn the man was guilty. It just so happened, this was the victim - mid-30's, unmarried, financial analyst for a bank, staunch Catholic, local boy and extremely attractive.

"It's crossed my mind, sure...I mean, who hasn't...thought about that sort of thing?" Beads of sweat formed on his upper lip. A hand wiped them off. "But I don't mean...that is, I didn't go looking for it."

"All right," Cavanaugh concurred. Not an hour ago, this man was found out cold on the floor at St. Louis with his underwear and trousers in a heap around his ankles. That would’ve made for some nice crime scene photos. "Why don't you just tell me from the beginning what happened?"

"You're not gonna tell anyone, are you? My girlfriend can't find out about this. I mean, this is just between you and me, right?"

If this guy said 'I mean' one more time, Cavanaugh was gonna smack him. Instead, he said in a reassuring tone, "Sure man, just between us." And the man began to talk.

"I just got off work from United Savings at LaSalle...See, there's this guy I work with, he just started at the bank. I've been showing him the ropes. Well, we've gotten pretty tight this past couple of months. I don't mean anything special, you know...except a couple of times we went out to knock back a few brewskies at Trombone Shorty's. But lately, well, I've just been having these crazy, uh, dreams, I guess, about him...

"I know, just dreams. I know. But I just haven’t been able to get him out of my mind. That's why I went to church. I needed to confess that I've been having these, I guess you could call them, uh, erotic dreams about a guy. A guy! My mother would have a heart attack. No, no. My mother's a saint, you know. She'd love me no matter what. So there I was at church, see, it wasn't even dark yet. And on the cathedral steps, there was this guy. I already described him to that other cop who brought me in here. He was about my age. Brown hair short and neat, could've used a tan, kinda slim, not really thin you know, swimmer's built, in a black suit. He looked just like a banker. Well, no banker I know that's for sure. More like a really smoking stud of a banker...well, something like that. I should've known right there, huh? The suit looked too sharp for a priest, now that I think of it. It didn't even have that collar thing.