PERVERSE - Apply Fic

04

Once the priest is awake, they set up in the church's basement. The area is both where the Sunday school and homeless shelter run. The pastor tells Ambrose it is September, and those without housing do not usually seek cots to sleep on until snow. Then again, they've had snow as early as the first weeks of October.

The walls are painted a cream colour that peels, revealing a slightly darker shade of off-white below. The walls have posters, none of them new since Ambrose was last here, not even including the years he's been dead. The chairs down here are small and placed in a circle. Ambrose begins to stack them, putting them off in a corner.

"How many... you said twelve cots?" the pastor asks.

Ambrose nods. He goes into the next room and helps bring in some of the cots. They are light, made to be transported easily. His shoulders and legs ache from the walk. He is not tired, but he knows sleep is something that he ought to do. The pastor moves to help him, and after minutes of dragging metal across the ground, the cots are set up, with mattresses and blankets on top of them.

"Who else is coming?" the pastor asks. He lifts his sleeve to check his watch. "Do you know their names?"

Ambrose says nothing, making his way back up the stairs. He sits down in the main room and waits.

With the three of them piled into a cop car, Clare, Leo and Ajay are the first to arrive at the church. At the time, it had seemed best to touch base with the others. Whatever they may be. Clare opens the church doors and spots Ambrose in a pew.

The three of them, having the training that they do, scan the room for others. There is one other man, sitting on the steps leading up to the pulpit. They can see his black robes from here. He looks up at them, though he does not approach them at first.

Leo is the first to speak to Ambrose, "did none of the others come by yet?"

"No," Ambrose says. He continues to sit in the pew but points to a door nearby. "Cots are downstairs."

"I think we've been sleeping long enough," Ajay smiles, and if Ambrose were better at reading people, he would be able to tell that the smile is not genuine.

Clare walks towards the front of the room, approaching the pastor. Leo is tempted to follow; he doesn't like the idea of not being the centre of the investigation. He rubs his chin, feeling the same toughness on his face.

"Where is the bathroom?" Leo asks Ambrose.

Ambrose gestures to the door again.

Leo heads down the stairs.

Once Clare reaches the pulpit, she looks at the pastor, who turns his head to see her.

"Officer Canosa," he says.

Clare did not know the man prior to their death. He seems to recognize them, however. Clare's parents were very relaxed Catholics. This Church is the Anglican Church. There is a Catholic Church just outside of the other end of town, but as far as Clare understands, they would not have extra cots for her and her associates to sleep in.

"I don't believe we've met," Clare tells him.

He exhales, "forgive me. You are quite the martyr around town."

Clare blinks, and in that blink, she swears she hears a gunshot. Her head pivots, but none of the others seem startled.

"I wish I could remember," they tell him.