The Troubler

“But he made enemies, didn’t he Rufus?”

“Well…yeah I guess so.  But look at it this way, you’d have to be crazy to take him serious.”

“Not all these groups you’re talking about are crazy.  But they are thin-skinned.  And he seems to have had great skill at getting them wound up.”  Rufus patted Duke’s head, while he crossed his front legs but didn’t respond to McAbee.  “I have a hypothesis.  One of these groups went over the edge and murdered him.  That’s my assumption.  I also feel that they probably hung around this neighborhood, watching, following, casing, the whole thing.  They probably found some kind of pattern and took advantage of it.  You know it’s not easy to do what they did to him.”

“Why do you say that?” Rufus inquired.

“His murder was purposeful, planned and very coordinated.  I also feel at least now, that it was a statement and message murder.  But, the statement was so over the top, the way he was murdered, that the intended message was lost because of it.  In other words, I have no way of understanding the message except for the obvious one.”

“You mean like don’t tread on me?”

“Yeah – but it’s the me that’s a mystery.”

“You mean because he offended some super-sensitive bastard?”

“Yeah, yeah that’s it, I think,” McAbee said.

“You know what really got to Regis?”

“No.  Tell me.”

“Anyone who thought that he had some kind of monopoly on the truth.  Anyone who would take a stand that stood against doubt.”