In the second of three crime novels,\u00a0Pattern of Wounds<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>J. Mark Bertrand\u2019s homicide detective,\u00a0Roland March, tries to capture the inner-work of his suspect. He lingers at the hideout, trying to get a feel for the thoughts behind the crimes. He looks forward to the interrogation, hoping to find out what makes him tick, but his superior officer offers another line of thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaybe you can\u2019t put a label on him. Maybe it\u2019s not enough to say he was insane or evil or a product of a bad environment. But in this case, there\u2019s one thing you do know. He\u2019s guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question March wants answered is what produces a dedicated murderer. Many stories depict the wages of hatred as murder. The loving husband, who worries over his troubled marriage, discovers his wife\u2019s infidelity and disdain for him, so in jealous rage he lashes out at her. Most people just walk out; some lose control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have heard that it was said to those of old,\u201d Jesus taught, \u201c\u2018You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.\u2019 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council\u2026\u201d (Matthew 5:21-22<\/a>). This raises the bar very high, equating hatred with murder. Despite this warning, many of us still get angry with each other. Some of us hate certain people, even if we don\u2019t actually kill them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would provoke us to murder, or are you and I immune by our natures? Bertrand gives us a few clues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the murderer is gradually revealed, we get to read some of the backstory: abusive behavior, broken home, sociopathic trends, etc. We get an explanation for what drove this one person to act, but what goes untold are the many things absent from the final portrait: healthy love, constructive discipline, selflessness, respect for family and outsiders, to list a few. All of these things work together to produce the kind of disturbed person who believes murder is a good exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is the murderer crying out for a father\u2019s love? Has he been spoiled by permissiveness, by being protected from natural consequences through family or money? Was he abused? Is he just twisted? Yes, maybe all of those things, and together they work to motivate him to choose murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when someone accuses violent video games, for example, of provoking murder, he may have a good point about desensitization and training to kill, but he takes it too far when he implies the games alone bring a player the violence. It can only be one of many factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Detective March does not have a spotless reputation. In the first book, Back on Murder,<\/em><\/a> <\/em>he works in the Houston Police\u2019s Homicide Department, but he doesn\u2019t work on regular homicide cases. He works the standard procedure cases no one else wants. He earned that position from a long line of disappointing decisions, \u201cletting things drop\u201d and \u201ccutting corners\u201d as he would say. Because of that, his old partner believes he is completely corrupt, and his superiors don\u2019t trust him to follow through with things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n March swears he has changed, and we see the contrast between who he is and who he could be in a Louisianan cop named Fontenot. Both are veteran cops. Both are zealous for justice. Both have been tempted to take matters into their own hands, and both have. But one of them has begun to hold back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n If you assume a role as agent of justice, what holds you back from bullying a suspect into the confession you want to hear, the one you already believe is true? Is it respect for your fellow man? What about respect for the victims? Shouldn\u2019t they be protected more than the suspect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s the proverbial crooked cop,\u201d March thinks of Fontenot, \u201cconvinced what he\u2019s doing amounts to greasing the wheels of justice.\u201d It\u2019s a love of power over people, which is fundamentally disrespectful. It\u2019s a lack of love for one\u2019s fellow man that gets lost in our desire to make the most of ourselves or our cause. It\u2019s the same love of power which, when combined with other things, leads to murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n March\u2019s superior doesn\u2019t have an answer for why the murderer chose to kill, but he knows the bottom line. \u201cHe\u2019s guilty. There\u2019s no doubt about that. And if you have that much, March, I\u2019m not sure any of the rest really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It matters, of course, to humanists hoping to help people before they commit a crime, but to cops perhaps it doesn\u2019t matter. They don\u2019t have to explain why a person did something, only that he did it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the rest of us, is there an answer? Is there a way to\u00a0see a murder coming, maybe\u00a0capture the suspect\u00a0before\u00a0he commits the crime? Maybe, but it isn\u2019t simple. Depravity is a complex state that touches all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds,\u201d Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn writes, \u201cand it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s where Bertrand leaves us. It isn\u2019t a matter of what makes us tick; it\u2019s whether or not we are guilty. If we return to the words of Jesus, we\u2019re all guilty, no matter what infraction we\u2019ve committed, because to break the law in one place is to be guilty of breaking all of it. The question, then, isn\u2019t whether we are guilty, but who can atone for our guilt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Evil Explored in \u2018Pattern of Wounds\u2019 In the second of three crime novels,\u00a0Pattern of Wounds,\u00a0J. Mark Bertrand\u2019s homicide detective,\u00a0Roland March, tries to capture the inner-work of his suspect. He lingers at the hideout, trying to get a feel for the thoughts behind the crimes. He looks forward to the interrogation, hoping to find out what … Continue reading What Makes a Murderer Tick?<\/span> \u201cIf Only There Were Evil People\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Line Dividing Good and Evil\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCuts Through the Heart\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n