Image of God:
“…if the number of past events were infinite, that would lead to infinites of different sizes. For suppose Jupiter completes an orbit once every twelve years and Saturn once every thirty years and the sphere of the stars once every thirty-six thousand years…one will have completed twice as many or thousands of times as many orbits as another, which is absurd.”i
William Lane Craig (Reasonable Faith)
Detective Casey and his partner exited the courthouse and were hurried to a squad car where they would answer a few questions. Melissa did not know whether to speak up about her partner’s collaboration with the men inside or whether she should keep quiet in order to catch a true murderer. She also wanted to keep herself from being incriminated in any way. One thing was for sure: she would not mourn Zack’s death at the end of this. After all, she saw him pull the trigger in the courtroom.
An officer met them at the car and asked them some questions about the situation in the courtroom. Casey informed them as to how many hostages he thought there were and how many had been killed so far. When the officer turned to take Melissa’s statement, she corroborated everything her partner had told them.
“What bill?” Zack’s animosity grew, “The very bill that Senator Hardin was going to oppose. The one I know he was killed to defend.”
Senator Elliot calmly looked at him, “There’s no doubt you see me as a bad guy. Yet, you are the one with the hostages and the guns…”
Zack referred back to his folder, the one provided by his detective friend. He pulled out a slip of paper and held it up so the Senator could see. “This is an investigative report signed by a Detective Frank Casey detailing a conversation he had with you when he visited Hardin’s office in Washington as he investigated your colleague’s murder. Here he references an education bill, one that you claimed Hardin opposed. Why would you deny that here?”
Senator Elliot, still calm, replied, “One thing I did not do was deny anything, simply asked what bill. There is record of that because you brought in a news network.”
“Then tell us about that bill!”
“Casey! With me!” a man in a suit commanded from the other side of the police line.
The detective immediately got up and went to him. He handed Casey a slip of paper and described what the world had just seen on national television, “We got a warrant, take Daniels and go check out Senator Elliot’s home and office.
We are now assisting the FBI and Homeland.”
The two arrived in Washington and entered Elliot’s office. There they found a copy of the education bill and a personal planner. Mellissa flipped through the bill that had not yet been introduced on the Senate floor.
“Wow!” she exclaimed as she looked through it, “This is 134 pages long!” She continued to look through it as her partner made his way across the office to look along, “More money to the public school system, tax benefits for parents who have their children in a public school, and stricter teaching requirements for the public schools.”
Casey shook his head, “Well, if the government is going to control education, this is the way to do it. People don’t usually say no to tax breaks and more money spent on education even if it does cost them a little bit of freedom. I think we’ve found all we are going to here. Let’s head to Elliot’s home in Virginia.”
On the way, Melissa looked through the personal planner, “Nothing out of the ordinary in here. What do you think we’ll find at his house?”
“I’m not sure,” admitted Casey.
Casey’s phone, which was still on one of the tables in the courtroom, vibrated and Zack answered, “Hello Jim.”
“Mr. Bellicosus, I wanted to inform you that the FBI will be here shortly and that you have forced them to reopen the investigation into Hardin’s death and that I will no longer be communicating with you.”
“That’s sentimental. Why did you really call?” Zack inquired.
The negotiator laughed, “Well, I need you to do me a favor.”
“I didn’t expect that,” Zack admitted, “Why would I do anything for you?”
“Because, after a call I just received from our investigators, I believe that you did not murder Hardin,” Jim replied.
“What exactly do you need?”
“I need you to ask Senator Elliot a question for our investigation team…” Jim started.
The detectives arrived at Elliot’s home, where the local police had already been dispatched. Elliot’s wife and daughter were already in the front yard and the house was already being searched. The detectives asked local police to vacate the house and asked Elliot’s family to come in and sit with them.
“Why is my husband being held at gunpoint?” asked Mrs. Elliot.
Melissa placed her hand on Mrs. Elliot’s knee, “Right now all we know is that the man who took hostages in that courtroom thinks that your husband is responsible for the murder of another Senator, and we were hoping that you could help us.”
“I’m not sure I can,” Mrs. Elliot confessed, “He never talks with us about work. Everything is so sensitive in Washington and I don’t think he wants to burden us.”
Casey took out the bill and set it in front of them, “Does this look familiar?”
“Tim’s paperwork all looks the same to me. He does have a home office, if you’d like to take a look and see if anything in there will help him.”
“That would be great,” Melissa answered as they followed Elliot’s wife.
They walked in and immediately noticed another personal planner. Casey picked it up and began comparing it to the other while Melissa continued to look around. The events in both planners were all the same; all except for one dinner Senator Elliot had planned with “the pres. And b.o.e. exec.” Casey wondered why this dinner was absent from the man’s office planner when everything else was the same. He immediately called his supervisor.
Zack looked at the Senator as he talked with Jim, “What question do you need to ask him?”
“Ask him why he had dinner with the President and the Executive of the National Board of Education two days before the summit.”
Zack repeated the question. “We were talking about education reform. We want to make this country better and education should not be taken lightly, so we met to talk more about it. We want to do the right thing.” Elliot answered carefully.
Zack continued to hold the phone to his ear, “And did you talk at all about your bill?”
“Of course…”
“And Hardin? Did you talk about Hardin at all?” Zack pushed.
“Yes,” Senator Elliot admitted, “He was the bill’s single greatest obstacle, but even we could not have guessed that he would be murdered.”
Zack stepped closer to the stand, “If that is all, why the secrecy?”
“Secrecy?”
“Yes. Why was the meeting not written in your calendar at your office in D.C? Other than this dinner, your calendars were virtually identical. Why not this?”
Elliot answered immediately, “It was last minute… Well, as last minute as I get. I hadn’t had a chance to copy it over.”
The line of questioning seemed infinite, like the incessant child who continues to ask why. Zack wasn’t sure that he wanted to chase the rabbit down the hole any longer. His current experience was dizzying. There had to be one single cause that began this entire chain of events. He needed to find that cause. Senator Hardin needed justice, but the rabbit trail ran deeper than just his murder. That was one effect. It was all connected somehow to the Senator’s bill, but Zack now questioned Senator Elliot’s guilt. If he didn’t pull the trigger, who did? Was the rabbit trail endless? Could it be, or was there a singularity: a single puppeteer moving the puppet strings? Cause and effect.
Zack put the phone down and looked into the camera, “I only speak with Jim.”
“Today I sold my soul to the devil himself. I am a slave of the system. At first, all I wanted was to make a difference. To make my country a better place for my daughter to live, but there was only one way I could accomplish that. I sold out to the majority party. If I say anything now, it is not only my power that is at stake, but the lives of my family members. I am more convinced now than ever that this government is corrupt and that it only desires to control its citizens under the guise of offering better education and tighter security.
I am writing this letter to the public. Today I met…”
“Did you find anything?” asked Casey after he got off the phone.
Melissa quickly re-crumpled the note she had found in the office trashcan and put it in her pocket, “No. We should let the LEO’s take it from here.”
They walked to the car and made their way back to Glenn Bluff.
Casey, discouraged at their apparent lack of progress, spoke as he drove, “I feel like we’re just going around in circles with this. There is something here I know. I just wish we could see it.”
Melissa placed her hand on his leg, “All this had to start somewhere. We will get to the bottom of it.”
“How do you know?”
Casey should have known that she would refer to something scientific. She always did, “I know because there is always a beginning. There has to be. This universe began to exist at some point. If the universe began and we can trace events back to that beginning, then you and I can surely trace events back to where this case started.”
“How in the world can you possibly know that the universe had a beginning?”
“It’s simple,” Melissa laughed, “I look at it two ways.
If time were circular, thus presenting an infinite regress of events, then future events would be needed to support past and present events. The system implodes because there is at least one event that hasn’t happened yet. If events simply go back infinitely, the universe produces paradoxical information and itself becomes nonsensical.”
Casey laughed, “Okay, then. What caused the universe?”
Melissa admitted that science could not answer the question. All it could say was that the universe did have a cause, and by her own argument that cause must itself be uncaused and must transcend time and space in order to avoid the paradox of infinite regression.
“Thank you,” Casey said as they pulled onto the highway.
“What for?” “Just, thank you.”
Elliot walked into the diner in the small, remote town. He walked passed the men wearing suits and earpieces and sat at a table with two others.
“Thank you for joining us, Senator. How’s the bill coming?” the more distinguished man asked.
Elliot reached into his bag and set a fairly heavy document in front of him, “It’s ready for your review, Mr. President.”
“It includes everything that we discussed?” asked the other man, “We can’t lose sight of the goal here.”
“It has everything,” answered the senator, “but do you really think this is best for our children?”
The president flipped through the bill, “It is necessary.
Over the last fifty years we’ve seen this movement of free thinkers tear down the nation. We want our citizens to be of same mind so that they can be on the same side. We lose so much when all we do is argue with one another and judge one another for thinking differently. This is something we have to start at a young age. It is our nation’s only hope.”
“We are receiving some serious opposition from the conservative parties,” Elliot stated, “One in particular is appealing more and more to the public. He may be the end of this agenda.”
The other man sitting at the table responded, “Ahh, yes. Gary Hardin. It seems that he and his supporters think that people are better off forming their own opinions, and mostly unintelligent opinions at that.”
“Yes, well,” the president added, “if the bill fails, I will push it back through again. This is a fight we will win. It’s a fight we have to win.
They ate and left. The president walked out to the car that was waiting for him, along with his servicemen. Someone opened the door for him and he sat down. “Hello, Melissa,” he said to a woman who waited in the seat next to him, “it’s nice to finally meet you.”
Behind it all there was one man pulling the strings. One man who started this chain of events. One man who seemed free when all else were subject. If there was no infinite regression, then all things truly did have a beginning. If this were true, though, then even the highest human authority was subject to some law. If this were true, then God was the only absolutely free agent and justice, justice could be found no matter who was pulling the strings. Why did Melissa meet with the president? Who murdered Hardin? Was there liberty and justice for anyone?