McCullough is carnal sin. Confession of carnal sins

1969 In the town of Holloman, someone is kidnapping, brutally torturing and dooming beautiful young men to death. There is clearly a serial killer at work here - and Captain Delmonico is running out of time to catch him, because the criminal’s next victim may still be alive... And at the same time, Delmonico’s team has to unravel an equally mysterious case of the disappearances of young women that have been happening in the town for the past six years old.

And to top it all off, a mysterious motorcyclist appears in Holloman, who commits a whole series of bloody and, at first glance, completely unmotivated murders. Investigating three such complex cases at once is not an easy task even for Captain Delmonico and his team...

The work was published in 2013 by AST Publishing House. The book is part of the Thorn Birds series. On our website you can download the book "Carnal Sin" in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format or read online. The book's rating is 3.4 out of 5. Here, before reading, you can also turn to reviews from readers who are already familiar with the book and find out their opinion. In our partner's online store you can buy and read the book in paper version.

© Colleen McCullough 2013

© Translation. N. Kudasheva, 2015

© Russian edition AST Publishers, 2016

Dedicated to Karen Quintal.

With deep gratitude for many years of loyalty and love.

With the hope that so much more awaits ahead.

Thanks, friend.

He had no idea it was midnight. He didn't know whether the sun was shining or the stars were twinkling. In the same way, he could not calculate how long he had been here - time dragged on so indistinctly. One moment he was free and smiling happily in the midst of a world that opened its arms wide to him; and the next moment he suddenly fell into a sleep so deep that he did not remember even the smallest fragment of what he had dreamed.

When he woke up, he found himself here in another life. This large, featureless room contained a toilet with a soft seat and a plastic drinking fountain that released a thin stream when you just put your foot on a button located on the floor. So he could drink and have a neat place to relieve himself. Everything here had one color - dirty beige, not because of the dirt, but because of the poor lighting from one dim light bulb in the center of the ceiling, in a strong glass casing, braided with steel rods.

He was completely naked, although he felt neither heat nor cold. Everything was strangely soft - the floor and walls sighed and pressed gently whenever he touched them, like leather cushions on a car seat. What he initially thought were seams around the base of the walls turned out to be the exact opposite of seams—bulging ridges, as if the shock-absorbing surface of the walls had been driven into the gap along with the edges of the flooring. No matter how hard he tried to pry at the material with his fingertips, it refused to budge even a millimeter.

Soon wolf hunger became the only essence of his existence, for although he could drink to his heart's content, he did not have a crumb of food. At times, as he drifted into sleep and awoke, he would vaguely remember the taste of food and realize that he was being fed something, and it would settle in his stomach like an ember of such delicious warmth and comfort that even the most fleeting memories of it made him cry .

He vaguely remembered periods of panic shrouded in fog, when he screamed loudly and ceaselessly, hit the walls, pounded his fists on those soft, sagging surfaces, howled like an old dog, and whined, and growled, and barked, and howled. Nobody ever answered. He heard only himself. Coming to his senses after an attack of panic, exhausted, exhausted, he greedily rushed to drink and fell asleep in a dead sleep, devoid of dreams, the last thought before which was the hope of getting food.

He had nothing to do, nowhere to look - not even a mirror, nothing to pass the time! This is for him, a man who has spent so many minutes staring at his own reflection, admiring the perfection of his beauty. In those days, he only had to smile to get what he wanted. But there was no one here to smile. Just one tiny chance to smile was all he needed! A smile would get him out of here - no one ever - ever! – I couldn’t resist his smile! A smile would get him food. Food always came to him during sleep, so he should fall asleep with a smile.

He was weakening, it was like a snail dragging along - with stultifying slowness and enormous effort, with obvious difficulty supporting the house of his life. After all, if he slipped, he himself would disappear, like a drop of mucus on a white-hot stove. He didn't want to part with his beauty just yet! And with your smile!

-Why are you so cruel? – he asked and smiled. - Who you are?

This time his awakening brought changes: he was still hungry and now in pain.

No pleasant warmth, no coal smoldering in his stomach - this unknown force did not feed him! But at least the pain said that he was still alive, and it was not an excruciating pain, but rather a nagging pain - pain in the groin. He could not understand where this unknown force came from to pay attention to his groin area, from which all the hair had been removed. Otherwise, this unknown thing, as far as he knew, had never subjected him to any reproach. The current pain after waking up made him doubt this, and he felt his penis; it was there, undamaged. No, the painful sensation was behind him, in the scrotum. Something was wrong! Each testicle should have rolled freely under his fingers inside the sac, but they did not roll. His scrotum was empty. Empty!

He let out a high-pitched squeal, and a voice whose source was impossible to pinpoint was heard from every square inch of the room.

“Poor eunuch,” the voice cooed like a dove. “You behaved well, my poor eunuch.” No bleeding. They rolled out as easily as a skinny avocado pit. Chick-chick! Chick-chick! And no eggs.

He screamed loudly and continued to scream, uttering long, high-pitched howls of grief and despair, which eventually turned into inarticulate muttering, followed by silence and stupor. The pain faded away, gradually disappearing into oblivion, much easier to bear than the pain of hunger, and even hunger no longer had the same meaning as before this terrible discovery. Without his masculinity, he had nothing to smile about. Complete, tired hopelessness entered his soul and settled there forever.

Although he did not know that it was midnight, the merciless blow of the scythe of Time, pushing back Sunday, the third of August, and pushing forward Monday, the fourth of August, he suddenly realized that there would be no more food. Huddled, his arms wrapped around his knees, he sat, staring across the wide expanse of floor into a dirty beige infinity.

Behind him, from the ceiling, a chair began to descend and, silently descending, stopped so that its foot was a meter from the floor. If he had turned his head, he would have seen it and seen the man sitting in it, but he did not turn his head. All that was left of him was focused on this contemplation of infinity, although his thoughts were already far away, fading. Being an authority on this matter, his observer estimated that he had about forty days left before the last spark of life in him went out. Forty days of frenzied speeches - what material to study! There was still some semblance of a smile on the prisoner’s face...

The chair was pulled back into the ceiling, and the dying man continued to peer into infinity, trying to see his future.

“I told you, Abe, I told you!” - Delia said. “But you and Carmine behaved like typical men - you didn’t want to listen to a woman, oh, under no circumstances!”

She and Abe were sitting at a table in the Malvolio Cafe waiting for lunch, and Abe had just miscalculated: Delia's thin, see-through outfit of mustard yellow and coral pink seemed to him a testament to her pliability and an indication that today she was serenely boring. However, her reaction to his news said otherwise. Abe sighed inwardly and revised his mental diagram called "Delia Carstairs."

“Well, it took today’s news to convince me,” he said arrogantly. – Until now, the evidence has been insufficient.

“There wasn’t enough evidence, and there wasn’t enough gunpowder,” she said with disgust.

“I don’t understand why you’re gloating so loudly,” Abe grumbled.

“There goes Minnie with our omelette,” Delia said in the voice of a prim schoolteacher, “and I suggest we eat before the discussion.”

Ah, that's the thing! Delia is simply hungry! Abe humbly began to eat. The summer cook hired by the owner of the restaurant, Luigi, prepared an excellent Western omelette, and Delia had not yet had enough of them. This meant that Abe's mental schema of "Delia Carstairs" could not remain unchanged. The question was what to correct in it. This mental scheme was very complex.

Sins of the flesh

The payment for insulting chastity was undoubtedly the highest after the payment for murder, and the punishment for carnal sins fell exclusively within the competence of the Church, since it is she who requires virtue from people in this area, which is little consistent with nature and is hardly possible at all.

The most punishable of carnal sins were cases of incest, the types of which were defined in great detail. It is curious that the first case cited by Burchard does not consider kinship by blood, but kinship by marriage: we are talking about a man who sinned with his wife’s sister. Burchard clearly considers him a very big sinner: from now on he is forbidden to approach his own wife, who, “if she does not want to live in solitude,” can enter into a legal marriage “with whomever she wants.” As for him and the accomplice in his sin, they are both sentenced to celibacy and must, throughout their lives, subject themselves to mortification, the degree of which will be determined by the curate. Anyone guilty of incest with his mother or sister was also prescribed lifelong celibacy; he had to mortify his flesh until his death, but it is specifically stipulated that for the first 15 years (in the case of copulation with his sister, the period was reduced to 10 years) he must observe fasts from time to time, during one of which he was allowed to eat only bread and drink only water. “Fornication” with the father’s wife, with the brother’s wife, with the daughter-in-law also entailed a ban on marriage and some deprivations that were not described in detail, to which, however, one had to subject oneself until death. The punishment for the one who “committed fornication” with the woman whom his son later married was much less severe: 7 years of repentance “with fasting at the appointed time,” after which the sinner could marry “before God.” However, the accomplice must be separated from her husband and must undertake penance until death: here we can see some similarities with the case of a man becoming the lover of his wife's sister. A similar punishment was prescribed for those who “committed fornication” with their godfather or goddaughter: 7 years of repentance, including fasting on bread and water.

Another attack on chastity was adultery, and the most serious offense was considered to be a relationship between a married man and a married woman; it was like a double betrayal. For 15 years, the sinner had to fast twice a year and for the rest of his life was obliged to repent in one way or another. The punishment was reduced by half (and this makes logical sense) for an unmarried man who was seduced by a married woman: fasting once a year for 7 years.

A husband who threw out his wife and took another in her place had to return his first wife and fast once every year for 7 years on bread and water. For no one was allowed to drive out his wife, except in cases of “fornication,” that is, adultery. Moreover: the one who separated from his wife, who was guilty of adultery, should not have taken another wife while the first one was alive. If he and his wife, not wanting to endure such “deprivations,” wanted to refuse the divorce, after 7 years the bishop could “reconcile” them. The same thing happened in the case of a husband’s infidelity: the wife could separate from him, but should not remarry. However, as we have seen, a woman whose husband was taken away by her sister could marry another man: this was explained by the fact that her husband was doubly guilty - in addition to treason, he entered into an incestuous relationship. His sin was so great that it should have resulted in the dissolution of his marriage.

So, spouses must be faithful to each other, the marriage was dissolved only in the case of infidelity, aggravated by incest, and in cases of incest, not only blood ties were considered, but also those that arise as a result of marriage, and even purely spiritual ones, such as between godfather and godfather, godfather and goddaughter. As always happens when legislation is complex and overly detailed, active and imaginative people sought and found ways to benefit from it. For example, a certain husband, who was bored with his wife, learned that marriage with a woman whose son you are the godfather is prohibited. He arranged it so that he held his own child over the font while the priest baptized him. This simple act, more than unusual since, by definition, the father could not be a godfather, created a line of kinship that made his marriage based on incest. He hoped in this way to obtain a dissolution of the marriage and then marry again. However, Burchard did not sleep: indeed, the marriage was dissolved, and his wife, “if she does not want to be alone,” could remarry. He himself was sentenced to celibacy and had to perform an annual fast on bread and water for 7 years. He was obliged to engage in mortification for the rest of his life...

However, a man who married legally and remained faithful to his wife was not yet at peace with the Church. The most intimate joys of family life were also regulated. Burchard, unlike other authors of codes of repentance, does not list everything that is physically possible, but prohibited. And the punishments, compared to what we have seen so far, are relatively mild: for example, 5 days on bread and water for having sex with your wife “doggy style.” Burchard also adds: “or with some other woman,” which means that for the sin of “fornication” its own punishment is assigned, and the above is added to it. Three days on bread and water were assigned to a husband who approached his wife when she was “in weakness.” 40 days - if he did this in the first days after birth; during these 40 days she was forbidden to come to church. Five days - if the wife was pregnant; 10 days - if this happened after the fetus began to move; 4 days for intemperance on Sunday; 40 days for incontinence during fasting, but in this case it was possible to pay off for 20 sous. Only 5 days on bread and water were prescribed to those who were intoxicated. Similarly, a husband who did not abstain during the 20 days preceding Christmas, on all Sundays and on some other holidays, had to sit on bread and water for 20 days.

20 days on bread and water was also the price paid by an unmarried man who sinned with a free woman or his maidservant. This equality of punishment may be surprising. At the same time, an unmarried man who had no right to unite with a woman, since carnal relations were allowed only between spouses, deserves no less apology for periodic concessions to his desires than a spouse who could not wait for days not marked by abstinence. In this and other cases it is clear that Burchard correctly understands this aspect of life. For example, a married man had to fast for two days if he touched the charms of a woman, while an unmarried man had to fast for only one day.

It is not surprising, however, that Burchard, on the contrary, treats the unnatural sin of Sodom very harshly. A married man who was found guilty of it once or twice was required to repent for 10 years, with the first year spent on bread and water. Anyone for whom this became a custom was sentenced to 12 years of repentance; whoever sinned in this way with his brother - by 15 years.

One may ask why the paragraphs on sodomy describe in detail and in very realistic terms this sin, the name of which is enough to understand what we are talking about; in addition, with all the clarifications, it turns out that the punishments are applicable only to one of the partners, while the other remains in the dark about the punishment that he deserves. The same can be said about the next paragraph, the content of which is so close to the previous one that it is impossible to perceive the moral difference between them: we are talking about a person guilty of sodomy, but who limited himself to superficial contact. It must be assumed that for Burchard the difference was enormous: 40 days on bread and water is enough to atone for this sin. Mutual masturbation, described in detail, costs even less - only 20 days. Masturbation, which required 37 qualifying words to describe, entailed 10 days of repentance, unless a “drilled tree” was used instead of a hand - such a circumstance doubled the punishment. The boy who achieved complete satisfaction by embracing a woman deserved the greatest leniency: one day on bread and water was enough punishment to wash away his guilt, unless, of course, this happened in church: in this case, the punishment was tenfold.

All these concessions to sensuality were the order of the day in the era described. Apparently, less common were cases where a person satisfied passion with a mare, cow, donkey “or some other animal.” If the guilty person made up for the absence of a wife in this way, “in order to satisfy his desire,” he had to fast once every year on bread and water for 7 years and then mortify his flesh throughout his life. If he had a wife, 7 years were replaced by ten; if sin has become a habit - 15 years. If he did this as a child, the sin was forgiven after 100 days on bread and water.