Another late post…but unanticipated events happen that ‘distract’ or take precedence over completing a fiction novel, such as dealing with crazy weather—while much of the western US is drying out during growing season, far west Texas, desert country, is in one heckuva ‘monsoon’ season. Plus, phone outages, internet outages, and more.
Likely, Part Three of The Murder Rule will be the final part of this novel. Another decision I had to make with Part Three was this—who would become the narrator? Fictional pop-culture pundit Lloyd Denholm narrated Part One and fictional prodigal band roadie Bobby Jones narrated Part Two, so would another character narrate Part Three? In Part Three, a major support character of The Prodigal Band Trilogy, prodigal band Sound Unltd manager Joe Phillips—the son of the evil Baron Torquay-Lambourgeau—becomes the main character. For he knows first-hand the evil that inhabits this world and that must be defeated; in Chapter Twelve of The Prodigal Band, Phillips accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and later, his evil father repents of his many evil deeds and the baron, too, accepts Christ. But having to choose between Phillips and pundit Lloyd Denholm, I chose Denholm to be the narrator…for Denholm is tasked by his employer, the alternative pop-culture magazine, X-Zine, to investigate a series of events that Phillips plays roles in as he exposes the evil in this world—a world that could be on the cusp of what many preachers consider the Biblical ‘end times.’
And what with so many preachers and folks in various religions claiming this world truly is on that cusp, Part Three is being set in the time frame of the present day. I just haven’t chosen a particular year yet. But 2023 or 2024 would seem like a place to start (and, at the final edit of the novel, I could change the date if you know what I mean!).
The snippet below, a long one with a few short parts taken out, was originally part of The Prodigal Band in its © 2018 Original Extended version but was removed in the final cut due to publishing page limitations among other reasons. In this snippet which takes place in 1990 during Sound Unltd’s first headlining American tour, in New York City, Denholm meets band manager Joe Phillips for an interview of sorts, first in Central Park and then later in a restaurant where they both have lunch. In this ‘interview,’ Phillips reveals facts about his life and his management of the band that he would not normally reveal, giving Denholm a clue as to the evil Phillips has witnessed first-hand. Likely, this snippet (in its entirety) will be located at or near the beginning of Part Three of The Murder Rule, the snippet © Deborah Lagarde.
While interviewing Joe Phillips in Central Park, New York City, on band’s tour in 1990
One thing about managers of big-name recording acts–unlike their charges, they will do whatever they have to do to stay out of the limelight. Phillips wanted to do this interview in a venue no one would suspect, and thus go unnoticed by passers-by on a bike path in the midst of the park in June, 1990; Sound Unltd was playing that night at a local arena. The interview officially concerned reports that their supposedly lewd behavior the previous year at the Royal Music Hall in London would possibly lead to banning them in the United Kingdom for good, but the fact was that I really couldn’t care less–and I told Phillips this–if they were banned or not in the UK.
“I mean,” I said arms flailed out in front of Phillips as we sat on a park bench, “as long as they’re not banned in the US, I just don’t care, but it might be bloody good for them.”
“Really?” Joe was shocked. “I thought you gave a shit about my boys!”
His cuss word made me cringe. I mean, do aristocrats really cuss? “Uh, Joe–it’s not that I don’t give a ‘shit’ as you say. I meant that when a group or act is banned it often leads to them becoming even more popular. You know, rebels. For instance–“
”I know, I know,” he reneged. “Those punk bands, right? That ban on one of them did make them more popular.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “I can see it all now: their next album gets banned, and folks in Walltown, in that gang they used to be in, set up a smuggling operation that the local authorities totally ignore because, well, after all, what local authority in Walltown will put someone in jail for supporting a band that basically supports Walltown’s economy? Doesn’t Keith have some kind of foundation that helps former gang members and unemployed ship yard workers and other supports for those in need, and isn’t he related to about half the city anyway?”
Joe, in thought, then made this claim. “True, and Keith once told me that if one of his cousins–he’s only got about a thousand of them you know!–married someone’s son or daughter, I forget which, on the City Council, then everyone in Walltown would be related to everyone else!” Then he turned to me. “Bloody hell everyone in Tyneside would get involved, and that means some shipping outfit–Warwicke’s maybe?–would get involved in the smuggling effort!”
“But if the ‘suits’ as they call them really want to punish Sound Unltd, I could think of better ways to do that than to make them even more popular.”
Joe then went into thought mode, staring into open space. “That’s the weird thing about those ‘suits.’ Any so-called punishment would be vendetta for some personal offense or something.” He took out a cigarette and lit it. “While ‘suits’ might be offended, I guarantee it those who run the ‘suits’ couldn’t care less. They know that a ban would have the opposite effect–which is why they’d do this thing. Part of the Plan, my father said.”
Then before I could muster a ‘what plan’ scenario, Phillips looked at me hard, puffed the cigarette, then said, “What I am about to tell you is NOT to be repeated, reported, or spoken of to anyone, including my six and anyone associated with them! Understand?” Two eyes bored into my soul.
“If you are revealing your father’s plan or whoever’s plan, then I agree. In one ear, out the other.” Meaning, of course, it’ll stick into my mind before it goes out the other. I had heard conspiracy theories before about some nebulous ‘new world order’ plot to enslave mankind by ‘the Novordo Club.’ What Joe went on to tell me just blew my socks off. Only an insider that was really an outsider could reveal such stuff, because he was as opposed to this plan as one could be, and he literally hated his father, who to him was the epitome of evil.
“But before I say anything, Lloyd, let me say that I haven’t even told my boys about it. I will reveal information to them when necessary, but because I know them like I do, any revelation to them would probably make them just want to get out of the business, it is that evil! I would never do that to them. Why? Because dammit, these boys need the money! Tom has either repaid the Hovels debt of his indentured folks and the rest, or is going to. This debt is millions of pounds over an 800-year-period. Someone has to repay it and it might as well be Tom. Then you have Tom’s Hovels Foundation literally paying off millions in indentured servant debts worldwide, as well as some of that going to buying slaves and then freeing them–”
Shocked.
(Then more about the band members giving to charities, helping family, etc.)
The wooden bench being hard as it was, Phillips shifted to his other hip and I sat on his other side. He continued. “So that is why I will be telling them things as they start to realize what’s going on, or, say, if they ask me directly. Now a few months ago Mick asked me if my father was a Satanist, and what I told him was, ‘Maybe, but he says he’s not into any religion.’ And honestly, I have never seen or heard my father worshiping Satan–but the thing is, I am sure he does. Like I said, the man is evil.”
I looked hard at him. “Has he ever done evil to you?”
“No. He’s not allowed to. Hellyons–”
“You mean the Hellyon Club?”
“Yes. Founded by–”
“A Satanist?”
“Someone like that, yes.” Should I tell him it was founded by my grandfather?
Joe continued. “But anyway, he’s head of the Hellyons, and I daresay just about any other occultic or Satanic group one can think of. And the reason he cannot hurt me is because I am his son. Hellyons are not allowed to do harm to their children as long as they are indeed their children by a true wife, not some sex slave or concubine or adopted–”
“Sex slave?” Evil indeed!
“Oh yes, my father has probably hundreds of children through bought-and-paid-for women–unless they’ve been sacrificed of course.”
My eyes popped out and I screamed, “What?!?”
Joe just nodded his head, up and down.
“Then I guess you have no idea about the rituals of Walpurgis Night, Beltane–”
“Yeah, I’ve heard something about ‘em, but what you’re saying is your father as head of the Hellyons sacrifices babies or children as if he’s cooking on a grill or something! And I suppose he also drinks their blood as well?”
“That’s the idea, Lloyd. That’s the idea. It’s a sacrifice to Satan, and in return my father just about runs this planet Earth. Him and about a hundred others, including the man that indentured Tom’s family and the rest of the Hovels folks, the fifteenth Duke of Effingchester, called Marty. His ancestor, the fourth Duke, is the man who invoked the Demons to burn Walltown to the ground in the year 1136. There’s a statue–”
“The Tooters, right?”
“Yes, the people there, believe it or not, actually pray to the Tooters for protection against the return of these Demons.” Smirk. “That’s like Catholics praying to Mary the mother of Christ or something. But Walltown has not had a major fire since.”
And here’s the not-so-funny thing: Joe never did tell Tom that this Marty Effingchester is the one who indentured his family.
“The fact is, Lloyd, that Tom needs to find out on his own who did it. And he’s going to find out, because of the sons and daughters of the elites that he hangs out with. Jet setters, Lloyd.”
Then Joe looked at me hard, boring into my mind. “My father has a Plan for them. But here is my plan for them–let them mingle with the evil, ‘dance with Satan,’ so to speak–so that they know for themselves what they are up against, and then make their own decisions. I refuse to make their decisions for them! They must make their decisions themselves, and, since I believe they are good boys at heart, I believe they will decide for good.”
“Yeah, but I went to that party at Jack’s last New Year’s Eve, and if they weren’t high on smack or skuz, they were flat out drunk. And womanizing as well.”
But Joe cut me off, as I expected from a father-figure. “Gee, who would have thought that would happen on New Years Eve!” Cocked his head and smirked wise-guy style. “And being rock stars, no less!”
When I asked him why his father, Baron Torquay-Lamborgeau, was a leader of all these occult-Satanic groups, he said that since his father was one of the rulers of the world, it was expected he would be.
“With all the evil in the world, it needs an evil and very wealthy and powerful person to be one of its rulers. While there is some good in the world as well as good people, the world is overwhelmingly evil. Not one government is a force for good and nearly all government leaders, even local ones, commune with evil. Since the 1970s in Britain, many Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament and even Royal Family members have engaged in pedophilia, child sex. Naturally entertainers are also involved– and for one thing, I have told the boys that if any of them engage in child sex, I am done with them. But that does not include groupies who are sixteen or seventeen that fully agree to sex. I mean mainly young children.”
“But you said that he told you he does not believe in Satan.”
“No,” Joe smirked, “I said he doesn’t believe in religion. Satanism is not a religion, but a cult–”
“But isn’t there a Temple of Satan led by–”
“Yeah. But I said it was a cult because religions have doctrines that the members of the religion follow based on various books such as the Bible or the Koran. There is no book Satanists follow, or doctrine, except for phony screeds like the so-called Satanic Bible which I think that Temple leader wrote, which was given to him by some demonic spirit. Satanists mainly do rituals that stem from the many pagan cults that have been passed down since the time before Noah’s Flood. The Bible mentions a ‘mighty man’ called Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel. Nimrod was able to get that going because of arcane knowledge that somehow made it through the Flood–maybe his grandfather Ham brought it with him. Who knows?”
That a man whose father was a Satanist knew about someone mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis impressed me.
“So that, when my father says he doesn’t do religion, he’s telling the truth. And while I have never seen him sacrifice anyone, I have sources, you know, that claim he has. Do not ask me who these sources are, okay? I won’t risk their lives if the word got out.”
“No problem.”
A short time later in a nearby eatery
After a while we both got hungry, so we stepped into a small local sandwich shop and sat at a small table away from the food counter. I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of what he had to tell me, which was “the Plan” for the band.
But first, he told me that his father, as head of a secret society of the world’s elites known as the Novordo Club–Novordo means ‘new order’ and is closely allied with other ‘new world order’ secret organizations–created plans to set up a so-called ‘one world government’ through the United Nations and other NGOs and international groupings, with a single currency, legislature, economic union, and religion based on New Age spiritualism which at this time was led, among others, by Swami Rashnish Negran and his Church of the Circle of Unity.
“Now I found out about all this one day when I was sneaking into my house through underground tunnels. That way, no servant or anyone would see or hear me sneaking in. I did not want my father to know I was in the house. I was about twenty-five or so and this happened in 1987. I rarely even stayed at the house anymore. I had a flat in Chelsea, a small flat, three rooms–hell I don’t need a huge estate, eh?–that I mainly stayed in. But on this day, I just had a feeling I had to go back to the house. Glad I did.”
The food was then served–sandwiches and fries.
“Anyway, when I got there, I heard voices in my father’s library–I was behind the bookcase. My father mentioned Corion and ‘our Lord Lucifer’. Now that should tell you my father indeed worships Satan. Corion, according to Roman scholars, is a Romano-Celtic name for Satan, and was worshiped by a Celtic sect in the days of the Roman Empire. I’m not going to go into all those details–ask Mick about those people, called Crag-Dwellers, and their Druid enemies. He’s into studying these folks anyway. But I will say this. Negran supposedly has a red crystal that sometimes glows and supposedly he uses it to channel Corion. The man is just flat out dangerous, and I hope my six never have anything to do with him. But I guarantee they likely will. You see, Negran and his crystal are part of the Plan.”
“How?”
“I will tell you how, but first I have to tell you why–and I do not have all the details and some of this is speculation based on what I heard behind that bookcase. The Novordo Club was looking for, number one, a band of ill-repute, one that can be assumed to be rebellious, which attracts a lot of attention and thus garners fans. You know how teenagers and youth in general like rockers who stir the pot, so to speak.”
I nodded. Basically, I just let him do the talking.
(A bit later)
“I heard Effingchester say the band–and he clearly said a band was needed because it defined rock culture as well as the need for a megastar ‘band-of-the-nineties’–must cause what he called ‘soul destruction’ of the young. That’s because they think the anti-Christ is coming.”
I stopped eating, stunned. “They actually mentioned the anti-Christ?”
“Well, okay, they said ‘Our Lord Lucifer’, not ‘anti-Christ,’ but that is who they meant, I think. My father said ‘Lucifer’ is coming and they needed ‘the next super-band’ which they would completely control. And if this band wouldn’t be controlled, they’d be ‘broken’ so to speak. Their words were ‘we will make them, and if they forget who controls them, we will break them’.”
After finishing the sandwich, I replied in a mused fashion. “So, what you are saying the plan is, is to make a very talented and very controversial and charismatic band into rock gods, so to speak, to debauch the young, who would then accept the anti-Christ.”
Phillips beamed. “Now that’s as good a summary as I have ever heard! Bravo!”
“Summaries are part of my job, I guess.” Laugh.
“But that’s not the best part, Lloyd. After I left from behind the bookcase I went to Dog’s Wolf Den, which is in south London and was a place I went to almost every week. Only top bands played there, and they usually had recording contracts. And Sound Unltd was there… And some punky looking guy came up to me and announced to me that Sound Untld was the ‘band of the nineties.”
“Really? How’d he know?”
Laugh. “It turned out he was a roadie and knew the road crew which, as now, was made up of a biker gang led by Chet Lesley. I asked the roadie guy if they were local or on tour and he said they were from Tyneside, and right then and there Erik started on the song ‘Slums of Tyneside.’ Then a short time later, knowing that for sure this band would make it big what with all that talent, I went up to the crew and the guy I thought was their manager, Billy Hallslip. Well, I knew Billy’s dad Gordie, who was famous for managing bands in the mid- and late-60s. Basically I wanted to get connected to the band, by letting them know that the son of Baron Torquay-Lamborgeau would make sure that they’d make it big. When they found out who I was,” laugh, “they were speechless. Since Billy was their road manager, I just pretty much stepped right in as manager.”
“Have you ever–”
“Managed a band before? Hell no! But I had, you know, serious connections, and I made sure Billy, the crew, and the band knew I had those connections. EpiGram Records was considering giving them a contract….”
Joe finished his food, and then revealed the kicker. “Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure out I chose precisely the band they were looking for. A few days later I was in my flat and then Negran shows up. I had no idea he knew where I lived. Like I said, the guy is dangerous, and spooky too. So I answer the door and he comes right out and says, ‘You chose the right band.’ I stood there at the door and forced him to stay outside. ‘What the hell do you mean, Negran?’ I shouted at him. ‘They are the band we are looking for which you know since you eavesdropped on our meeting.’ So I shouted, ‘How do you know they are?’ And he said, ‘Because they are from Walltown.’ And guess what I said next? ‘Is that where your phony god Corion told you they’d be from?’ And then he said, ‘Yes.’ And that was the kicker. Knowing they really were the band those evil SOBs were looking for, I knew I had to protect them, but I also knew they had to make it big. After all, it was up to them to decide whether they’d lead the young to evil, or to good.”
(A bit later)
“Well, that’s the why. What’s the how? How is Negran and the red crystal part of the Plan your father has come up with to turn the youth to Satan?”
“I heard my father and Negran say that Negran would keep the band together and make sure they don’t oppose the Plan, and not only that, but completely go along with the Plan. Another reason Sound Unltd was chosen for this was that each of the six, according to my father, wouldn’t possibly refuse to be part of it for selfish or altruistic reasons. Not that my father knew the six–and they weren’t even six then!–but he had some kind of intel on them from God-knows-who. But what,” he laughed, clapping his hands, “my father did not know is that their drummer is related to one of Marty Effingchester’s indentured families. According to legend–and this is from Tom himself–if the Hovels debt is ever paid off–and Tom intends to pay it off–then those Demons, which burned Walltown to the ground, will get to gnaw on Marty Effingcheter as well as his ancestors’ bones and soul forever in Hell. Tom believes it, and so do I.”
(A bit later)
But then I remembered the “how” part of this. “So then how is Negran–”
“Right. Negran’s role is to keep the band together, I guess by nudging them into his Church and other means, his philosophy, New Age–I mean Mick’s already there so to speak. The red crystal is a controlling device but I don’t know how, and Negran gives all his important followers a red crystal that is controlled by his red crystal.”
“One crystal to rule them all, eh?”
“Yes. It’ll be Negran’s crystals, as well as the money, fame, sex, drugs, and even power that, my father believes, will drive the band to drive the young to evil. I truly believe they will understand this fairly soon. Despite their antics, they are good people. The only question I have is will they also understand how a song or other can help them counteract this influence? Neither Jack nor Erik know how or why they came up with ‘Let the Night Down.’ A dream, they said. My father has a Plan. Maybe God has a counter-plan?”
Indeed He does! Because God is in control!
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