In the Wake of Golgotha

There is no crime to fit this sentence; there is no sentence to fit this crime. Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate's words are echoed by the zealot Judas Iscariot only hours before history takes a bloody turn on a cross atop Golgotha on Calvary Hill. Two thousand years later, these words are found scrawled in blood in New York next to three crucified men hanging on a basement wall.

Judas, now Jude Issachar, an enigmatic social worker and part-time professor, and Pontius, now Peter Pheiffer, an uns...