MASS MURDER (58 page)

The monk’s
eyes lit up
.
“Yes, I did
.
I couldn’t see very well
.
I mean, I couldn’t see who it was
.
It was very dark.”

“You said you were in the upstairs hallway when you saw this person?”

“I was just coming out of my room
.
As I told you before, I got caught
up writing some letters and was a little late getting to compline.”

“Where is your room?”

“At the end of the north hallway
−
first one around the corner?”

“And you saw this person somewhere near the statue of Mary, out on the walkway?”

“That’s right.”

“I w
as just up there, Father
.
You can’t see the statue from up there.”

There was a pause in which the monk merely stared back at Giorgio, his face a mixture of curiosity and inner thought
.
Finally, his eyebrows creased and he replied.

“I’m sure you’re wrong
.
Where were you standing?”

“At the end of the hallway by the last window.”

His whole body relaxed
.
“Well, there are three windows along that hallway, Detective
.
That wasn’t the window I spoke of.”

“Would you mind showing me?”

“Of course not
.
”

The two men climbed the staircase and followed the hallway to the end, passing Father O’Lea
ry’s room,
now
barricaded
by yellow police tape
.
Giorgio trailed
the young monk who moved with an athletic
sense of grace
.

“This is my room right here.”  He indicated the first room around the corner, about twenty feet from the hall closet
.
“I came out of my door and turned down the hallway like this.”  He imitated his movements, inching closer to the outside wall as he turned the corner
.
“I was somewhat distracted
,
and w
hen I got to this second window
I stopped to
look at the pond
.
It’s lovely when it’s lit up at night
.
Anyway, I noticed
him moving along the path
toward the kitchen.”  He turned and gestured in that direction
.
“You see, from here I can just barely see the statue.”

Giorgio stepped forward
.
The statue of Mary was tucked in an alcove along the pathway to the left
. F
rom this vantage po
int, only her arm was visible.

“How do you know it was a man?”

His face fell
.
“Well, I guess I don’t know for sure
.
All I really saw was a shadow.”  He stopped and thought for a moment
.
“I assumed it was one of the monks
.
The robes, you know.”

“You saw the robes?”

“Well, not clearly
.
I only saw an outline, but I think they were robes
.
Of course, it could have been a long dress
.
Ms. Peters was caught wearing robes, wasn’t she?  This is all becoming so complicated
.
I guess I’m not positive of anything, other than I saw
someone
.”

Giorgio stood for a moment,
looking back along the pathway.

“Is there anything else, Detective?  I’m in charge of lunch today.”  He smiled affably.

“Thank you very much, Father.
”

The young monk disappeared down the stairs
.
Giorgio continued to look out the window, wondering why the monk would have stopped to gaze out the window in the first place when he was already late for prayer that night
.
A thought made him cross back through the secret door to the west hallway
.
There, he pulled aside the curtain that framed the window across from Mallery Olsen’s door
.
As he suspected, the statue of Mary was
fully visible below him.

As Giorgio contemplated Frances’ story, Swan appro
ached from the main staircase.

“I thought I’d find you up here
.
McCready called
.
The crime lab report came in on the fibers they found on Mallery Olsen
.
The fibers match the blankets used by the monks
.
No surprise there, I guess.”

Giorgio stuffed his hands in his pockets and returned his gaze out the window
.
“And we now know how the killer accessed her room.”

Swan poked his head into the closet to see the secret door
.
“Well, well, well
.
You found it
.
I wonder how many more of these things are around here
.
Did you call
for Fong?”

“He should be here soon,” Giorgio confirmed.

Swan came and stood beside Giorgio at the window
.
“So, it was a monk.”

“I didn’t say that, but we have three murders and no connecting motive
.
I’ve never believed in coincidences, but that may be what we have here.”

“Not the death of Father O’Leary.”

“No
.
I think Poindexter killed
Dorman
,
and O’Leary’s murder had everything to do with whoever killed Mallery Olsen
.
That’s the reason I think we’re looking for a monk
.
However, while they all had opportunity, none of them seem to have a motive.”

The two men stood shoulder to shoulder, staring out the window for a long moment
.
Finally, Giorgio spoke.

“I’m going to talk to Father Damian.”

“I’ll wait here for Fong.”

“Do me a favor
.
Call the janitor and ask him about this key.”  Giorgio showed him the ornate key Alvira Applebaum had given him
.
“Describe it and see if he has any idea wh
at
it belongs
to
. We think there’s at least one duplicate
.
If so, I’d like to know who has it.”

Swan turned the key over in his hand before giving it back to Giorgio
.
“I’ll see if I can find him
.
We might be able to get a locksmith to take a look at it too.”

“Okay
, catch up with you later.”

Father Damian’s bungalow was tucked in a grove of trees directly up the hill from the courtyard pond
.
It was a small, square building with a tiled roof
.
Giorgio knocked on the arched door and then stood back and waited
.
He heard a toilet flush and then a moment later, the door opened and a haggard looking Father Damian appeared.

“Detective,” his voice had weakened to just above a whisper
.
“I’m sorry, I was resting
.
What is it now?”

“I wanted to ask you a few questions about Father O’Leary
.
May I come in?”

He sighed but stood back to allo
w Giorgio inside
.
“Certainly.”

Giorgio followed him to the small sitting room furnished in turn-of-the- century antiques
.
The bedroom lay at the back
,
and Giorgio could see the single bed from which Father Damian had just risen
.
A studio-sized kitchen was set in a small alcove to the right
.
The bathroom door was to the left of the entry
.
Giorgio waited until the monk had taken a straight-backed chair in the middle of the room and then
sat on a Queen Anne style sofa.

“I’m afraid the doctor gave me a light sedative.”  The once proud and erect man was slouched in the chair, his hands limp in his lap.

“We found the time capsule last night.”  The monk’s eyebrows arched, but he didn’t say anything
.
“Just in front of the statue of
the angel
.”

“Yes,” he nodded in understanding
.
“After you called last night, I got to thinking that I remembered reading something in the old records about a time capsule
.
Did yo
u find anything of value?”

“We found the original drawings which indicated a secret door on the second floor.” 

Father Damian sat back as if he expected another blow, his face drawn with suspicions.

“I found the door this morning
.
It
’s in the upstairs closet…
the one that separates the east and west wings.”  Giorgio paused, letting the significance of that information settle in.

Father Damian’s face relaxed
,
and he looked out the window to a large Eucalyptus tree that shaded the corner window
.
His skin drooped around his jaw line
making
look a good ten years older than he probably was
.
When he looked back, he sighed again.

“You should know there were problems here a long time ago, back whe
n the boy’s school was here.”

“Indiscretions with the boys?”

He nodded and dropped his shoulders
.
“It almost ruined the monastery
.
They had to close the school
,
and the church was forced to pay a lot of money to the families in order to keep things out of court.”