Murder Superior(63)

“All that about what money?”

“The money for the field house,” Sister Mary Alice said. “Mother Mary Bellarmine has been going over the plans and the books and all the rest of it for days. There’s at least a million dollars involved, if not more. Somebody could be stealing and Mother Mary Bellarmine could have found out about it. Or there are a million other things. Goodness only knows what she did to get Nancy Hare so upset—”

“Nancy Hare,” Gregor said. “Did you see Nancy Hare in the reception room when the sculptures were being brought in?”

“Then? No, of course I didn’t. She’d gone home by then. Hadn’t she?”

“It was just something somebody said,” Gregor told her. “Go on with what you were saying.”

“Well, there isn’t much more to say. It just seems so rational. If I’d wanted to kill Mother Mary Bellarmine, I’d have done it that way. The pâté would have been there and she would have taken the first bite and that would have been that. Don’t you think so?”

“Maybe,” Gregor said.

“Well, I like it,” Mary Alice told him. “It makes a lot more sense than what we have now. How can you deal with things like this all the time? I barely survived after Brigit.”

“This still may turn out not to be a ‘thing like this’ at all,” Gregor reminded her. “We’re still only speculating.”

“I think I was right and we should have called the Chancery,” Mary Alice said. “I think this is going to be one big mess.” She peered around in the crowd and sighed. “That’s a television reporter heading our way, Mr. Demarkian. Unless you’re looking for publicity, you’d better get out of here.”

“I’d better get out of here,” Gregor said.

“Hey!” A young woman called out from behind a Minicam. “Isn’t that Gregor Demarkian?”

The only avenue of escape was the strip of lawn leading to the back garden. Gregor took it, all too aware that in a sea of nuns, he must be as clearly identifiable as the bull’s-eye on a target





3


“HEY,” BENNIS HANNAFORD SAID three minutes later, when Gregor had finally made his way out the back gate and into the field and discovered her sitting on a low stone wall. “You look positively frazzled. Is that lieutenant still giving you a hard time?”

“You saw all that,” Gregor said.

“I saw enough of it. Is that man as stupid as he appears to be?”

“Stupider.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“I don’t know if afraid is what I am,” Gregor said. “Obviously, I’m not going to be called in as a consultant on this case.”

“Do you think not? Not even by the Order or the Church or whoever?”

“Androcetti had a point in there. I am not a lawyer. I have no official standing. If I am asked to consult by the Order or the Church, what will I do? My effectiveness depends on the police. I’ve always had their cooperation. I don’t think I’d get much of anywhere without it.”

“So what do you think will happen?”

“I don’t know.” Gregor sighed. “I suppose Androcetti will do something dramatic, especially now that the television cameras are here. I even have a suspicion I know what the stupid something will be.”

“What?” Bennis asked.

“Arrest Mother Mary Bellarmine.”

“What?”

The low stone wall was very close to the gate to the garden of St. Teresa’s House. The gate’s opening was stuffed full of nuns, much as every other inch of ground in this place seemed to be stuffed full of nuns, but with less room to move. Now one of the nuns closest to them turned around and peered into his face. She was not a nun Gregor knew, but from the way she was looking at him he surmised that she knew him at least by reputation. She had the wrinkled, very soft skin of old women who have never worn much makeup.

“Mr. Demarkian?” she ventured.

“That’s right,” Gregor said. “This is Bennis Day Hannaford.”

“I’m Sister Mary Celestine. I hope you don’t mind. I overheard what you said. About that policeman arresting Mother Mary Bellarmine.”

“It was just a speculation,” Gregor said quickly. “It hasn’t actually happened.”

“Oh, I know that,” Sister Mary Celestine said. “I know that. There would have been much more fuss if someone had been arrested. But if it does happen it will be wrong. I hope you realize that. Especially if it happened the way everybody says it happened. Because poison was put in the pâté.”