Murder Superior(90)
“In the refrigerator?”
“In the crisper drawer, where I keep important papers. Even though you really couldn’t call these important papers. What’s usually in the crisper drawer is my current contract. Never mind. Here they are. What do you want to know?”
The crisper drawer, Gregor thought, feeling slightly dizzy. “What I want to know,” he said, “is about that field house they’re building. Wasn’t there a brochure on the college or something—”
“Not a brochure on the college,” Bennis told him, “a little pamphlet about buildings. All the buildings. Just a second. Here it is. It starts with the Motherhouse in Colchester. Building overseen by the Blessed Margaret Finney. Isn’t that the woman who started the Order?”
“Yes. Go forward. Find the field house.”
“I will.” There was the sound of paper being paged through. Bennis started muttering. “Mother Mary Bellarmine, Mother Mary Bellarmine, Mother Mary Bellarmine. There are a lot of these projects built by Mother Mary Bellarmine. Isn’t she the awful woman from the line yesterday?”
“She most certainly is.”
“Well, she spends a lot of her time erecting architecture. Big projects, too. There’s a picture of her here in front of a boarding school in 1965, five brand new buildings at a cost of over twelve million dollars. I wonder where the Order got the money.”
“People gave it to them,” Gregor said impatiently. “Get to the field house.”
“I’ve gotten to the field house. What do you want to know?”
“Who’s building it, for one thing. Who’s in charge of the building.”
There was more paper rustling. “It says here the project director is someone named Sister Domenica Anne. Is that someone you know?”
“No.”
“I think I remember hearing yesterday that Mother Mary Bellarmine was consulting on the project or something. I’m trying to remember. Maybe Sister Anselm told me that. Didn’t you hear that, too?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Well?”
Gregor paused. “What about the pamphlet,” he said again. “It doesn’t mention Mother Mary Bellarmine?”
“Not in connection with the field house.”
“What about Henry Hare?”
“Oh, it mentions Henry Hare a lot Henry Hare has a big stake in this project. There’s a picture of him here at the groundbreaking, shoveling dirt out of the ground, with the caption ‘The field house project was made possible by the generosity of Henry Hare and the VTZ Corporation. Mr. Hare has been more than generous with both his time and his money, and VTZ is supplying the majority of the building materials and construction crews for this project.’ That’s a very iffy proposition, you know, Gregor. I mean, it looks like charity but it isn’t, really. He’s expecting to make money on it.”
“Mr. Hare?”
“That’s right. Hell sell the Order their lumber and their nails and their heating ducts and whatever and take a cut. It’s not necessarily dishonest. Interior decorators work that way all the time. It’s just not a way I’d want to do business.”
“Mmm,” Gregor said. “Is there anybody else you recognize in those pictures? Or anybody whose name we know in the copy?”
There’s Norman Kevic,” Bennis said. “VTZ owns the station he’s on, or a good part of it, anyway. I think I remember hearing that Norm owned part of it himself. Anyway, there’s a picture of him here with Nancy Hare, of all people, and she looks positively calm. I suppose it’s some kind of obligation. She has to play Lady Bountiful every once in a while to keep up the image of VTZ.”
“She didn’t seem to care much for the image of VTZ yesterday,” Gregor said. “Are you sure that’s it? There aren’t any cameo appearances by somebody strange, like Sister Scholastica or Sister Agnes Bernadette?”
“Not a thing.”
“How about any mention of a big donor, an anonymous source of significant cash?”
“Nope. Are you sure it would be here?”
“No, I’m not,” Gregor said. “And the fact that it’s not there doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There might be a very secret benefactor someplace who just doesn’t want his benefaction called attention to. That’s unusual, though. My feeling is that if there isn’t any mention of such benefaction, there isn’t any such benefaction.”
“Is that bad?” Bennis asked. “Do you need something like that for your theory to be correct?”
“I don’t deal in theories, I deal in facts. And no, I don’t need a benefaction. If there was something like that, it would throw a monkey wrench into everything. I still wouldn’t be wrong, mind you, but I’d have a lot harder time proving it.”