Grace and Disgrace (31 page)

“No. Notice that the woman is the only figure with color. The others surrounding her are mere shadows.”

“It is a restored piece,” said the archbishop, “relocated five years ago from a medieval church in Ireland. Some of the pieces are original, and others had to be replaced. It was not a perfect restoration.”

“The original only had one figure in it, and that was the woman. The others were added as part of the restoration by Father Abrams Valentine.”

The archbishop shook his head. “Inspector Tuohay, Father Abrams died the year before the restoration took place.”

“No, in fact, he did not,” said Tuohay. “As will be made clear to you when the full details of the case emerge.” He drew the archbishop’s attention back to the stained glass window. “It was not the scene of the nativity, despite what you may have thought, but an ancient rendition of the rebirth of Jesus to a lone woman standing on the moon.” Tuohay pointed at the light emitting from beneath the woman’s feet. “It is a clever piece of art, I must say. It was meant to mislead the casual observer.” 

With the light of evening cast through it, the window glowed in the soft hues of blue, emerald, lavender, and soft gold. These colors filtered through various representations in the scene; the cobalt stone of the buildings, the lines of multi-hued trees, the darker violet shades representing the shadows of night, and the soft gold of the light glowing from beneath the feet of the woman to fill the stables.

But it was the depiction of the night sky that caught the attention of the small audience. A vast array of stars stretched above the stables, floating in the blue and lavender canvas above. They were dazzling in the soft evening light.

“Dragons!” said Eldredge in awe. “Look closely. You can see the images captured within the stars like constellations.”

“Precisely,” said Tuohay. “The constellations are the multi-headed dragon, the woman has a halo of twelve gleaming points around her head and the moon glowing beneath her feet. This, my friends, is a scene from Revelation 12, which also happens to be a clue for where the diamond would be discovered.”

“
Revelation
,” Eldredge whispered.

The archbishop exhaled nervously. “Are you saying...”

“Your Grace, each of the hundreds of stars you see before you in the stained glass window above is a diamond in its own right, and was once part of the great Templar Diamond.”

“The Star of Bethlehem,” Eliza whispered. “Cut into hundreds of sparkling shards and hidden right above the heads of the congregation in plain sight. It’s been here all along.”

They stared in silence at the stained glass window for a long time.

*

“Hope Cemetery.” Eldredge read the sign in the dying light of evening. The carriage they had arrived in departed for Medford with Sara and Anna within.

“Father Aiden Kearney and his brother Rian were interred in pauper’s graves,” said Tuohay. “Follow me.”

Eliza and Eldredge walked beside Tuohay as he made his way along the winding trails of the cemetery. The sun was dropping below the horizon, and it would soon be dark. Tuohay walked at a rapid clip in hopes of reaching the gravesite while there was still light.

“Jack,” said Eliza, “why were Father Kearney and his brother killed by Mary?”

Tuohay stopped at the base of a small hill. Along the slope in front of them lay a stretch of grass embedded with hundreds of rectangular stones. The gray stones were marked by number only.

“As you recall, Father Robert Donnelly was known as Imhotep because of his sheer brilliance,” said Tuohay. “As it turns out, he sought like-minded geniuses to surround himself with. That is why he chose to become the guardian of Abrams Valentine and Kip Crippen, brothers by a different name many years ago, from the orphanage near Belfast. And that is also why Mary Hart became his paramour so many years later. It was her
mind
that excited him.”

Eldredge frowned. “Were they as intelligent as he was?”

“The intellect of each of those individuals is hard for us to comprehend,” responded Tuohay.

“Speak for yourself,” said Eliza with a smirk.

“In Mary Hart’s case, her genius was not wrought by schooling, but remained an untamed birthright,” said Tuohay. “Regardless of the circumstances, as great as their minds were, Mary, Abrams, and Crippen were only truly excited by the challenge of manipulating others. In truth, Mary Hart was never in love with Father Donnelly, and enjoyed the charade and her ability to manipulate him.”

“She probably got a fine share of expensive gifts from the doting old priest,” Eliza remarked. “Most of all, when Father Donnelly was shown
Crown Mount
by the archbishop, Mary Hart must have seen it as well, and memorized its contents.”

“She has confessed to as much,” confirmed Tuohay. “Mary shared the operational details of the Templar Diamond’s visit to Belfast with Abrams Valentine and a plan was hatched. They brought in his brother Kip—the notorious jewel thief—and with that information in hand and their brilliant minds at work, they pulled off one of the largest diamond heists in recent history.”

Eliza tapped Tuohay’s pocket. “You gonna light another one of your cigarettes?”

“For once, no.” He cast her a sidelong glance. “Why, are you interested in one?”

She shrugged. “I probably shouldn’t, but those cloves…well, I’ve taking a liking to them. For the pain in my head, you know.” She pressed her lips into a sarcastic smile.

“Right.” Tuohay reached into his pocket for his cigarette case.             

“About the diamond…Father Abrams never meant to share it, even with Mary,” said Eldredge. “At least as I understand things.”

“That is what has come to light,” said Tuohay, handing Eliza a cigarette and producing his lighter. “He was a con artist at heart, and in his final performance, misled even those closest to him. As Mary misled Father Donnelly, Abrams misled Mary.”

“A vicious circle,” said Eldredge, shaking his head.

“So Abrams cut the diamond, and hid its pieces in the stained glass window during the restoration stage,” said Eliza, taking a drag of the cigarette. She frowned. “Why do I smoke these? They’re horrid.”

“By that time he had faked his death, and simply must have worked as one of the artists on the job at the old church in Glendalough,” Eldredge added. “Ingenious.” He frowned thoughtfully. “But… how did he fake his death?”

“Father Donnelly was his accomplice for that,” replied Tuohay, watching Eliza take a draw of the clove cigarette before turning to Eldredge. “Father Donnelly used a certain medication—or poison, if that definition suits you better—that he discovered in Haiti, to produce the effect of death. As documented in his medical journals, he developed a chemical hypothesis using a neurotoxin native to, of all things,
pufferfish
, that with the proper application, would in fact create the appearance of death for several hours, even days.”

“Gads. That sounds like witchcraft.”

“Very much so,” said Tuohay. “And it is extraordinarily dangerous, one would imagine. However, Father Donnelly was a man confident in his skills, and he manufactured and used the toxin on his nephew to create the appearance to any who examined him that he had, in fact, died.”

“It’s the same neurotoxin that Mary Hart used to poison herself,” said Eliza, exhaling through ruby lips. “She of course had access to everything of Father Donnelly’s, and was a quick learner from the sounds of things.”

“It was Mary’s death that threw me off her trail,” Tuohay admitted.

“You’re not gonna beat yourself up over that, are you? She was declared dead.”

Tuohay’s grim countenance showed that even
that
reason was not a good enough excuse for his oversight. “When I realized it was Abrams Valentine and not Kip Crippen that Inspector Frost shot at the harbor—”

“How?” Eldredge cut in.

“Based on the fact that they were nearly identical as brothers, and that the body in the harbor suffered from a fatal ailment just as Father Abrams did—do you remember the newspaper article mentioning consumption?”

“I do,” Eldredge confirmed, and Eliza nodded in agreement.

“I realized Abrams had
not
died in 1896. My attention was turned to those close to him, especially Father Donnelly, but
he
was already dead by the time I began to put the pieces together. Mary was the next logical choice, but with her apparently murdered as well, my attention was diverted. Just as she wanted.”

“Like I said, I wouldn’t beat yourself up over that,” Eliza stated. “How were you supposed to know she was going to get off the gurney, visit Doctor Kearney in his apartment, and administer that terrible drug at gunpoint? And then roll him into the furnace, alive.”

Eldredge gritted his teeth. “Poor man.”

“I could have prevented his death,” Tuohay said.

“You’re still human, Jack. Like the rest of us.” Eliza took out her journal and flipped it open to the back, handing it to Tuohay as she did so. “For posterity’s sake, I documented the following details. Take a gander.”

Tuohay regarded the journal. “The motives you have captured appear valid, but it is even simpler than that. Mary’s fundamental plan was to eliminate anyone she suspected of harboring damaging information about her. She was meticulous, devoid of conscience, and a master at diverting suspicion onto others. In the end, it really was a game to her. A game initiated by her former lover and betrayer, Abrams Valentine.”

Eliza looked out upon the graves spread before them. She handed the clove cigarette to Tuohay, who glanced at rose lipstick smudged on the cigarette while Eliza spoke. “But why Aiden Kearney, and his brother Rian? What was the point of killing them?”

Tuohay took a drag of the cigarette, savoring the taste.  “Remember, the Kearneys got her released from the Danvers asylum based on the promise that she had evidence that could take down Father Donnelly and the archbishop.”

“Which, apparently, she did,” said Eldredge.

“At some point in her investigation into the whereabouts of the Templar Diamond, Mary realized that Father Abrams’ death was a ruse. To prove it to herself, she dug up his grave.”

Eldredge furrowed his eyebrows. “How do you know that?”

“There was evidence of it in their flat,” Tuohay replied. “Shovels, a rug caked with dry dirt, a hooded lantern, and the like. And the ground was still broken in when Eliza and dug up the grave.”

Eldredge shuddered.

“It added up,” Tuohay finished.

Eliza whistled. “You mean, Mary Hart had Aiden and Rian dig up the grave? How did she convince them to do that?”

“It was most likely only Rian,” said Tuohay. “And probably on the premise that the diamond was hidden there, which would have gone a long way in restoring Aiden’s reputation. I am certain it was with goodwill in his mind. In any case, it was done, and Mary’s hunch about Abrams faked death was confirmed by a coffin full of stones.”

“And when she returned to their flat…” Eliza dropped the cigarette and crushed it out with her boot.

“Sadly, yes,” confirmed Tuohay. “She poisoned them, like the others. She would leave no trace of her presence or activities, and even go to the trouble of diverting suspicion onto others by etching ‘my brothers’ keeper’.”