MASS MURDER (33 page)

McCready had already tacked up individual profiles of every conference guest on blue 3x5 cards along with Polaroid photos taken the night of the murder.
Information on the monks had been transferred to yellow cards.
They filled one whole side of the largest bulletin board.
Photos of the crime scene were tacked onto the smaller board and a general layout of the monastery grounds was sketched onto the chalkboard, highlighting the front, side
,
and rear entrances.
Giorgio was studying the information when Swan returned with
McCready
.
Grosvner plopped down on the floor near the file cabinets with a heavy sigh, fluttering his lips like the bellows
of an old fashioned accordion.

“Okay,” Giorgio started, “let’s go over what we have.
According to Anya Peters,
Dorman
left the conference right after the last session on Saturday.
That would have been around
five-fifteen.
No one reported seeing him at the dinner.
And we know Mallery Olsen was killed between
four o’clock in the afternoon and nine o’clock that evening
.
So, let’s try to establish opportunity for our list of suspects
.”
Giorgio circled the table and began pacing back and forth on the far side, the can of soda in his hand.
“Father Damian was late to the night prayer.
The janitor found him outside his office wh
en he went to report the body.”

“Do we know what he was doing?” Swan sat with his feet propped on the table.
He had pulled out nail clippers and was concentrating on the little finger of his left hand.

“I’m pretty sure he was with
Anya Peters,” Giorgio replied.

Both men raised their
eyebrows but reserved comment.

“According to him,” Giorgio continued, “the two parted company around seven.
If true, that would have given either one of them the opportunity to commit the murder.”

“Which one?” McCready’s question stopped Giorgio mid stride.

“Which what?”

“Which murder?”

Giorgio sighed.
“That’s right.
We have two murders and no idea if they’re related.
Let’s keep going.
John Marsh was absent from the dinner for at least a few minutes when he went to use the restroom behind the kitchen.”

“And Colin Jewett left the kitchen for a cigarette break around
eight o’clock
,” McCready added. “The problem is that no one remembers when
either of them
returned.”

Giorgio approached the bulletin board, studying the cards.
“So at least four people had opportunity
:
Damian
;
Peters
;
Marsh
;
and Jewett.”

“The questions seem to be
;
were the two murders committed at the same time, by the same people, and for the same reason?”
Swan added.

“You know we’re ignorin
g one whole group of people
.”
McCready stood off to one side as if giving Giorgio ample space to think out loud.
“Any one of the monks could have committed these crimes, especially if the coroner places
Dorman’s
death
before
nine o’clock.”
He approached the wall of cards.
“There are at least ten or twelve of them that
reported being
alone at some point early in the evening.”

“Is there any way to know if a monk
didn’t have an alibi
?”
Giorgio watched McCready
scan the cards.

McCread
y pulled several off the board.

“Okay,” Giorgio said counting them. “We have four with no alibi.” Giorgio looked at McCready.
“I understand a Father O’Leary took a walk that night.”

“That’s right!” McCready went back to the board.
“Father O’Leary said he to
ok a walk about seven o’clock.”

“Isn’t he the one who became ill later?”

“You got a hunch?”
Swan asked.

Giorgio sat on the edge of the table.
“I saw someone sneak out for a smoke later that night.”

“O’Leary was in the infirmary by the time we got there,” McCready interjected.
“But the housekeeper reported she found dirt on one of the floors in the guest bedrooms.”

Giorgio shook his head.
“No, I saw a monk outside.
Which room
had mud
though?”

“Room 8.”

“That’s Cory Poindexter’s room,” Giorgio confirmed.
“He said he took a walk
. Le
t’s add him to our list.
What else can you tell us?”

The young officer referred to his Blackberry.
“
Olsen sold real estate
and
met Beth Tomlinson when she sold her a house.
Olsen told Tomlinsen about her journalism background and how much she hated real estate, so Tomlinsen gave Olsen the name of an agency looking to hire.
According to Tomlinson, she began to make a name for herself pretty quickly.
When Tomlinson’s dad died
and
had to fly home for the funeral
, she
called Olsen
to stand in at the conference.”

“Was she a California native?”

Giorgio sat on the corner of the table, the empty soda pop can by his side.
Swan picked it up and began punching dents into it.

“No.
She was a Chicago native
.
She graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism, served as the editor for the school newspaper, was in the drama department and on the debate team.”
He looked up to see if the others were listening, then continued.
“She’s never been arrested, never belonged to a political party, but she is Catholic.
And,” he added with a twinkle in his eye, “there is one connection you may find interesting.”

“What’s that,” Giorgio asked.

“She lived briefly in San Marino where Father Damian was senior pastor at St. Anselmo’s.
He was asked to leave five years ago for having an affair with the wife of a church elder.”

“Well, that’s a nice piece of information,” Giorgio cooed.
“Especially since he’
s probably guilty of it again.”

“Care to share,” Swan prodded.

“The janitor saw Peters pulling out of the parking lot when he arrived
, but Peters sa
id she left around seven
that evening
.”

“That’s not much to go on,” Swan said skeptically.

“
No
, but she had a weak excuse for lying.”
Giorgio
told them about Peters
’ earring
and the fact that Syd Norville had found Father Damian in the hallway rather than in the chapel
when he went to report finding
the body.

“How does an affair fit into the crime though?” Swan wasn’t convinced.

“Damian was publicly chastised and relocated during the time Olsen was a member of the church,” McCready offered.

“And you think Olsen became aware of his little tryst with Anya Pe
ters and he killed her for it?”

“I don’t judge the information, I just dig it up,”
McCready stated flatly.

“It’s unlikely,” Giorgio admitted, “especially if the reprimand was public, but we can’t ignore it.
We’ll drill down further to see if we strike oil.
Keep going,” he directed McCready.

“Our second victim, Jeff
Dorman
, was twenty-three,” McCready said, returning to his notes.
“He lived in
Altadena
and worked for Sanchez Produce Company.
He also registered for the conference at the last minute and didn’t meet with any of the agents.”

“Maybe he wasn’t a writer?” Giorgio speculated.

“Possibly,” McCready agreed.
“I called a number of the conference regulars and no one had
ever
seen him
before
.
In short, he was an unknown, much like Olsen.
He was arrested two years ago for possession of marijuana though,
” McCready continued.
“and charged a year later with selling it, although they couldn’t make that one stick.”

This captured Giorgio’s interest.
“You think maybe he came to the conference to traffic dope?”

“I don’t know, but I spoke with a young woman who attempted to engage him in conversation.
She said he didn’t
know the difference between a mainstream novel and romance.”

“Any chance
he and Olsen
knew each other?”

“
N
o connection
there
,
yet.”

“And nothing in her past to suggest narcotics or a brush with the law?”

“None.”

Giorgio began to pace around the table again.
Grosvner opened his eyes and watched him
.

“Okay, what else do you have?”

“One of the new recruits, Father Julio, is also from Chicago.
Maybe
he has a
past history
with Ols
e
n,” McCready speculated.

“What’d you
find out at the caterers, Joe?”

Swan had found a toothpick in his coat pocket and
was picking his teeth.
Giorgio turned and watched him thinking he and Rocky could compete for attention-getting mannerisms.

“
Not much. You know about
Marsh
, and
Colin Jewett
, one of the servers,
went outside around eight o’clock for his usual cigarette.
Bu
t
a
gain, no one paid any attention to when he returned.”

“Speaking of Marsh,” McCready interjected.
“I have something on him.”
He thumbed through a folder and pulled out some papers.
“We fo
und this in Olsen’s office.”