MASS MURDER (36 page)

“I just finished interviewing Father O’Leary,” Rocky informed him.
“They have a small infirmary here.
Just a few beds.
O’Leary went to the infirmary before the nine o’clock prayer the night of the murder.
I guess he only felt well enough to talk to anyone in depth today.
He’s quite a character.”

“What do you mean?”

The two brothers began to wander along the path i
n the direction of the kitchen.

“O’Leary has lived here since the beginning of time
, I guess,
and has a reputation for making up outlandish stories.
I was told no one can tell the difference between his truth and fabrication.
Anyway, when Father Damian arrived about four years ago he tried to put a stop to it.
I guess Damian thought
it
was sacrilegious for a monk to talk about ghosts and secret passageways.
Anyway, no one believes the old guy, but
…
”

“What ghosts?” Giorgio had stopped short, staring at his brother.

“What?” Rocky
stopped and
looked
back
over his shoulder
at Giorgio
.

“You said stories about ghosts.”

“
Yeah, but
I didn’t ask him to tell
me any,” Rocky shrugged
.

Giorgi
o suddenly grabbed Rocky’s arm. “Wait a minute.”

“What is it with you?” Rocky said, gruffly.

“Did you say O’Leary
talked about secret passages?”

“Yeah, but li
ke I said, nobody believes him.”

“Yes, but what did he say?”

Rocky shrugged again.
“
A
c
cording to O’Leary, several secret tunnels were created as a means of escape
because of the war
.
But remember, he also said ghosts roamed the hallways at night.
If you ask me, the guy’s a little nuts.”

Giorgio’s face betrayed an inner thought.
“When I was hit on the head last night, I heard something just before I passed out.
It didn’t register until just now.
I heard a door close.”
When Rocky didn’t respond, he encouraged him.
“Don’t you see? There’s no door in that stairwell.”

“There’s a door to the outside.”

“That’s a heavy metal door.
W
hat I heard was a wooden door.”

Without warning, Giorgio turned on his heels and started back to the north door
.
“Follow me.”

Giorgio reached the door
and
flung it open leaving Rocky to hold the door for Grosvner.
When the door closed behind them, there was the distinctive sound of metal aga
inst metal.

“You see,” Giorgio said,
pointing at
the door.
He glanced around the stairwell and then stepped forward to the underside of the staircase
. There was
a small door tucked into the shadows.
“I thought so.”
He opened the door to find a narrow storage closet with a ceiling that followed the slant of the staircase overhead.
He stepped inside and began running his hands over bare walls.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for a lever.”

“You’ve got to be kidding?
You think there’s a secret passage in there?
”

Giorgio turned to his brother with a stern look.
“I heard this door close.
So if someone went in here, how did they get out?”

“They could’ve gone down one of the hallways.”

“No one went down the hallway.”

“How d
o you know, you were out cold?”

Giorgio pulled on coat hooks and protruding nails, but nothing moved.
Rocky leaned against the door ja
m with a smug look on his face.

“Damn!” Giorgio
cursed
, pushing his way past his brother.
“When I followed the monk into the stairwell, I looked down both those hallways and up the staircase.
I came back in here and stopped to think, right here.
That’s when someone stepped out of nowhere and nailed me from behind.
They
had to be hiding under there. B
ut
why?
” he said looking around the staircase for clues to this new mystery, “I think they ducked in here to use
some secret
passage
, but
had to wait until I left because I would have heard them.”

“Was this door open or closed?” Rocky pointed to the door to the closet.

“I’m not sure.
It was too dark.”

As he said this, the outside door opened
.
Father Damian entered carrying a stack of books.
He looked surprised to see
the two policemen and the dog.

“Detective!
What are you doing here?”

“Trying to solve a puzzle.
Father, can I get my hands on the original plans to the monastery?”

Father Damian glanced at Rocky and back to Giorgio.
“Yes.”
He hesitated.
“We have a copy in the safe,
but what are you looking for?”

“I just need a footprint of the building,” Giorgio replied, feeling the need to be deceptive.
“It will help us plot where the two bodies were found and any connecting possibilities.”

“I see.
Well, follow me
.
I’ll get them for you.”

The abbot
led them to his office where he went to the large painting of Christ and the Last Supper.
He pulled the painting away from the wall
,
and with a few flicks of the wrist
,
opened a hidden wall safe.
A moment later he handed Gi
orgio a roll of yellowed paper.

“Please be very careful.
These are very old.”

“We handle all potential eviden
ce carefully,” Giorgio clipped.

The brothers walked out to their cars where Giorgio rolled out the drawings on the hood of his sedan
.
Grosvner relieved himself on a nearby azalea bush.
The two men studied the huge sheets of paper, running their fingers along the defining lines of the building, looking for something that might indicate a hidden passageway.
They found nothing.

“Damn,” Gio
rgio exclaimed again
.

“Well, what did you expect
−
b
ig arrows pointing to a sign that said ‘Secret Passage Here?’
I think you’ve starred in too many mystery plays.”

Giorgio ignored him and started to roll up t
he plans when Rocky stopped him. He pointed to
the lower right corner.
“Applebaum is a fairly co
mmon name in this area isn’t it?”

Giorgio looked up.
“What?”

“The name of the architect.
Joseph Applebaum.”
Rocky was pointing to where the architect’s name was printed in block letters at the bottom.
“Maybe his relatives still live here.”

Giorgio’s eyebrows shot up.
“You’re right.
Maybe I can track down a direct descendent.”

“It’s a long shot,” Rocky warned.

“Right now, anything seems like a long shot.”
Giorgio rolled the oversized papers back up. “Listen, thanks for your help.”

“I’ll type up my notes and get them over to you tomorrow,” Rocky offered.
“Let me know if you find anything.
I’m going home to catch a nap.”

They said goodbye
,
and Giorgio climbed into the sedan with Grosvner on the seat beside him. He always carried a current phone book in his car and found it under the seat.
He looked up Applebaum and was dismayed to find six names, all living in Sierra Madre or
Pasadena
.
He got out his cell phone and began making calls.
After the first three, he hit pay dirt.
The woman who answered was Joseph Applebaum’s daughter and said she would see him the next day.

Chapter Twenty-
Five

Giorgio spent the rest of the afternoon flipping through 3 X 5 cards, studying the file on Mallery Olsen
,
and following-up on leads.
Olsen’s boyfriend had been found and claimed he’d only heard about the murder that day.
He and some friends had just returned from a long weekend on Catalina Island
, giving him an airtight alibi.

Giorgio checked in with the coroner to clarify a few details and called Angie to tell her he’d be home around six o’clock.
At six-fifteen however, he was immersed in drawing a fishbone diagram, matching individuals with facts about the case.
As he rifled through papers on
his desk,
he found a phone message tucked between two sheets of paper.
Apparently
Father O’Leary had called earlier that afternoon.
Giorgio reached for the phone, but felt a twinge of panic when he realized he was already late for dinner.
The good Fath
er would have to wait until
morning.

H
e
arrived home
just
as Angie was
finishing the dishes.
She was dressed in gray slacks and a lavender cashmere sweater, renewing Giorgio’s hope that perhaps her mood had changed.

“You’re late,” she snapped, barely turning from the sink. “I already put dinner away.”

He stopped as the temperature in the room plummeted.

“I’ll just make a sandwich
then
.”

He reached for the refrigerator door, grabbed a carton of milk and a package of ham
,
and went to the counter where he made a dry sandwich.
Angie wiped down the sink as he w
asn’t
even in the room
.