It wasn't until she introduced Nick to Sister Kate Rosetti, Timmy's new history teacher, and the head of the Explorers' Program, that she seemed to forget Brother Sebastian and remember why they were there. Christine even embarrassed the nun by including in her introduction a brief résumé of Sister Kate's international and national conferences and presentations.
"We're very lucky to have her in Omaha, let alone right here at Our Lady of Sorrow," Christine had said, revealing the news reporter in her.
It didn't surprise Nick. Christine had told him the Explorers' Program cost five hundred dollars, which meant she'd researched anything and everything about the program and Sister Kate to make sure it was well worth it.
"Sounds like you're keeping busy this summer," Nick had said.
"Yes, but mostly short weekend conferences especially now that the Explorers' Program has started," Sister Kate had explained with a shrug of her shoulders as if downplaying her notoriety. "I was in Saint Louis yesterday."
Then shortly after the introductions, Christine did surprise Nick by suggesting he stay and check out Sister Kate's classroom. Not only did Christine do her research, but his sister had a good memory. She had to know that Nick would jump at such an invitation. It wasn't just those preteen summers of digging for treasure in the backyard. As a history major in college he loved studying ancient cultures, their tools and weapons, especially the kinds of stuff Sister Kate obviously enjoyed collecting. Just from the door he could see medieval swords and pieces of armor behind the locked glass cabinets. The room looked like an explorer's heaven.
So maybe he didn't mind Christine trying to get rid of him. Of course, she was trying to get rid of him. She wanted to nose around some more.
Chances were, Christine was headed back down to Monsignor O'Sullivan's office, making good on her threat and calling the OPD. Nick wondered if Christine was really concerned about justice and legalities or if she was simply frustrated the guy had gotten to the office before she could.
"Mr. Morrelli," Sister Kate said, suddenly appearing beside him. "Your sister said you might like to join the class for the first hour this morning."
"You sure I won't be in the way?"
"Not at all. I'm letting the kids get comfortable, check out the classroom and introduce themselves. We'll be ready to start in a few minutes."
"It's quite a classroom." Nick hoped he didn't sound like a starstruck fifteen-year-old.
She smiled, and Nick couldn't help thinking she didn't look like any of the nuns he'd had in grade school. For one thing, he didn't remember any of them wearing makeup, let alone lipstick. Although Sister Kate wore soft colors, she didn't really need makeup, with her short but full and silky hair, creamy smooth skin and warm blue eyes.
"If you don't mind my asking, where… or how did you get some of this stuff?"
"It's amazing the things people want to give me when they discover what I do," she said. "Many of these pieces started out as loaners and became permanent donations. Some I've found myself in out-of-the-way places, antique stores, flea markets, even on eBay, believe it or not. There are so many people who don't recognize what they have sitting in their closets, especially if it's something that was left to them by an ancestor. Take this braquemard," she told him while lifting a flat-bladed sword from the counter. "I'm going to show this to the students today. It's from the 1400s."
"You can't tell me this was sitting in someone's closet collecting dust?"
"No, I accidentally found it in a butcher's shop outside a little French village called Machecoal. Someone had given it to the owner's father, but it originally belonged to a wealthy baron, a soldier who fought alongside Joan of Arc. See the engravings?"
She held it up for him, and he ran an index finger over the worn engraved stamp above the hilt. There wasn't much left, but it was some kind of archaic symbol, no initials like one would expect. He could smell the metallic, acrid cleaner on his finger. Sister Kate took good care of her artifacts.
"Amazingly it had not traveled far in almost six hundred years," she told him.
"Joan of Arc, huh? I guess it makes sense that you'd like to collect pieces that belonged to saints and heroes."
"Oh, Gilles de Rais, the baron, was hardly either, though many believed him to be. He led what you might say was a secret double life." She set the sword down now with what Nick would call almost a reverence. She gently rubbed her fingertips over the wide flat blade that was pointed and sharp on both edges. "It's believed that he used this very horseman's sword to slice open the bellies of over a hundred and forty boys, sometimes beheading them, too. That is, after he choked and hanged them and masturbated over them. No, he was hardly a saint or a hero."
CHAPTER 36
Reagan National Airport
Washington, D.C.
Maggie had barely settled into her newly assigned first-class seat when the flight attendant named Cassy brought her the Diet Pepsi she had requested. She included a glass of ice and several bags of "premium" mixed nuts. They were giving her the royal treatment. Earlier Cassy had tapped her on the shoulder and whispered that the captain had insisted she be moved to first class, upgrading her from her coach window seat almost at the back of the plane.
Well, Maggie wasn't going to argue. Coach was full, first class half-empty. She knew it was because somewhere on the passenger docket the captain had discovered he had an FBI agent on board and wanted her close to his cockpit door. Her weapon had been confiscated for the flight, but she didn't blame them for wanting as many reinforcements as was available and close by. These unexpected upgrades had happened to her several times on other flights since 9/11. And each time she avoided telling them that she might be worthless at thirty-eight thousand feet. She hated flying. Each time was an effort just to get on the plane.
As soon as she was able to, she'd bring out anything and everything that might distract her. This time she pulled out both tray tables _ since the first-class seat next to her was unoccupied __ and began sorting through files and notes, including those Cunningham, her boss, had e-mailed her early that morning. One of his e-mail attachments had an assortment of crime scene and autopsy photos. She kept those in a folder even when she looked at them. No sense in tipping off anyone else about what she did for a living. The photos were not quite as disturbing as the decapitation ones. In fact, other than a single stab wound to each of the bodies there appeared to be no other injuries. No mutilation. No grotesque display of the dead bodies. No bite marks. No signs of torture.
There were supposedly three cases: two priests, one former priest, all stabbed to death in very public places. Maggie's job was to figure out if the cases were related, to determine if they were the work of one killer, or perhaps two working together, and then to come up with a profile.
She found the police report and scanned the details on the case in Omaha. Fifty-seven-year-old Monsignor William O'Sullivan had been stabbed once in the chest while using an airport restroom on a busy Friday afternoon. Not only a busy Friday afternoon, but a holiday weekend. There were no witnesses with the exception of a Scott Linquist who allegedly may have bumped into the killer on his way into the restroom. Linquist's description was brief: a young man in a baseball cap. He mentioned no weapon, no blood.
The autopsy report presented little evidence, as did the toxicology and the crime lab reports. Maggie stopped and flipped back to something that caught her attention in the autopsy report. This was interesting. The weapon, according to the M.E., was a double-edged, nine-to ten-inch blade that appeared to have been wider in the center and thin at the edges, with an unusually large hilt that may include possible engravings. The M.E. had drawn a sketch in the margin of what looked like an antique dagger.