Merry Sister Mary: Two Can Play That Game

28: Sister Mary Solves the Riddle in Blood

Dorsey lifted Gina to her feet. The force of his boot had broken the old woman's wrist. Gina winced in pain as he shoved her to the sofa. I went straight to the locked door and let Leblanc and his crew inside. This whole time they had silently been stationed in the hall listening in.

"Truly amazing work," said Leblanc patting both Dorsey and I on the backs. "You know you two work well together."

Dorsey glanced at me with a smug look.

"Don't be getting any ideas," he said to me. "I still think crime investigation is best left to the professionals, but." He paused for a while. I could tell the gears were turning in his mind. "But," he continued, "who is to say, you're not a professional." With that he lifted his arm and commanded Gina be taken away.

"No," she cried as the police officers dragged her to the door. "No, you can't do this to me. The will, Sister Mary, where is the will? I have to know where Jenny hid it!"

I smiled at the old woman and shrugged.

"Where you are going," I said, "you will have plenty of time to figure it out."

"No! No!"

Soon Gina's cries were distant. I stared out the open front door and observed the scene. Gina was banging on the police car window, her mouth yelling silent profanities at me. Not far away on the porch sat Jenny wrapped in a towel with Nathan hugging her close. The two had been through much. For years they were taught to believe they had murdered their mother. Perhaps now that the truth of their mother's death was made clear, the ghosts of the past could finally rest. Jeffrey Wickman paced along the fence. His fate at the moment was unclear, but I am sure after the printing of tomorrow's newspaper and the news of his corrupt tactics exposed, his career as a politician would be over. Leblanc gave me a hug before he too joined his men in the street. In his arms he carried a bloody swan costume and book; the final evidence against Gina. By now, the Wickman family home was empty and the only ones left within it were Dorsey and I.

"So this will you mentioned, the one that Jacqueline signed the night of the party," said Dorsey. "Do you have any idea where it might be?"

"Of course I do," I said. "Follow me."

We entered the house and walked down the hall. I stopped just next to the portrait of Jacqueline.

"Jenny was clever in what she wrote on the wall. As with most coded messages, they can have more than one meaning." I recalled the bloody words.

Behind me a secret will there be.

"We interpreted those words to be quite literal. For when we lifted Jacqueline's body we found a secret suck behind her, but imagine if those words meant something else entirely. As we both know Jenny in moments of high stress has periods of forgetfulness. So she wrote a clue as to where she hid her stepmother's will. 'Behind me' reference to Jacqueline 'a secret will there be.' A secret will." I chuckled. "Genius, indeed." I lifted the bottom part of Jacqueline's portrait. As soon as I did, an envelope fell out from behind and landed on the floor. Written in delicate letters were eight little words. 'The last will and testament of Jacqueline Wickman.'

"You certainly are something," said Dorsey as he bent down to scope up the envelope. "You sure you are a nun?"

I rubbed the handle of my umbrella and sighed. My mind twisted to Mother Ariel and her words.

"I must go," I said. "Can you do my one last favor, Mr. Dorsey."

"Anything."

"I wish to say goodbye to my home."