Liturgical Mysteries 02 The Baritone Wore Chiffon (23 page)

"I'll be here."

I went to the kitchen and got another cup of coffee, all the while thinking about how to handle the Lindsey Fodor problem.

After a few minutes, I went back to the phone and placed another call to the Minster.

"Did you get it?" I asked Frank when he came on the line.

"Just came in."

"And do you recognize the person?"

"I've seen her before. I just can't remember where. Should I know her?"

"I think you may have met her. I wonder if Kris Toth…"

"That's it!" he interrupted. "Kris' cousin. She introduced me. Said she was over here visiting."

"That's what I needed to know. Thanks."

•••

Marilyn was sitting at her desk, as usual, doing the work of the church when I sauntered in.

"You look positively gluttonous with self-approbation," she said.

"Huh?"

She laughed. "I heard that line in a Hitchcock movie the other night. I've been waiting all week to use it on you."

I nodded. "It's a good one and I accept the compliment."

"You mean it's a compliment? I take it back then."

"Are there any heretical changes in the service I should know about before this evening?"

"Nope." She shook her head and held the bulletin up for me to look at. "Everything seems to be back to normal. Wenceslas will be verging though."

"That's fine. If we have to have a verger, he's the one to have. At least he has some credibility."

"Father Barna gave me his sermon title for Easter and disappeared. He said he'd be back around six this evening."

"That's probably good. These two services can take care of themselves. Father Tony will be here as well to help celebrate. Are all the lay-readers lined up?"

"Ready to go. I called them myself. Brenda's been in a bit of a twirl."

"I can imagine."

Marilyn's voice dropped to a whisper although there was no one else in the office. "Word has it that she's looking at a position in another church."

"It will be our loss," I said somberly. "How about the Altar Guild?"

"The FOOSCHWAG members wouldn't have anything to do with the service, but the old Altar Guild members have stepped in for the stripping of the altar and Easter Sunday. I called them all this morning. They'll be here."

"That's great. Thanks."

•••

I pulled up to the Broyhill Inn right at eleven o'clock. I parked my truck, went into the lobby and spotted Lindsey right away sitting in an armchair drinking a cup of coffee. She smiled as she saw me come in, put the cup of coffee down on the table next to her and greeted me with a hug and one of those kisses that made me wish – however briefly – that I was unattached.

"I'm glad you could make it," she said coyly, trying hard to blush. "Would you like to come up to my room?"

"I'd better not, Lindsey. Why don't you finish that cup of coffee? I'll get a cup and join you."

"OK." She looked quite taken aback, but returned to her chair.

I got a cup at the coffee station and joined her in the sitting area. I looked at her intently. She had gone from a self-assured temptress to a bundle of nerves in ninety seconds.

"I thought you wanted to see me," she said in a quiet voice.

"I did want to see you. There are a whole lot of things I'd like to clear up."

"I don't have to answer your questions."

"That's true, you don't. But I'm liable to be a whole lot more sympathetic than the York Police Authority. And let me assure you that extradition for murder is not a problem."

Lindsey was quiet for a long moment. "I'm not a murderer."

"I thought you might say that. I haven't decided if I believe you. You certainly haven't been honest with me."

"That's true. I haven't. How did you know?"

"I had a suspicion. The pills that you took on the plane. Aldactone. They're not prescribed for high blood pressure anymore. They're for hirsutism. And it runs in families. Kris had it."

She nodded her head. "I have it, too."

"You know that I went to see Kris' mother yesterday."

"I know. She told me. She also said that she didn't tell you anything."

"She didn't. Not much anyway. I did see a picture though. It was in the bathroom. A family picture with Kris and her mother, Wenceslas and guess who else?"

"Yes, well…"

"I'd like to get this cleared up."

"I didn't kill Kris. She was my cousin. I loved her."

I nodded and waited for her to continue.

"I'd like to call my grandfather. He should be here."

"Why don't we go down to the church? We can talk to him there."

Chapter 19

Kit and I flopped into the flivver and headed for the circus. These clowns were after the bishop. With the bishop dead, the Ministry of Clowns would be safe--at least for another three years. If I could get to Uncle Winky before he got to the bishop, I could save everyone a lot of trouble.

"Draw your heater," I said. "And get ready. These clowns ain't playin' patty-cake."

We went into the clown tent like a couple of turkeys into a Holiday Inn Thanksgiving Smorgesboard. Suddenly the lights came up, and we were surrounded. They were all there. Mr. Pickles, Tonk-Tonk, Grabby, Cheezo, Honker and Uncle Winky. Six clowns, two of us, eight guns, forty-eight bullets. Add it all up and you get sixty-four, which was the exact number of stogies I had smoked since Tuesday. I took it as a sign.

"Glad you're here, loogan," said Cheezo. "We been waitin' for you."

"I've got information for you boys," I said, grinning like a poached possum on a platter of parsnips. "I can help you sink the bishop's anti-clown agenda faster than a chicken-wire row-boat. But I want something from you."

"What's that?"

"You gotta back off. Take out the bishop and let everything else go."

"Depends on what you got, shoefly," said Tonk-Tonk.

"I've got just what you need," I said with a smile. Then I lit another cigar.

•••

Lindsey and I found Wenceslas in the church. He was sitting in the front pew, looking at the Resurrection Window in the front of the church, his hands folded in his lap.

"Grandfather," said Lindsey in a quiet voice, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hello, child," said Wenceslas with a smile and then nodded to me. "I suppose it is time."

"Yes sir, it is," I said.

"May we talk here?"

"It's as good a place as any."

"How much do you already know?"

"I know that Kris Toth was part of your family. I know that Lindsey, Emil and Jelly Barna, and Joseph Meyer are part of your family. I know that Kris was planning on stealing the diamond from the chalice in the York Minster treasury and that she was also planning to steal the cross belonging to Nicholas II. I know that she made a deal with a Minster Policeman named Alex Benwick to help her get into the treasury, but was killed before she could get away. That's what I know. Here's what I surmise."

Wenceslas and Lindsey looked at me, no expression on either face.

"When the article appeared in the paper saying that I was going to be helping the English police with the investigation, someone, probably you, Wenceslas, arranged for Father Barna to be assigned to the church."

Wenceslas nodded. "It was a happy coincidence that he had just become a priest. He is my sister's stepson, but he is an idiot. I hinted to the bishop that I would make a substantial contribution to the summer conference center if Emil could receive this interim appointment. The bishop said that he could not see the harm."

"All this so you could keep an eye on me and see if I discovered the whereabouts of the diamond. It was the same reason Lindsey joined me on the airplane. It would have been easy to find out which flight I was on and book a first class seat. The plane wasn't at all full."

"I don't know why Peppermint the Clown showed up. It's really the only thing that doesn't make sense."

"That idiot priest wanted to have a clown service," said Wenceslas. "I needed to go to Hungary and I thought that Joseph could keep an eye on him while I was gone." He sighed deeply. "I don't know why he was killed."

"If it's any consolation," I said, "I believe his death was an accident – or at least a series of unfortunate events. He had emphysema,
a pnumothorax
and heart arrhythmia. We think that Peppermint was trying to blow up that balloon when he saw the snakes, panicked and inhaled the balloon. The air rushed into his weakened lungs and ruptured some of the alveoli – the air sacs – and the surrounding capillaries. He couldn't breathe and rushed headlong into the sacristy where he had a heart attack almost immediately. Once one thing went wrong, everything snowballed. I am sorry."

Wenceslas nodded sadly.

"I also believe," I continued, "that in 1918, the Kaszas Imperial Circus had its last performance in Yekaterinburg. I also think that someone connected with the circus was present at the assassination of the Czar and his family."

Wenceslas sat up straight, his blue eyes registering unbelief. "How did you find this?"

"The legend holds that the women shot that day had sewn jewels into their clothes to keep them from the Bolsheviks. The assassins took these jewels once their gruesome work was accomplished. I think the York diamond was one of those jewels. And I also think the cross came out of Russia with the diamond."

"I don't know why the diamond and the cross were given to the Minster, but there they remained – undisturbed – for seventy-five years. Now we have a conspiracy to steal both items. I don't know the reason, but I suspect that the motive isn't money."

"You will not understand," said Wenceslas. "It is not part of your culture…your beliefs."

"I can try," I said, waiting.

•••

"My father was at Yekaterinburg." Weceslas paused and looked up at the stained-glass window, as if making sure that all of his story was still with him.

"He was a dwarf as well, but taller than I am and very strong. He was an acrobat and would also perform feats of great strength." Wenceslas broke his concentration and looked at me with bright eyes. "He could bend an iron bar behind his head."

I nooded but didn't comment.

"This is the story that he told to us. The story of the diamond and the cross."

I looked at Lindsey. She was watching her grandfather, but I could tell she had heard this story before.

"My father was speaking with the Czar when the Bolsheviks came for them," Weceslas continued. "He watched the Bolsheviks place the family in a line and shoot them – all except the girl and a young boy who were taken away. When the Bolsheviks had finished their terrible work, my father and several of the performers were required to help place the bodies into a mine shaft. Afterwards, those performers were shot as well and left in the mine with the royal family and their entourage. But they did not go quietly. In the deadly struggle, two of the Bolsheviks were killed. My father, in the confusion, hid in a crevice and escaped execution. Then, when the cowards had gone, he searched the bodies of the dead traitors and found the cross and the diamond."

"He made his way back to Budapest over the next year and with him came the diamond and the cross. He thought that this wealth could buy the circus back – restore it to its former glory. It was not to be."

The door to the sacristy opened and someone scuttled into the church. We didn't see who it was, but Wenceslas stopped speaking for a moment until we heard the door close again. Then he continued.

"From the moment that the diamond came to the Kaszas family, it brought with it nothing but sorrow. It has always been cursed. We tried to sell it. We could not. Finally, a meeting was called of all the remaining elders of the family. It was decided that the diamond and the cross should be given to a church – a church that would keep it safe until it could be returned. The church should be rich enough that it would never need to sell the jewel. There were two churches chosen, but it was to York that it was taken. My aunt, Belle Kaszas, was living in America and was very rich. It was determined that she should give it as a gift. It would not raise suspicions. But, again, the curse. She died soon after she came into possession of the diamond. Her friend finally delivered it."