Lisa Jackson's Bentz And Montoya Bundle Part 131

Montoya had stopped walking. "What the h.e.l.l was that all about?"

"I don't know," Bentz said, "but I don't like it." He moved out of the way as a couple of guys from the coroner's office hauled a body bag out of the convent. The news crews still stood by, vans and trucks parked along the side of the lane leading toward the convent. Earlier, as he'd examined the cloister, he'd heard the distinctive whoosh of overhead rotors and looked up to spy a news helicopter hovering above, hoping to give the cameraman a better shot of the crime scene.

Bentz realized the newspeople had their place. h.e.l.l, sometimes the local stations were instrumental in investigations, posting pictures of wanted criminals or asking the public's help in finding a suspect or a victim. But today he wanted nothing to do with them.

"Give me a second. I need to get something. I'll meet you at the car."

"What?" Montoya called after him, but he didn't turn around, didn't understand why he felt compelled to do Eve Renner's bidding. Maybe it was the sound of desperation, of fear, in her voice. He chided himself as he made his way to the secretary's desk, where a shaken but priggish secretary by the name of Mrs. Miller manned the single telephone. There was a computer on her desk, though most of her notes seemed to have been scribed in perfect cursive by one of the three sharpened pencils that were arranged in a neat row at the edge of her desk blotter.

Wearing a gold cross and an expression that indicated she thought she was guardian to the sanctuary, she wasn't easily persuaded to find the keys to the old hospital, but when Bentz suggested she might be hampering a homicide investigation and that he could arrest her for it, she blanched and punched the b.u.t.tons on her phone so quickly her fingers were a blur.

Within five minutes a caretaker arrived with the set of keys. Grudgingly, lips pursed, insisting Bentz return the "order's property" promptly, Mrs. Miller dropped the keys into Bentz's outstretched palm.

"Thanks," he said, then jogged back to the cruiser, only pausing long enough to ask one of the deputies to follow in his car. He didn't know what kind of show Eve Renner planned to put on at the hospital, but he figured he might need backup to guard the gates and keep the lookie-loos at bay.

"There's been a leak," he told Montoya as he settled behind the wheel of the cruiser and handed his partner the keys to the asylum. "The person who called was Eve Renner. From listening to the news, she knows that the victim was Rebecca Renault."

"d.a.m.n!" Montoya slipped out of his jacket and tossed it into the backseat. "So much for notifying next of kin."

"I think the sheriff's department is taking care of that. Sister Rebecca has a niece in Cambrai."

"I hope she found out before she saw it on the news."

"Me too." Bentz started the engine.

"The sheriff's gonna be p.i.s.sed."

"He won't be the only one."

Bentz rammed the car into reverse and was about to back up when Montoya said, "Hey, wait. Something's going down."

Bentz hit the brakes as he saw Sister Odine, holding the huge skirts of her habit high, half running toward his car. Several of the officers standing near the door started to follow her, and a cameraman turned his head and caught the running nun on tape.

"Detective," she called, waving frantically, her cheeks flushed. "Please wait!"

Bentz rolled down the window as she approached. "I'm so glad I caught up with you," she said, breathing hard. From the corner of his eye, Bentz saw the camera crew hustling toward the cruiser.

"Get rid of them," he told one of the deputies who had followed Sister Odine to his car. With a nod, the deputy turned toward the news crew and ran interference.

Sister Odine said in a rush, "I just received a call from Sister Jeannette, the Mother Superior at All Saints." Bentz felt his back muscles tighten at the mention of the college Kristi had attended, where once she'd faced unspeakable terror. "She asked me if I'd heard from Sister Vivian...Vivian Harmon, who is part of their order?"

"What about her?"

"She's missing."

"For how long?" Bentz asked.

"Reverend Mother didn't say, but..." Sister Odine nodded, her head bobbing rapidly. "Her room is empty, and they found a rosary and prayer book in the garden. The Reverend Mother recognized them as both belonging to Sister Viv."

Bentz's gut twisted. He knew the campus well and was all too familiar with the dark terror a.s.sociated with it. "Did the Reverend Mother call the police?"

"Not yet. They searched the grounds and thought maybe Sister Vivian had gone visiting and neglected to tell anyone, but that's unlike her." Sister Odine's face crumpled a little. "Someone from the college staff told one of the nuns about what happened here, about Sister Rebecca...Oh dear." Tears filled her eyes again. "Anyway...now the Mother Superior is worried that something...something horrible might have happened to Sister Vivian too."

Bentz wanted to rea.s.sure the nun, to tell her that Sister Vivian probably was taking a break from the order, that she was second-guessing her vows, that she would show up sometime soon, but he suspected that would be a crock. "Have her call nine-one-one, explain what's going on, and tell her that Detectives Montoya and Bentz will be out to talk to her in a few hours. In the meantime we'll call the Baton Rouge P.D."

"Thank you," she said fervently, far more relieved than she should have been as she made the sign of the cross over her chest. "Bless you, Detectives," she murmured as she bustled off.

Bentz turned the car around and headed down the drive where parked cruisers, vans, and trucks crowded the lane, scarcely allowing access between the tall live oaks and spreading magnolias.

"Hey," Montoya said as they fought through what appeared to be an ever-growing crowd. "Isn't that your kid?" He pointed a finger at the window and the slim girl in a Florida Marlins baseball cap. Again she turned away from the road, engaging another person in the crowd.

Bentz's lips tightened. Theirs had always been a difficult relationship, one that had probably been exacerbated by the lies he'd had to tell her while she was growing up. It had to have been tough on her when she'd finally realized the truth: Bentz wasn't her biological father. Yeah, well, that had been a h.e.l.luva mess, and in the end, he'd been the one who had stuck by her, especially after Jennifer's death, then during those rough teenage years.

She hadn't had it easy, but that didn't give her the green light to put herself in danger. The fact of the matter was that he couldn't have loved her more had she been his natural child. End of story.

"What's she doing here?" Montoya was frowning darkly, his gaze following Kristi in the sideview mirror as they rolled down the length of the lane.

Bentz grunted. He knew d.a.m.ned well what she was thinking. Not that he'd confide it to anyone, much less Montoya.

A true-crime writer!

Of all the idiotic, half-a.s.sed ideas!

Why in G.o.d's name would she want to make herself more of a target than she already was as a homicide detective's child?

He didn't have time for it right now, but he planned to engage in another att.i.tude-adjustment talk with her ASAP.

Montoya wisely let the matter drop. "What did Eve Renner want?"

"Us to meet with her. At the hospital."

"What hospital?"

"The one next door."

"Our Lady of Virtues? Why?" Montoya asked.

"She said she was there and found Faith Chastain's file. She wants to give it to us, but there's more. She hung up before she explained." Bentz reached the winding road, saw there was no traffic, gunned the engine.

"This just gets weirder and weirder," Montoya said, flipping down the visor to shield his eyes. "I told you about the picture Abby took of the place."

"Any luck with that?"

"The lab's still working on it."

Bentz turned off the main road and angled the cruiser toward the hospital. A fox squirrel ran onto the road, changed its mind, and darted back to the ditch. Bentz tapped on the brakes. "Idiot," he muttered at the long-disappeared rodent.

Montoya said, "I hope to h.e.l.l this isn't a wild-goose chase."

Bentz found a pack of gum in his pocket and pulled out a stick as he watched an SUV from the sheriff's office pull up behind them. "Only one way to find out."

Montoya and Bentz were waiting.

Along with a deputy from the sheriff's department.

In front of the open gate to the hospital, the two detectives were leaning against the fender of a cruiser as Eve parked her Camry next to the cop's car. The deputy in the SUV was on the phone but hung up when Eve rolled up.

"This looks like it might turn out to be another gunfight at the O. K. Corral," she murmured.

"They're just being cautious," Cole a.s.sured her.

"If you say so."

The deputy slid out of his SUV as Eve and Cole climbed from her Toyota. Both detectives visibly tensed, Montoya in black shirt, jeans, sungla.s.ses, and his d.a.m.ned leather jacket, Bentz in T-shirt and faded jeans.

Oh great, another p.i.s.sing match. Just what she needed. Slinging one strap of her backpack over her shoulder, Eve locked her car. The deputy hung a few steps back, eyes on the road.

"Wasn't there a restraining order?" Montoya asked, white teeth flashing as he zeroed in on Cole.

Eve held up one hand. "The restraining order was lifted."

Cole met his gaze squarely. "I'm escorting Ms. Renner."

A dark eyebrow c.o.c.ked over the rims of Montoya's shades. "You her attorney now?"

One side of Cole's mouth lifted in that self-deprecating grin Eve had found alternately irritating and endearing.

"Last I heard, you were on the other side," Montoya said, his gaze focused on Cole.

"Water under the bridge, Detective," Cole said with a shrug.

"What about last night?" he asked, taking off his sungla.s.ses so he could stare hard at Cole. "Where were you?"

Cole's smile widened. Dear G.o.d, he was enjoying enjoying this! At that moment, Eve wanted to strangle him, and Montoya for good measure. Before Cole could say more than she wanted, Eve said, "He was with me all night. We even spent some time at South General Hospital." She held up her sling. "I fell here, on the third floor in front of Faith Chastain's room." this! At that moment, Eve wanted to strangle him, and Montoya for good measure. Before Cole could say more than she wanted, Eve said, "He was with me all night. We even spent some time at South General Hospital." She held up her sling. "I fell here, on the third floor in front of Faith Chastain's room."

"Here?" Montoya asked, but his eyes still challenged Cole.

"Yes."

Bentz stepped between the two other men, and the deputy looked back as if waiting for the word to come and a.s.sist. "Okay, we've had our fun. Now let's get down to it. So, where's the file?" Eve retrieved the thick folder from her backpack and Bentz took it gingerly, his forehead etching with new lines as he read the file tab. "Anyone else touch this?"

"Not since I found it yesterday. Just us. Both of us."

Annoyed, Montoya slipped on his shades and said, "That makes it easy. We've already got your prints on file."

Cole let that one slide while Bentz grabbed a flashlight and locked Faith Chastain's file in his cruiser.

Pocketing his keys, he asked, "So how did you come to find it in the first place? Where was it?" He glanced at the hospital as if he antic.i.p.ated the answer.

She gestured toward the top floor as they crossed inside the grounds. "In the attic."

Montoya c.o.c.ked his head. "Attic?"

"There's a small garret above the third floor. I used to play there as a kid. I came back yesterday because I felt compelled. Because of this whole 'Faith-Chastain-might-be-your-mother thing.' I needed to look around."

Bentz closed the gate behind them and locked it. "Make sure no one gets in," he ordered the deputy, then caught up with Montoya, Cole, and Eve. It was late morning, closing in on noon, and the sun was intense. Even so, Eve felt chilled inside, knowing what they would find inside the huge edifice that had originally been an orphanage and later a full-fledged hospital before eventually ending up as an asylum. The grounds and building had always been owned by the Archdiocese, and now, in its decrepit state, the hospital was slated to be razed.

All for the best, she thought as they walked up the buckled, cracked concrete drive and past an overgrown lawn gone to seed. The drive curved around a once-grand fountain directly in front of the front doors. As a child Eve had been enchanted by the three winged angels spouting water to the heavens. Now the fountain was bone dry and still, the angel statues chipped and stained, Eve's sense of wonder long dead.

"So, how did you get in?" Bentz asked as they walked the perimeter of the building. Her footsteps were still visible in the gra.s.s and dirt, but as they rounded a far corner, she noticed that the fire escape that had been lowered the day before was now unreachable, its ladder tucked near the landing on the second floor.

"This isn't the way it was," Eve said in surprise, explaining how she'd used the ladder to gain access to the building through a partially opened window.

"The ladder was down. I used it too," Cole continued as he stared upward to the window. "Now the window's closed too. We didn't shut it."

"You're certain?"

"Absolutely." Eve shaded her eyes as she looked upward at the red bricks and mortar. "Yesterday, when I was looking down from the attic through a hole in the floor, I saw a shadow in Faith's room, one I couldn't explain."

Montoya rubbed the back of his neck. "What hole? What shadow? I don't get it."

"You will," Cole said. "Let's go inside."

They circled the building but found no other open windows. They stopped at the marble steps at the front of the building while Bentz found a key that unlocked the dead bolts on the main doors.

He switched on his flashlight and Montoya and Eve followed suit with their own flashlights. Trepidation was Eve's companion as she once again stepped into the decay and gloom that was the abandoned asylum. Immediately her skin crinkled, raising goose b.u.mps though the temperature inside had to be nearly eighty. The policemen, too, became more somber as they shined their beams over the reception area and hallways.

"Your father worked here," Bentz stated. "Did he have an office?"

She pointed in the general direction. "But there's nothing in it. I looked yesterday."

"Show us."

Eve led them to the small area her father had used for his counseling sessions and paperwork. Bentz searched the room while Montoya swept the beam of his flashlight around the small maze of rooms. "He was in office number one?"

"I think it was reserved for the chief psychiatrist."

She pointed out the other rooms: one for examinations, another for accounting, still another for the clergy, and then larger areas for the nursing and housekeeping staffs.

"What about the bas.e.m.e.nt?"

"It was used for alternative treatments."

"Such as?"