49
Colcord hurried to the front office, spying the dark outline of Brother Armagh through the cloudy glass, evidently waiting for him. He sighed. He really didn’t have time for this right now. With Cash off the case and Standish not yet up to speed, a lot more work had been thrown at him.
He could hear Brother Armagh’s protesting voice talking to their ornery receptionist, Maggie. “Yes, I understand that,” he was saying, “but I’ve been waiting nearly forty minutes—” He caught Colcord’s eye as the sheriff arrived, adjusted his clerical collar, and strode forward to shake Colcord’s hand. “Ah, finally.”
“I hope Maggie wasn’t being too rough on you,” Colcord said, trying to remain affable, winking at her. She was cantankerous with everyone—even those with legitimate police business. But she made an excellent gatekeeper. On cue, Maggie rolled her eyes and resumed filing her nails while glowering at something on the computer screen.
Colcord led the priest into his office. “Please have a seat, Brother Armagh.”
Armagh seated himself with a flourish. “Sheriff Colcord, I might have been remiss in not impressing upon you the importance of returning the holy relic to our chapel.” He was less genial today, his freckled brow creased with concern. “I have been waiting now just abouttwo weekssince our initial conversation and I am, to be honest, getting a wee bit impatient.”
“Right, I understand,” Colcord said distractedly. He moved a mountain of Shrouder files off his desk. This pesky skull piece was really givinghim a headache. “CBI is in possession of the relic, not us. The delay is because there was a homicide connected to it.”
“What?Anothermurder?”
Apparently, Brother Armagh hadn’t been reading the papers or watching television. “Yes. The relic was, ah, found at the scene of the crime. The victim is one of our own—a detective. Unfortunately, this has delayed our plans to return it.” He added, irritated, “CBI should have been in contact with you about that.”
Brother Armagh frowned. “I imagine that’s why I had to push through a horde of press on my way in here.”
“Yes. That and the controversy involving a local priest.”
“Father Moore?”
“Yes.” Colcord raised his eyebrows in query. “You know him?”
“I called upon him as a courtesy.”
“Of course.”
“What was the controversy?” asked Brother Armagh, innocently enough, although Colcord could see an unusual level of curiosity in Armagh’s eyes about his fellow priest, and he wondered why.
“Just a misunderstanding.”
“I ask because…” Here, Armagh hesitated. “Well, Father Moore has some unusual ideas, and I wondered if that might have caused any issues in his parish.”
Colcord was brought up a little short. He could read Brother Armagh’s face like an open book, and what he saw there was a surprising disapproval of Moore. “Unusual ideas? Like what?”
Brother Armagh faltered, and his gaze flicked away. “He’s rather old-fashioned in his beliefs.”
Armagh’s skeptical tone made Colcord want to know more. “Can you be more specific?”
“Well.” Brother Armagh cleared his throat. “For one thing, Father Moore wants to bring back the Tridentine Mass.”
“What’s that?”
“The traditional Latin Mass.”
Colcord relaxed. This was no more than a doctrinal disagreement. “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that.”
“And,” Armagh went on, “he has some peculiar ideas about the Inquisition.”
Colcord heard the penny drop as soon as the words came out of Armagh’s mouth.The Inquisition?He quickly covered up his reaction. “How so?” he asked as casually as possible.
“Nothing I haven’t heard before, just the usual prattle of how the Inquisition was a misunderstood phenomenon. Along with some rather conservative opinions on cultural matters. I just wondered if that had caused any… problems in the parish.”
“I wouldn’t know. But getting back to the Inquisition—what did he say about that?”
“That it was akindnessto apostates, which is certainly not my personal view. And that collection of Inquisition memorabilia in that little museum of his is rather eccentric, don’t you think?”
