Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Vol. 101, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 610 & 611, March 1993

Mrs. Layton was staring with horror at Regina Fastnekker and her husband looked murderously at the expressionless terrorist. Regina had an announcement of her own.

“Your automobile was blown up by Michael Layton,” she said to Sister Mary Teresa.

“Get her out of here!” Geoffrey Layton cried. “Better yet, we’ll go.”

“Wait,” Emtee Dempsey said. “Let us hear what Regina has to say.”

She repeated, “Michael Layton blew up your car. I called him as soon as I heard of it on the news.” She moved closer to the old nun. “He despised me for being born-again. He meant to force my hand.”

Geoffrey Layton sneered. “He blew up their car and then blew up himself and then blew up the sisters’ computer? Is that your story?”

“Did you kill Michael Layton?” Sister Mary Teresa asked Regina.

“No.”

The old nun shifted her hands on the arms of the chair. “Did you do anything that resulted in the death of Michael Layton?”

Regina started. But she did not answer. She looked warily, almost fearfully at the old nun.

“I know you express yourself with great precision,” Emtee Dempsey said. “One who has vowed always to tell the truth must be most precise in what he says. I ask you again. Did you do anything that...”

“Yes!”

A smile broke out on Richard’s face and he looked as if he might actually hug Emtee Dempsey.

“But you didn’t murder him?”

“No.”

“Richard, let our guest sit down so that she can speak at her leisure.”

But Regina shook her head. She preferred to speak standing. “Michael blew up your car, using skills we had learned together. This consisted in planting the device and from a distance activating it. After Michael’s phone call, I drove past his house with a transceiver set at the appropriate frequency.”

“And there was an explosion.”

“Yes.”

“So you killed him!” Richard said.

“No. He killed himself. That radio signal could only harm him if he intended to harm someone else. If a man fires at another and his gun backfires and kills him, has his intended victim killed him or has he killed himself?”

It was a discussion that went on for some time. The general consensus in the room was that Regina was lying, blaming a dead man.

“That’s how she planned it,” Geoffrey Layton said with disgust.

Benjamin Rush sat sunk into himself. Nothing Geoffrey Layton could say would restore his son’s honor.

Emtee Dempsey rose and went to Mrs. Layton who was looking around almost wildly, as if she could not at all understand what was going on. Kim felt much the same way. Her eye met Janet’s and she went to her. How awful this must be for her. But Janet did not want to be consoled.

“I’m leaving,” she said, and started for the kitchen door.

“Wait, my dear.” Surprisingly, Emtee Dempsey was at Kim’s side. She took Janet’s hand authoritatively and led her to Regina.

“Regina Fastnekker,” she said, “did you give this girl computer disks to pass on to me?”

Regina looked surprised for the second time.

“No.”

“You are not dissembling, are you?”

Regina peered at Janet. “Is that how it was done?”

Janet lunged at Regina, who lifted her manacled hands and staved off the blow. By then Emtee Dempsey had again grasped Janet’s wrist and Richard had come to her assistance.

“We’re talking about the device that blew up the computer?”

“She’s the one,” Janet screamed, trying to free herself. “She ruined Michael’s life and he waited for her while she was in jail and out she comes a religious freak. No more terrorism for Miss Butterfingers.”

Janet threw back her head and began to howl in frustration. Her father seemed to age before their eyes and Mrs. Layton recoiled from the spectacle of her out-of-control daughter. Benjamin Rush tried to calm Janet, but she lowered her shoulder and bumped him away, very nearly sending him to the floor. That’s when O’Connell and Gleason came in and subdued her. It seemed a good idea to unshackle Regina and put the cuffs on Janet. Katherine Senski stood, looked around the room, and asked if she could use the study. She had a story to write.

But her story was incomplete until two days later when a defiant but subdued Janet told of rigging the disks in order to turn suspicion firmly on Regina. The woman had ruined Michael’s life and Janet was sure she had killed him as well. By continuing with her brother’s plan, she hoped to send Regina Fastnekker back to prison.

That, as it turned out, was her own destination, however postponed it would be, given the legal counsel her parents hired for her defense. She released a statement saying that she regretted that anything she might have done had threatened the nuns on Walton Street. But by then she had reverted to her story that Regina Fastnekker had persuaded her to deliver the disks.

Questioned about this at the mall where she was urging shoppers to repent and be saved, Regina would say only, “When I was a child I spoke as a child, but now that I have become a man I have put away the things of a child.”