Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 105, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 640 & 641, March 1995

The death of Brian Casey after he had visited her about Sylvia Corrigan’s murder, which had also occurred after a visit to Walton Street, lit a fire in Emtee Dempsey. This had become doubly a personal matter now and she was over whatever inaction the news of Sylvia’s private life had induced. No matter how the actress had lived, she had been ignobly murdered. And now Brian Casey, a perfectly harmless man, was also dead.

“But why did he come here saying he had killed her?” Kim asked.

“Why does anyone falsely confess to a murder?”

“Is there only one reason?”

“It is overwhelmingly likely to be because the one confessing is shielding another he thinks guilty. It may very well be that the element of truth in the man’s story is that he did go to the Elysian Hotel between his entertainment sessions and that while there he saw the murderer or saw something which made him conclude who the murderer is. In either case, it was someone he wished to shield from harm.”

Kim tried unsuccessfully to stop the image of Maud Howe’s face from forming in her mind. But if Maud came easily to mind as someone Brian might wish to protect, it was impossible to believe she needed it. And, on the hypothesis Emtee Dempsey was exploring, Maud would have to be the murderer not only of one person but of two. Whoever Brian Casey had been trying to protect had in the end killed him because his knowledge posed a threat.

“He confessed because he thought the other person would easily be suspected?”

“But he didn’t quite confess, did he? He told me things and he repeated them to you. But the only risk he really ran was that you or I would feel compelled to tell the police what he had said. And what would he have done then?”

“Do you think he was that devious?”

The old nun smiled. “Sister Kimberly, we are all born devious. Our task is to overcome it by acquiring honesty and other virtues. I myself might be tempted to deviousness in certain circumstances, and who is to say I should not fall?”

“His telling us was insurance?”

“Don’t dismiss the possibility. We’ll never get to the bottom of this if you pretend to be surprised at the human capacity for iniquity.” Emtee Dempsey might have been chiding herself for her reaction to the revelations of Sylvia’s irregular life.

The life Sylvia had led raised questions about her funeral, but in the end it was decided to err on the side of mercy and Sylvia was buried from the cathedral. An auxiliary bishop of Chicago was in the sanctuary, but the Mass was said by a Los Angeles priest with golden hair, a tanned complexion, and a dental-ad smile who flew in from the Coast for the occasion. Father Estrella, identified in the papers as Sylvia’s pastor.

“Spiritual director would be more accurate,” Father Estrella told Kim when she engaged him in conversation. Emtee Dempsey had sent her to arrange a meeting; she wanted to speak to the “media priest.”

“A friend of Sylvia’s? Of course. Let’s see.” And out came an appointment book he opened and frowned over. “My being in Chicago is not much of a secret,” he said in explanation.

“Sylvia had intended to stay with us as she readied herself for the Bernanos role.”

His mouth opened and he pointed a finger at her! “Why didn’t you say so? I want to meet Sister Mary Teresa.”

She drove him there in the VW. At first he thought it was a joke, but he got in. The motor took awhile to start and he suggested a cab, but then it caught and she wheeled away from the curb and they were on their way.

“I didn’t think any of these were still around.”

“This one belonged to Hermann Goering, according to Joyce.”

“Joyce is one of the sisters?”

“That’s right.”

“Hermann couldn’t have gotten half a ham into this seat, I guarantee you. Tell me a bit about the old nun.”

“What have you heard?”

“She was one of Sylvia’s favorite people, that’s for sure. Her conscience. Whenever she thought of taking her religion seriously again. She was practicing again of late, thank God.”

“Did you hear how she died?”

“The strangling?”

“She wasn’t dressed in the habit when she was killed.”

“I see. Well, well. You’re suggesting that the killer, having strangled her, dressed her up in a religious habit?”

“And put her in a chair at the end of the hotel corridor.”

“Why on earth would he do that?”

“That is one of the questions Emtee Dempsey wants to put to you.”

“The only bell that rings is that Sylvia’s first appearance on film was a bit part in Hotel.”

Emtee Dempsey found that uninteresting. Kim was a little annoyed that the old nun seemed more interested in quizzing Estrella about his ministry in California than about Sylvia Corrigan.

If the priest hadn’t brought up the murder, she wondered if Emtee Dempsey would have. But once Sylvia was mentioned, the questions began.

“Father, who killed her?”

He smiled, creating deep dimples in his tanned cheeks. “You want me to make a guess?”

“Is it safe to rule out Jimmy Horan?”

“Good Lord, yes.”

“And now Brian is gone. That leaves a narrowed field.”

“You can eliminate Samuelson, Hoague, and Jensen too, Sister.”