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

“The previous lovers? On what basis?”

“Well, it is not generally known, but Samuelson is a homosexual. Sylvia permitted the rumors of an affair to circulate in order to help him keep his secret. It’s not entirely a secret anymore, of course.”

“And Hoague?”

“How often do former lovers remain friends?”

“I have no idea.”

He smiled. “I suppose not. I can tell you it is infrequent. But then both Sylvia and Larry Hoague are actors. He was one of the few people who encouraged her to do Antigone here, and I’m told her performance was a triumph.”

As for Jensen, he was not in Chicago and could not have been the night of the strangling because he was taking religious instruction from Father Estrella.

“It was an effect of knowing Sylvia. Feelings of guilt would bring her religious faith to the surface and she and Jensen talked about it. He became interested. He came to me. It’s the reason the affair ended. Sylvia thought that should earn her credit in the great box office in the sky.”

“She may be right,” Emtee Dempsey said thoughtfully. “Now that leaves Faustino and St.-Loup.”

“Sylvia was St.-Loup’s meal ticket. From the time he landed her a part in Hotel he concentrated on her as his main client. And he was right. If he represented no one else, he would be a rich man. Sylvia recognized his value to her and rewarded him. I think he was written in for ten percent, just like her agent. But then, increasingly, that is how he functioned for her.”

“She had another agent?”

“Not anymore. Larry Hoague must have been happy to turn the task over to Raoul. Acting is a more fulfilling activity.

“Father, you were reluctant to make a guess as to who did it, but what you say suggests that Faustino killed Sylvia and Brian.”

If the conclusion surprised him, he did not show it. Then he said softly, “If I were to guess, I would say Faustino.”

5

The police had come to the same conclusion. Faustino was arrested on the steps of the cathedral after attending the funeral and taken away despite his pleas that he be allowed to go to the cemetery.

“I wonder what evidence they have,” Kim said when they were back at Walton Street.

Emtee Dempsey squeezed her eyes shut. “So do I.”

“Should I call Richard?”

Her eyes opened. “You are volunteering? I was trying to think of a way to persuade you to invite him here that would not give you an opportunity to repeat your usual objections.”

“I want to know.”

“Of course. ‘All men by nature desire to know.’ Aristotle. Call him.”

“Aristotle?”

The old nun pushed the phone toward Kim, giving her a look. “Being with theatrical folk has a bad effect on you, Sister Kimberly.”

Richard was not offended by her suggestion that he stop by Walton Street. He was clearly happy to have swiftly settled on a prime suspect in the double murder.

Once Richard agreed to come, Emtee Dempsey decided it would be nice to have Katherine Senski there as well. “Oh, and ask Maud Howe as well.”

“Richard might not like that.”

“Why not? A slightly larger audience for him when he relates his triumph.”

Was she being sarcastic? Richard arrived and she congratulated him warmly, and when Katherine came, and later Maud, she presented Richard as if he were the quintessence of effective police investigation.

“We’re all just dying to hear how you learned it was Faustino.”

“No more dying, now. Not in my jurisdiction.” He smiled at Maud. Maud, it was evident, was the one Richard most wished to impress. Shame on him. Kim would get in a mention of his wife and children if he kept it up.

“How did you know it was Faustino?” Maud could play the ingenue role pretty effectively.

“I’d like to tell you it took a lot of thinking, a lot of lab work, a lot of patient routine. I am a great champion of routine. Most police work is fairly humdrum stuff, no mystery at all, except in trying to figure out what the judge and jury might do.”

Emtee Dempsey cleared her throat. She knew when a lecture threatened. Not that she was often on the listening end.

“The truth is, he couldn’t have made it more obvious that he had done it.”

“How so?” Maud asked.

“Three things. First, the director of the play he was in described him as in a strange frame of mind. He arrived at the theater late, delaying the raising of the curtain, and until he was on seemed in a trance. Second, his fingerprints were found in the suite.”

Maud said, “He came by the day before it happened. They might have been made then.”

Richard smiled, unperturbed. “That’s why it is so convenient that the bell captain saw him leave the Elysian near or slightly after the time the coroner places the murder.”

“Carrying a box?” Emtee Dempsey asked.

Richard had expected applause, not questions, but he managed a tight smile. “I wouldn’t want you too easily convinced, Sister Mary Teresa. But when you add these things up, you’ve got a prima facie case. I think Faustino is ready to tell us all about it.”

“Brian Casey was ready to do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“He told me and Sister Kimberly most solemnly that he had killed Sylvia.”