MASS MURDER (54 page)

Downstairs, he was just
finishing some
roast beef and
potatoes when the phone rang.

“Hello, Detective, this is Elvira Applebaum
.
I’m not disturbing you, I hope
.
I know it’s late.”

She sounded very tired herself
,
and Giorgio rubbed his face, feeling the fatigue of the last few days cat
ch up with him.

“No, it’s fine
.
What can I do for you?”

“Mother remembered something
.
I just got home and thought I should call you right away.”

All the fatigue washed away in an instant and he was alert and listening
.
“Yes, what is it?”

“There was a time capsule
.
You know those things they bury and then dig up years later
.
I guess the monks buried one back in the fifties
.
Dad was asked to put copies of the building plans inside, and so he included both sets of the original plans
.
Mom said he wasn’t supposed to put in both sets, but he did
.
H
e told mom that someday, somebody would find out the truth
.
I hope it helps.”  Her voice caught and he heard a deep sigh on the other end of
the phone.

“I’m sure it will, Ms. Applebaum
.
Did she say where the capsule might be buried?”

“Only that it was near the statue of
a large angel
.
That’s all mother knew
.
She wanted to help.” Her voice faltered this time and Giorgio caught her.

“Ms. Applebaum
…
how is your mother?”

“She died this afternoon, Detective.”  There was a pause
.
“She was a good woman, Detective
.
I’m going to miss her terribly.”

“She’s been a big help, Ms. Applebaum
.
I’m sorry for your loss, but thank you for calling.”

A glance up the stairs reminded him there was nothing he could do for Angie
.
Yet, finishing his task in the den seemed too passive. He needed to take action, so he pick
ed
up the phone and talk
ed
briefly with Father Damian
before calling
his brother
.
The last call was to Mrs. Greenspa
n
.
 

H
e and Rocky approached the cemetery carrying a shovel and two high-beamed flashlights
.
A
soft breeze
cr
ept through the trees
and t
he lonesome hoot of an owl punctuated the fact they were about to dig up a graveyard
. The
clouds covering the moon made a sojourn into a cemetery at night all the more spooky.

Father Damian had given them
permission
.
The headstones were arranged into quadrants around a tall,
stone c
ross rising like a maypole from the mid
dle of the graveyard
.
The life-
size statue of
the angel
sat
directly behind the cross, positioned on a six-foot square
block of
granite
.
It was the one Giorgio had seen the day he’d found Dorman.
The
angel didn’t have a name, but held a book or tablet in her hand
.
At
the base of the statue an inscription read, “
For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
~ Psalm 91:11
 
.”

“Okay,” Giorgio began, “Ms. Applebaum didn’t know where this time capsule was buried
−
just that it
was somewhere near the statue.”

“Then I’d better go back and get the pic
k
.
This ground is as hard as
rock.”  Rocky sent a spray of dust up with the heel of hi
s boot to emphasize his point.

“You might want to keep
your voice
down a bit,” Gior
gio warned
.
“It’s almost m
idnight
.
The monks are asleep.”

Rocky
silently hand
ed
the shovel to Giorgio before disappearing down the path
.
Giorgio felt adrift in a sea of
darkness
and directed the flashlight around him in order to identify his surroundings
.
The beam
revealed grave markers one row at a time
while t
he leaves continued to murmur in the background like an audience waiting for the curtain to rise.
At one point, the flash
light flickered and went out
.
He shook it hard, slapping the batteries back and forth inside the metal casing
.
A cold breeze swirled around his neck, making him wish Rocky would hurry up
.
He shook the flashlight again
,
and the beam burst into action
making
an erratic arc across a line of gravestones
.
When it caught something in its path, Giorgio froze, s
ucking in a blast of cold air.

Slowly he brought the light back until it came to rest on the large
granite
ball mounted
a
top
the grave with
the weird inscription
.
Giorgio paused, feeling his chest tighten
.
Framed by the depthless shadows on either side, a shimmering image of the young boy appeared next to the grave
.
He was dressed in the same dark knickers and starched white shirt
,
and although it was a fogless night, a mist hovered about his narrow shoulders
.
The boy stared at Giorgio,
his
arms dangling by his sides, something clutched in his left hand
.
Giorgio felt rooted to the spot
,
cement flowing in his veins
.
He wasn’t even sure he was breathing
.
Seconds passed
.
Finally, the boy extended his hand
.
In it was a long, serrated knife.

The cement slipped through Giorgio’s veins like cool gel
,
and he felt his bowels shift uncomfortably
.
He stared at the boy wondering what he was supposed to do
.
The police manual didn’t cover anything like this
.
Where the hell was Rocky?

“What do you want?” he whispered.

Giorgio’s hand trembled
.
He had been in many dangerous situations before, even facing down a maniac strapped to a bomb
.
Yet, he’d n
ever felt cold fear like this.

“Please, what do you want?”

The boy pointed the knife directly at the grave by his side
.
Giorgio strained to remember who was buried there
.
The sound of crunching gravel made him glance over his shoulder
.
Rocky was returning
.
When Giorgio turned back, the boy’s image dissipated into a
misty
trail and swirled past his right shoulder
.
Giorgio flinched back from the blast of cold air only to find the boy right in front of him, floating a few inches above the square of bricks at
the angel’s
feet
.
With a quick snap of his wrist, the boy flung the knife to the ground where
it stuck in between two bricks.

“Hey, Jo Jo, what are
you looking at?”

Giorgio’s head snapped around.

“You’re supposed to be looking for the time capsule, not staring at the statue,” Rocky snarled
.
“Point that light at the
…whoa!”

Rocky stopped ten feet from the statue
.
He carried a pick over his shoulder
,
and his own flashlight now crisscrossed with Giorgio’s
. T
he knife wa
s caught in between the two beams, wa
vering slightly in the night air
.
There was no sign of the boy.

“Where did that come from?”

Giorgio’s tongue had swollen to fit the inside of his mouth
.
It was clear Rocky hadn’t seen the apparition
,
and yet it didn’t seem reasonable to say a ghost had thrown the knife
.
Fortunately, Rocky didn’t leave much room for idle chatter.

“That’s one of those bread knives, isn’t it?”  Rocky stepped forward and retrieve
d the knife.
“You’d think the monks wouldn’t leave these things lying around
.
Wonder why it’s out here?  Oh, well,” he dismissed the thought and tossed the knife aside
.
“Let’s get busy
.
Where should we dig?”

Giorgio watched the knife disappear into thin air
.
A glance at his brother told him Rocky had missed the special effects and was already wandering around looking for the time capsule.

“Don’t bother looking,” Giorgio said, swallowing hard
.
“I think we’ll find what we’re looking for right there.”  He pointed to where the knife had been.