Merry Sister Mary and the One and Only Killer

12: Sister Mary Fusses at an Officer

"Murdered?" said the head police officer as he arrived on the scene. He looked at the body, then the bite marks on the wrist, then finally at me standing silently. "Such a harsh statement, sister." He said with a chuckle. "Where is the proof." The officer was tall, beefy and sporting a large mustache. He introduced himself last night to me during my statement as Sergeant Earl LeBlanc, lead investigator at his branch in New Orleans. He had been training other investigators and like me gotten stranded by the high water.

"Don't you see it," I said motioning to the body. "This is murder in the highest degree."

"I see a snake bite," said LeBlanc lifting Denise's injured wrist. "The young girl, Pearl was it, said she saw a snake enter her mother's room. Moments later the locked door was forced opened and Mrs. Stanton was found convulsing on her bed two puncture wounds on her wrist."

"Then where is the snake?"

"Was the window open when y'all arrived?" LeBlanc turned to the others in the room. They nodded. "See, sister. The snake could have easily left through the french door windows and onto the gallery."

"Actually, sergeant," said Michael. "I opened it not long after we arrived inside. I needed the fresh air."

"Well anyway," said LeBlanc, "the snake must have left then. It is not possible for Mrs. Stanton to be murdered in a locked room. Our perp in this case is an angry reptile. My men claim to have searched this room and found no such animal. What color was the snake?"

"Black," said Pearl.

"Brandon, I hear you have quite the collection of rare and exotic snakes in your room. Do you have any that are black in color?"

"Just my black mamba. It's one of the deadliest snakes in the whole animal kingdom. It's venom is fast acting and almost always lethal."

"Have you looked to make sure the snake is in its cage?"

"No, sir."

"Well let's go see."

Together our little group walked across the hall to Brandon's room. Janet and Pearl stayed outside. Baines was no where to be found.

Brandon's room was cluttered high with strewn clothes and coke bottles. Perhaps because it was the one room Janet refused to clean. Stacked along the back wall by the windows were a series of glass cases ranging in size from very small to massive. Brandon hobbled over to one in the corner and peered inside. After a moment he turned back to Sergeant LeBlanc and said, "It's gone. My black mamba is missing." A panic blossomed across his face.

"Hmm," said LeBlanc. "Then that confirms it."

"Am I going to jail?" asked Brandon nervously.

"No, son. Though it was not you who killed your mother, your neglect of these exotic creatures has." LeBlanc yelled into the hallway. "Wrap it up, boys. Call the coroner. This is no murder. That snake is long gone now."

"There never was a snake. It is a murder," I interjected. LeBlanc rolled his eyes and began to walk away. "Sergeant LeBlanc," I cried out, "how are you so daft that you can not see the evidence right in front of your face?"

"Excuse me, nun—"

"My name is Sister Mary."

"Sister Mary..." LeBlanc shook his head. "Please leave this to the professionals."

OOOO, that was it! I had reached my boiling point. I snatched my umbrella and in a quick pop, whoosh, opened it blocking the doorway.

"Listen here, sir," I said harshly. "I may not have the title or the experience of crime scene investigator, but I do know one thing about snakes and that is they only bite when they are hungry or threatened."

"The room shows signs of a struggle," said LeBlanc glancing into the room. "A broken vase, strewn items, askew bed. Mrs. Stanton must have woken up to the snake and in her frantic attempt to flee startled the snake. It bit her."

"Wrong!" I pointed into the room. "If you're correct then how do you explain her comfortably tucked into bed, the canopy curtain being yanked to the side, and the heavy mattress shifted beneath her undisturbed body. For a woman of her fragility and having not moved in her bed, how could she have created such a scene to not only startle a snake but alter the position of the mattress? Someone else was in that room. And that someone murdered Mrs. Stanton."

"Impossible," said LeBlanc. "While you make good points, there is no proof to your logic. All the doors were locked, the windows too. I see no way--"

"Under her ear." I motioned with my hands. "Go see if you don't believe me. The marks on her wrists are not what killed her. Someone poisoned her with an injection to the back of the ear."

LeBlanc pushed me aside and stomped into the room. He checked first the left, then the right ear. He then rubbed his mustache.

"I see it," he said with a confused look on his face. "But I don't understand how it's possible."

"It makes absolute sense," I said returning to the room with the rest of the group behind me. "For someone to have murdered Mrs. Stanton with the venom of a snake she had to be murdered between the time we heard the thud downstairs and the moment we entered the room."

"But we were all together at the time," said Susan. "And the windows and doors locked. And Pearl swears she saw a snake. It's not possible. Unless this person can slither under doors."

"Someone succeeded. Someone killed Mrs. Stanton in a locked room and waited till we arrived so we could witness her final moments."

"That's absurd!" cried Gloria. "Why would someone go through the trouble to pin it on a snake and make it obvious it was not."

I smiled at Gloria.

"Confusion, my child, is the best way to cover up the truth."