Merry Sister Mary and the One and Only Killer

22: Sister Mary Ruins Dessert

Before the chilled corpse of Denise Stanton could thaw, every single police car in the area arrived, lights and sirens blaring. If there had not been a big crowd before, there was one now. All the town had shown up and pressed their faces between the bars of the fence. An eerie silence had befallen the once angry spectators. Their eyes all asked the same question. What in the devil could have happened?

I stood by with the rest of the perplexed household. We watched bone after bone rise from the soil and come to rest onto a large blue tarp. Men with shovels and buckets descended upon the east side of the house expanding the search. By the end of the digging a gaping hole where the flowerbed had been pressed into the earth and eight skulls and a large jumble of bones rested beside it. Ms. Annette was handcuffed, escorted out of the home, and lead to a police car. She glanced only at the destroyed flowerbed from which she remarked, "What a shame."

Sergeant Leblanc stood over the bones and scratched his mustache. A group of men counted, sorted, and recounted the bones.

"One adult and enough here for nine children," said one man dressed differently from the other officers. He wore a white dress shirt and tie, now stained from his frantic digging. I guessed he was a bonafide crime scene investigator. Pardon the pun. "There are plenty of bones missing from the children skeletons, but the adult seems mostly intact. I believe, sir, you have found your kidnapper and your murderer."

"Indeed," said Leblanc turning to glance at Ms. Annette. "She just does not seem like the type to do this, yet she is the gardener here. I feel unfulfilled." I took a step forward to the line of police officers.

"If you don't mind, officers, I would love to have a look at the remains."

"Sister Mary," said Leblanc shoving his hands in his pockets. "You've done quite enough. Now leave this to the professionals."

"To the men you mean," I said raising a stiff upper lip. "I believe you have the wrong person. Ms. Annette could not have possibly committed these murders."

"The proof is in the pudding, Sister Mary. And I see a lot of proof to say otherwise. Sources told me that Ms. Annette has kept this part of the garden as her special project for years allowing not one person to tend it's flowers."

"Exactly," I said. "And for that reason I can prove it was not her."

"How?" Leblanc crossed his arms. The investigator too rose to attention.

"Well, you destroyed most of the evidence before considering the facts leading up to the discovery. I was first to the scene and the evidence, sir, was on the top of the soil, not underneath it."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"When I arrived I noticed three things. One, there were no dog footprints in the soil. Animals get quite dirty when they dig especially on their paws and on their underbellies. Check the dogs if you don't believe me. Their paws and underside are quite clean. Their pen is on the back porch far away from any dirt. Second, when the dogs arrived in the parlor waving their new toys, these items, the snake body and the jawbone both were covered with a wet mud. If you look at the soil here, it is quite dry near the surface. The sun shines directly on this soil every morning until noon. No matter how bad the weather was a few days prior, it has dried out. The soil as you can see in that unreasonably large pile did not start getting wet until the officers dug deeper. This means neither of these objects came from this hole. And lastly, where is the head of the snake? We are missing a major piece of the evidence."

The crime scene investigator looked at Leblanc with a curious smile.

"Who is this woman?" he asked removing his gloves.

"Investigator Marvin Dorsey, this is Sister Mary. She got stranded here a few days before all this started. Mr. Dorsey here was called in this morning from Alexandria to help us with this case. He's the best detective in the area. Very familiar with this place. Grew up here, I belive."

"Well, it's a pleasure," said the investigator. He reached a sweaty palm out to shake my hand. I declined with a disgusted smirk. "You have some valid points, Sister Mary. Very inquisitive I must say for a nun."

"Now do you plan to take me seriously or not?" I said jabbing my umbrella's tip into the dirt.

"Sister Mary," said Leblanc squeezing his temples, "You are smart and all, but you're not really qualified for this type of work."

"And your incompetent at details, but here you are investigating a murder that I pronounced, remember. I see no reason to bring up job duties when clearly it seems that those in charge have no idea what's going on."

"I understand you're frustrated, but I am a man of the law. This is my job."

"And I am a daughter of God, and bringing peace to the chaos is my job." Everyone listening started to snicker and cover their mouths. "We can go on all day, Sergeant Leblanc, or you can let me tag along with your new investigative friend and we can both catch this killer in time for supper."

"If you can produce some valuable evidence right now to prove your case, I might reconsider."

"You can't be serious," chuckled Mr. Dorsey. "This woman is a nun."

"Humor her," said Leblanc nudging Mr. Dorsey into submission. "Go on, Sister Mary. Humor us with your wit. What did we miss."

"Fine," I said twisting my umbrella on my shoulder. "If proof is what you want then by all means follow me." I delightfully danced up the steps and into the mansion. Sergeant Leblanc and Mr. Dorsey followed behind. "I am famished," I said reaching for a plate out of the cupboard. "I'm sure you two strong men are too after all that digging. Why not we get some food."

"Um, Sister Mary," asked Mr. Dorsey as I handed him a plate and led him into the dining room. "I thought you were going to show us some evidence that we missed. Please don't waste our time."

"Wasting your time?" I said handing Leblanc a plate. "Ridiculous."

"Then do get to the point, Sister Mary."

"Well," I said plopping a bundle of grapes on my plate, "Sergeant Leblanc was right on one thing, and it got me thinking." I sauntered over to the desserts. "I remember smelling a faint sweet smell when the dogs interrupted the the service. It smelled oddly of chocolate. Surely not something you want to give a dog, but it is the perfect temptation to get them excited and interested in what you have to offer and better yet it can easily look like mud." I reached for the ladle by the punch bowl. "As you said, Sergeant Leblanc. The proof is in the pudding." I dipped the ladle in the large bowl of dark chocolate pudding, and produced from its dark brown surface, the head of a snake. I plopped it on Leblanc's plate. "Ms. Annette was set up. Someone else in this house knows about the bodies and what is really going on here. So eat up, boys. Sister Mary is on the menu now."