Salvation in death

“I brought iced tea.” The older woman, a golden blonde with hazel eyes, poured two glasses. “I’m Madda Ortiz. I’m sorry to interrupt.” She waved the other two away with an absent smile, then sat on the arm of her husband’s chair. “Please, go on.”

“Can I just say first, this looks amazing.”

Madda smiled at Peabody. “Enjoy.”

“We’re sorry to intrude, Mrs. Ortiz. You and your husband were the first to arrive at the church this morning.”

“We went to the funeral home, and then to the church with Hector. Father Flores-” She crossed herself. “And Father López met us.”

“That would have been about eight-forty.”

“More or less,” Roberto agreed. “We’d only just arrived and begun to transfer the flowers into the church.”

“Did you see anyone else at that time?”

“Some began to arrive soon after-to help. My uncles as well, with my cousins to help them.”

“Did you notice anyone go into the anteroom?”

“Fathers Flores and López, of course, to put on their vestments for the service. Ah, my granddaughter, my nephew, Madda’s cousin. They were serving as Eucharistic ministers.”

“I think Vo

“Anyone before either of the priests went in?”

“Not that I noticed,” Roberto told them. “We were in the vestibule for some time, and many of us were in the church proper. We’ve heard you believe Father Flores was poisoned, so you’re asking if we saw anyone who might have done that. There’s no one.” Roberto spread his hands. “I’m sorry.”

“It was a big service. You couldn’t have known everyone who attended.”

“No.” Roberto frowned for a moment. “I think between Madda and me we knew most. Family, of course. And others we know well, or know by name, by face. But no, not all.”

“It wouldn’t have been family,” Madda insisted. “Even if someone could do such a terrible thing, family would never have disrespected Hector in such a way.”

Regardless, Eve spoke to all three who’d participated in the service. She didn’t get anything new, but Peabody got her fill of Mexican food, and an enormous take-away bag.

“My God, that was the best enchilada I’ve ever had in my life. And the chilies rellenos?” She cast her eyes upward, as if giving thanks. “Why is this place on the other side of the world from my apartment? On the other hand, I’d gain five pounds just sniffing the air in there.”

“Now you can walk it off. Take the subway and go home. I’m going to tug at those other angles, and I’m not driving back down to the other side of the world. I’ll work at home.”

“Mag. I can probably get home from here only about an hour past end of shift. I’m practically early. Dallas, will you really leak that stuff if we don’t get the dental by noon?”

“Don’t make threats unless you intend to follow through. Start ru

For herself, Eve drove back to the church. People walked in and out of the bodega-seemed to slink in and out of the pawnshop. Groups of young toughs hung out in doorways, on the sidewalk.

She walked to the church door, broke the seal, used her master.

She walked down the center aisle, and had to admit it was just a little weird hearing her own footsteps echo while she strode to the altar and the suffering Jesus over it. At the anteroom door, she broke the second seal, unlocked it.

Came in just like this, she imagined. Maybe through the back or the side, but just as easily. Bottle of cyanide in a pocket or a purse.

Had the keys, that’s what I think. Had the keys to the box. Just had to slip into the rectory, take them, walk over, walk in. Unlock the box, take out the little decanter. Sealed or gloved hands. Pour in the cyanide, replace, relock, walk out. Return keys to the rectory.

Five minutes, tops. Ten maybe if you wanted to gloat.

Did you attend the morning Mass? Maybe, maybe, but why stand out? Why stand out in so small a group when later you’d be covered by a crowd?

You know what time the service starts every day, what time it usually ends. You just have to wait for the priests to leave the rectory, go in, take the keys. You could step into the vestibule, listen outside the door if you wanted. Wait until they leave, do the job, go wait-stay close. Priests return, Rosa comes over to the church to help her family. Keys go back to the rectory, you circle around, join the mourners.

You had to watch it happen. You’d need to watch him go down.

Because it’s revenge. Public poisoning. Execution. That’s vengeance. That’s punishment.

For what?

She stepped back out, replaced the seal, locked the door.

Then looked up at the cross. “Didn’t worry about you, or didn’t care. Hell, maybe he thought you were on the same team. Eye for an eye? Isn’t that one of yours?”

“That’s from the Old Testament.” López stood just inside the front doors. “Christ taught forgiveness, and love.”

Eve gave the cross another scan. “Somebody didn’t listen.”

“This was His purpose. He came to us to die for us.”

“We all come here to die.” She waved that off. “Do you lock the rectory when you come over to do Mass?”

“Yes. No.” López shook his head. “Rarely.”

“This morning?”

“No. No, I don’t think I did.” He closed his eyes, rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I understand, Lieutenant, all too well, that our faith in our neighbors may have helped cause Miguel’s death. The church is never locked. The anteroom yes, because of the tabernacle, but the church is always open to anyone in need. I know someone used that to murder my brother.”

“Will you lock it now?”

“No. This is God’s house, and it won’t be closed to His children. At least not once you allow it to reopen.”

“The scene should be cleared sometime tomorrow. The next day latest.”

“And Miguel? When will we be able to wake and bury him?”

“That may take longer.”

She gestured for López to walk out ahead of her, then resealed the door, locked it. Overhead, an air blimp blatted out a stream of Spanish that all seemed to revolve around the words Sky Mall!

A sale, Eve supposed, was a sale, in any language.

“Does anybody ever actually listen to those damn things?” she wondered.

“What things?”

“Exactly.” She turned, looked into those deep, sad eyes. “Let me ask you this, which is more to the point. Is killing ever permitted in your religion?”

“In war, in self-defense or to defend the life of another. You’ve killed.”

“I have.”

“But not for your own gain.”

She thought of her blood-slicked hands after she’d stabbed the little knife into her father. Again and again. “That might be a matter of degrees.”

“You protect, and you bring those who prey on others to justice. God knows his children, Lieutenant, and what’s in their hearts and minds.”

She slid her master back into her pocket, left her hand in there with it. “He probably doesn’t like what’s in mine a lot of the time.”

On the sidewalk, people bustled by. On the street, traffic chugged. The air buzzed with the sound of them, of business, of busy, of life, while López stood quietly studying Eve’s face.

“Why do you do what you do? Every day. It must take you places most can’t look. Why do you? Why are you a cop?”

“It’s what I am.” Weird, she realized, that she could stand with a man she barely knew, one she couldn’t yet eliminate as a suspect, and tell him. “It’s not just that someone has to look, even though that’s just the way it is. It’s that I have to look.”

“A calling.” López smiled. “Not so different from mine.”

She let out a short laugh. “Well.”

“We both serve, Lieutenant. And to serve we each have to believe in what some would call the abstract. You in justice and in order. In law. Me, in a higher power and the laws of the church.”