Beginnings (3 of 5)

The phone call had come only a few hours after Dante arrived back home. Sister Gwen - still looking like she was only a moment from deciding that this Harsher boy really needed a good caning - had met him at the presbytery when he arrived back at St Marks. There had been another murder, she'd explained over the phone, and this time it had been a priest.

"As far as I know, no one has entered the room since I locked it" she said as they reached the room. "Aside from you, me and the killer, no one else knows about it yet. I wanted you to decide if it's related to what we found in the clock tower before the police were called".

His past experiences - and what he'd seen in the clock tower - had him expecting a terrible sight. Blood covering the walls, limbs scattered everywhere, internal organs strung up like a butchers shop. Instead, the room was immaculate. McIntyre sat at his desk, slumped forward. A casual observer would have assumed the priest had just nodded off while drinking his tea.

Careful not to touch anything, Dante slowly began circling, examining every detail. The cup of tea had only been half drunk. The book in front of him lay open at a section on Pope Joan. A small stack of other books were within easy reach. Next to the stack of books was a library receipt. McIntyre had a pen in his hand, but his note pad was blank.

"You can call the ambulance now." Dante said. "They won't find anything suspicious - they'll probably say he just died of a heart attack or something. You're going to need to pretend that you're sure this was natural – you won’t be in danger unless the killer suspects you know something.”

"But why was Fr McIntyre killed?"

"Because he worked out who the killer was." Resigning himself to an explanation, Dante continued "My guess is the killer is hiding here, and wants to stay hidden - at least for the time being. It's hard to kill an angel without being very obvious, but whoever did this went to a lot of trouble to make it look as natural. And to hide what he was researching - his notes are gone and that's not the book he was reading."

"Where are you going now?"

"I'm going to try and find a copy of the book the killer took - McIntyre borrowed a book that's not here. And then, when I know exactly who I'm dealing with, I'm going to kill this never-born piece of shit."

Author's Note: This post was ready on Friday, but I must have hit "Save as Draft". Sorry about that