Field of Graves(76)

When Mary Margaret finally contacted her family, they had forgotten to let the detective know she’d been found. The records languished in the system until Lincoln made his triumphant match.

Sam used the slides from the database to make her final confirmation. The veneers were a dead giveaway. The antemortem records showed the gap in the girl’s teeth. The records were a 100 percent match.

Based on Mary Margaret’s distraught parents’ information, Lincoln had called over to Aquinas and found one of the nuns who had been close to her.

Sister Agatha sounded a hundred years old, but despite her quavering voice, she seemed sharp as a tack. Lincoln told her the nature of his call, and the old nun broke down. Lincoln heard her saying a rosary in the background. She finally pulled it together and apologized.

“I am so sorry for that poor girl. I think she’d had a hard life. I didn’t know much about her. She had the look of a young girl who’s seen too much of the world. But she was lovely and studied so hard.”

“You say you don’t know much about her past. Can you tell me what you do know? Her parents are trying to fill in the gaps.”

“Of course. She came to us from the Sisters of the Covenant out in Colorado. Wonderful women, they run a small hospital up there in the mountains. Let me see here, I’ve got her record right in front of me. She was getting straight A’s, the poor lamb. Taking a full load, too, and working in the Student Center. My goodness, it shows here she was also auditing classes over at Vanderbilt last semester. Working so hard. Oh, this is just too much.”

Lincoln’s heart beat a little faster. He motioned to Taylor and wrote on his blotter MM audited at Vandy last sem.

Taylor knocked her knuckles against the desk. There it was. There was the link between the girls.

Lincoln dragged his attention back to the old nun. He had missed some of what she was talking about, but a name caught his ear.

“I’m sorry, Sister, can you say that again?”

“You need to pay more attention, young man.” Lincoln immediately had a vision of a stooped old nun smacking his palm with a ruler and nearly laughed aloud. “I was saying that I don’t think there is anyone else here that she was very close to, but she spent a lot of time with the priest who was killed. Such a good man, such a loss to the church. We have a hard time bringing in the younger people these days. Boys just don’t want to be priests anymore. I’m getting off the subject. She was friends with him. With Father Xavier. They spent quite a bit of time together. I believe he was tutoring her in Latin. She wanted to attend the Latin Mass, you know. Such a good girl.”

“Sister, thank you so much for your time. I have to let you go now.”

“God bless you and keep you.” She hung up before he could answer.

He turned to Taylor, who was impatiently tapping her fingers on top of the filing cabinet.

“Got another tidbit for you.”

“Yeah? Well, if it’s as good as your last one I’m going to kiss you.”

“Ooh, baby. Then get over here and pucker up. Guess who Mary Margaret spent all her time with?”

“Who?”

“Father Xavier.”

Taylor started grinning. “Damn good job, Lincoln. C’mere.” She grabbed him and laid one on him, then ran off down the hall, shouting for Baldwin.





64



Armed with her team’s hours of work, Taylor and Baldwin went to the Vanderbilt campus. The storm damage was extensive, but the cleanup had gone very well, and all the roads through downtown were back open, as was the campus itself.

It was a beautiful morning. The sun shone on the quad, the grass had been freshly mowed, probably for the last time before the bitter cold of winter hit. There was just a hint of the smell of burning leaves wafting through the air; most had been blown off the trees during the heavy storms. The scent reminded Taylor that the nights would soon turn frigid and warm fires would be needed to chase away the fingers of winter.

Students milled about, happy to be back to school, enjoying the unseasonably warm morning. Two boys played with a football, showing off for three girls in bikini tops and cutoff shorts on a blanket nearby.

There were two professors they needed to talk to from the classics department: Edward Lear and Barry James. Fitz and Marcus had gone through Shelby’s, Jordan’s, and Jill’s records since their arrival at Vanderbilt. By intersecting their schedules, they had come up with the names of two professors all three had taken classes from. After the conversation with the nun in administration at Aquinas College revealed that Mary Margaret de Rossi sometimes audited classes at Vanderbilt in the classics—a program not offered at her school—they found she’d audited several classes, including one each from each professor.

The net was closing.

Baldwin had found the girl who had put together the flyer campaign to help find Jill. Her name was Susan Davidson, and he thought it would be smart to speak with her first, before the professors. If they knew a little more about Jill, they might be able to piece the rest of the story together.

Taylor and Baldwin made their way to the Student Center, and Susan met them at the door, escorted them inside, and found them a table.

Taylor started the interview with a few niceties, asking about the girl’s study and major. Then she started in.

“So, Susan, tell us how you know Jill Gates.”