05/15/2023 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE CASE OF THE MEDDLING PRIEST.

The trick is going to be keeping this one under control.

Yeah, obviously, I took the job. I’m telling the story, ain’t I?

Once we shook hands on it, we made it over to the scene of the crime. It was your basic professional hall, the kind where the lawyer shares a meeting room with the accountant and the alchemist moonlights as a notary public. “Annabelle rented a safety deposit box with Senor Lomax,” Father Miguel explained to me. “He’ll be able to tell you the details about what happened.”

“Good.” I didn’t explain to the good father that Lomax was also one of the three prime suspects, since he had a master key and he was a lawyer. Either one might not have been enough, but combine the two? Maybe there was something there. He wouldn’t be the first abogado who figured he knew enough law to wriggle out of trouble.

Lucky for him, he wasn’t the only suspect I had: there were two other people who had keys to the box.

05/14/2023 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE CASE OF THE MEDDLING PRIEST.

Getting back to this!

“I’m afraid so, Mr. Vargas. She died two weeks ago. I received word that she fell overboard, off the ferry to Peñasco, only they didn’t find the body for a week. We buried her last Saturday.” Father Miguel looked unhappy. “There were more people attending the reading of the will than at her funeral.”

“Yeah. That happens. I take it the relic was one of the bequests?”

“Yes. It turns out that she left it to the Church — but when the executor opened the safe where she had stored her valuables, it was empty of that, and the other items listed in the will. That’s when I was brought into the situation.”

I gave him the old Shamus grin. We have several different versions of that, so I went with ‘good-natured.’ Father Miguel seemed like a good guy, even on short notice; besides, he could probably bench-press me. “So you took a look at the mess, decided that you weren’t the right guy for the job, and went looking for one who was?”

“Exactly. I will confess, I went first to the police.”

“Sure,” I agreed amiably. People are always making that mistake. It ain’t like Cin City cops are lazy; they just know what they’re good at. Somebody snatching pouches? They can sort that out. Week-old thefts where nobody’s talking? Not so much, at least as long as the corpses aren’t piling up. I didn’t have the good Father here pegged as somebody who’d want things to get that bad. “Did your parishioner stick around?” He looked confused, so I elaborated. “You know, as a ghost?”

“Oh! Sorry, Mr. Vargas. I have no idea.” Now I was confused. “My time in seminary didn’t include any lessons in necromancy. Just warding and exorcisms. I wouldn’t know where to start in talking to a spirit.”

05/09/2023 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE CASE OF THE MEDDLING PRIEST.

I’m trying not to add a dog. I’m trying real hard.

It was a tale as old as time. Somebody had something valuable enough to steal, so it got stolen. Now somebody else wanted it back, but quietly. I don’t know why they always want it back quietly. Maybe if enough people made a fuss, more thieves might get scared off.

I’d say that the Devil was in the details, but apparently that’d be exactly backward. “It’s a relic,” Father Miguel explained. “A piece of the True Cross — ah, do you know what that is?”

“Just the basics,” I replied. “Holy relic from the death of your god, right? Supposed to have miraculous healing powers, vaporizes demons on sight, that sort of thing. They’re supposed to be really powerful relics, too.” I politely didn’t add, So why does your church rate one?, because I’m classy that way.

From the pained look on Father Miguel’s face, he had heard my thought anyway.