by Mabel Maney
A tall man wearing a long black overcoat got out, opened the trunk and took out state police roadblocks. He blocked the road and roared away.
"Those are fake roadblocks!" Jackie cried. "Look-he's added an extra "e" on the end of the word police!"
"Let's move them and follow him," Lauren urged excitedly.
"He's headed for the convent," Midge said. "I think we'd attract less attention if we followed him on foot. It's not that far."
Jackie got out of the car, opened the trunk and took out a tool box. Inside was an assortment of tools, rope and pipes of various lengths and weights.
"I got this from my locker at police headquarters," Jackie explained, "for those days when I need extra, added protection."
"From criminals?" Lauren asked.
Jackie laughed bitterly. "No, from my fellow cops!"
"Pipes make great weapons," Midge said with a grin.
"And they can't be traced," added Jackie.
"And they're easy to hide," said Lauren, picking up a pipe and sliding it down one leg of her overalls and into her boot. Midge and Jackie did the same, Jackie tucking her service revolver into her belt.
"Who's got the map Cherry found at Aunt Gert's?" Jackie asked.
"Don't you have it?" Midge asked.
Jackie shook her head. "I thought you had it."
Midge groaned. "I bet Cherry has it. Some detectives we are," she said. "We can't even hang on to the one clue we do manage to find!"
"Cherry did leave us the teddy bear," Lauren pointed out.
"Great," Midge grumbled. "Some help a stupid stuffed bear will be."
Lauren tucked the bear into the front pocket of her overalls. "He'll hear you," she admonished. Midge groaned.
"Let's go, girls," Jackie said. "This is no time for regrets. We'll do the best we can with what we've got."
Midge led the way. Although Jackie had a flashlight, they were afraid the strong beam would attract attention, and so they stumbled along in the darkness. They gingerly made their way through the thick brush surrounding the convent, aware that the dense foliage could be hiding anything.
"Or anyone," Midge shivered to herself. "Be careful," Midge whispered to her companions as they drew closer to the convent. "The building is ringed with old rose bushes, which have really big thorns. It's an allusion to Christ's crown of thorns," she explained. "It's a medieval practice."
They heard a twig snap somewhere ahead of them. The trio ducked behind the trunk of a thick old redwood. Jackie drew her revolver. "It sounds like someone's marching back and forth," she whispered.
"We're very close to the main portal of the convent," Midge said. "Someone must be guarding it."
Just then the full moon broke free of a cloud, and shone upon the spooky scene, providing the girls with enough light to clearly see their foe.
"There's someone in a flowing white robe guarding the entrance. And he's got a rifle," Jackie gasped.
Lauren took Jackie's binoculars and peered through them. "That's an altar boy," she said. "I know because when I was a kid, I wanted to be one, but Father Buchanan said girls weren't allowed that close to the Sacred Host."
"Look," Midge cried, grabbing the binoculars from Lauren and training them on the lower part of the large stone building. "There's something going on in the cellar," she whispered sharply, handing the binoculars back to Jackie.
"See? There's a thin beam of light showing through the basement window."
"This proves without a doubt that someone is hiding something in there," Jackie exclaimed. "But how would they have gotten them there? The police already went over these grounds with a fine-tooth comb, and found nothing. That's why we haven't seen any patrol cars in the area. They've already given up here," Jackie informed them.
"I say we jump the altar boy and get inside," Midge proposed. Lauren seconded the idea.
As soon as the altar boy turned his back, the girls raced towards him, with pipes in hand. He twirled around just in time to see them coming.
"Jesus Christ!" he yelled when he spied the girls.
Jackie pulled her gun on him. "Shut up!" she said in an angry whisper, grabbing his gun. "One peep out of you and there'll be one fewer altar boy at mass next Sunday!" she threatened.
"I'm not afraid of you," he sneered. "Why, Father will be here any minute with five armed deacons, and they'll take care of you girls."
"Wanna bet?" Midge replied. She grabbed the muscular lad by the collar and raised him high in the air.
"Please don't hurt me," he whimpered.
"Where's Velma?" Midge demanded.
"Who?" the boy asked, his voice quavering.
"You know. She was kidnapped and brought here. She's got dark hair, and was wearing a yellow dress."
"If you put down that gun, I'll tell you everything," the boy whimpered.
But instead of keeping his promise, he cried for help. Jackie grabbed him. "I ought to do you in right here," she said.
"Wait," Midge interrupted.
"Yeah, wait. You wouldn't dare harm an altar boy," he said arrogantly.
Midge slugged him, knocking him unconscious. "What I meant to say was, wait, a gun will make too much noise. That should keep the arrogant little brat quiet for a few hours."
"We'd better get moving," Jackie said. "He said his father was going to be here any minute."
"And look! The light from the cellar's been extinguished. We've got to hurry," Midge said. She jerked the robe off the limp boy and handed it to Lauren. "Here-put this on and pick up that rifle. Quick," she whispered. "I hear footsteps coming this way."
Lauren donned the billowy white robe and took her post, while Midge and Jackie ducked behind a rosebush and prayed that Lauren would pull off the charade.
"She's really quite good," Midge thought, noticing that Lauren gave a convincing performance as an arrogant altar boy. She even remembered to spit now and then. "Why, she's a born Girl Scout," Midge thought proudly.
The man they had seen drive up in Aunt Gert's car opened the thick wooden front door and poked his head out.
"Joe, is everything okay out here?" he asked.
Lauren grunted her reply. The man seemed satisfied, and went away.
"I recognize that man," Jackie whispered. "My god, it's Father Helms. His picture was in the newspaper along with the story about the church taking this land from the sisters. If the missing nuns are really trapped in there, that makes him the ringleader. Why, if that's true, this case is even bigger than anyone imagined!"
"I heard him talking to someone," Lauren reported as she joined them. She struggled out of the billowy robe. "Right as he closed the door, some guy said something about that stubborn nurse not giving them what they wanted. Then the other one said he had ways of making her talk! "
"I must get in there and save Velma!" Midge cried. "This is so frustrating! I have what they want, but they don't know it."
She pulled the book from her jacket pocket. "This contains something that priest wants desperately, but what is it? I've looked through it over and over, but I've found nothing." She fell to her knees. "Oh, Velma!" she sobbed. "Where are you?"
"Look," Jackie cried, pointing to the book, which had fallen open on the ground beside Midge. "Could this be something?" She picked up the well-worn novel. "See how the spine here is broken? Maybe this page contains a clue of some sort."
"'The heart of every convent is the chapel,"' she read. "And it's been underlined. It might be a clue."
"The chapel-I think I remember how to get there," Midge said, composing herself. "Stay low to the ground so no one can see us."
They made their way in the dark, clinging to the rough stone of the building. Soon they came to a series of low, wide windows.
"This is the refectory," Midge whispered. "It's where the nuns take their meals. Get down!" she hissed suddenly. "There's someone in there!"
"Look!" Lauren whispered. "Nuns!"
Lauren was right. Coming through the long narrow room were three nuns, each holdin
g a tray of steaming food. And Father Helms was behind it all, with a gun trained on them!
The group turned a corner and disappeared into darkness.
"That looks like a lot of food for one puny priest," Jackie commented. "They're either feeding the nuns, or..."
"Or there's more of his kind inside," Midge shivered. "Why, for all we know, there's legions of evil priests all over this place. And they could all be armed." She looked around. "Where's Lauren?" she cried, alarmed that the young girl seemed to have disappeared.
"Over here," Lauren called, taking care to keep her voice low. She was calling through the refectory window!
"Come in through that side door," she added, pointing to a small passageway near the kitchen. "And stop chatting so much. You'll give us away."
"She's a smug little twerp, but awfully handy," Midge grinned to herself as she made her way inside.
"Lauren, how did you find a way in? All the doors we've tried are locked."
"I used my matches to melt the leading on a stained glass window," Lauren bragged. "I managed to remove a piece big enough for me to slip through."
They tiptoed to the chapel, Midge reciting from the book as they walked. "`The centerpiece of any religious order is its chapel, especially if such chapel is lucky enough to contain a relic."'
"What's a relic?" Jackie asked.
"We studied relics last week at Sunday School," Lauren reported. "It's a bone or a fragment from a saint with a shrine built around it. Sometimes they have a statue made that looks like the saint-only dead-and put the bone in that. Keen, huh?"
"That's very colorful," Jackie said. "I had no idea the Catholic Church had such tasteful traditions."
"I can tell you guys all kinds of really cool stuff," Lauren bubbled.
"We will certainly look forward to that," Midge said dryly. "Now hush up before they hear us!"
They had arrived at the chapel without incident. "The door to the sacristy is open," Lauren said. For Jackie's benefit, she explained that the sacristy was a special room where priests' vestments are kept.
"No one except priests are ever allowed in there," she said solemnly. "Why, you could go straight to hell!"
"This is a bad time to worry about hell, Lauren," Midge said. "Let's go check it out." The sacristy was a small room paneled in the finest oak. Inside were many vestments sewn of the finest silks. "I think this is gold thread," Midge reported.
"I read somewhere that the nuns who sew these eventually go blind because of the little tiny stitches," Lauren said. "Wow, look at this chalice. It's pure gold."
"Oops!" Midge cried. "I knocked over these little white things." She picked up a box containing paper-thin wafers and popped one in her mouth. "Blah," she said. "Too dry."
"Jeepers! It's the body of Christ!" Lauren cried. "Spit it out!"
"Look over here," Jackie said, gesturing Midge and Lauren over to the large round table that dominated the room. She pointed to large sheets of paper containing sketches of a building. "These are the blueprints for that retirement center the church wants to build on this land! " she exclaimed.
The girls studied the sketches thoughtfully. "It looks like they're planning on razing this entire building. They're going to put a golf course right where the vineyards are!"
"And here's the swimming pool. Boy, this whole thing looks like one big playground, doesn't it?"
"Let's see what else they're planning," Jackie said, digging through the pile of papers on the table. "This is a will made out in the name of the Catherine MacCaffry." She skimmed the document. "This is her family land and, according to this will, all of it will go to the church upon her death."
"But it hasn't been signed," Midge pointed out.
"I bet that evil priest is holding the sisters hostage until she signs this!" Jackie exclaimed.
"That's why she ran away to Seattle," Midge murmured. "And somehow, she ended up in Cherry's hospital."
Jackie glared at her. "What do you mean, 'ran away to Seattle'? Who is she? What else are you hiding?" she demanded.
"Oops! Did I forget to mention that Cherry's amnesia patient Lana and the Mother Superior-I mean, this MacCaffry woman-are the same person?" Midge blushed. "You see, the way I figure it..."
A loud scream coming from the chapel interrupted them. Midge whirled around. "What's that darn Lauren up to?" she groaned. "If she doesn't clam up, she's going to give us away!"
Midge and Jackie raced out of the sacristy. They found a wide-eyed Lauren with her hand clasped over her mouth. She looked like she had seen a ghost!
"Pipe down!" Midge hissed.
"But it's real!" Lauren gulped, pointing to a life-sized statue standing next to the altar.
"It's just a statue," Midge said, examining the bulky white stone figure. "You only thought it was a real body because it's dressed in real clothes. Catholics dress up their statues sometimes." She pointed to the gold plaque on the wall next to the figure. "See-it says, 'Saint Kellogg, Patron of the Harvest."'
Although Midge tried to reassure Lauren, she had to admit to herself that the ghostly white figure, with its blank, staring eyes was pretty scary!
Lauren shook her head. "Its face ...I touched it...Look!"
Midge grudgingly stepped closer to the figure. "Lauren, how on earth did you manage to poke a hole in this thing?" Midge touched the crumbling surface of the saint's face. "Why, this is just plaster! It breaks right off. Ugh! It's squishy underneath! Oh, my god, Lauren, you're right! It is real! A real dead man!" Midge jumped back.
Jackie took charge, conducting an expert analysis of the scene. "This is a deceased Caucasian adult male," she declared. "Someone's tried to hide the body by plastering it and wiring the resulting `statue' to the wall ...There's a large dent in the rear portion of his skull. I'd say he died from a blow from a blunt instrument."
She checked his hands. "There's dirt under his nails, which indicates he was probably killed and buried somewhere else, and then dug up and hidden here."
"You're all very bright girls," a sinister male voice rang out from the darkness. "It's just too bad I'm going to have to kill you."
* * *
CHAPTER 18
* * *
A Confession
"I can't believe we let those horrible men capture us!" Midge wailed, kicking the cold stone wall of their cell. "We should have just taken our chances and shot our way out," she added angrily.
"Right, Midge. My gun against five heavilyarmed deacons," Jackie said. "We'd all be dead by now. Besides, what makes you think we're going to be trapped in here for long?"
"Oh, I don't know," Midge answered in a sarcastic manner. "Perhaps it's the thick iron door, padlocked behind us. That, and the fact that nobody knows we're here. You said yourself you didn't tell anyone where you were headed, remember?"
Midge began to pace the tiny cell, measuring no more than ten square feet. "I'm acting like a jerk," she admitted. "It's just that being locked up drives me crazy!"
She did the deep-breathing exercises Cherry had taught her during their car trip from Oregon, but they didn't work. "I don't need to relax, darn it, I need to escape!" she thought.
"Let's search for a way out," Lauren suggested. "Maybe we can find a secret passage."
"Don't you think I'd know about it?" Midge snapped. "I mean ...uh...I don't know what I mean," she stammered. Midge slumped to the cold dirt floor. "I am not at my best right now," she apologized.
"How would you know if there were a secret passage here, Midge?" Jackie prodded. "You keep alluding to the fact that you've been here before, yet I have a funny feeling it wasn't for a religious retreat."
"And why does being locked up make you so crazy?" Lauren interjected. "Midge, I think there's something you're not telling us. Now, spill the beans!"
"Spoken like a true detective," Jackie said. "Well, Midge?"
"I really need a cigarette if I'm going to go into all this," Midge stalled.
Lauren produced a squished pack of cigarettes
from her overalls pocket. "They're only a few months old," she said. "Here, you can keep `em all."
Midge lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "Funny, I've been waiting to tell this story for years, but all of a sudden, I feel nervous," she confessed. "Okay, here goes. I haven't always been Midge Fontaine. My real name is Hallie Hoover!"
"Hallie Hoover! You mean the California teenager who was convicted of attempted patricide almost twenty years ago and sentenced to life in prison? The one who escaped from the federal pen after five years, and has been missing ever since?" Jackie cried.
"So I take it you've heard of me?" Midge said in a bemused manner.
"Girl, you were the talk of the West Coast for a long time. Why, every time I acted up, my mother would compare me to you, which secretly pleased me," Jackie grinned.
"You were in jail for five whole years?" Lauren cried. "Five years? Why, that's a whole third of my entire lifetime!"
"Thank you for that reminder," Midge said.
"Oh, gee, Midge, I didn't mean anything by it."
"I know, kid. I just have a hard time thinking about those days. Although, if I hadn't gone to prison, I would have never met Velma."
"Velma's a convict too?" Lauren cried delightedly. "This story is getting better by the moment."
Midge laughed, picturing the pretty Velma behind bars. "I met Velma in jail, but she wasn't behind bars," she said.
"But wait. Let me begin at the beginning." Midge stretched out on the cold stone floor, using her jacket as a pillow. "I think we'll have enough time," she said.
She lit another stale cigarette, and continued.
"Horrible Hallie, the newspapers called me. Said I was the kind of girl who gave teenagers a bad name. I lived in Santa Cruz. Actually, it was a lot like the town Cherry's from. A nice small town. Neat little houses with tidy front yards.
"Except our house wasn't so nice. My dad drank a lot, and when he did, he was horrible to us kids. One day I ran away from home. I took his savings; he kept it in a sock drawer in his bureau. I took his gun, too.
