Sister Genevieve

by John Milesky

  “The kiss got me thinking about things,” Alverez interrupted. “In fact, there are several aspects of this case that have me confused. I don’t know if I kept them to myself to protect you, or if it’s because I’ve fallen in love with you.”

  Maggie was confused on many levels. First, a man she hardly knew just said he had fallen in love with her. Secondly, what aspects of the case had him confused?

  “Detective, what makes you think you’re in love with me?” Maggie asked.

  “I think about you all the time,” he answered. “I find myself imagining us building a life together. And, there are some pieces of the case that I overlooked, even though my instincts were telling me that things just weren’t adding up.”

  “What things?” Maggie responded.

  “You never said anything about the second gun,” Alverez said. “Where did you get the second gun, and where did it disappear to?”

  Maggie found herself on the verge of talking about the second gun again. She trusted Alverez and thought about spilling the huge secret that had been weighing on her shoulders, since the whole ordeal began. She was about to comment on the gun, when he continued to reveal pieces of the case that didn’t make any sense to him.

  “Calls you made on your sister’s cell phone didn’t make any sense either,” Alverez continued. “I heard the message you left for D’Adamo telling him that you would meet him in the usual place. How did you know where that was? The fact that you didn’t want to press any charges against him after he raped you, didn’t add up either, especially, since you counsel abused women. You would never tell any of those women not to seek medical attention after they’ve been raped, would you?” The detective didn’t let her answer, as he continued on with his confession. “Then there’s all the wine you drank. Most nuns don’t know the difference between a chardonnay and a pinot noir, yet you continued to buy the top of the line as far as alcohol goes. It just seems like you knew things that only your sister would know.”

  The detective took a long, deep breath. As he exhaled, he let all the stress he had been feeling, escape his body. He started to feel better.

  “Detective,” Maggie started. “I spent a lot of time with my sister in the weeks leading up to her death. She told me things. She more or less taught me how people live her type of lifestyle. She taught me about clothes, wine, and other things a nun wouldn’t know about. She was a woman of the world. To a nun, she had it all-”

  “But, she had to sleep with men to have it all,” Alverez interrupted.

  “True,” Maggie agreed, “but she told me something just before she was killed. She told me she was leaving the life of prostitution and moving away from Washington to start over. She told me she had enough money saved up to go anywhere in the world and become someone else. She had buried the demons of her past. She was like a new person. And then, things got complicated for her.”

  “Complicated?” Alverez questioned. “I’d say being murdered, was more than a complication.”

  Maggie sat for a few seconds gathering her thoughts. “I guess complicated is the wrong word,” she admitted. “I guess I would say that things got complicated for me. I mean, here I am now. If you would have asked me a few months ago about being a nun, I wouldn’t have had any doubt. Now I know that this life does not suit me. I can’t give to a god that doesn’t give back. I know I can’t hide here anymore.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Maggie sat inside the dark confessional. She was less anxious than the last time she was there. She was also less confused. She was calm and determined to close the final piece of the puzzle that had plagued her since her sister’s murder. The confessional door slid open. This time it didn’t startle her.

  She didn’t start her confession in the usual manner. Usually, she would ask to be blessed and admit she had sinned. But now, she didn’t feel like she had sinned.

  “Hello, Father,” Maggie said.

  “What is it you’d like to confess, my child,” the priest asked.

  “I’m not here to confess anything, Father,” Maggie answered. “I’m here to admit.”

  “What is it you’d like to tell me?” the priest asked.

  “I’d like to tell you that I no longer belong in God’s house,” Maggie admitted. “I’ve been living a lie, and I’d like to stop now.”

  “What lie have you been living?” the priest asked.

  “I’ve been living my sister’s life,” Maggie admitted.

  “How do you mean?” the priest asked in confusion.

  Maggie thought for a long while before she spoke again. “My sister was a nun,” she said. “And, because of me, she’s dead.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Genevieve was packing up her apartment when the buzzer to the elevator sounded. She quickly went to the foyer and pressed the call button. It was Alverez. She waited in the foyer until he arrived. When he stepped off the elevator, she embraced him in a hug.

  “Detective,” she said, “what brings you by?”

  “I was in the neighborhood,” he admitted. “Thought I’d stop by and say ‘hello.’”

  “I’m glad you did,” she answered with a smile. “I’ve been thinking about you. May I get you something to drink?”

  “No, thanks,” he said.

  “Well, please come in and have a seat,” she offered as she led him to the living room. Alverez followed her and took a seat on the sofa. The room was filled with boxes.

  “Going somewhere?” Alverez asked.

  “Yes, there are just too many bad memories for me to stay,” she admitted. “I just want to start with a clean slate someplace else.”

  “And maybe as someone else?” the detective added.

  She froze. “Yes, I am no longer a nun, and I thought I’d move to Paris and start a new life there.”

  “Who are you going to be?” Alverez asked.

  “I’m going to be myself,” she answered.

  “And who is that?” Alverez asked again. “Maggie or Genevieve?”

  Maggie didn’t turn around. She kept wrapping items and placing them in boxes. “I don’t understand, Detective?” she said. “Genevieve is dead.”

  “Is she?” Alverez asked. “I think it’s time to stop pretending.”

  “Maggie,” she said. “I’m going to be Maggie.”

  The detective could tell by her answer that she knew that he knew. Genevieve had been alive all along.

  “Do you want to tell me what happened?” Alverez asked.

  She walked over to the window and looked out over the city. “No matter how many times I look out this window, I will never forget how dangerous this town can be.” She said in a sorrowful tone. “This town took my sister away from me.”

  Neither one of them said anything for several moments. “Maggie liked this view,” she finally said. “Every time she came to visit me, she would stare out of this window and talk to me about things.”

  “What sort of things?” Alverez asked.

  “Mostly her life as a nun,” she said. “She’d only recently told me that she was thinking about leaving her order.”

  There was a long silence. It felt like they were offering Maggie a moment of silence before the truth was revealed.

  “We were out of wine that night,” she finally said. “Maggie came down to DC for the weekend. We had finally been able to talk about things like sisters are supposed to. I was dressing her up. We were talking and having fun. It was like a sleepover where we were two kids dressing up in their mother’s clothes. She had a little too much to drink, but she was having way too much fun for me to stop. So, I ran out to get some more wine. I was only gone for fifteen minutes. When I came back, she was dead. I don’t know why I did what I did. I guess I must have just panicked. I ran around here in hysterics. The only thing I could think of, was to run. I saw her habit sitting on the chair in the bedroom, so I just put it on. I put it on and became Maggie. Poor Maggie. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She fought her whole lif
e. She had to fight off our uncle as a child, yet she chose to become a nun. No matter what happened to her, she always said that God would protect her. Where was God the night Jack Harrison put the wire around her neck and choked the life from her body?”

  She started to cry. Alverez stood up and went towards her. He embraced her shaking body and tried to comfort her.

  “I guess I left too many clues for you, Detective.”

  “I had a gut feeling that you weren’t a nun,” Alverez admitted. “You’re too beautiful to be a nun. And, you were way too comfortable being here in this apartment.”

  “But my sister was a nun?” she said. “She looked exactly like me. She was beautiful.”

  “You were both beautiful,” he admitted.

  “What happens now?” she asked. “Do you arrest me?”

  “I can’t arrest you,” Alverez said. “I’m no longer a cop.”

  She looked at him in confusion. “I don’t understand?”

  “I resigned,” Alverez answered. “After 20 years of being a cop, I never thought I would have a case like this one. I’ve been going along like a robot, getting cases, looking for clues, solving some, losing some. And then, I met you, and I felt something real. You made me human again. You made me feel. You made me want to feel. I can’t look at any more dead bodies after meeting you.”

  “So what happens next?” she asked.

  “As far as the world goes, Genevieve is dead-”

  “But-” she started to interrupt.

  “Genevieve,” Alverez called her for the first time, “your life as Genevieve is over now. You are no longer a person who has to sleep with men for money. The murderer was killed. Everyone thinks Genevieve is dead. You can go on being Maggie, an ex-nun. Sounds better than being an ex-prostitute.”

  “I don’t even know your name,” she said.

  “Francisco,” Alverez said. “I hear Paris is beautiful this time of year?”

  “You’ll love it, Francisco,” she said.

  “You can call me Francis,” Alverez said.

  “Hello, Francis,” she said, “please, call me Maggie.”