The Penitent One (Boston Crime Thriller Book 3), Brian Shea [best non fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

that he's worked at in our in-house filing system. So I made a call to the archdiocese to see if there was a master file somewhere with more detail and they said no."

"What did the archdiocese say?"

"They told me not to worry about it. That it's being taken care of and that they'd be in contact with the authorities themselves. To be honest, they seemed a little put off by me asking."

"Who did you speak to over there?" Kelly asked. "Has this ever happened before? Are they normally this secretive about such inquiries?"

"I couldn’t say. I've never really dug into another priest’s personnel file before. But something about it felt off. Maybe I’m still just shook up. Does it sound strange to you?”

Kelly gave a shrug. “Not sure. Depends. I’ll check to see if they ever sent something over to us. It could’ve gotten lost in the shuffle. I’ll check with Sutherland, make sure that somebody at the archdiocese hasn’t already forwarded the file over. You know how things get, maybe he just forgot to give it to me.”

“It wasn’t just the phone call. I remember having a conversation with Father Tomlin, back when he first arrived. He said he had done some work at Saint Mary's in Alexandria, Virginia, prior to coming here to Saint Peter’s. I found it strange there was no record of it in his file here. I was going to call over there, but after getting shut down by the archdiocese, I didn't want to ruffle any feathers by overstepping my bounds and figured I would just leave it to you."

"No worries, I’ll check it out."

"Do you think there's something to it, Mike? Do you think there's something going on here I should be worried about?"

"I don't know. Could be nothing. I’ll keep you posted. I'll take a look at it and place a call over to that church, see what they can tell me."

"Okay." Donny seemed relieved at hearing this. His mind had obviously run a little wild, and understandably so under the circumstances. Finding a fellow priest murdered would unravel the best of minds. Entertaining a conspiracy theory or two would only be natural.

But that wasn't Kelly's way. Kelly was a fact man. He believed in the tangible, and only when all else failed did he give any credence to wild conjecture. He hoped this wasn't going to be the case now. Although, with Gray's enlightening information, it made the leap to conspiracy theory much easier.

"How are you holding up, Donny? You personally?"

"I'm good. Been a rough week, but I’m doing better. Tough to put the image of Tomlin out of my mind. Thanksgiving seems less festive. I'm going to hopefully take some time to myself and decompress."

"If you need anything, you know I'm just a phone call away." Kelly got up, taking Father Tomlin’s thin personnel file with him. "You don't mind if I take this, right?"

"No, that's your copy." Donny switched gears. "Got any big plans for Thanksgiving, Mike?"

"Going to have Barnes over for a little dessert this year."

"Huh,” Donnie said, breaking into a grin. "Imagine that.”

“Don't give me any grief. I’m catching enough of it from Embry as it is."

"I'm happy for you. It's about time you got your personal life back."

"Thanks."

Kelly headed to his car, still warm from the drive over. He sat for a moment before turning the ignition and grabbing his cell phone. He did a quick Google search, finding only one Saint Mary's in Alexandria, Virginia, and decided to make a quick call.

After a few rings, the call connected. "Hello, Saint Mary's Parish. This is Alice. How may I help you?"

"Hi, Alice, this is Detective Michael Kelly. I'm calling from Boston Police Department's Homicide Unit. I'm investigating the murder of a priest here in Boston, and in doing some research—"

"Oh dear," she interrupted.

"Sorry to be so frank,” Kelly said, realizing how shocking his opening remark would have been to an unsuspecting ear. “I’ve just been working hard on this the past couple of days and forget myself."

"Anything we can do, Detective, please." Her voice reset to its initial pleasant tone.

"Well, digging around in his personnel file didn't have much to offer, and we're trying to get as much background information as we can."

"Sure, understandable." The woman spoke softly, sweetly.

"The decedent told one of the parish’s priests that he worked at Saint Mary's before coming here to Boston, but we couldn't find anything supporting that in his personnel record. Is there any way you could take a look for me?"

"Sure, yes. No problem. What is the priest's name?"

"Benjamin Tomlin."

"Okay, Tomlin. T-O-M-L-I-N?"

"Correct." Kelly could hear her typing on the computer keyboard.

“Strange,” Alice mumbled.

"Were you able to find anything?"

"No. Not at all. We don't have any record of a Father Benjamin Tomlin. Not anywhere in our system.”

“Is it possible it was misfiled?”

“We've recently computerized our records. We used to have an old file system, but I was the one who updated it, put every name into our database,” she said, pride emanating from the receiver.

"And there's nothing?"

"No. The database is archived back to the very first priest who presided over our church. There’s no history of a Father Tomlin. Nobody by the name Benjamin Tomlin anywhere in our system."

"Strange," Kelly said, repeating the woman’s words.

"Sorry I couldn't be of more help, Detective," Alice said kindly.

"You've been plenty of help.” Just before ending the call, Kelly asked, “And there's no other Saint Mary's in or around Alexandria that you know of?"

"We’re the only one."

"Okay then. Maybe I just got my facts crossed. Does happen," Kelly said, attempting to minimize any worry his inquiry might’ve caused.

"I hope you find whatever you’re looking for, and I hope you find whoever did this."

"Me too," Kelly said, and hung up. Although he felt further away from that possibility with every passing second.

11

The next couple of days proved uneventful in moving the case forward. The additions made to the board all fell into the negative column of things not found or puzzle pieces left