The Gilded Witch by Jack Webb

Author:Jack Webb [Webb, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-4150-6
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 1963-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

WHEN SAMMY RETURNED to the house on the beach, fog was beginning its long cold crawl up the hill and onto the highway. Father had started a fire in the fireplace and was sprawled in the big chair with his stocking feet up on the ottoman. Sammy’s copy of Manana Town was open, face down in his lap.

“You took your time.” He smiled at the detective.

“We stopped for coffee.” Sammy shrugged out of his coat. “Something rather interesting came up about her marriage. There were four of them two couples on the trip to Nogales. Until the event actually took place, she thought it was going to be a double ceremony. Other fellow backed out but manoeuvred them into going on. Peculiar.”

“I can add to that,” Father Shanley said. “I just found it skimming through the book while I was waiting. So obvious, I don’t know why I haven’t seen it before, although, of course, Basta being married hadn’t entered into our thinking.”

“You want a beer?” Sammy headed toward the refrigerator.

Father Shanley started to shake his head. “Why not?” he asked instead.

“You were saying?”

“Gil Basta was a misogynist.”

“Woman hater! Him!” Sammy grunted. “He sure made a study of his subject.”

“So does a cancer specialist.”

The detective handed the priest his beer and settled comfortably on the sofa, shaking his head. “That theory I won’t buy. Regardless of what we may have thought of how he handled it, the women generally came out better than the men.”

“Because the men were destroyed—by women.”

“Estrellita Montero,” Sammy argued, “Carmen Montoya, innocent of wrong even when she caused it. Certainly we couldn’t presume to hate her?”

Father sighed. “No,” he admitted, “not her, but something far worse because we have made evil out of innocence. Enough to make you believe it’s easier to forgive sinners who know what they are doing, than the innocent who unwittingly, or witless, are capable of perpetrating enormous crimes.”

The phone rang. Sammy glanced at his watch. It was nearly two in the morning. “You may be losing your host,” he said to Father.

“Golden,” he said to the phone.

“You don’t sound like you were sleeping,” Lieutenant Adams said.

“I’m not.”

“Good. Sorry to break in on whatever you’re up to, but it’s urgent. Father Shanley left his parish on a month’s leave this morning. Presumably he was going home to visit his family in Los Catos. They haven’t heard from him. It’s important that we find him.”

“Trouble, Red?” Sammy glanced at his guest, his forehead creasing.

“A Teresa Valdez was murdered in Royal Heights this evening. Her neck broken and signs of strangulation. Last week when Father was sick abed, he sent for this Valdez woman. Sent Mrs. Mulvaney to get her. According to the Father Edwards who has taken over the parish in Shanley’s absence, Valdez was in an emotional state following her visit to Father’s bedside. So, you can see …”

“Yeah,” Sammy said, “and if I keep him here …”

“Father’s with you!”

“That’s right, we were sitting here discussing Basta’s book.”

“You keep him there.”

“You don’t want us to come in?”

“Hang on for a minute.

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