how fake she had sounded Luckily Father Michaels was kind enough not to press the issue and instead pushed the register across the coffee table to her Well as I was saying he said deftly removing a cat from the side table and shaking cat hairs off of a map That’s the only part of the parish register that mentions the wreck I did skim the rest but it seems that witnessing the wreck was terrible enough that Father Gonzalez did his best never to mention it again What is interesting is that description of white cliffs and mussels because Archer’s Grove used to have white cliffs somewhere somewhere Carrie asked White cliffs put her in mind of Dover Castle and the English Channel not Florida But there were some endangered mussels that grew almost exclusively on Archer’s Grove I honestly don’t know Father Michaels said But they sound as though they might be a landmark of sorts so if you were going looking that would be a good place to start Huh Carrie said 8
Only about a quarter of the island is the right place for sand marshes Father Michaels added spreading out the map which proved to be a geological geological map of the island It narrows down your search a bit So if there’s a point on the island that once had white cliffs and currently has beds of mussels Carrie said thoughtfully You don’t happen to know anything about the history of the geography of this island do you she asked Father Michaels shook his head I’m afraid not he said I studied divinity in school with a minor in Greek and Latin so if you wanted to know about the religious history of the island I could help but not the mineral composition of the island Carrie sighed and started gathering up the translation translation Father Michaels had given her It looked like she was going to spend the rest of the week in the library Anyway thank you for translating this for us she started to say Her phone buzzed 9
Sorry Carrie said and fished it out of her bag Ask Fr Michaels about the dead body Chris had texted her Carrie winced and stuffed the phone back into the pocket of her sweatshirt Everything okay Father Michaels asked Ah yeah Carrie said trying to hit the N and O keys without looking It’s just a wrong her phone buzzed again Cringing Carrie tugged it out of her pocket far enough to see that Chris had responded On And then ASK about the dead BODY Give it a rest Chris Carrie muttered and savagely savagely texted back NO I’m a bit surprised your cousin hasn’t called me yet to ask about the dead body in the cistern Father Michaels said conversationally and Carrie was so startled startled she dropped her phone The priest blinked then added Was that what he was texting you about You really don’t have to tell us Carrie said Chris is a little um paranoid right now There actually isn’t a lot I can tell you Father 10
Michaels said Despite what always happens in TV crime dramas DNA testing and fingerprinting take a while with an unidentified corpse even if the faint possibility exists that it might be the body of Cesar Francisco He crossed his arms thoughtfully I did get a call from the local FBI office asking for the names of any pastors here during the fifties and sixties so I assume they’re looking into that angle So they think he was murdered Carrie asked Well Father Michaels said and I apologize if this brings up disturbing memories but when you saw the corpse do you remember how well preserved it was It looked fine except for the Carrie swallowed swallowed The skull The skull in fact had had a nice large jagged hole in the back when Carrie had caught a glimpse of the corpse as it was being moved And even in the sixties there wasn’t a good way for someone to find their way into that cistern and die accidentally Father Michaels said The problem is that I have no idea who owned the skeleton in the 11
