Devious by Lisa Jackson

“What happened between her and your brother?”
    â€œCar wreck. Cruz was at the wheel. Nearly killed them both.” But there was more to the story, Montoya thought; he just didn’t know it, had been off at college when the accident had occurred.
    They met up with the mother superior in the hallway near the chapel, where she was being interviewed by one of the uniformed officers.
    Sister Charity’s voice was hushed and well modulated despite the tragedy. In the dim candlelight, her face seemed far more youthful than the sixty years she claimed to be as she responded to Montoya. “I already told one of your officers, Ms. Erwin, here, everything I know.” Her words, though spoken softly, were underlaid with a thread of steel.
    â€œWe’re going to need to interview everyone in the building,” Officer Erwin said.
    The older woman shook her head slowly. “Everyone was asleep. I can’t see what good waking them will do.”
    â€œThey might have heard something. Or maybe someone was up, passing through the hallway on the way to the restroom. There’s a chance someone saw something,” Randi Erwin insisted. “Or maybe one of the residents could shed some light on motive for killing Sister Camille.”
    â€œOh.” The mother superior crossed herself, as if suddenly realizing the magnitude of the tragedy. “I’ll talk to each of them,” the reverend mother offered. “Father Paul will offer them guidance—”
    â€œIt’s not about guidance,” Montoya said crisply as he wondered if the woman was being intentionally obtuse. “Before you speak to them, we need to interview them.”
    â€œAll of them?” She seemed surprised.
    Montoya nodded. “We want to talk with anyone who lives here and anyone who may have been on the property tonight. They’ll need to give their statements to officers.”
    Erwin said, “And I’ll need more information on the victim.”
    â€œWe’re a very private order.” Sister Charity frowned. A roadblock.
    â€œWith one of your own dead? Murdered. I’d say that overrules privacy.” Barely thirty, Randi Erwin was tough, a small, wiry woman who wore little makeup and kept her brown hair cut short and feathery. Once a gymnast in college, she was now a martial arts expert and took no guff, not from older guys in the department who tended to tease her and not from this imperious nun. “I’ll need a list of the victim’s friends. Can you think of anyone who held a grudge against her?”
    â€œThere are no enemies here.” The older nun threaded her fingers in resignation, finally getting it that the police weren’t just going away.
    Bentz snorted. “Surely you don’t believe that. People are people; they make others angry, hold grudges, seek revenge, whatever. A lot of wars have been waged in the name of religion.”
    She bristled. “Not here.”
    â€œWhy is she dressed in that dress?”
    â€œI have no idea.”
    â€œWhere did she get it?”
    The reverend mother’s eyebrows drew together. “I don’t know,” she said, just as Officer Chris Conway approached.
    â€œThe press is here,” the officer said. “A reporter from WKAM.”
    â€œTell them to wait for a statement from Sinclaire,” Bentz said. Tina Sinclaire was the public information officer. “And that’s not going to happen until we notify the next of kin. They know it’s a homicide if they’ve listened to the police band, so don’t try to stonewall the reporter—just ask him to wait.”
    â€œGot it.” The officer strode across the chapel toward the exit.
    Montoya turned to the mother superior. “What about Camille Renard’s next of kin?” he asked, barely remembering the dead woman’s parents. Wasn’t the dad older, a guy who worked with the railroad, the mother a part-time