2 - Secrets: Ike Schwartz Mystery 2 Read Online Free PDF

which he had worked so hard. The thought of serving out his years in Picketsville in that oddly named church crushed him.
    “It will come to you, Blake. I know you and I know that behind all that shiny-bright ecclesiastical eagerness is a deep and caring person who will make an enormous difference in the lives of hundreds of people. That is why I gave you the job, Blake. I do not need a mission. I do not even want a mission. But God does, and he wants you in it. So there you are. Ah, here’s our food.”
    They ate in silence, Philip obviously enjoying his steak. Blake toyed with his burger and fries, his thoughts far away—in Philadelphia.
    “Philip,” Blake said between mouthfuls of slaw, “you believe me when I say nothing happened at Saint Katherine’s, don’t you?”
    “You said it. You do not lie, as far as I know, so yes, I believe you. Your Bishop’s letter didn’t hurt, either.”
    “Thanks a lot.”

Chapter Six
    “Okay, Ike, here’s where we’re at.” Billy Sutherlin opened his notebook and waited for a signal from Ike to begin. Ike had finished with Fisher and watched him drive away. He’d spent the next hour circling the grounds. He hadn’t found much. He assigned two men to work up the victim’s Toyota Tercel parked in the trees, at least he assumed that’s who the car belonged to, and he taped off another set of tire tracks nearby. The lot behind the church did not seem to be used often, especially in the summer, and he guessed the tracks might be significant. Or not.
    “Shoot,” he said.
    “Well, Miz Bass, that’s the lady with the face all messed up from crying and—”
    “The one who put her finger in the bloodstain?”
    “Yeah. She’s the church secretary and the one who found the body. She doesn’t know why the victim came back to the church late Thursday night.”
    “Back?”
    “Yeah, see they have choir practice every Thursday evening and then they all go out together. But he might’ve stayed behind or something. So, anyway she said this morning she aimed to get a head start on the fixing up what they do in the…” he consulted his notes, “sanctuary or is it sacristy…can’t keep them straight…so she came out that door and around the corner and found him. She’s pretty busted up.”
    “The others?”
    “Well, you know my mother, course, and Mavis Bowers. She lives out by the Craddocks. I reckon she can tell you some stories about them…and then there’s Grace Franks and Iris French. They all say the same thing…they came in, found the Bass woman in a state, and called you.”
    “What about the Reverend?”
    “Well, he got here late and he don’t seem to know anything. I didn’t try for an alibi, what with him being a Reverend and all.”
    “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. He’s a priest, by the way. Episcopalians have priests like the Catholics. But Reverend or not, I want you to check him out. Anything else?”
    “Well, that’s another funny thing, Ike. The FETs gave me this here key ring.”
    Ike looked at the ring of keys, counted them through the plastic of the evidence bag. Five keys. He held the bag up to the light.
    “You see anything interesting about these keys?” he asked and handed the bag back to Billy. His deputy took it and shifted the keys around in the bag as Ike had done. He frowned and sighed.
    “Well, sir, I can’t be sure if it’s important or not, but it seems like all the keys is, you know, on their cut side, facing the same way except this here brass one. It looks new and is pointed the other way round.”
    “Any thoughts?”
    Billy scratched his head. “Well, most folks don’t care which way a key faces. But if this Templeton guy was, like, one of them orderly types, you know, the kind who refold their newspaper before they throw it out in the trash, or always roll their socks a certain way and, well, if he made sure all the keys faced the same way, then—”
    “He was in a hurry when he put this one on, or he