The Memorist

Chapter 43

Tuesday, April 29^th-9:45 a.m.

Parked on the street, inside the small silver-and-black car, Lucian Glass and Alex Kalfus watched the sequence of events outside the church: an ambulance pulled up, a monk rushed out to greet it and paramedics hurried inside.

Lucian ached to run inside and see for himself what was going on. Used to moving around on a case, he hated just watching but he wasn’t on home turf and this was the best he could get the Austrian authorities to agree to. As he watched, he realized he was unexpectedly and surprisingly anxious. While Kalfus stayed on the phone trying to get information about what was happening, the medics exited the church carrying someone on a stretcher. Sebastian and Malachai accompanied them.

“Can you see who they’re carrying? Jeremy or his daughter?”

“Not from here,” Kalfus said, still holding on his call.

Then the church doors opened and Meer walked out, her skin pale, her auburn hair in disarray.

Kalfus clicked his phone shut. “Jeremy Logan collapsed. Early indications suggest a heart attack.”

Sirens screaming, the ambulance took off and a policeman helped Meer into a waiting squad car that took off almost immediately, leaving Sebastian and Malachai standing on the sidewalk beside the distraught monk. The men exchanged a few words and then walked off together.

Lucian watched them stop at the taxi stand on the corner and get in line behind an elderly woman carrying a large bouquet of tulips. It only took a minute until she got in her taxi and another pulled up. The two men got in. As their cab pulled away Kalfus pulled out after it. “I’m going to guess we’ll be going to the hospital now.”

“And I’d guess you’re right. What I’d really like to know is what they were looking at in there. Can you call in someone to stay on Malachai’s tail if he does go to the hospital so we can come back here and talk to that monk?”

“Should be possible.”

“My next two questions are, who is the man halfway up the block in the blue Mercedes who’s been watching the church along with us and will he be joining the entourage to the hospital? Correction. Three questions. And if he does, who in particular is he keeping tabs on?”

“What man?”

Lucian wasn’t proud that he’d noticed the man reading a newspaper in his car and Kalfus hadn’t. In fact, he’d prefer if Kalfus had spotted him first; it would give Lucian more confidence in his new partner. “He pulled up right after we did,” Lucian explained, “just parked and then stayed in his car. He made two phone calls, checked his watch and then read his newspaper. He continued checking his watch every three minutes as if he was waiting for someone but I’m pretty sure the only person he was waiting for was whichever one of the group inside the church he was following.”