Page 58 of Death is Familiar

“Is that chapel open to the public?”

“What, that? That’s the Dexter mausoleum.” Jack continued, “Chapel on top. Crypt on the bottom. Family only. Local PD checked it out. There were no signs of forced entry. No signs of foul play there either.”

“Exterior only, or inside too?”

“The mausoleum was cleared.” There was a pause, the result of an exchanged look between Jack and Todd. “Listed as irrelevant... But come to think of it, the police reports didn’t mention any attempts to obtain a search warrant. No affidavit. Nothing in the reports about executing the search warrant either.”

Well, didn’t that seem like a glaring hole worth looking into.

“Good.” I stomped over to the mausoleum, Todd at my side, Jack a few paces behind.

“Good? What’s good?”

“There’s one more place to look.” That and Zhou wouldn’t have liked the fact that I had uncovered something she and the other agents neglected to find. If the local police were at fault at least there was a buffer.

Hoisting myself up, I climbed over the padlocked fence blocking the sandstone steps up to the main entrance. Before Jack could question my actions, Todd pulled himself over the fence to join me. Two against one.

For what felt like the tenth time this morning, Jack shook his head, before grabbing onto the metal bars. “You both are going to get me into a lot of trouble.”

†

The pink light of dawn did little to illuminate the covered entryway. Though I could just make out the once ornate carvings surrounding the door, I couldn’t help but notice the large pieces of fallen stone—from the collapsing exposed buttresses—on either side of the balcony wrapping around the mausoleum. Given the state of the building, well-worn and eroded by time, there was no doubt the mausoleum was a safety hazard. And the gates we climbed over were meant for our protection. Not the other way round.

On instinct, I ran my hands down the columns on either side of the door. There was a gap about the size of my little finger between it and the wall. I felt into the crevices, ignoring any and all thoughts about spiders and centipedes.

Todd followed suit, and took to feeling down the outer columns.

Keeping an eye on our surroundings, Jack shone the light from his phone into the spaces Todd and I searched.

“Hopping the fence is one thing,” Jack warned. “But barring an exigent circumstance, we’d need permission to enter the mausoleum. Or a warrant.”

Exigent circumstance.

I concealed my smile at the familiar term. All the reading I’d done in prison was finally coming in handy. I took Jack’s use of the term as inspiration, rather than a warning.

A loophole, if you will.

“Ugh,” I huffed, my fingers coated in a tacky grime. The first two columns were clean. Dirty, but clean. Nothing hidden behind them beyond a few cobwebs and decaying leaves from last fall.

I turned to Todd, who shook his head. He hadn’t found anything either.

Patting the grit off my knees, I did another scan of the entryway. There were neat piles of rubble in each corner. Pieces of the collapsed buttresses and crumbled ceiling.

It was worth a check.

I lifted a few of the smaller pieces of rubble⁠—

My hand struck something odd. A rock. But it wasn’t cold to touch, nor was it warm, retaining the heat from the day before. It was inert. Like plastic.

Jack and Todd’s gaze prickled the back of my neck as I pulled the odd feeling rock out of its hiding place. It was lighter than a rock should be. Hollow perhaps.

I flipped it over. There, on the bottom, was a sliding door.

The ‘rock’ was custom made for a hidey-key… and the hidey-key was missing.

I lifted the empty fake rock to the agents. “I take it cemetery staff didn’t mention this.”

“That, was definitely not included in the report.” Jack leaned down to get a closer look.