Temple: A New Journey Begins
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"Dead? What happened?" Kermit demanded, his face becoming a stern mask.
"I don't know. My deputy and assistant deputy took her meal to her last night, since she was the only one in the lock-up. They found her lying on her bunk. They thought she was asleep. When they checked on her, they found that she was dead. I sent her body over to the morgue to have it analyzed."
"I want to see that lab report when it comes back," Kermit insisted. "Did she have any visitors yesterday?"
"Her lawyer," the Sheriff replied.
"That's impossible and you and I both know it," Kermit stated.
"Why do you say that?"
"When I was with her, she never made a phone call to her lawyer. Did she get her one phone call when you took her back to the jail?"
"No, it was too early."
"Then who was the visitor?" Vance interjected.
"Do you have a video monitoring system at the jail?" Kermit questioned.
"Yeah, but that won't do any good."
"Why not?"
"The cameras are pointed only on the main entrance to the jail, not on the jail cells themselves," replied the Sheriff. "And there is a camera in the visiting room."
"Looks like someone violated procedure," Kermit observed. "Because the visitor should not have been escorted into the lock-up but to the visitor's room."
The Sheriff didn't say anything for a moment then cleared his throat. "That will have to be dealt with later. Right now I have a dead prisoner on my hands and it's likely the person who did it is long gone."
"I don't think so Sheriff," Kermit protested. "Xia saw someone and they hired her to get rid of the priests."
"How do you figure that?"
"The priests were poisoned," Caine interjected.
"The first two priests were ruled out as natural causes," the Sheriff argues. "There was no indication that either one was murdered."
"That is not the truth," Caine stated calmly.
"Sheriff, we've had four deaths here in as many weeks," Sam interjected. "All of them appeared to be from natural causes. But Caine examined the last one and he said that death was caused by the priest's qi being poisoned."
"Oh did he? And are you a coroner Mr. Caine? And what's this qi?"
"No, I am a Shaolin priest. And qi is the life force or energy."
"So how do you know that priest was poisoned?"
"I knew what to look for. The mark of the dim mak is often overlooked and unrecognized by those who do not know of its existence."
"And you know about this 'dim mack' or whatever you call it," the Sheriff said with sarcasm in his voice.
"The followers of dim mak have a brand on their left or right hand that runs along the second finger and across the palm to the wrist. It is in the shape of a serpent."
"You know, when that woman's gloves were removed for finger printing, she did have what looked like a tattoo on her left hand. Come to thing of it, it did look like a snake of some sort."
"It looks like Xia was our priest killer," Kermit added. "But who would kill Xia and why?"
"Isn't it obvious, she failed to finish the job," Vance concluded.
"That's a very tall order, to have her kill every priest that visits the shrine," Sam observed. "And not all the priests are here at one time. Some only stay for a day or two and move on."
"Maybe she wasn't after every priest," Kermit speculated. "Maybe she was after only one priest, and she killed the others as a decoy to lure one certain priest here."
"What are you talking about?" the Sheriff questioned. "Why go to all that trouble for just one priest, and who was she after in the first place?"
"Me," Caine replied.
"Why?"
"To cover up what they've been doing for the past 50 years," Kermit concluded.
"I don't understand," the Sheriff stated with confusion.
Vance ran into the house then was soon back carrying his prize along with the morning paper. He handed it to the Sheriff.
"What's this?"
Vance then opened the paper to reveal the main headline.
"You're the person who discovered the platinum?" the Sheriff questioned Vance.
"Not exactly," Vance replied.
"Then you stole this from the rightful owner."
"No the rightful owner knows I have it, those who have been operating the mine for the past 50 years have been stealing from the rightful owner."
"Then who is the rightful owner?"
Continues with Part 38
Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2004.
This story cannot be reprinted or sold in any other form without strict permission from
the author. It is being distributed here solely for your enjoyment.
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