Table of Contents
About Requiem Mass
Praise for Mark Posey’s Thrillers
Title Page
REQUIEM MASS
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About the Author
Other books by Mark Posey
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About Requiem Mass
The man who ordered her death lands in her lap...
The Cardinal Secretary of State, Giovanni Buscaglia, arrives in Philadelphia, his four henchmen by his side. Sister Jacobine shows up at his hotel to put an end to his attempted grab for power within the church. She never imagined that the consequences of her actions would rip her heart in two.
A Nun With A Gun is a series of short stories and novelettes about Sister Jacobine, the Pope’s hitwoman. They are best read in order.
1.0 Feet of Clay
2.0 A Port in the Storm
3.0 Excommunication
4.0 Requiem Mass
5.0 Den of Lions
6.0 The Narrow Gate
Thriller Short Story
Praise for Mark Posey’s Thrillers
Well-fleshed out characters to really care about, and a deep state plot that is very timely given current world affairs.
All in all, an enjoyable page-turner!
REQUIEM MASS
The knock on the front door was so soft, Alice wasn’t sure she’d heard it.
She and Mike had come to visit the Raffertys on Saturday morning with the requisite donuts and they were all gathered around the kitchen table. Cups of steaming coffee for the adults and plastic glasses of milk for Susie and Christine.
The laughter and conversation, almost shouted at times, was plentiful and easy. The company of friends, something Alice missed while living at the Vatican, was refreshing and uplifting.
Then, in a gap in the conversation, the light, almost not-there knock on the door came again. This time, they all heard it.
All four adults stiffened. Knocks on that front door had not been well-received, lately.
Alice, Mike and Rafferty sprang to their feet. Rafferty headed for the door, Alice and Mike stood in the middle of the living room, hands resting on the guns in their holsters.
Ready.
Rafferty peered through the peephole and immediately drew his head back. He glanced at Alice and Mike. “It’s just some old man.”
They relaxed slightly, hands still resting on the butts of their pistols.
Rafferty opened the door, bracing his arm across the opening.
The old man on the front steps was thin and stooped, with a full shock of silvery white hair. Alice recognized his hooked nose and square chin immediately.
She stiffened and narrowed her gaze. “Roberto.”
“I was sure you’d be here, my dear Alice.” Roberto’s accent was heavy Italian.
“What are you doing here?” Alice moved to the door, bristling.
Rafferty stepped back out of the way.
“It was the only way.” Roberto shrugged.
“The only way to what?”
“You know.”
“I am afraid I do not, Roberto. You will have to tell me.”
“To beg your forgiveness, my darling Alice. Buscaglia got into my head. I made rash decisions, to get him off my back. Decisions I shouldn’t have made...”
Mike scowled and glared at Alice. “Who the hell is this guy?”
“Please come in, Roberto.” Alice stepped back to allow the old man to move into the foyer.
He smiled at Mike and Rafferty, then at Geri and the girls as they came in from the kitchen.
Alice indicated them each in turn. “May I present Constable Michael Fredericks. Constable Martin Rafferty. His wife, Geraldine Rafferty and their two children, Susie and Christine.
Fredericks and Rafferty shook the old man’s hand and Geraldine strode forward with the girls in tow to shake his hand, too.
The old man laid his hands on the girl’s heads.
They shyly clung to Geri’s legs.
“Michael, Martin, Geraldine, girls, I present His Holiness, Pope Benedict the Seventeenth, Roberto Giovanni Giordano.” Alice swept a hand towards the old man.
Roberto looked up from the girls. His smile grew wider as he scanned their faces. Geri’s jaw had dropped. Mike and Martin both stood straighter, eyes wide.
Rafferty eased the door closed. The latch clicked quietly into place. No one else moved.
Alice looked at the Pope and shook her head. “I swear you do things like this just to see the shock on people’s faces.”
Pope Benedict the Seventeenth laughed softly. “One of the perks of the job.” His eyes were bright. The heavy Italian accent added extra syllables.
Geri recovered first. “Your Holiness, please join us. We were just sitting down for coffee.”
He inhaled deeply through his nose. “Are those donuts I smell?”
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
“We will not get past the weather if you keep calling me that.” Roberto smiled at her. “All the protocols of the papacy are, how you say, a pain in the ass?”
Geri smiled as he gripped her shoulders, leaned and kissed her on each cheek. He pulled back and looked Geri in the eyes. “You are the woman who has looked after my Alice so well while she has been here in America?”
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
“You can call me Bob.” He turned her around, linked arms with her at the elbow and together, he, Geri and the girls ambled into the kitchen.
Mike and Rafferty looked from them to Alice, eyes still wide.
“Bob?” Rafferty said.
Alice nodded. “Quite so.”
“Bob the Pope,” Mike chimed in. “Is that a kids’ TV show?”
Alice slapped him on the arm. “Michael, be quiet. He’ll hear you.”
Bob’s voice came loudly from the kitchen. “We will shop it around in Hollywood!”
Mike looked from Alice to Rafferty to the kitchen and back to Rafferty again. “I’m going to hell, aren’t I, Raf?”
Rafferty nodded and strode toward the kitchen. “Yeah, but not for that,” he threw over his shoulder.
Bob poked his head around the corner and speared Mike with a good-natured stare. “Sì, not for that. But for taking the last apple fritter—for that,” Bob held up his hand, one finger pointing up. He turned his hand over, so the finger pointed down. Then he whistled and moved the finger towards the floor. “Straight downstairs you go!” He laughed as though he’d made the funniest joke in the world and returned to the kitchen.
Mike looked at Alice, aghast. “He’s a comedian, too?”
Alice grimaced. “He
