Ignatius, Father Mulrooney’s, has been found dead in the church and buried by the aging priest in the graveyard. Dead cats tell no tales, but the howls of Ignatius–according to the good father–startle him from a deep sleep the next night and send him to the church to investigate. On the sanctuary floor is a pentagon painted in blood and signs of a Black Mass. But all traces of the Satan worship vanish by the time he brings his housekeeper, Mrs. Thrimble, to witness the sacrilege. Can’t Jimmy, with his growing reputation for investigation, take a look-see?
Matters of cats meowing from beyond the grave and old boneyards aside, Flannery doesn’t consider either problem a matter of life and death…until he stumbles upon a corpse. That makes it murder. Someone has killed poor old Father Mulrooney, and Flannery suspects the motive lies in the world of the living , where passions run deep and politics lie at the bottom of land deals, buried secrets, and sudden death.
While former choir boy Flannery heads to the Catholic boys’ school next to St. Pat’s–that being the likeliest source of ghostly cats and devilish doings–his former ward boss “Chips” Devlin figures Jim’s the one to revive some of Chicago’s Irish political clout and squelch the gas station deal. Devlin’s sainted grandmother lies in that graveyard, and he’d prefer her bones rest in peace, not make way for premium no-lead.