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He had to crawl through the old, lined wooden icebox, and when he did, he stood in a room that was shadowed and e that looked like a conteainst the wall There were cups covered in spiderwebs; the floor was gritty with dust

"Coer said "There’s a hall that leads to the main church"

Malachi set a hand on the sh the shadows to a door There were drapes on the fes down the hallway, shredded and torn in places Daylight glinted through the rips and tears

They came to a door that opened into the side of the er pews that faced the altar, but the steps to the altar and the altar on its dais still stood Here, there was light that seelass s reed or altered Biblical scenes were represented in the glass, beautifully executed Above the altar, Christ looked down at Mary Magdalene and his mother, Mary, surrounded by lael Gabriel

The glass s lass were rich and deep, as were the criht they admitted was eerie

Tables had replaced the pews When it was a nightclub, the owners had played on the religious symbols and added to theled fro

"The tunnel entrance is up on the dais and behind the altar," Roger said

They trailed after him

It wasn’t quite as odd an entry as the one by which they’d entered A little wooden fence surrounded a grate; they opened the entrance and then Roger bent down to lift a hatch A steep narrow stairway led to the darkness below

"Father Liaer said "The Irish Catholics liked to take their cues frouess, and the Vatican There are a nulass encased Sort of creepy I’ve got a little penlight Anyone else have anything?" he asked

"Yeah," Abby said, producing her key chain and a sht he’d used that first night out of his pocket

"Prepared, huh?" Roger joked

"Me and the Boy Scouts," Malachi said He shined his light over the circular roo Not surprising, it was dank and musty, and there seemed to be a verdant smell of the earth around thelass; beneath it lay the decaying body of a priest in his vest brown as it stretched over the bone Malachi dusted the grit and grime off the bronze plaque before him His name had, indeed, been Liam O’Leary and he’d been born in County Cork in 1744 and died in Savannah, Georgia, in March of 1793, beloved of his "laer told him "And around the room you have several more of the especially beloved felloho served the faithful I’ up--or carted out--when the church sold the property in the late 1890s and the building was deconsecrated Could’ve been bureaucratic error, red tape, whatever Seeuys were down here while people were up above the vampire bats dance over their heads"

Malachi and Abby both nodded

"When I first started exploring down here, I was shocked," Roger said "And I didn’t even know there were catacoainst the wall and it turned out soh But there are five tunnels leading out froain, kind of like the Christian catacolish, of course, but had a large Irish population fro Man, you should come for Saint Patrick’s Day! But that’s beside the point These people were very Catholic And when the church was established here, they emulated Rome"

"Five entries--by each of the five dead priests?" Malachi guessed

Roger nodded "After I found the first, I tapped around the room and found the rest of them Those three--" he pointed across froo The other trunks go on and on It gets damper and damper as they head under the streets to the river So" He let the word hang as he lifted his flashlight to look at Malachi’s face "You can pick door number one or door nuood Father O’Leary--what say you, Ms Anderson?"

"I’ood father would not lead us astray," she said

He ser, standing between two of the glass-do priests, and then over Abby She appeared to be pale, almost ethereal with her jet-black hair and deep eyes She would’ve been a perfect iht wryly, when the place was a vahtclub