“We’ve run the screens three times. We test for every known substance. The kid hadn’t eaten in probably twelve hours, but that’s all. Whatever was going on inside his mind, his body was squeaky clean when he attacked that woman.”
North leaned forward slightly. “Then what the hell happened?”
“Well, some people get a bit cranky when they’re hungry,” Breen observed. Then his tone changed, and he spread his hands helplessly. “Okay, I doubt it was the low blood sugar. Frankly, it looks to me like he just flipped out. It happens. Have you checked with his family doctor? Did he have a shrink?” He opened the file again to the front page. “He was at St. Isaac’s. Have you talked to his priest?”
“No prior history, no shrink, priests won’t say much,” North said.
Breen returned the file to the stack on his desk and leaned back in his chair, a sure sign that the interview was coming to an end. “Whatever happened to this boy stemmed from a disease of the mind, not the body,” Breen said. “Sorry I can’t be of more help.”
North rose to his feet and shook hands with Breen across the desk, then left the office. He could hear the Medical Examiner resume dictating even before he’d closed the door, and remembered too late that he’d forgotten to replace the stack of papers on the chair. He paused for a moment, then continued down the hall, unwilling to have to reintroduce himself to Breen twice within ten minutes. Let him find his own damn files.
As soon as he was back in his car, North called Kevin Peterson. “Well, so much for that,” he said when his partner came on the line. “No drugs — nothing. Which means we’re back to square one.”
North hated square one.
CHAPTER 22
ABDUL KAHADIJA CLOSED and locked the door behind him. The simple act of escaping his daily ritual, setting aside this time for prayer, filled his heart with peace.
He pulled down the window shade against the afternoon sun, and drew the heavy curtains, shutting out much of the city noise.
Yes. Better.
Much better.
Quiet. Peaceful.
He opened the closet, retrieved a box from the top shelf and set it on his bed. Slowly, reverently, he unpacked his
Next, he stripped off his clothes and entered the bathroom. With no time to bathe again completely, he began the cleansing ritual he followed five times each day.
“In the name of Allah,” he said, then ran warm water over his hands.
When cleansed three times from head to foot, he slipped into the gray, floor-length
He stood for a moment, facing Mecca, ready to offer his prayers to Allah. But he must still his mind first.
The mission — the mission of ultimate vengeance — was at last approaching fruition, and the excitement of it interfered with his concentration.
But it must not interfere with his prayers.
He must not risk angering Allah, for this week at the mosque he would ask Allah to guide him to the one who could provide the last bit of information he required.
His heart rate increased as he visualized it, standing silently, eyes closed. This quest was his: only he understood all the myriad details that made the plan possible.
He must be infinitely careful, make not even the slightest mistake. Just one inappropriate word, a single glance or gesture, and years of planning would go to waste.
That could not happen.
Abdul’s left hand began to curl into a fist.
He relaxed his hand. The moment for retribution had yet to come.
This was the time for prayer and worship.
This was the time to escape from the pain of life and sink into the arms of Allah and the blissful anticipation of all that Allah promises to the faithful.
Taking a deep breath and putting all worldly matters aside, Abdul began. “I intend to offer two
Allah is the greatest.
CHAPTER 23
THE FIRST THING Darren Bender saw as he opened the door to the library was Sofia rising to her feet, her gaze fixed on him, and no hint of any kind of smile either in her eyes or on her lips. Still, there was no doubt that she’d been waiting for him, and even before the door had closed behind him, she cocked her head toward the farthest corner of the room and walked toward the stacks.
Darren put his books down on a table and followed, using a different aisle but catching up with her by the windows. Taking her arm he turned her around, and whatever faint hopes he’d been nursing for a quick kiss instantly evaporated as he saw her eyes, red and puffy from crying.
“Hey,” he whispered. “What’s wrong? Where have you been? I’ve been calling.”
Sofia ignored his questions. “What did Father Sebastian do to you?” The words came more as a challenge than anything else.
Darren recoiled a step back, almost as if he’d been struck. “Nothing! He talked to me and I have to go see him again tonight after school, but there was nothing special.”
“Nothing?” Sofia echoed, her voice starting to rise. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Shhh!” Darren took a quick look behind him to be sure the librarian wasn’t anywhere around, then moved closer to Sofia, and lowered his voice. “What happened?”
Sofia shook her head almost as if she was trying to rid herself of the memory. “Sister Mary David locked me in a chapel and made me pray on my knees for—” Her voice suddenly faltered. How long had she been praying? She couldn’t quite remember. It had seemed like forever, but how long had it really been? And suddenly she couldn’t even remember what the chapel had looked like! It had looked strange, and scary, but…
But she couldn’t remember any of the details.
Only how frightened she’d been, and how much her knees had hurt, and her body had ached.
She looked up at Darren, and he could see tears pooling again in her lower lids. “It must have been hours,” she went on, her voice breaking. “And then I had to go to confession, but Father Sebastian wouldn’t absolve me.”
Darren took one of her hands and held it in his own. What was she talking about? The priests always absolved you after confession. That was supposed to be the whole point, wasn’t it? “What do you mean, he wouldn’t absolve you?”
Sofia spread her hands helplessly. “Just that! He wouldn’t do it. And I have to go back there again tonight.”
An uncertain frown furrowed Darren’s brow. “But what we did wasn’t that bad,” he began.
