“You think our good priest is lying about knowing where my uncle is right now?”
“No. It’s hard to judge, but I don’t think he lied to me. But I don’t want to take a chance that he might make a good guess. Do you?”
He slowly shook his head. “We’re getting too close. Let’s go.”
She shook her head. “No, you go. I’ll stay here.” She held up her hand to stop him as he opened his lips to protest. “Observation, remember? One of us has to keep an eye on Father Barnabas.”
“And who would keep an eye on you?”
“Do you actually think Father Barnabas is going to attack me in this church?” She gave him a steady glance. “It’s not likely. He told me he had an appointment with a young couple who are going to be married. You’ll probably be back before he’s even finished with them.”
He didn’t move. “And you won’t try to follow him if he takes off?”
“I won’t do it without calling you.”
“And what if my uncle decides to show up for confession?”
“Then I’ll have to play it by ear.” She smiled faintly. “So stop borrowing trouble and get back here so that you don’t have anything to worry about.”
He hesitated, then turned on his heel and strode toward the door. “It shouldn’t take me more than a couple hours. Stay here.”
She didn’t answer.
He glanced back over his shoulder at her. “I don’t like this,” he muttered.
Then he was gone.
She was relieved that he had actually left her. The suggestion she had made was reasonable, but Gallo was very protective.
It must be because her argument about the safety of the sanctuary was reasonable and the time involved so little.
She did feel safe here.
She gazed around the sanctuary.
Peace. Beauty. Stained-glass windows depicting St. Francis and the animals. The crucifix over the altar.
She was not a Catholic, but there were many things she liked about the religion. The confessionals. Releasing guilt and pain by voicing them could only be healthy, both physically and mentally.
The idea that worshippers had followed the same rituals for centuries.
And the soothing silence of this sanctuary that closed out the present and brought back the past.
She sank down in the pew to the left of the aisle and closed her eyes.
Memories were flooding back to her.
Not bitter but gentle, precious memories.
Bonnie that moment in the hospital when Eve had first seen her.
Bonnie singing her special songs with Eve before she went to bed.
Joe holding Eve, smiling at her, tilting his head thoughtfully as he listened to something she said.
“Are you waiting for Father Barnabas? You did find him, didn’t you?” She looked around to see Father Dominic coming down the aisle. “You and Mr. Gallo seemed to be very intent on talking to him.”
“I found him.”
The priest’s brows rose. “Not a satisfactory meeting? It doesn’t surprise me. He’s pretty well rejected the life he led before he entered the seminary, but he’s very protective about his former patients. He can be very stubborn.”
“Yes, he can. But so can I. Where is he? He told me he had an appointment with a young couple.”
Father Dominic nodded. “He should be done now. I saw their car leaving about ten minutes ago. He’s probably still in the office.”
“And where is that?”
He nodded at a door to the right of the altar. He shook his head. “I know you must be in distress, but you’d be wise to accept Father Barnabas’s decision,” he said gently. “He won’t change his mind.”
“Thank you, I know you only want to be kind.” She headed for the door. She smiled over her shoulder. “And maybe also to protect a fellow priest from having to deal with an annoying person from his past. I’m not going to cause him any trouble… at the moment.”
The priest chuckled. “Father Barnabas can handle trouble. It’s what we’re taught to do in the seminary.”
“And what I was taught growing up on the streets. So we have that in common.”
“Though I doubt you’d handle it in the same way. You won’t talk to me instead? I can’t help you with information, but I’m a good listener.”
“And you’d like to defuse any situation for him.” She shook her head. “You’re a good friend to him. But you can call him and warn him I’m coming if you like. He might be able to escape out the back door.”
He shook his head. “He wouldn’t thank me for that.” He turned away. “If you change your mind, I’ll be in the confessional.”
“Waiting?”
He smiled. “Not for you particularly. We always hold confession at this time.”
He was a nice man, she thought as she moved toward the arched opening, and very loyal to Father Barnabas. It was interesting to know that Father Barnabas could inspire that kind of loyalty. But it also pointed out what an enigma was this man who had been Kevin Donnelly.
The oak door of the office was closed, and she hesitated before knocking.
She didn’t really think that questioning him again would do much good. She had principally wanted to make sure where he was in the church so that she could keep an eye on him as she’d told Gallo.
But she wasn’t sure that he was still in the office as Father Dominic had guessed.
She knocked on the door.
No answer.
“Father Barnabas.”
No answer.
Check to make sure.
She had been joking about him slipping out the back door, but he might have done that. She started to open the door.
“No! Get out!”
“Don’t be rude, Father. Let her come in.”
That last was not Father Barnabas’s voice.
Yet she recognized it.
She pushed the door open.
Father Barnabas was sitting on a green-padded office chair at a desk across the room.
Ted Danner was standing behind him, a knife to the priest’s throat.
“Run!” the priest said. “Out! Now!”
“But she won’t do that,” Ted Danner said. “Because she knows that it might save her but not you, Father. I knew the moment I met her years ago that she was one of the givers, not the takers.”
Eve had been frozen, but now she took a deep breath. “Perhaps I’ve changed, Danner. It was a long time ago that you came to see me when I was pregnant with Bonnie. People do change.” She continued meaningfully. “Events change them. Murderers take away everything that makes life worth living. That can twist their lives and what they are.”
He flinched but quickly recovered. “You haven’t changed. Not really. You’re not going to go anywhere as long as you think that I may hurt the priest.”
And Eve couldn’t deceive him that she would be that hard. She could only try to go around the situation from another direction. “But you don’t want to hurt him, Danner. Why would you? He’s been your friend. He’s been trying to help you for years. Why are you here anyway?”
“Because you’re here. You’re the one who is causing the problems for the priest.” He said jerkily, “Do you think I want to hurt him? I thought he could save me, but now I know that’s not going to happen. I only want to do what’s right, but you’re against me. You came here to turn him against me. If you hadn’t shown up here hunting for me, he would have been safe. But I know now that’s the way it should be, how it’s meant to be. I should have
