"You don't have to come too." Cam's voice clearly betrayed her need to have her sisters with her.
"Nonsense. Besides, you are right. You did promise to be there."
The small church, on the corner of Pratt and Hogan, was nothing like the others in Naco. It was simple, with clean, modern lines. The majority of the plot was not allotted to the church but to the mission center Pastor Ian had built.
As the three sisters stepped towards the church’s main doors, the talking patrons all fell silent, their eyes filled with various emotions. There was curiosity and pity, suspicion, and anger. Then she spotted two pairs of eyes that held compassion and steadfast loyalty.
Rosa smiled at her two oldest friends as they made their way over.
"I wasn't sure you'd be coming," Mark said in hushed tones, looking over the rest of the small crowd who were now whispering behind their hands. "But I am glad you did."
"Don't worry, hun, it'll die down," said the woman who had come with him, her strawberry blond hair in perfectly bouncy spirals around her face, her dark eyes warm.
"Thanks, Ella," Rosa said, embracing her friend.
"How very disappointing."
They all turned to the stern voice coming from the doorway, and the talk died down.
Rosa felt Cam shiver and had to hold back the sudden urge to laugh. While her sister was undoubtedly more prone to flights of fancy, she couldn't fault her reaction this time. There was something undeniably impressive about Pastor Ian as he stood framed in the doorway of his church, surveying the parishioners with a severe gaze.
"I had hoped you would all be less capricious and sinful," he said, and a wave of bowed heads followed the words. "Yet I find you here, discussing the loss of man's life and the past losses of our own fellows as if they are not causes of sadness and pain."
Pastor Ian deliberately looked over his flock, then turned his eyes on the Kay sisters and their two friends. The reprimand in his eyes fading into the same compassion Mark and Ella's held.
"I hope you will not think too badly of these few," he waved vaguely at the other parishioners. "They have fallen to the lure of gossip and allowed their hearts to darken with unkind words and thoughts."
Cam threw him an enormous smile as Lucia and Rosa each managed a small nod.
"Please, let us forget this, forgive those who had trespassed against us, and begin anew, in friendship and love." Pastor Ian stepped to the side and waved Rosa and her party inside the building.
She, like the others with her, spared him a small, grateful smile. He had always stood by them, even back when he was no one but the previous pastor’s adopted son.
Cam settled in beside her sisters and pulled out her bible and a pen. "Can you pass me one of those?"
Mark exchanged a brief glance with Rosa, then reached out to the nearby stand and pulled a form from it as the other parishioners slowly filled into place.
"Cam, are you sure you want to do this?" Lucia asked, also catching Rosa's eye after reading the top of the volunteer form for the mission center.
"Yes. I told you last week that I was going to. I haven't changed my mind, whatever else has happened."
"I think it is a good idea," Rosa said, half surprising herself again. There was definitely something wrong with the dark fog in which she had lived her life since her father's murder. "Pastor Ian will take good care of her, Lucia." She added in an undertone as the man in question stepped up to the podium. Lucia held her gaze for a moment and then gave a small nod, conceding the obvious point. Still, something in her eyes sparked Rosa's suspicion. Lucia definitely had a secret, one she hadn't shared with either of her sisters.
5
Daniel Reis wondered if there was a more annoying sound in the world than a ringing phone. He grimaced as another began and decided the answer was yes. Multiple ringing phones were definitely more annoying than just one ringing phone.
"You know," said a voice to his right, filled with suppressed laughter. "If you actually came into the office more often, instead of always sending me, the noise wouldn't bother you so much. Especially this tiny office. The main office has a lot more than three phones."
Reis opened one caramel-colored eye and cast his partner a glare. "I like quiet, so sue me. Besides, it's seven a.m. on a Sunday, and you know I hate flying. I still have a damn headache."
Gaby Boone chuckled, then rose quickly, her movement alerting him to the approach of their boss. He stood too, straightening his suit jacket and opening both eyes.
The head of their division of the FBI walked into the room. Her dark suit effectively hiding any feminine curves she might possess. She tossed a folder onto the table between them.
"Thank you for coming in, Agent Reis, Agent Boone. Welcome to Bisbee. "
They both nodded and retook their seats. "Is this about Carlos?" Reis asked as Gaby pulled the file towards her and flipped the cover open.
"As astute as ever. I guess I should have expected nothing less from someone trained by the famous Special Agent Hyde."
Reis ran a hand over his bright ginger hair and glanced covertly around the room, wondering if his old mentor was about to appear as he was apt to do.
"Hyde's still in Chicago, Reis, stand down. But yes, you are right, this is to do with agent Carlos."
