That seemed to set Annie back on her heels a bit.
Cork heard the creak of the stairs and saw Rose coming down from floors above. She walked to where the others had gathered.
“I’m sorry you saw all that, Annie,” she said as soon as she stepped into the kitchen.
“You won’t let him leave the church, will you?”
“Annie,” Jo cautioned.
“You won’t,” Annie said.
Rose balled her hands together and closed her eyes, and for a moment it looked very much as if she were praying. “I think I’m going to have to talk to God about that one, Annie,” she said at last. “I’m a little confused myself.”
Annie, who’d never run from anything, turned away and fled outside, letting the screen door slam behind her. Rose took a step to follow.
“Let her go,” Jo said. “She’ll be fine. She just needs some time by herself to think.”
Rose took a deep, quivering breath. “I could use some of that, too.”
“Oh, Rose.”
Jo crossed the kitchen and threw her arms around her sister. Cork stood drinking his beer, as bewildered by the events as everyone else.
He called the sheriff’s department and caught Cy Borkmann just as he was leaving for the day. He explained to the acting sheriff what he wanted.
“I don’t have a problem with you looking at the Kane girl’s file, Cork. But promise me one thing. You come across anything we missed, anything important, you let me or Gooding know. Deal?”
“Deal, Cy.”
“When do you want the file?”
“ASAP. Mind if I copy the material? That way I won’t be a pest down there.”
“I’ll go you one better. I’ll have a deputy make copies. It’ll all be waiting for you.”
“One more thing.”
“Don’t push your luck.”
“Any chance of getting a look at the file on the incident at Kane’s place?”
“What for?”
“Maybe nothing. I’d just like to have everything that relates in any way to what happened to Charlotte Kane.”
Borkmann thought a moment or two. “All right. Can’t see that it would hurt anything.”
“Thanks, Cy.”
“I hate making these decisions.” Borkmann hung up.
An hour later, Cork picked up the promised documents. It was early evening by the time he returned home. Except for Jo, the house seemed deserted.
“Where is everybody?” he asked.
“Jenny’s with Sean. I think they’re going to a movie. Stevie’s across the street playing in the O’Loughlins’ tree house. Rose is upstairs, standing watch over Father Mal.”
“Any word on Annie?”
“No.”
Cork looked outside, thinking about the man who’d stalked his daughter.
“Don’t worry,” Jo said. “She’s always home before dark these days. Are you hungry? I’d be glad to make you a sandwich.”
“What have we got?”
“Ham and cheese on rye.”
“I can make my own.”
“Sit down. Relax.” Jo walked with Cork to the kitchen. “Chips and beer with that?”
“Thanks.”
Jo took a bottle of Lienenkugel beer from the refrigerator and gave it to him. On the kitchen table, Cork laid out the folders of material he’d picked up at the sheriff’s department and opened the first file.
“You didn’t happen to discuss a reasonable fee with Oliver Bledsoe,” Jo said as she put a chunk of smoked ham on a cutting board to slice.
Cork took a long drink of cold beer. “I’d do this even if they paid me nothing.”
Jo set a block of cheddar on the counter and, beside it, put what was left of a loaf of dark rye. “People are asking if you’re ever going to open Sam’s Place again. Some of them. The rest seem to be wondering if you’re going to take the job as sheriff if it’s offered.”
“Which group do you fall into?”
“I don’t fall. I stand firmly behind whatever you choose to do.” She began to slice the ham. “Going to want mustard on this?”
“Do you have any advice?”
“It’s best with mustard.”
“About the sheriff’s job.”
“I have enough trouble keeping my own life in order. I know you’ll do whatever’s right for you.”
Cork sat down and leaned back in his chair. “Want to hear a story, Jo?”
“Does it have a happy ending?”
“For a crippled kid and his folks, yeah.”
“I’m all ears.”
As he began to tell her about the family from Warroad, she sat down with him at the table. When he’d finished, she said, “What do you think?”
“That I should have done more to protect Solemn. Maybe he had been given a gift, Jo, something important to share. Now that gift is gone.”
She reached across the table and took his hand. “These people, you’re sure they weren’t part of some con?”
“As sure as I am of anything right now. I’m not saying that Solemn had the gift of healing. Maybe his gift was just that he helped these people believe enough to make their own miracle happen. You know?”
“Yes.”
“It’s important to me that people think of Solemn in a good way. So it’s important that everybody know the truth of what happened to Charlotte Kane.”
“I understand. What can I do to help?”
“For starters, you can finish making that sandwich.”
Later, Jo ran a bath for Stevie, and while her son played in the tub, she came down to the kitchen where Cork had the documentation of Charlotte Kane’s death investigation spread out on the table.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Nothing so far.” He folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. “One thing I keep going back to. The food wrappers at the scene of her death. The fact that some bastard sat there callously eating while she died. I keep asking myself what kind of ghoul would do that kind of thing?”
“A sin eater.” Annie stood at the screen door, looking in. Night was beginning to settle in at her back. “Can I come in?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” Jo said.
She walked in, her eyes tracing the lines on the linoleum. “I’m sorry for the way I behaved.”
“That’s all right,” Jo said. “Are you hungry?”
“I’m always hungry.”
“How about a ham and cheese sandwich?”
“I recommend it highly,” Cork said.
“Thanks.”
Jo got the things from the refrigerator.
“Just walk?” Cork said.
Annie shook her head. “I bumped into Randy Gooding and he walked me to the Broiler. We talked. Look, he
