Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [637]
“What was he being treated for?” Chief Ramsey asked. This information seemed to have caught the chief’s attention. He sat forward, elbows on the table.
“A Father Quinn at the center told me they treat priests who suffer from a variety of conditions including what he referred to as ‘challenges with alcohol’ and, of course, any mental or emotional problems.”
“And Father Kincaid’s problem?” Maggie found herself sitting forward, too, anxious that her early gut reaction to this case might be true.
“That was a confidential matter,” Carmichael said, but held up her hand to stop several groans. “However, I waited and called back a little later. This time I didn’t ask for anyone of an official capacity. I just chitchatted with the volunteer answering the phone. She had lots to tell me.”
“Gossip,” Pakula said and he didn’t look happy. “Inadmissible gossip.”
“Yep, you’re right,” Carmichael said as if that was exactly what she expected him to say, but it didn’t break her routine or slow her down. “So do you wanna hear the inadmissible gossip or not?”
She looked to Chief Ramsey and he nodded, waiting. Unlike Pakula, he didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
“Barbara told me that Father Gerald Kincaid had a little problem with what was officially being called ‘inappropriate behavior with preadolescent boys.’”
“And so he was reassigned,” Maggie said. “Did the Chicago PD have anything on record?” she asked even though she thought she already knew the answer. She had discovered in her short research that up until recently most of the cases had been settled out of court and under the radar of local law enforcement.
“Nothing,” Carmichael said. “Absolutely nothing. Barbara, however, told me that Chicago hadn’t been the first incident. There had been dozens of allegations. And you’re right,” she told Maggie. “Each time Father Kincaid had simply been ‘reassigned.’ In fact, he was reassigned to five different parishes. This last time the parents threatened to go to the cops, but his archbishop convinced them Kincaid would be sent away for treatment.”
Carmichael paused and looked around the table. “About six weeks ago he was released and assigned to All Saints Catholic Church. I talked to the church council president and the cleaning lady at the rectory—a pretty good mix in the way of gossip, by the way—and the funny thing is, nobody at All Saints in Columbia even knew Father Kincaid had been in a treatment center let alone what he was being treated for.”
“Sounds familiar,” Maggie couldn’t help saying, and she met Pakula’s eyes.
“Agent O’Dell thinks that could be the connection. That we might have an assassin on our hands.”
Maggie felt all their eyes on her. Carmichael actually smiled…a little.
“What about Daniel Ellison?” Pakula wanted to know. “Agent Weston said Ellison left the priesthood to get married. Doesn’t sound to me like someone who messed with little boys.”
“I haven’t found any allegations, but if Kincaid’s case is any indication, I’d say the church is pretty good at keeping allegations under wraps. I was thinking we might ask our new friend, Father Tony Gallagher.”
“Oh, really. Why is that?”
“Seems he and Ellison were in the same seminary class at Notre Dame.”
“Holy crap!” Pakula said. “So Father Tony has a connection to both men?”
Maggie watched Carmichael finally grin as she seemed to relish the information she had just presented.
“Not only that,” Carmichael said, looking as if she had saved the best for last, “but when our good Father Tony was in Chicago, he started and headed up an unofficial victims’ rights advocacy group. I imagine he got to hear all kinds of the things—or rather the allegations—that Father Kincaid was accused of doing.”
“If the church was keeping it hush-hush, how did you find out about the advocacy group?” Ramsey asked.
“One thing I