Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [638]
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Pakula said and then added, “And you might just as well have him bring his quarterback attorney.” He looked over at Chief Ramsey. “Speaking of attorneys and other bottom-feeders, Agent O’Dell thinks we might be able to manipulate the media into helping us find out a thing or two.”
Ramsey sat back, arms crossed. One hand strayed to rub at his jaw. His eyes met Maggie’s, gentle but tired blue-gray eyes outlined with pronounced wrinkles, what were once laugh lines. “Let us know how you want to work it. We’ll make it happen.”
“I think it should be today. We can go over what choice information we release. Maybe we even leave out Ellison for the time being and see if anyone comes forward, connecting him,” she told both Ramsey and Pakula.
Pakula gave her a nod of agreement or perhaps it was admission. To the others he said, “Sounds like we better find out what rumors there may have been about Monsignor O’Sullivan. As much as I hate it, we probably should call in that nagging reporter from the Omaha World Herald and find out what the hell she thinks she knows.”
CHAPTER 42
Omaha, Nebraska
Gibson tried to remember the last time he had invited someone over to his house. He did it all the time when his dad was alive. But then his dad was sort of like a magnet. Gibson could remember inviting a friend over after school once and his dad talked them into a game of H-O-R-S-E. Before they knew it there had to be like half a dozen neighborhood kids playing, taking their turns and laughing so hard nobody could hit the rim.
It was like that all the time whether they went sledding or to a ball game or even just washed the car in the driveway. Everyone wanted to be around his dad. Sometimes he wondered if he ever had any real friends or if they all just wanted to be around his “cool” dad. But this kid, this Timmy Hamilton was different.
They’d figured out that Gibson would turn sixteen a month before Timmy turned fifteen—so he was more than a whole year older than Timmy—which allowed Gibson to call him “kid.” Timmy didn’t care. He seemed in awe of Gibson and his knowledge, and not in awe like he couldn’t believe how geeky Gibson was, but like he really was interested, like he really wanted to be Gibson’s friend. Not an easy task. Gibson knew he didn’t make it easy for people. He knew he was sort of odd, compared to other kids. He didn’t care about the right things, or at least not the things his classmates cared about. Instead, Gibson loved playing chess. He listened to a strange combination of music, with the Stray Cats being one of his favorites. He collected old pop bottles and had every episode of The X-Files on DVD. He wore his hair longer than was the style and wore a baseball cap even during class until the teachers asked him to take it off. Except Sister Kate’s class. He never made Sister Kate ask.
When his dad passed away, Sister Kate was the only one who wasn’t all weirded out about it. Instead, she had asked for his help, wanting to know if he might be able to come in after school a couple of days a week to catalog her collection on a new computer program she had just created especially for it. He missed his dad the most those first weeks, but his afternoons with Sister Kate had been some of the best. They talked about stuff and she made him laugh. But then the project was finished. And the next week was when Monsignor O’Sullivan started asking him to come to his office so Gibson tried to spend as little of his extra time at school as possible. That was partly why he had told his mom he didn’t want to ruin his summer by having to go to the Explorers’ class. But he liked being around Sister Kate. And now that the monsignor was gone for good…well, maybe he could finally enjoy stuff again. Stuff like