Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [666]
“I’m sorry both of you had to go through that, Mrs. Donovan,” Pakula told her. “I just wish you had gone to the police instead of the archbishop.”
“I know, I know,” she said.
“Who the fuck do you think the police would have believed?” Mark asked. This time his outburst made his mother jump.
“I’ve got to ask you something, Mark,” Pakula said. “And I don’t want you to think that I’m being insensitive to what’s happened to you, whatever it was, but why didn’t you tell him to stop it?”
“I was ten years old.” Mark’s voice was suddenly low and calm, the anger evidently pushed back somewhere. “This priest who I’ve been taught is like God comes into my bedroom and kneels at my bedside.”
He looked around the group as if making sure they were listening. Pakula noticed all of them were literally at the edge of their seats.
“He told me that God and my dad were watching us from heaven. Then he asked me to close my eyes and pray the Our Father with him, so I did. We wouldn’t get halfway through the prayer and I’d feel his hand under my covers. He’d dig into my pajama bottoms, grab hold of me and start jerking at me. Sometimes so hard it hurt. I remember once opening my eyes and that’s when I saw that he was still on his knees but I could see his fly was open and in his other hand he had hold of his own penis, too, and was jerking it just as hard as he was jerking me.”
Mark stopped and looked Pakula in the eye. When he spoke this time he sounded like a small boy, “He told me my dad and God were watching us. I kept telling myself they wouldn’t let this happen to me if it wasn’t okay.” Then as if that wasn’t enough of an explanation he added, “I was only ten years old.”
CHAPTER 61
Blessed Sacrament Church Rectory
Boston, Massachusetts
Father Paul Conley rang the small bell on his desk a second time. Where was that woman? He craned his neck, trying to see beyond the doorway without leaving his chair. He had purposely positioned his desk in the rectory’s den so that he could see into the living room with a view of the kitchen—though only a slice—if he slid his chair clear to the right. But Anna Sanchez was nowhere in sight.
He contemplated ringing for her again. The woman was getting too old. He had tried to tell the church council that he needed someone younger with more energy. Someone who could not only handle the housecleaning and the cooking but also make sure there was a pot of fresh coffee available in the afternoons. Was that too much to ask?
He tipped his coffee mug, an exaggerated gesture, to double-check. Yes, it was empty. He twisted in the chair again but still refused to get up. He grabbed the bell and this time gave it an angry shake. Was it too much to ask for someone who could at least hear, for heaven’s sake?
“Mrs. Sanchez?” He decided to yell in case she had chosen to ignore the bell.
Ever since he had complained to the church council about the old woman she had gotten slower and more selective in what she heard. It was probably just his imagination, still he couldn’t help wondering whether one of those loudmouthed council members had blabbed to her. Most likely it was Mrs. MacPherson. The woman couldn’t keep anything to herself even if the good Lord asked her directly.
“Mrs. Sanchez, what about some coffee?”
He let out a heavy sigh and pushed up out of his comfortable leather office chair, shoving it back with as much noise as he could muster. He grabbed the coffee mug and brought it with him, stomping out of the den. In the living room he stopped long enough to glance around. Where was that woman? He marched into the kitchen, expecting to see her at the sink or coming up from the laundry room.
Instead, he was startled, clutching his free hand to his chest.
“What in the world?”
At the small kitchen table sat a young man he didn’t know, sipping a cup of coffee.
“Hello, Father Paul,” the stranger said with a smile, then took a long slurp of coffee. “There’s plenty more.” He waved at the Mr. Coffee on the counter. “Mrs. Sanchez must have just made some. It tastes very fresh.”
“Who are you? Did