Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [679]
“Probably the chief’s doing,” Pakula told her. “They give the police department a pretty decent discount.”
The look O’Dell shot him said exactly what she thought of their discount.
CHAPTER 71
Omaha, Nebraska
After Timmy’s mom left for work Gibson had convinced Timmy they couldn’t go to Explorers. Actually it didn’t take much convincing when he told him about Brother Sebastian grabbing him at school and then coming to his frickin’ house. They sat in the living room in front of the TV with their bowls of cereal. They left it on the Ellen De-Generes Show, hoping it’d make them laugh, but even the audience dancing segment didn’t get either of them going.
“How do you suppose he found me?”
“The school,” Timmy said. “I bet he asked Father Tony or Sister Kate.”
“It had to be Father Tony. Sister Kate would never give him my address. I know she wouldn’t.”
“So what’s in the leather thing? How do you know that’s what he wants?”
Gibson hesitated, taking another mouthful of cereal and pretending that’s what was keeping him from answering Timmy’s questions. He needed to trust someone and Timmy already knew about the game.
“I think there’re all sorts of papers about Monsignor O’Sullivan.”
“Papers?”
“Yeah, you know, like reports of some kind. Complaints.”
“Did you file a report against the guy?” Timmy asked.
Gibson looked at him, wiping his bangs out of his eyes, his fingers lingering over his forehead in search of pimples.
“No,” he finally said. “Did you file one against your guy?”
“No,” Timmy answered, sticking his index fingernail between his teeth, his own nervous habit. Gibson could see there weren’t many fingernails left to chew on, most of them down to the quick. “Nobody believed me, except my mom. And they wouldn’t even listen to her because two other guys had already been arrested.”
“Two other guys?” Gibson asked. They hadn’t shared any details with each other. Gibson figured Timmy would be as embarrassed as he was to talk about it. Now he realized that Timmy might have had a worse thing happen to him. “Did the two guys do anything to you?”
“I really don’t know for sure. The guy who kidnapped me always wore a Halloween mask. It was one of those dead presidents. So I never saw his face.”
“You were kidnapped?”
Timmy stopped chewing his fingernail and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yeah. I try not to think about it much.”
“Sorry.” Gibson didn’t know what else to say.
“No, it’s okay. I used to have nightmares. It was weird though, ’ cause it wasn’t about being taken, you know. It was like I was always trying to see behind the mask or pull it off. Like I needed to see who it was for sure.”
“How come you think it was a priest?”
“Little things. Probably stupid things. The cops told me they weren’t proof.” Now Timmy pulled his feet up under him, almost curling into a ball. “Father Keller used to always trade baseball cards with us altar boys, and the masked guy brought me some. Other stuff, too. Like his tennis shoes. Father Keller always wore the cleanest, brightest tennis shoes I think I ever saw. And the masked guy did, too.”
“How about the guys they arrested?”
“One never wore tennis shoes. The other wore really dirty ones.”
Gibson smiled. “Not exactly CSI stuff, huh?”
“No, I guess not.” Timmy smiled, too, finally uncurling himself, maybe feeling safe again. He reached for his cereal bowl. “But Father Keller’s someplace down in South America, so I guess I don’t have anything to worry about. I just thought putting his name into the game would help me sort of eliminate him in my mind, you know? Stop the dreams from happening and it sorta did. I haven’t had one in a long time.”
Gibson nodded like he understood, but it hadn’t really worked that way for him. He hadn’t had a nightmare until Monsignor O’Sullivan was dead.
Then Timmy added, “Do you think we should tell somebody about the leather thing?”
“I think it’s called a portfolio. Who would we tell that would believe us? They wouldn’t even believe you and your mom.” Gibson had already tried to think