Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [682]
“I’m Brother Sebastian from Our Lady of Sorrow,” he told Nick while his eyes tried to get a look beyond and behind Nick. He got the impression the man didn’t like having to explain himself, but he continued, “Timmy Hamilton and Gibson McCutty didn’t show up for class this morning.”
Nick waited, but that seemed to be all Brother Sebastian thought was necessary. As if that accusation deserved some sort of explanation from Nick.
“Wow,” Nick said. “And the school sent you to check on them? I didn’t realize schools did that.” There was something fishy about this guy, and Nick was definitely starting to piss him off.
“Mrs. McCutty told me her son spent the night here. Is he here?” He kept his tone clipped and even, but Nick could sense the underlying anger.
“McCutty,” Nick repeated like it required some thought. “I don’t recognize that name.” Tony wasn’t the only one good at evading a question without lying. He supposed priests and prosecutors weren’t all that different, twisting the truth to suit their needs.
“So the boys aren’t here?”
“I don’t see them? Do you?”
Brother Sebastian raised an eyebrow, the black eyes staring at him, but Nick didn’t flinch.
“Very well then,” he finally said then turned on his heels and left.
Nick stayed in the doorway, waiting for him to glance over his shoulder to see that he was watching. Yes, there was the glance and Nick waved, smiling despite Brother Sebastian’s scowl. Whoever this asshole was, he hadn’t come here to make sure Timmy and Gibson were okay. In fact, now Nick realized Brother Sebastian probably had something to do with the boys not going to their Explorers’ class. Of course, it had to be something like that. What red-blooded teenage boy wouldn’t want to go to a class where a pretty teacher taught them about swords and daggers?
Brother Sebastian climbed into a shiny black Lincoln Town Car, and Nick waited until he drove away. Then he closed and locked the door. When he came back into the living room both boys were staring at the entrance as if they had just escaped a firing squad.
“That was sweet, Uncle Nick,” Timmy told him. “You were awesome.”
Before they could go into any kind of victory dance, Nick gave them a look that wiped the smile off Timmy’s face and made Gibson slide back into the couch.
“What the hell did you boys do?”
CHAPTER 73
Omaha, Nebraska
Father Michael Keller wished his vision would return to normal. He had almost changed his mind in Chicago during a two-hour layover. Not because of fear or regret, but because his insides felt as though they would explode. He spent most of those two hours in the bathroom, vomiting until there was nothing left but the urge. As soon as his insides had settled down, his eyesight had started playing tricks on him.
It was the worst when he first arrived in Omaha, making him see double and triple. There had been one uniformed officer and a detective to meet him and suddenly there seemed to be three uniformed officers and then almost a dozen. He had walked through the airport with them, trying to ignore the feeling of walking through a fun house with mirrors alongside, distorting, elongating and multiplying images all around him. That was when he told them he wanted to go to his hotel. That if they wanted to get the information from him they’d need to come to his hotel room. And what a hotel room it was, bigger than his shack, with a sitting area and a counter with minifridge and microwave.
He’d been in the rain forest for too long. He reveled in everything, from the tiny shampoo bottles and the bright white cotton towels to the king-size bed and carpeting so soft it felt like walking on feathers. He hadn’t realized how much he missed, how much he had sacrificed. Like air-conditioning! He’d forgotten how glorious air-conditioning felt except that it had given him such a chill during the