Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [696]
“Would you rather we eat inside?” she asked, still standing and ready to move if Maggie requested it.
“No, the breeze feels wonderful. This is perfect.”
Maggie thought Sister Kate looked even less like a nun this evening, dressed in linen shorts, a black knit blouse and sandals. As they sat Sister Kate brushed at her black blouse, looking a bit embarrassed.
“My roommate’s dog,” she explained. “I love him but he ends up shedding all over me.”
“Your roommate or the dog?” As soon as Maggie said it she wished she hadn’t. She’d been spending too much time with male police detectives and FBI agents, but much to her surprise and relief Sister Kate burst out laughing. Maggie joined her.
They both ordered a glass of wine and Sister Kate insisted they have the scallops sautéed in garlic and capped with mozzarella cheese for an appetizer.
“If you don’t mind my asking, is your roommate a nun, too?”
“Yes. Actually I have two roommates, both nuns. We share a house in the Dundee area. It’s the neighborhood just a few blocks east of Our Lady of Sorrow.”
“Where do your roommates teach?”
“I’m the only teacher,” she said, smiling at Maggie’s surprise. “We are allowed to do other things, have other careers, as long as they benefit and promote the order’s mission.” She paused as the waitress brought their wine. “Sister Loretta manages several low-income apartment complexes that our religious order owns. We call her our resident slumlord.”
Maggie laughed again, relieved to feel some of the tension of the afternoon slipping away.
“And your other roommate?” Maggie asked.
“Ah, Sister Danielle creates computer programs.”
“Really?”
“She’s done a variety for hospital medical records departments and secure data systems for women’s centers using all that complicated encrypted stuff. She’s certainly taught me a lot, and she also finds incredible rates for me on airline flights. I have a presentation in Chicago this weekend and she’s found a round-trip ticket for under a hundred dollars.”
“Well, you’ve definitely given me a whole new perception about nuns.”
“I imagine the same goes for FBI agents.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re definitely not what I imagined an FBI agent to be like.”
Maggie raised her wineglass. “Touché.”
“I suppose this case has given you a whole new perception of priests as well?”
Maggie looked across the table at her, studying her in the fading sunlight. Her warm brown eyes were serious now where they had been playful just seconds before.
“It seems this priest scandal has touched every part of the country,” Maggie said, trying to keep from going into her earlier tirade. “Why do you suppose it got so out of hand?”
Sister Kate sipped her wine. “I used to joke that if women were allowed to be priests it would have never have happened, at least not to the degree that it has. But at the same time I do believe some things should be taken care of from within. These priests haven’t just broken man’s laws, they’ve broken God’s laws and should be held to an even higher standard. Unfortunately, in the name of protecting the church some bishops and cardinals completely forgot about protecting the children.” She paused as though thinking about something or someone and then added, “The good news is that there are many more good priests than there are bad.”
Maggie wondered if she was thinking of Father Tony Gallagher. Did she consider him one of the good guys? And if he was involved, if he was helping teenagers carry on some game of execution—a game of good versus evil or perhaps more appropriately evil versus a necessary evil—would Sister Kate suspect it? Would she go so far as to perhaps even protect Father Tony if he was The Sin Eater?
“Justice can certainly be elusive sometimes,” Maggie said, looking for clues in the nun’s eyes and seeing instead only concern.
“I’m sure you grapple with that constantly,” Sister Kate said, and suddenly Maggie realized that she was being studied, too. “How do you deal with it? You seem to have a solid moral core that I’m guessing doesn