Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [97]
Nick glanced at the priest, who looked as embarrassed and confused as Nick felt. Without saying a word, he followed Maggie out the front door. He caught up with her on the sidewalk. He reached for her arm to slow her down, but thought better of it and simply increased his pace to stay alongside her.
“What the hell was that about?” he demanded.
“He’s lying. I doubt that it was an accident.”
“Father Francis was an old man, Maggie.”
“He had something important to tell me. When we talked on the phone this morning, I could tell someone else was listening in. I’m guessing it was Keller. Don’t you see, Nick?” She came to a halt and turned to look at him. “Whoever was listening decided to stop Father Francis before he had a chance to tell me whatever was so important. An autopsy may show whether or not he was pushed. I’ll do it myself if—”
“Maggie, stop. There’s not going to be an autopsy. Keller didn’t push anybody, and I don’t think he had anything to do with the murders. This is nuts. We need to start looking at some real suspects. We need to…”
She looked as though she would be sick. Her face went white, her shoulders slumped, and her eyes were watery.
“Maggie?”
She turned and hurried off the sidewalk into the snow, back behind the rectory and out of the bright streetlights. Shielded from the wind and clinging to a tree, she bent over and began retching. Nick grimaced and kept his distance. Now he understood the belligerence, the loud accusation, the uncharacteristic anger. Maggie O’Dell was drunk.
He waited until she finished, standing guard in the shadows, keeping his back to her in case she was now sober enough to be embarrassed.
“Nick.”
When he turned, she was walking away from him, behind the rectory toward a grove of trees that separated the church property from Cutty’s Hill.
“Nick, look.” She stopped and pointed, and he wondered if she was delusional. Then he saw it, and immediately he, too, felt sick to his stomach. Tucked back in the trees was an old blue pickup with wooden side racks.
CHAPTER 57
“I’ll get Judge Murphy to issue a search warrant first thing in the morning.” Nick was still explaining when they got back to Maggie’s hotel room. She wished that he would just shut up. Her head ached and her stomach hurt. Why in the world did she drink all that Scotch on an empty stomach?
She threw her laptop and jacket onto the bed and lay down next to them. She was lucky to get her room back with there being so many stranded motorists.
Nick stood in the doorway, looking uncomfortable, but making no effort to leave.
“I couldn’t believe the way you were going at Keller. Jesus, I thought you were going to punch him.”
She looked up at him without moving from her resting place. “I know you don’t believe me, but Keller has something to do with all this. Either come in or leave, but don’t stand in the open doorway. I have a reputation, after all.”
He smiled and came in, closing the door. Once inside, he paced until he noticed her frowning at him. He pulled a chair to the edge of the bed where she could see him and not have to move.
“So what did you do, decide to have a little going-away party?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Aren’t you going to miss your flight?”
“I probably already have.”
“What about your mother?”
“I’ll call in the morning.”
“So you came all the way back just for a piece of Keller?”
She pulled herself up on one elbow and dug through her jacket pockets. She handed him the small envelope and lay back down.
“What is it?”
“I was in the airport lounge when the bartender gave me that—said a guy at the bar asked him to deliver it to me. Only the guy was gone by the time I got it.”
She watched him read it. There was confusion, and she remembered she hadn’t told him about the first note.
“It’s from the killer.”
“How does he know where you live and your husband’s name?”
“He’s probing me, investigating me, digging into my background just like I’m doing to him.