Bonnie - Iris Johansen [118]
“No. Ben told me.”
“What?”
“Right before he went into surgery. He said that Ted wasn’t here anymore, but that it was okay.” He turned to Eve. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Ben told you?” It shouldn’t have surprised her. Just the few minutes she’d spent with him had revealed his connection with Bonnie.
“I promised I’d try to keep from killing Danner,” Joe said. “He came along to try to protect him.”
“And he knows you did try,” the priest said. “And I don’t think that the reason he came along was to protect Danner. Maybe that was his initial reason, but it changed. He was sticking closer to you than glue.”
“He was protecting Joe?” Eve nodded slowly. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I’m right.” Father Barnabas smiled. “And here’s something else that I’m going to be right about. The doctors weren’t sure that Ben would survive this surgery, but he was sure. He told me that she said that it wasn’t his time.” He tilted his head. “And I wondered … a saintly visitation? Or the little girl Ted Danner was so obsessed with?”
“Bonnie,” Eve said.
“Bonnie,” the priest repeated. “He was so afraid of her. I wanted to be with Ted, to talk to him one more time, to give him comfort. He was in such torment.”
“Yes.” She met his eyes. “But not in the end. And he wasn’t afraid of Bonnie any longer.”
“A miracle?”
Perhaps not the way the priest meant it. But since the day of her birth, Bonnie had been so very special, a wonderful, magical gift. It was no wonder that she had been able to give that grace to everyone around her. “Yes, a miracle, Father.”
* * *
“YOU LOOK LIKE A SURGEON.” Catherine’s gaze ran up and down Eve’s loose blue-green tunic and pants when she came into the waiting room two hours later. “Have you changed professions?”
“I borrowed the clothes from one of the nurses on the floor. I took a shower, but my clothes were practically falling into shreds after those days in the woods. Joe wanted to stay here until they let him see Ben, and I wanted to be with him.”
Catherine looked down at herself. “I’m not much better than you, but I’ll wait until I can get to a motel. I’ll pick up some clothes for you and drop them off here. How is the boy?”
“He’ll live. The doctors said it was touch-and-go.” She smiled. “Ben said that there would be no problem. He had it on the best of authority.”
Catherine looked away. “I’ve been thinking it over and what I thought I saw could have been a hallucination induced by stress.”
“It could be.”
“That would be the most comfortable explanation.” She looked back at Eve. “I’ve never gone for the safe or comfortable. It’s not my nature.” She smiled recklessly. “I tend to dive into the volcano and hope that the rope around my waist holds.”
“And are you diving into my volcano, Catherine?”
“Yes. I saw a little girl in a Bugs Bunny T-shirt kneeling by Danner. She was … incredible.”
Eve nodded. “More than you’ll ever know.”
“I hope that’s true. I don’t want to know or see more than I did today.”
“And you may not. I don’t know why you saw my daughter. I assumed that she appeared only to those to whom she was close. Maybe this is a rare instance and won’t be repeated.”
Catherine shrugged. “And if it’s not, I’ll deal with it. Though I hope we won’t become chums. It might be distracting.”
Eve smiled. “She won’t get in your way, Catherine.”
Catherine smiled. “I know she won’t. I’m sure she’s totally independent. She has to be her mother’s daughter.”
Eve’s smile faded. “And her father’s. How is Gallo?”
“How do you think? Not good. He’s taking his uncle home to Wisconsin and burying him in the woods on his property.”
“Are you going with him?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t invited, and I don’t know if I would have gone if I had been. This is between the two of them, and there were times when I wasn’t at all sympathetic. I was on your side, not his. I wasn’t sure until we were with Danner that he’d be able to keep his priorities straight. We have a lot of … issues.”
And some of those issues were fiery and emotional, Eve thought. It might be just as well that Catherine was keeping