Bonnie - Iris Johansen [57]
His smile faded. “How did you know that my church is in Buckhead?”
“Because you’re the one I came to see. Not this Father Barnabas. May I sit down?”
“Of course.” He gestured to the pew next to them. “This is God’s house, not mine.” He smiled again. “Well, maybe it’s a little Father Barnabas’s. He seems to put his stamp on everything around him.”
“That’s interesting,” she said absently as she sat down. Get down to the reason that she was here. She just hoped he was the right Father Dominic. She hadn’t even established that fact yet. “Several years ago, you visited a James O’Leary at his pub in Dublin. Is that right?”
“O’Leary?” He made a face. “Oh, yes. Not one of my most pleasant memories. He threw me out.”
She gave a relieved sigh. First bridge crossed. “After you gave him a rosary blessed by the Pope.”
He nodded. “And I prayed for his soul after I left him. I’m not even sure the Holy Father could—” He broke off, gazing at her curiously. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Because you told O’Leary that his cousin, Kevin Donnelly, had asked you to give O’Leary the rosary. I need to know how to find Kevin Donnelly.”
He tilted his head. “You don’t know?”
“If I knew, would I be asking you?” she asked impatiently. “The hospital where he worked isn’t being very cooperative. We’ll track him down, but there’s no reason why you can’t tell us where he is. It will save us time.”
He chuckled. “You sound like a bill collector. Though I know Kevin would never be a deadbeat.”
“You know him well?”
“Very well.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
He didn’t answer directly. “Why do you want to find him? Are you one of the patients he worked with at the hospital?”
“No, but I have questions about one of this patients.” She said. “You’re trying to protect him? I don’t want to cause him any trouble. I just want to locate one of his ex-patients and ask Donnelly a few questions.”
He shook his head. “Kevin won’t disclose any confidences.”
“Isn’t that up to him? There’s a very good reason for him to tell me what I need to know.” She added deliberately, “Life or death, Father Dominic. So why don’t you tell me when you saw him last and where I can find him now.”
“Life or death?” He was silent a moment. “Truly, Ms. Duncan?”
She looked him in the eye. “I don’t lie, Father.”
He nodded slowly. “No, I don’t believe you would.” He thought for a moment. “I don’t know why I’m trying to guard him. He can take care of himself. He’d laugh at me.” He grimaced. “He does that quite a bit actually.”
Present tense. She stiffened. He was going to give her the information. “Tell me.”
“When did I last see him?” His lips turned up at the corners. “About forty-five minutes ago.”
“What?”
“And where can you find him?” He nodded at the door to the left of altar. “Out in the garden. He’s trying to repair the fountain.”
She stared at him blankly. “He’s a handyman?”
“Kevin is many things, a regular jack-of-all-trades.” He stood up and helped her to her feet. “And actually I offered to try to fix the fountain, but he said it was his responsibility.” He paused. “Since it was his church.”
Her gaze narrowed on his face. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“That Kevin is the priest who requested I come here and help him for a few weeks?” He nodded. “Father Barnabas.”
She had suspected it was coming, but she was still stunned. “Why?”
“I assure you that he wasn’t trying to go undercover or some such nonsense. He took the name when he graduated from the seminary.”
“In Valdosta, Georgia.” She was putting the pieces together. “That’s where he went to seminary.”
He nodded. “That’s where I met him. We were students together. We became friends. We’re still good friends. Kevin is a remarkable man. It’s not often a man gives up a lucrative medical practice and years of training to devote himself to God.”
“Why did he do it? You’re saying he had some kind of calling?”
“I’m saying that he’s a fine man,” he said quietly. “And that if you want to know anything