Bonnie - Iris Johansen [64]
He drew a shaky breath as he realized that the child had now vanished. When her mother had followed Father Barnabas into the church, she had faded away. The threat was gone … for now.
Why had she followed him here? How had she known he was going to see the priest?
But she had not seemed to be aware he was here. She had not turned to him, called his name. She had spoken to Eve Duncan, then gone away.
Perhaps he had not been the child’s target. She had seemed to only want to be with her mother. When they had been speaking, the two had been totally absorbed, and even he could see the intense love that radiated between them.
He felt a jolt of pain as he remembered the way they had looked as they gazed at each other. Loneliness.
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
But it did no good to have regrets. The child would not accept it. She would keep coming until she got what she wanted. She would torment him until the day he died.
I’ll give it to you, he thought in agony. Anything you want. I just have to go to Father Barnabas and have him help me find out what it is that you want. Stop following me and let me alone.
He suddenly stiffened as a thought occurred to him.
Follow?
He inhaled sharply as the thought began to grow and formulate.
Yes, that was it!
That had to be it.
He had been wrong. It wasn’t the Delilah demon he had to kill at all.
The great load was being lifted from him.
He pushed away from the wall and opened the door of the garden house. He didn’t have to wait to see Father Barnabas. He had the answer now.
The little red-haired girl had not been in pursuit, following him to this garden.
She had led him here.
* * *
FATHER BARNABAS WAS NO longer with Gallo when Eve came into the sanctuary.
Gallo whirled to face her as she came toward him. He was clearly not pleased. “What the hell? I couldn’t do anything with Donnelly. He’s hard as nails.”
She nodded. “Frustrating. And I’m sure I didn’t find out anything more than you did. I was hoping that he might lean a little toward confiding in you since he has a relationship with your uncle.” She grimaced. “And it’s not as if we can physically ‘persuade’ him to tell us anything. He’s presumably doing what he believes is right. It’s his duty to keep his silence.”
“Presumably. Providing he’s not more of a criminal than my uncle. And if he is doing what he thinks is right, hell, someone may get killed while he does his damn duty.”
She tilted her head as she gazed at him. “You’ve been fighting desperately against believing that your uncle is guilty. Now you’re suddenly worried that he may go on a killing spree?”
“I’m still fighting,” Gallo said. “Father Barnabas said that he’d had years when he’d lived a good, productive life. Jacobs was a son of a bitch. My uncle may have had reason to kill him.”
“And the man at the alligator farm?”
“It was a struggle. Maybe it was self-defense.”
“And he was close to murdering Catherine.”
“What do you want me to say?” Gallo said tersely. “So it looks like he’s not sane. I can’t give up on him until I find him and know for sure.”
“He spoke to the priest about a child.”
“He wouldn’t kill an innocent child. He wouldn’t kill Bonnie.”
“You’re sure. I can’t be certain of anything connected to him. I was hoping that we’d be able to persuade Donnelly to break a rule of confidentiality when we found him.” She added dryly, “But that rule of confidentiality has suddenly become almost impossible to breach for more reasons than one.”
“We’ll get beyond it.”
“Maybe we should call Catherine back.” Her lips twisted. “She could probably get a very sophisticated truth drug from her friend, Hu Chang. It’s a thought.”
He suddenly went still. “Not a bad one.”
She quickly shook her head. “I was joking.”
“I’m not. We get what we want. If Father Barnabas is telling the truth about his devotion to his vows, then his soul and conscience would be clear. He couldn’t blame himself.”
“How do you know? He might feel as if he should be able to resist the drug.”
“He’s a priest, not a saint.” He paused. “And he might