I'll Walk Alone - Mary Higgins Clark [85]
“Detective Collins,” Alvirah said, “before you leave, you must understand that if those photos really are Zan taking Matthew out of the stroller, she doesn’t know that she did it. I would swear to that.”
“Are you suggesting that she may be a split personality?” Collins asked.
“I’m not sure what I’m suggesting,” Alvirah said. “But I do know that Zan is not acting. In her mind she has lost her child. I know she’s spent money on private detectives and on psychics to try to find him. If she was playing a game, she wouldn’t have had to go that far, but she isn’t playing a game.”
“One more question, Mrs. Meehan — uh, Alvirah. Zan Moreland mentioned a priest, Fr. Aiden O’Brien. By any chance do you know him?”
“Oh, yes, he’s a dear friend. He’s a Franciscan friar at St. Francis of Assisi Church on Thirty-first Street. Zan happened to meet him here last night. She was just about ready to leave when he came in. He told her that he’d pray for her and I think that gave her some comfort.”
“She had never met him before that?”
“I don’t think so. Although I do know she stopped into St. Francis just before I was there on Monday evening to light a candle. Fr. O’Brien was hearing confessions that evening in the lower church.”
“Did Zan Moreland go to confession?” Billy asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, and of course I didn’t ask. But you might be interested to hear that I had my eye on some guy who I thought was acting funny. I mean he was kneeling in front of the Shrine of St. Anthony with his hands in his face. But the minute Fr. Aiden stepped out of the Reconciliation Room, he jumped up and didn’t take his eyes off Aiden until he was out of sight in the Friary.”
“Was Ms. Moreland still in church when this happened?”
“No,” Alvirah said, positively. “I only know she was there because yesterday morning I went back and asked to have a look at the tape on the security cameras. I wanted to see if I could spot that guy just in case he ever caused any trouble. I couldn’t pick him out in the crowd, but on the camera I did see Zan coming in. That would be about fifteen minutes before I got there. The security tapes showed that she only stayed a few minutes. The guy I was trying to get a look at left just before I did, but there was no way to pick him clearly out of the crowd that was coming into the church.”
“Did you think that was unusual for Ms. Moreland to pay a visit there?”
“No. The next day was Matthew’s birthday. I thought she might have wanted to light a candle to St. Anthony for him. He’s the saint people pray to when they’re missing something.”
“I see. Thank you both very much for your time,” Billy Collins said as he and Jennifer Dean got up to leave.
“Well, that didn’t get us very far,” Dean commented as they went down in the elevator.
“Maybe, maybe not. What we did find out is that Zan Moreland has friends in a number of countries. I want to see if she’s made any trips to any one of those countries since her son disappeared. We’ll get a subpoena and check her credit cards and bank accounts. And tomorrow we’ll go down and pay a visit to Fr. O’Brien at St. Francis of Assisi. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Zan Moreland went to confession to that priest? And if she did, I wonder what she had to say to him.”
“Billy, you’re Catholic,” Jennifer Dean protested. “I’m not, but I know that no priest will ever discuss what was said in the confessional.”
“No, he won’t, but when we question Zan Moreland again, maybe if we work her hard enough, she’ll break down and share her dirty little secrets with us.”
54
Matthew had never seen Glory cry, not even once. She had sounded real mad when she was talking on the phone, but after she slammed it down, she started to cry. Just like that. Then she looked at him and said, “Matty, we can’t hide like this any longer.”
He thought that meant that they’d be moving to a new place to live, and he wasn’t sure if he was glad or sorry. The room he slept in was big enough so that he could put all his trucks on the floor and move them one after the other