Silent Screams - C. E. Lawrence [28]
“No need to apologize,” Butts assured her. “I’m sorry if we caused your daughter any more distress.”
“You were just doing your job.”
Butts coughed and looked down at his feet. “Yeah, well, not everyone understands that. I wish everyone was more like you—sure would make my job a lot easier.”
“Forgive me,” Lee said, “but is there a Mr. Riley?”
Mrs. Riley’s mouth tightened. “There was. Not anymore.”
She didn’t offer any further explanation, so they thanked her and left the house, heading back toward the subway. When they were some distance from the building, they heard footsteps and turned to see Christine running after them. She wasn’t wearing a coat, and her cheeks were flushed from cold and exertion.
“Please,” she said, catching up with them. “Please—I just can’t go any longer without telling someone!”
“What?” Lee said. “What is it you need to tell?”
“They don’t want me to tell, but I have to—I just can’t keep quiet anymore!”
“Who doesn’t want you to tell?”
“My mom—and Marie’s parents. They know about it—or at least I think they do.”
“What is it they know?” said Butts.
“It’s—it’s Father Michael.”
“What about him?”
“He…he was having an affair with Marie.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he was having sex with me too.”
And with that, she burst into tears.
Chapter Eleven
“So you just didn’t bother to mention that one little detail, huh?” Detective Butts said, putting his face close to the priest’s. “That you were having sex with a girl who just happens to end up dead in your church?”
Father Michael Flaherty sat, hands folded on his lap, staring at the floor. Butts paced around him, his stocky body vibrating with rage.
It was less than two hours since Christine’s revelation about the priest’s sexual involvement with her and Marie. Lee and Butts were in an interrogation room in the Bronx Major Case precinct house while Chuck Morton watched through the one-way mirror from the hallway outside.
“How many others were there?” Butts continued. “Huh? Pretty good pickings, undergraduate coeds, I guess. You must have had a field day with all those nice Catholic girls. Is it true what the song says, Father? Are Catholic girls more fun?”
The priest stared at his hands. “I’d like a lawyer, please,” he said.
“Oh, don’t worry—there’s one on the way,” Butts said with disgust, and plopped down in the chair next to Lee.
Chuck opened the door and motioned to both of them to come outside.
“Okay, that’s it—no more questions until he’s lawyered up,” he said once they were out in the hall. “I don’t want to risk losing him, so we go by the book. We don’t have anything on him, so unless he confesses, we’ll have to let him walk.”
“Can we put a tail on him, have him watched?” Butts asked.
“Sure, but I don’t know how much good that’ll do. He hasn’t committed any crime—having sex with these girls was unethical, but it wasn’t illegal. They were both over eighteen. I did call the administration at Fordham, and they’re going to deal with him on the ethics charges.” He turned to Lee. “What do you think? Does he fit your profile so far?”
Lee looked at the priest, who sat staring at the empty space in front of him, hands still in his lap. “My instinct tells me no, but he is the right age and race. And the religious angle fits—almost. But something’s not right…I don’t think the killer is going to be someone in a religious profession. This is more the work of an outsider, someone who longs for religious absolution, but doesn’t quite believe he’s worthy of it.”
“So if the priest isn’t the Slasher, we’re back to square one,” Butts said.
Butts had nicknamed the killer the Slasher. Lee didn’t like the word much, but he and Butts were just beginning to get comfortable with each other, and he didn’t want to rock that boat, so he went along with it.
“We’ve got a search warrant for his rooms, so if the missing necklace is there, we’ll find it,” Chuck said.
“I don’t think you’ll find the necklace,” Lee answered and turned to Butts. “Remember the boyfriend thought