Father Liam’s eyes sparkle. “Sounds like a good description of that man, from all the accounts I’ve heard.”
My heart pounds, and adrenaline spikes through my body. This is like Christmas come early. I’m a little light-headed at this news. I close my eyes for a second and blink back the roller coaster of emotions swarming over me. Finally, after so long, there might be justice for Caterina.
DRIVING ACROSS THE Bay Bridge, I find comfort in the city skyline, as I have so many other nights in my life. The sight of the soaring buildings against the midnight blue sky always makes my heart leap with joy. This city is my home. Even if I do end up getting a place with Donovan in Oakland, I will never be far from San Francisco. It will always be the place where I’m most alive and most in touch with myself.
Tomorrow I’m visiting a dojo in San Francisco’s Chinatown. I’ll ask them if they’ll teach me to use my kubaton and which martial arts I should study for self-defense.
Thinking about my conversation with Father Liam, I soak in the night before me—the dotted lights that make up the skyline of San Francisco, my soul city, welcoming me home. Right when I’m halfway across the Bay Bridge, high above the water, I realize I’m at the point where my two lives—the one with Donovan in Oakland and the one so rooted in my past in San Francisco—intersect. It is right there that I roll down my window. Feeling the cold, crisp air against my face, whipping my hair, I imagine tossing all my fears and worries and anxieties out the window into the cool, dark waters of the Bay below. In my mind, I can see them float down into the darkness and sink into the bottom of the Bay. Good riddance. Hitting the exit to Market Street, I crank up my radio, singing along to U2’s “Elevation” at the top of my lungs with a smile plastered across my face. I wonder if it actually worked, because strangely, I now feel lighter. I feel free. I feel a surge of hope and joy. Maybe, just maybe, if I try hard enough, I’ll be able to let go.
Acknowledgments
Biggest thanks to you, my reader, who made writing this book possible and who motivated and inspired me with your enthusiasm and encouragement. I’m so grateful. I’m incredibly lucky to work with such a stellar team at HarperCollins: My biggest thanks to my super smart and talented editor, Emily Krump; Danielle Bartlett, publicist extraordinaire; and online guru Dana Trombley.
As always, thanks to my powerhouse agent, Stacey Glick!
My heartfelt thanks to Jana Hiller, Sam Bohrman, and my mother, who rushed to read this so I could make my deadline.
Thanks to Sergeant Paul Paulos for answering a tricky crime-scene question. Shout- out to Troy Denning for his encouragement before my first book ever came out and for letting me use his Facebook page to garner Star Wars quotes from his fans. Thanks to my parents and my brother, Bill, who gave me some great plot ideas for this book.
And of course, thank you to my husband and children, who are my everything.
About the Author
KRISTI BELCAMINO is a writer, photographer, and artist. In her former life as a newspaper crime reporter in California, she flew over Big Sur in an F/A-18 jet with the Blue Angels, raced a Dodge Viper at Laguna Seca, watched autopsies, and interviewed serial killers. She is now a journalist based in Minneapolis, and the Gabriella Giovanni mysteries are her first books. Friend Kristi at www.facebook.com/kristibelcaminowriter or follow her on Twitter @KristiBelcamino.
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By Kristi Belcamino
Blessed Are the Dead
Blessed Are the Meek
Blessed Are Those Who Weep
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO WEEP. Copyright © 2015 by Kristi Belcamino. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition APRIL 2015 ISBN: 9780062389404
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062389398
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Blessed Are Those Who Weep Page 25