“There, but unobserved.”
“That, of course, was as it should be. Doubtless Martha knew she was present.”
Amos frowned. “It is Maurice Dolan’s behavior I find irksome. More than irksome. Whatever the nadir into which the law has fallen, I hate to see it made a mockery of. Imagine, the two of them confessing to a crime they could not have committed.”
“Each thought the other had.”
“Perhaps. Until their vehicle was ruled out, I was of the school that held they had hit on a way to get away with murder by confessing to it.”
Father Dowling was of the school that believed Maurice had performed an altruistic act, meant to shield Catherine Adams. That she had replied in kind made him think more highly of her. Of course, he could understand Amos’s professional resentment.
“May the past be the past at last,” Amos said.
Father Dowling lifted his coffee mug in response to Amos’s raised glass.
“Of course, there is still the unexplained death of Nathaniel Fleck.”
“The local paper has decided it was simply an accident.”
“But has Cy Horvath?”
Amos smiled. “God help that driver if Cy still has anything to go on.”
Father Dowling had heard from Phil Keegan about the negative results of testing the paint sample taken from young Lorenzo’s SUV. It seemed that Cy’s last suspicion had proved unfounded.
“I think he was glad about it,” Phil said. “Of course, with Cy you’re never sure. He is not a demonstrative man.”
It was difficult not to share Amos’s wish that the past be the past at last.
10
On the following Wednesday, the staff and volunteers of the Women’s Care Center came to the noon Mass at St. Hilary’s, and afterward there was a luncheon in the gym, utilizing the tables rented by the Lynches, which were still in place. The group filled five tables. Father Dowling was impressed and remarked on it to Louise, the director of the center.
“And this is not everyone, Father. Not all the volunteers, certainly. For example, Dr. Lynch could not come.”
“Dr. Lynch.”
“Such a wonderful man. He gives us several hours a week.”
“Counseling?”
“Yes. The fact that he is a doctor makes him very effective.”
“I should imagine.”
“And now he has given us a vehicle as well.”
“He has.”
Louise lowered her voice. “Not an ideal one for our purposes. It is one of these huge tanklike things. Not easy for expectant mothers to get in and out of.”
“That was very generous of him.”
“Would you like to see it? I drove it here.”
The SUV was in the parking lot next to the school. Father Dowling circled it, making appropriate remarks. The only flaw was a crease in the right front fender, with some missing paint.
“Dr. Lynch said he would pay for that if we made arrangements.”
They went back inside. Father Dowling noticed a novel protruding from the bag that hung from Louise’s shoulder. It was a copy of The Long Good-bye.
“Are you enjoying it?”
“I hate it.”
“So why are you reading it? It isn’t Lent.”
Again she dropped her voice. “The author came by the center one day. He wanted the identity of one of our mothers. From years ago, before I came to the center. Of course I told him nothing.”
“Nathaniel Fleck visited the Women’s Care Center?”
“Isn’t that a strange name?”
“Do you remember who he was looking for?”
“I wouldn’t listen. I tried to stop him saying anything, but he was most persistent. I think he must have been that child’s father. Well, Dr. Lynch came to the rescue.”
He listened to her describe the firm way in which Lynch had followed the man into the parking lot, then away, gone off with him somewhere.
“He never came back?”
“Oh, no.”
Father Dowling looked at Louise. Hadn’t she read of Fleck’s death on Dirksen Boulevard? But surely she would have made the connection with her unwanted visitor if she had. Doubtless it is a small percentage of people who are aware of or interested in what is regarded as the news of the day. Yet Louise was trying to read Fleck’s novel. It might have seemed inevitable that she must learn that Fleck had not only been a visitor at the center and the author of the novel but that he had been killed on Dirksen Boulevard when an SUV drove onto the sidewalk to hit him.
* * *
The following day, Marie opened the door to George Lynch, and as she led him to the pastor, she gushed about how wonderful the wedding had been. Then he was in the doorway. Father Dowling rose to greet him and got him seated, and Marie went merrily away.
“I’ve come to thank you for my daughter’s wedding, Father. Everything was as we wished.”
“And as you arranged, George. I had little to do with it.”
“It must have put you to extra expense. Please let me cover that.”
“I am as likely to bill the Women’s Care Center for the Mass and lunch they had here yesterday.”
“Surely I can make a donation to the parish.”
Father Dowling thought about it. “If there is something Edna Hospers should need at the senior center…”
“I’ll ask. Vivian and Henry are great fans. Perhaps we could combine on something or other.”
“Perhaps. Louise told me that you do volunteer work at the center.”
George looked beyond Father Dowling and then met his eyes. “My wife and I owe everything to that place. It is thanks to the center that we got Martha.”
“I was told that Martha’s father had come there, making inquiries.”
George said nothing, but what he was thinking registered in his eyes.
“She also showed me the SUV you donated to them.”
There are moments so pregnant with possibilities that no one can predict what will emerge from them. This was one. Father Dowling did not need to be more explicit to let George Lynch realize what he had discovered. The foster father who would do anything for his adopted daughter had meant it. Only after a long silence did he speak.
“How can I protect Martha from this?”
“The first thing you should do is talk to Cy Horvath.”
George Lynch nodded.
“Perhaps that is the second thing.”
“And what is the first?”
“Confessing what you have done to God and asking his forgiveness.”
“How can even he forgive me?”
Father Dowling got out a stole and put it on. He was not an advocate of hustling people to the sacraments, only of making them easily available.
“Should I kneel, Father?”
“That isn’t necessary.”
And so it was that Father Dowling as a stand-in for the Almighty first heard George Lynch’s story. Of course, it was told to him in a different vein than it was afterward to the police. The great obstacle for George was that he could not say he wished he had not done what he had done. It would have been Pickwickian to ask him to promise never to do again what he had done. Nathaniel Fleck had been a unique case. Eventually, George acknowledged that he was sorry he was not sorry, and Father Dowling gave him absolution, praying down pardon and peace on a soul that had loved not wisely but too well.
Also by Ralph McInerny
Mysteries Set at the University of Notre Dame
On This Rockne
Lack of the Irish
Irish Tenure
Book of Kills
Emerald Aisle
Celt and Pepper
Irish Coffee
Green Thumb
Father Dowling Mystery Series
Her Death of Cold
The Seventh Station
Bishop as Pawn
Lying Three
Second Vespers
Thicker Than Water
A Loss of Patients
The Grass Wido
w
Getting a Way with Murder
Rest in Pieces
The Basket Case
Abracadaver
Four on the Floor
Judas Priest
Desert Sinner
Seed of Doubt
A Cardinal Offense
The Tears of Things
Grave Undertakings
Triple Pursuit
Prodigal Father
Last Things
Requiem for a Realtor
Andrew Broom Mystery Series
Cause and Effect
Body and Soul
Savings and Loam
Mom and Dead
Law and Ardor
Heirs and Parents
BLOOD TIES. Copyright © 2005 by Ralph McInerny. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McInerny, Ralph M.
Blood ties: a Father Dowling mystery / Ralph McInerny.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-33690-X
EAN 978-0-312-33690-5
1. Dowling, Father (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Birthfathers—Crimes against—Fiction. 3. Birthparents—Fiction. 4. Catholics—Fiction. 5. Illinois—Fiction. 6. Adoptees—Fiction. 7. Clergy—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3563.A31166B55 2005
813'.54—dc22
2005042759
First Edition: July 2005
eISBN 9781466841994
First eBook edition: March 2013
Blood Ties Page 21