by Misty Evans
Had Bailey been Ana’s lover?
Following the line of paintings, she entered what appeared to be some sort of parlor. Comfortable couches were at the center of the room accompanied by easy chairs and well-worn tables for guests to set their things upon. It was cozy, comfortable, and just the place where a person could curl up with a good book and a glass of the vineyard’s delicious wine.
More paintings lined the walls, and Celina made a slow pass over them, studying each picture. One in particular drew her attention, and as she moved closer to it, she let out a soft gasp. It was a painting of the woods behind the Abbey, beyond the wine tasting room. Entitled simply Serenity, it was an image of the exact spot where she and Cooper had found the body the previous evening.
Something felt off about it, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
I need to talk to Father Bailey. He could clear up her confusion.
Decision made, she set out to find the monk. She’d text Cooper when she found him and he could catch up with them. Then she and Cooper could work as partners again and interview the man.
After that, I’ll tell him about the baby.
A single inquiry back at the main desk resulted in her being directed to the vineyard offices behind the bed and breakfast. As Celina drew near, she saw Father Bailey coming from the chapel.
“Ah, Miss Davenport,” he said. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
His eyes were red-rimmed, his face haggard, as he unlocked the door to his office.
Celina withdrew her cell and shot off a quick text to Cooper. “I’d like to speak to you a moment if you have time.”
“Of course.” He ushered her in, showing her to a chair and taking a seat behind his desk.
By all appearances, it looked as though he’d spent a restless night. She wondered how much of that had to do with not knowing if the remains found just outside the Abbey’s property belonged to Ana Verdoni.
Celina bit her lower lip, suddenly flooded with indecision. She really, really, didn’t want him to be the bad guy, but she believed the good Father knew more than he was telling anyone. “You look tired, Father.”
His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. Carefully, he shuffled the papers in front of him into a folder, switching on a lamp on the desk. “That I am. For years I have pondered a mystery close to my heart, my mind wandering on paths that lead to no ends. Tell me, Miss Davenport, have you found Ana?”
The question threw her off, and she hesitated, trying to come up with a non-objective answer. She still didn’t know about the painting, and she didn’t want to let anything slip until she was certain of his innocence. “We haven’t heard anything from Sergeant Givens, no, but Cooper and I did have a chance to talk to a couple of people who knew Ana. She sounds like she was a sweet girl who may have gotten herself into trouble.”
To her surprise—and slight dismay—tears filled his eyes. “I don’t need a report to tell me what my heart already knows.”
Celina knew it too. “You were the monk meeting with Ana in secret, weren’t you?”
“Yes.” The single word came out in a whisper, as though he were afraid to even say it aloud. He didn’t seem at all surprised that she had found out. “Ana came here to learn the ways of our holy life to better prepare her for when she entered the convent.”
Even as a tear escaped the corner of one eye, a smile creased his lips. “She was so young, so full of vibrant love for the world. I couldn’t help it. I fell in love with her. You have to understand, I never meant to. I’d never experienced love before, was happy with my vows, but Ana… Oh, she did something to me. The more time we spent together, the harder it became to hide my feelings for her. We were here for a purpose, set on the paths God had planned for us. Or so I thought.”
“She told you she didn’t want to become a nun.”
“It wasn’t where her heart belonged. Ana wanted to live, to experience life to its fullest. And while she loved our Lord with her entire being, she felt she was being led in a different direction.”
Father Bailey sighed wearily. “Her father…such a difficult man. He would not have understood any of this. When Ana confessed her feelings for me, I was overwhelmed. Torn. I’d already given my life to the Almighty, but at that moment, I believed I had made a terrible mistake. I knew something had to be done.”
“Something like what?” she prodded, though she had a feeling she knew where this was heading.
“We…” Father Bailey grimaced, lowering his head as if ashamed of the words he was about to speak. “We became involved. Spiritually and…intimately. I desperately loved Ana and would have done anything to make her happy, and so I decided to renounce my vows and take her away from here. We had plans to elope, had arranged to meet in our favorite spot outside the Abbey walls and leave everything behind. Only, she never arrived.”
The heartache in his voice was unmistakable. The man had loved Ana Verdoni, and Celina could imagine a young Father Bailey, heartbroken and confused while he waited for his love to show up so they could begin a future together. It must have been devastating when she didn’t come.
“That’s why you stopped painting, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “My love for the arts—for color and joy—was lost when Ana disappeared.”
Celina frowned, confused. “I don’t understand. Ana disappeared in September, 1996. If you never painted again after that, then how come there’s a painting from two months later, of the spot in the woods where the body was found?”
Father Bailey’s jaw slackened, confusion knitting his brow. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
“The painting in the parlor, the one titled Serenity. It’s a painting of the exact spot where we found the body. Are you telling me it’s just a coincidence?”
A shadow moved in her periphery, but Celina thought it was Cooper. She was focused on watching Father Bailey’s face for deception and didn’t take her eyes from him.
The color drained from his face. Shakily, he rose from his chair. “I didn’t paint Serenity.”
A chill ran down Celina’s spine. “Then who did?”
Before Bailey could answer, something struck her in the back of the head.
Chapter Ten
Cooper stepped out of the bathroom, disappointed at finding an empty room waiting for him. Reading Celina’s note, he quickly dressed and headed downstairs to find her. He had everything arranged for a romantic evening, including dinner for two in a private section of the vineyard. Tonight was the night, and for once, his palms weren’t sweaty just thinking about it. Why he’d put it off this long was beyond him. He wasn’t about to wait another day to make her his, officially.
Soft laughter filtered around him, though none were Celina’s distinct sound. As he wandered from room to room without success, uneasiness filled him when she was nowhere to be seen. Where was she?
His cell phone rang and he dug it out. He saw the text from Celina, sent ten minute before, telling him she was in the vineyard offices with Bailey. He relaxed a bit, but it annoyed him that she was questioning the monk without him.
His phone rang again. Caller ID showed it was Ronni. He stepped over to a window near the front desk. “Yo. Tell me you have something good,” he said.
Ronni didn’t miss a beat. “We do, indeed. Thanks to Dupé’s influence, we have DNA test results back on your vic. The bones belong to the missing girl, Ana Verdoni.”
Cooper’s grip tightened on the phone, not at all surprised by the news. “Do we know cause of death?”
“Official COD was asphyxiation with suffocation, though they did find trace elements of Ketamine in her bone fragments.
“Ketamine. The date rape drug?”
“Yep. The forensic anthropologist also confirmed what my friend thought. Ana was whacked in the back of the head before she died. My guess? The guy drugged her, then dragged her body to the hole. She must have started to wake up, so he knocked her in the head. It didn’t kill
her, just incapacitated her, so she was easy to bury.”
“That’s how she asphyxiated.” He ran a hand through his hair. The image of Ana’s bony arm outstretched above her head, hit him hard. She’d probably woken surrounded by dirt, he thought, gut churning. She’d tried to claw her way out. “Who in the hell would do that to an eighteen year old girl?”
“Who would do that to anyone?” He could hear the frown in Ronni’s voice. “Do you guys have any leads?”
“Kind of, but no confessions yet. I’m on my way to interrogate one of the monks now. I’ll let you know if it turns up anything.”
Disconnecting the call, Cooper sent Celina a reply text that he was on his way.
“It’s his turn to give the meditation,” one of the other monks was lamenting as he and another monk passed by Cooper. “Is Father Bailey aware that he’s passed it off yet again?”
Cooper fell in behind them.
“He said Father Bailey gave his blessing on it and Father Lopez has asked we not disturb him or Father Bailey for the rest of the evening. They have a soul to attend to. I think it might be that woman who was studying the paintings.”
While the two monks carried on with their duties, Cooper’s mind turned over the conversation. Celina was with Bailey, was she the soul he and Lopez were attending to?
What exactly did that mean?
Picking up his pace, Cooper stormed down the hallway and outside, passing the wine tasting area and the Koi pond.
The door to the building that housed Bailey’s office was locked and no one came when he rapped. Not one to be deterred, he walked around the perimeter, peering through the windows for a sign that anyone was inside.
“Shit.”
Father Bailey was slumped over a desk, his body twisted at an awkward angle. Racing back around to the front, Cooper kicked in the door, hurrying to the man.
“Father Bailey?” Gently, Cooper turned him over, checking him for wounds. A large gash on the side of his head oozed blood, though there were no other signs of injury. Whatever had happened here had happened recently.
“Mr. Harris?” Father Bailey’s words were slightly slurred, his eyes unfocused. “Where am I? What happened?”
Whipping out his cell phone, Cooper called for an ambulance. “Hold tight, help is on the way, Father. Where is Celina?”
“Miss Davenport…” Father Bailey’s eyes fluttered shut.
“What about Celina?” When Bailey didn’t answer, Cooper shook his shoulder. “Please, Father Bailey. What about Celina? Is she in trouble?”
Father Bailey’s eyes blinked open again, this time with a little more force. “He took her. Father Lopez. He took them both.”
Both? Who else had been here with Celina? Frustrated, Cooper tried not to shake the man any harder than he already had. “Where did he take Celina?”
“He took my Ana.” Bailey’s eyes focused on his desk now. Reaching up, he touched the side of his head, wincing when his fingers found the gash. “He said he did it out of love for me, that he couldn’t stand to lose me. He found my diary—oh, dear Lord. He knew Ana and I were going to elope. He said he brought me back to God.”
“And now he has Celina?” Cooper swallowed, stunned by the news. He never would have pictured Father Lopez as a murderer, but if Bailey spoke the truth then Celina was now in the hands of a killer. Fuck. “Where did he take her?” Cooper asked again.
Bailey lifted his arm, pointing towards the woods. “Follow the trail past the spot where you found the body. He can’t go back there, so he must have taken her into the woods. He hit her in the head, like me.”
Cooper’s jaw clenched. He was going to kill the monk, sure as shit.
Sliding an arm around Bailey, Cooper helped the older man stand, dragging him through the broken front door and setting him down on a bench outside. The wail of a siren could be heard in the distance, growing louder at its approach. “Help should be here shortly. I have to go find Celina.”
Bailey was already waving him on before he even finished his sentence. “Go, hurry.”
“Keep your eyes open.” Cooper instructed, already heading towards the trail. Cell phone still in hand, he dialed Ronni.
“Miss me already?” she answered, a grin in her voice.
“It’s Lopez,” he barked into the phone, maintaining his pace.
“Uh…and Lopez would be…?”
“Father Lopez with the Abbey of Our Lady of Benedictines. He killed and buried Ana Verdoni, and now he’s got Celina. I’m en route.”
“What the…?” Ronni breathed, her amusement gone. “What do you need me to do, boss?”
Cooper leapt over a patch of vines that had grown across the narrow path. “Contact Sergeant Givens with the local PD. Fill him in and send him my way, ASAP.”
“I’m on it. Go get our girl.”
Disoriented, Celina came awake slowly, aware she was lying on the hard ground. Her head pounded and it was hard to know how long she’d been out. The sun was setting and the woods were darkening quickly.
She wiggled her toes, her fingers, taking stock of her body. Other than the ropes binding her hands and feet, everything appeared to be in working order. If you didn’t count the vertigo attacking her senses and the drum clanging in her head.
Someone had gotten the drop on her and she was willing to bet that someone was Father Lopez.
Carefully, she rolled over, her eyes finding a shape in the shadows. The man appeared to be preoccupied with digging a hole, a hole she had a sneaking suspicion was meant for her.
No thanks. She didn’t do dirt holes.
Twisting her wrists, she worked on stretching out the ropes, careful to keep a wary eye on Lopez. It was him, she was sure. After a minute of nearly dislocating her shoulders garnered no results, she decided to change tactics, slowly curling her knees to her chest to bring her ankles within reach. If she could just get her ankles untied, at least she could make a run for it.
A voice carried to her through the dark, giving her pause. “The ropes will hold. I’m an expert at knots. Not that it will matter. Soon you will be with the earth.”
Yep, definitely Lopez. “What makes you think you’ll get away with this?”
Climbing out of the hole, he tossed the shovel to the ground. A stripe of dying sunlight filtered through the trees onto his face. He’d changed from his robes to a worn shirt and pair of jeans. “I’ve gotten away with it before. I have no intention of turning myself in now.”
She swallowed. “You killed Ana.”
Moving closer, Father Lopez knelt on the ground beside her. “You are a lot like her. Young, beautiful. You think you can take on the world. But the world is not yours to take, as it was not hers.”
Celina squirmed away when he reached out to her. The man was crazy. He’d buried Ana alive.
Keep him talking. The longer she kept him from throwing her in that hole, the better chance she had of getting free. Cooper would be searching for her. Bailey would come to and send help. “I don’t understand.”
“Ana was going to take Father Bailey away from me. She corrupted him, corrupted his morals. She would have ruined him.” The last words were filled with hatred, the vehemence in his voice chilling. “Ruined me.”
Something about the way he spoke suddenly made everything click together. “You’re in love with Father Bailey.”
He smiled, the patronizing smile of an adult having to explain something to a young child. “No one other than our Holy Father loves him more than I do. Ana was leading him away from his path. I brought him back.”
Oh yeah, she thought in disgust. Father Lopez was definitely taking a trip on the crazy train. “By killing an innocent girl?”
Father Lopez’s face morphed into hatred. He grabbed her arm, hauling her up with a jerk. “She was no more innocent than a prostitute on the street. She and that…illegitimate child she carried were sent by Satan to lead Father Bailey astray.”
Her mouth gaped. “You knew about the baby?”
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br /> He didn’t answer, instead keeping her arm in a bruising grip as he pulled her towards the hole.
Oh hell no.
She dug her heels in with all her might. Father Lopez might have gotten the drop on her earlier, but there was no way she was going to let him do to her what he did to Ana.
He growled at her struggles, face full of fury. Releasing her arm with a toss, he shoved her to the ground next to the hole. He dug into a bag and withdrew a syringe. “I had hoped this would go much easier, but seeing as how you are going to fight me….”
He approached her cautiously, liquid bubbling over the tip of the needle.
“Is this how you took care of Ana? Drugged her and dumped her in a hole? You’re a coward. A monster. You didn’t—don’t—love Father Bailey. You just want to control him.”
“You may deem me a coward, others might see me as a redeemer.”
Rolling onto her side, Celina tucked her feet underneath her and coiled her body. If he thought she was going to go down without a fight, he’d better think again. “No one sees you as a redeemer. You’re a murderer.”
Without hesitation, she sprung at him with her full force.
Chapter Eleven
With the lights from the Abbey far behind him, Cooper left the trail and entered the dark woods. Only able to make out shapes in the darkness, he turned on the flashlight app on his phone, using the light to guide his way.
Within minutes he came across telltale signs of someone being dragged through the bush, the grooves in the ground and broken branches giving him a clear path as to which direction Lopez had taken.
Fear ate at him. His gut burned. If Lopez hurt her…
Of course, Lopez had hurt her. Was going to hurt her. The bastard was going to kill her.
Not on my watch.
The alpha male that Celina always poked fun at, raged inside him. The adrenaline coursing through his system could light Northern California for a year.
Cooper’s ears picked up the distinct sound of a struggle. His body hitting the red zone, he shoved his phone in his pocket and tore off in that direction.