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“Outside maybe? We’ll wait for you on the blacktop.”
“He’s built,” Peabody said when they walked out of the gym. “Who knew that under all the priest gear he was Father Seriously Ripped.”
“Keeps in shape. And something’s up. Father Seriously Ripped had his sad eyes on, but there was more. There was dread.”
“Really? I guess I wasn’t looking at his eyes. He could have heard about Lino by now. Word like that starts traveling fast. Since he’s the man in charge, he’s going to have to explain, I guess, why he didn’t realize a man like that was working under him. Everybody needs a fall guy, right? Maybe the church brass is aiming at him.”
Since the blacktop was swarming with kids, Eve stayed at the side of the building. “Why aren’t these people in school?”
“School’s out for the day, Dallas. On the technical end of things, it’s nearly end of shift.”
“Oh. Maybe he’s worried about his career. Do priests have careers? But that wasn’t it. I know the look that says, ‘I don’t want to talk to the cops.’ That’s what he had in his eyes.”
“You think he’s hiding something? He didn’t know Lino—as Lino. He’s only been in the parish for a few months.”
“He’s been a priest a hell of a lot longer.” She thought of what Mira had predicted, and decided not to dance and jab, but to try for the knockout as soon as López came out.
His hair was damp, and the sweat had his T-shirt clinging to his chest. Yeah, Eve mused, he kept in shape.
She didn’t wait a beat. “The victim’s been officially identified as Lino Martinez. You know who killed him. You know,” Eve said, “because whoever did told you.”
He closed his eyes briefly. “What I know was told to me within the sanctity of the confessional.”
“You’re protecting a murderer, and one who is indirectly responsible for a second death in Jimmy Jay Jenkins.”
“I can’t break my vows, Lieutenant. I can’t betray my faith, or the laws of the Church.”
“Render unto Caesar,” Peabody said, and had López shaking his head.
“I can’t give to man’s law with one hand, and take from God’s with the other. Please, can we sit? The benches over there, away from the building. This needs to be very private.”
Resentment bubbling, Eve walked over to where benches, their legs set into concrete, were facing the court. López sat, rested his hands on his knees.
“I’ve prayed on this. I’ve prayed since I heard this confession. I can’t tell you what was told to me. It was told not to me, but to God through me. I received this confession as a minister to God.”
“I’ll take the hearsay.”
“I don’t expect you to understand, either of you.” He lifted his hands from his knees, palms up. Lowered them again. “You’re women of the world. Of the law. This person came to me to unburden their soul, their heart, their conscience, of this mortal sin.”
“And you absolved them? Good deal for them.”
“No, I did not. Cannot absolve them. I can’t unburden them, Lieutenant. I counseled, I instructed, I urged this person to go to you, to confess to you. Until this is done, there can be no forgiveness, no absolution. They will live with this sin, and die with it unless they repent it. I can’t do anything for you, for them. I can’t do anything.”
“Did this individual know Lino Martinez?”
“I can’t answer you.”
“Is this person a member of your church?”
“I can’t answer you.” He pressed his fingers to his eyes. “It makes me ill, but I can’t answer.”
“I could put you in a cage. You’d get out. Your church will campaign, send their lawyers, but you’d do time first while we’re fighting it out.”
“And still, I can’t answer. If I tell you, I’ll have broken my vows, betrayed them. I’ll be excommunicated. There are all kinds of cages, Lieutenant Dallas. Do you think I want this?” he demanded, with the first hint of heat. “To block your justice? I believe in your justice. I believe in the order of it as much as you. Do you think I want to stand by, knowing I can’t reach a wounded, angry soul? That my counsel may have turned it away instead of bringing it to God?”
“They may come after you. You know who they are, what they did. I can take you into protective custody.”
“They know I won’t break my vows. If you took me away, I’d have no chance to reach them, to try, to keep trying to persuade them to do true penance for the sin, to accept man’s law and God’s. Let me try.”
