Cloaked in Blood (11 page)

“I can’t imagine anything that would make
her believe.”

“She has no religious foundation?”

Johnny smiled.  “Well, maybe a foxhole
here and there.  I think she prayed when I was hurt last
December, but of course, she’d never admit it.”

“Would she do anything to protect you
too?”

“She’d die trying,” Johnny admitted. 
“Although I’d rather she didn’t.”

“Try?”

“Die trying.  I’m not saying she has a
death wish.  Neither do I, for that matter.  But we’ve
both done things, and sometimes I wonder if all of this now isn’t
just God’s punishment.”

“Would you like to confess your sins, my
son?”

He nodded.  Johnny began the
recitation, from his little white lies, to looking the other way
when he suspected that Salvatore Masconi had been murdered. 
“And then there was the thing last fall.”

“God loves you.  You know this. 
But for peace, you need to confess, to receive the benefit of his
blessing.  He must carry your burdens.”

Johnny sighed again.  “I made sure
someone who was guilty of unspeakable crimes would be punished, and
someone who simply overreacted to abuse found peace.”

“That hardly sounds like sin.”

“Even if the punishment is for a crime the
man didn’t commit?”

“Ah,” the priest said.  “As I said,
God’s ways are not ours, or even comprehensible to us.  There
are times when I wonder at his methods when it seems that the
guilty suffer no consequences, my son, and other days when I come
to understand that even though men think they have evaded justice,
no one can escape the final judgment.  There are no legal
loopholes in the afterlife.”

“So you’re saying that even if God forgives
me, I’m still damned.”

“Not at all.  You’ve confessed your
sins.  And for all we know, you were the tool that God used to
exact his justice in this life.  As you said, man’s justice
fails.  We cannot escape God’s plan, no matter how much we
might wish to do so.”

Johnny nodded.  “To be fair, this man
who was arrested, it doesn’t look like he’s even going to be
prosecuted for what I thought he’d face.  In fact, a far worse
crime was exposed.”

“God’s will,” the priest said.  “Go in
peace, my son.  Your sins are forgiven.”

“No atonement?”

“I think your sense of guilt and shame have
been punishment enough, but if they continue to plague you, perhaps
we could talk again.  I’m here, in the confessional every
morning.  And God is always with you.”

Johnny nodded and slipped out of the
confessional.

Wendell waited five minutes before pushing
the door open a crack.  A man in a monk’s robes lurked in the
shadows across the room.  He stepped out of the confessional
and swiftly strode to the doors of Saint Agnes and barred the
entry.

The monk’s hood flipped back and Datello
stared at him.  “What are the odds that
he
would show
up here?”

Wendell grinned.  “I chose this parish
because it was once the place Johnny attended regularly when he was
a young man.  Knowing him as I do –”

Datello’s snort interrupted.  “You
know
Johnny Orion?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.  Not only
have we met face to face and spoken over the telephone, I’ve been
building a dossier on the man since my fortuitous death.  Like
it or not, Danny, my daughter’s husband truly is one of the good
guys, and if you doubt me, let me remind you that your uncle’s
dealings with terrorists were exposed because Johnny
is
a
good man.”

“He’s been trying to put me in prison for
years,” Datello snarled.

“A misunderstanding, one that we shall count
on Helen to rectify, but only if your continued existence is
exposed.”

“What makes you think she won’t run straight
to him when she finds out I’m still alive?”

Wendell laughed.  “You really don’t
know Helen at all.  How do you think I managed to get out of
Attica?”

Danny’s eyebrows rose.  “Helen?”

“She got the ball rolling, provided a way
out that I and someone who has helped me from the outside for years
couldn’t quite manage to plan.  And Johnny thought she’d been
abducted again because that’s what Helen let him believe. 
Trust me.  She understands that keeping secrets is often
necessary.  When I convince her that she made a mistake about
you, she’ll be helpful.”

“Your daughter isn’t exactly the type of
woman to darken the doorway of a church, let alone a confessional,”
Datello observed dryly.  “Or haven’t you learned that in all
of this extensive research of yours?  Helen’s pretty vocal
about her lack of belief in God.”

“Who do you think taught her to be
rational?” Wendell grinned.  “Or were you under the misguided
belief that I’m qualified to wear this thing?”  He tugged at
the collar and twisted it off.  “But she loves Johnny, and she
is pregnant with his sons.”

“Twins,” Datello said.  “This just
keeps getting better.”

“You have no idea what’s going on in her
life right now, but I have a niggling hunch that everything that’s
happened since Helen came here is related.  This is why the
three of us are going to make an unstoppable team, Danny.  You
do trust me, don’t you?”

“Hell, it’s hard not to.  You’ve got as
much to lose as I do.”

“And,” Wendell waved one hand in a sweeping
gesture, “I have offered you absolute sanctuary here at Saint
Agnes.  Time, however, is not on our side.  It’s only a
matter of time before the feds are crawling all over Darkwater Bay
looking for you.  We have to act fast to bring this issue to
resolution, Danny.”

He nodded.  “At the same time, they
can’t openly scour the city for me without letting everyone,
including Uncle Sully know that I’m still alive, still the trump
card they plan to play when they charge him with at least a hundred
more murders.”

“There will be nothing overt in their
search, I promise you.  It will be so subtle, we probably
won’t even know they’re here.  Who was the agent working with
you again?”

“Joel Soule.  He knows Helen.”

“Good.”

“Is it?”

Wendell nodded.  “The last thing he’ll
want is for Helen to know he’s here, because if he knows her at
all, he’s got to realize that she’ll start asking the right
questions about why he’s here.  Do you know how he knows
her?”

Datello nodded.  Guilt leeched into his
dark eyes.  “He’s the one that took over the case against my
uncle after Mark Seleeby got kicked to the curb.”

“Does he think she murdered Rick?”

“Not officially, but I’m afraid after the
anesthesia wore off, I gave him an earful of my suspicions.”

“Hmm,” Wendell said.  “That does
complicate matters.  Do you still believe Helen murdered
him?”

Datello nodded.  “I knew my
cousin.  At least, I knew him well enough to know he’d never
commit suicide.  He was terrified of Sully, that he’d be
caught passing information back to me.  He insisted that we
tell my uncle up front who he was to me.”

Wendell’s eyes widened.  “You mean
Sully didn’t already know that Rick was your cousin?”

“It’s not like we grew up together,” Danny
snapped.  “My father’s youngest sister got into trouble. 
Her son was put up for adoption.  It took me years to find
him.  See, she was sent out here when my grandmother realized
she was pregnant.  I was excited to have another kid
around.  I was only six when he was born, so it was pretty
devastating when he was there, and then gone.”

“Good Christ,” Wendell sighed heavily. 
“This would’ve been much easier if Sully had never learned the
truth.  And no wonder the FBI never learned this bit of
information when they vetted Helen for service.”

“The adoption was sealed.  At least
until he died.”

Wendell nodded.  “That’s probably how
Orion discovered the truth so easily.”

“Johnny knew?”

“Oh yes,” Wendell said.  “He learned a
great deal about my daughter’s circumstances before they… well, her
reticence raised questions.”

“She came out here to kill me, didn’t
she?”

“I don’t know,” Wendell answered
honestly.  “I’d imagine it’s safe to assume that your feelings
for her weren’t exactly unrequited, Danny.  It’s all in the
past now.  She’s very reasonable.  She’ll see that you
were used as a scapegoat because of your connection to Sully
Marcos, if she hasn’t figured it out already.”

“Why don’t you just call her and get this
meeting over with?  If time is so urgent, why are we wasting
it camped out in this church with you spending every morning
listening to the confessions of little old ladies?”

“My post here is temporary.  It’s also
been useful.”

“What did Orion tell you this morning?”

“That’s private,” Wendell’s voice grew
stern.  “But you’re right.  The sooner Helen is up to
speed on what needs to happen, the better.”

Chapter 11

I woke with a start.  Johnny was
perched on the side of the bed watching me. 

“You’re back.”

He smiled.  “I am.”

I reached for his hand and nestled it
against my belly.  “I think they woke me up.  Not on my
bladder this time.  Where were you all morning?”

“Clearing out some space at the bungalow in
Downey.  Crevan and Alex are in dire need of a little respite
from his mother.”

I cringed. 
Our
mother. 
Would she suddenly start showing up here, hounding me to build a
relationship with her without Crevan’s constant supervision?

“She knows better than to come here,
Helen.  I promise.”

“That obvious, huh?”

“More than obvious.  I had the same
concern, which was why I stopped by the penthouse before I came
home and explained to her that we’re still concerned with the
friendship between Lyle Henderson and her husband, and that it’s
really best for everyone if she continues to maintain her
distance.  I think I got a little more insight into why Crevan
in particular needs some space where she’s concerned.”

“Do I want to know?  Let me
guess.  She’s replaced that king sized bed in the master
bedroom with twin beds, no
bunk
beds so Alex and Crevan
aren’t actually sleeping together anymore.”

Johnny chuckled.  “No, but when Aidan
threatened to cut off her monthly allowance, Alex explained the
laws of community property, and that she’s entitled to half of
every dime of interest the family fortune has accumulated in over
forty years.  He recommended a good divorce lawyer, which sort
of freaked Crevan out.”

“Ouch.  Going after the family funds
won’t sit well with Aidan.”

“It’s probably the one thing that would
force him to confront Kathleen no matter where she is.”

“Then why is moving her to the bungalow a
good idea?”

Johnny smiled, more of a smirk really. 
“Because your brilliant husband impressed upon her the necessity of
maintaining the status quo right now, and that even if Aidan
cancels her credit cards and freezes her bank account, we’ll make
sure she wants for nothing in the meantime so that Aidan has no
reason to confront her.”

I groaned.  “So now I’m supporting her
financially?”

“It’s for a good cause.  If we finally
figure out if Lyle Henderson was involved in your abduction as an
infant or more recently, it all ends.  Kathleen can make nice
with her husband, and everything goes back to normal again.”

“Do you think that’s what Kathleen really
wants?”

Johnny shrugged.  “I’m not so sure
anymore, but once this business with Henderson is resolved, we
don’t care if she divorces Aidan and bilks him for half his
wealth.  She’ll have half a dozen of Darkwater Bay’s most
ruthless fighting the good fight for her, going through Aidan’s
finances with a fine-toothed comb sorting out what she’s entitled
to and making sure she gets it.”

The animosity I felt every time I thought of
Aidan Conall flowed through my veins.  “I wish she’d get more
than half,” I said.  “After forty years with that asshole,
she’s earned all of it.”

“David called when I was on the way
home.  Filled me in on this business with Jeremy Noel.  I
hate to say it, Helen, but I’m concerned that Wendell was
intentionally less than forthcoming when he identified the man as
Noah.”

I waved his concern aside.  “He barely
spent two seconds in the room, Johnny.  Even Lucero admitted
that Dad didn’t stick around to hear what the guy had to say. 
Lucero, on the other hand, was completely duped into believing that
the FBI sent someone to follow up on the tip he gave about your
visit.”

“But they didn’t send anyone,” Johnny
said.  “David said they only confirmed with the prison that I
visited Wendell.  They knew better than to think Wendell would
see them or talk to them.”

“Right,” I drawled.  “And your
point?”

“If Lucero only told the FBI, who else knew
I was there and wanted Wendell to explain why I visited him?”

I frowned.  “That’s a very good
question.  Lucero was adamant that all he did was inform the
bureau that someone else from law enforcement came to see Dad.”

“Who else knew about my visit? 
You.  Me.  Wendell.  The FBI – eventually at
least.”

“Seleeby?”

Johnny shook his head.  “No,
Helen.  I was on my way to see Wendell when Seleeby showed up
in Darkwater Bay again.  Chris hauled his ass back to
Washington.  He’d already been removed from the Marcos
investigation and reassigned to Idaho.”

Confusion flooded my brain.  “How on
earth
did
somebody…” my voice died.  “Johnny, there’s
one other possibility.”

“Well, what is it?  For the life of me,
I can’t figure out how anybody knew about what I did.”

“They didn’t immediately, nor did they make
it known immediately.  But I’m sure someone wanted to find out
why you were at Attica all the same.  Seeing my father, no
less.  You used the badge to get access to Daddy.”