“But wouldn’t he be much happier being married to Marigold and officially recognize Angel as his daughter?”
“You don’t get it, do you? Father Reilly has given his life to the church. It means everything to him. His whole identity revolves around his position at St. John’s. Having to give that up would be like giving up a part of himself—the part that makes him who he is.”
“I think he would be fine.”
“He could always join another church,” suddenly a voice piped up behind us.
“Dooley!” Shanille cried, horrified that our friend had followed us out there.
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? He could join a church where priests are allowed to marry. There must be plenty of those around.”
“Yeah, the Protestants, for instance,” I said. “They’re allowed to marry, aren’t they?”
“It’s not that simple!” said Shanille, spacing out the words and giving them some bite.
“It is simple if you make it simple,” said Dooley. “Do you want us to tell Gran about Father Reilly and Marigold? And then she can tell Father Reilly to join some other church.”
“No, Dooley, I donot want you to tell Vesta—in fact I don’t want you to tell anyone!”
“What can’t you tell us?” asked Harriet, who also came wandering up now, followed by Brutus.
“Oh, my God!” Shanille cried. “Isn’t anything sacred!”
“What secret?” asked Brutus.
“I think she said sacred, not secret,” said Harriet.
“Father Reilly wants to marry Marigold, the mother of his daughter Angel, only he’s afraid to change churches,” said Dooley, filling in the newcomers.
“Dooley!” Shanille cried. “What did I just tell you about not telling anyone!”
“Oh, but Harriet and Brutus aren’t just anyone,” said Dooley with perfect logic. “They’re friends.”
“See!” said Harriet. “I told you that Angel is Father Reilly’s daughter!”
“You absolutely did,” Brutus confirmed.
“So why don’t they get married?”
“Because he’s a priest!” said Shanille, who seemed to get a little overwrought now. “And priests aren’t supposed to get married!”
“That’s nonsense,” said Brutus. “Plenty of priests are married with kids. Chase’s aunt’s cousin’s uncle is a priest and he’s been married for over forty years. Though listening to him he’d prefer not to be married, but that’s a different story.”
“It’s the Catholic priests that can’t marry,” I explained. “Their church doesn’t allow it.”
“Well, that’s just plain weird, isn’t it?” said Harriet.
“What is?”
“Well, they marry people every day but can’t get married themselves? That doesn’t seem fair.”
“That’s just the way it is.”
We all watched Father Reilly and his ladylove, and I have to say the sight warmed the cockles of my heart.
But then Dooley’s words brought us all back to reality with a bang: “So what are the aliens going to do with Angel, Max?”
13
“Max, you’ve got to help us,” said Fifi.
We were on our way back to the main road, since there didn’t seem to be anything else we could do out there.
“Help you with what?” I asked.
I noticed how both Rufus and Fifi had flanked me, and were talking in low, urgent tones, clearly not wanting the others to know what we were discussing.
“You have to help us figure out what happened to that missing girl,” said Rufus.
“We all want to know what happened to Angel,” I pointed out.
“No, but we’re in a real pickle here, Max,” Fifi confessed.
“Our reputation hangs in the balance, Max,” her friend chimed in.
“What reputation? What are you talking about?”
“When we accepted this assignment to find Angel, we were sure we couldn’t miss,” Fifi explained.
“Yeah,” said Rufus. “Sniffing for a missing person is a no-brainer, whatever that idiot diver says.”
“But then the trail suddenly went cold on us.”
“Angel vanished—poof! Into thin air!”
“So now this whole thing is making us look bad, Max.”
“Real bad,” Rufus specified.
“What if the others find out?”
“And they will find out,” said Rufus.
“What others?” I asked, mystified by this entire conversation.
“Other dogs, Max!” Fifi cried.
“Our names will be mud,” Rufus said. “Dogs will say we’re a disgrace to the good name of dogs everywhere.”
“Can’t even sniff out a simple missing girl, they’ll say.”
“So you have to help us, Max,” Rufus said in conclusion.
“Find Angel before the news breaks that we weren’t able to find her,” Fifi explained.
“And then when you do find her, you need to give us the credit, Max.”
“Yeah, give us the credit…”
“… and spread the word far and wide, Max.”
“As far as the word will go!”
“To the four corners of the globe!”
“Can I say something now?” I asked when finally the crosstalk seemed to be at an end.
“Only if you say yes,” said Fifi, then quietly added, “Just kidding.”
“Okay, so first off, we all want to find Angel, not just you guys. In fact it’s imperative that we find her as soon as possible.”
“I know—for our reputations!”
“Nobody cares about your reputation, Fifi,” I said, perhaps a touch too heatedly, but I don’t enjoy being cornered like this. I mean, cats have their pride, and don’t like to be engaged by a couple of dogs to do their work for them.
“See?” said Rufus sadly. “What did I tell you, Fifi?”
“I know, Rufus. I thought Max was a pal, but obviously he’s not.”
“I am your pal,” I said, “and as your pal I can tell you in all honesty that nobody is going to think any less of you simply because you couldn’t find Angel.”
“That’s what you think,” Fifi scoffed.
“No, but look here—you found the place where she disappeared—you found the place where she dumped her phone—or it was dumped for her—and the fact that the trail runs cold tells us that something happened out there, and so now we need to find out what. I think everyone will agree you did agreat job, you guys. An absolutely stellar job.”
“You think so?” asked Fifi dubiously.
“Absolutely. Without you, we wouldn’t know what we know now.”
“Which is?”
“Well, um…” Frankly I had no idea what we knew, except that Angel was still missing.
“We found out that Angel is Father Reilly’s daughter,” said Dooley, who’d joined us at the head of the small procession.
“Dooley, you promised!” Shanille cried from a few paces behind us.
“But Fifi and Rufus are friends, Shanille! And you don’t keep secrets from your friends!”
“Do you think Angel being Father Reilly’s daughter is related to what happened to her?” asked Fifi.
“I have no idea,” I confessed. “But it’s definitely something we need to look into.”
“Could be that Angel found out that Father Reilly is her dad and decided to run away,” Rufus offered. “Without leaving a trace, which is why she jumped into that pond, dumped her phone, and this way managed to wipe every trace of herself.”
“But why would she do that?” asked Dooley. “If Father Reilly were my dad, I’d be very happy. He’s such a nice man.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple, Dooley,” I said. “If she found out—and that’s still a big if—we have no idea how she felt about it.”
“Okay, so if she did run away,” said Fifi, “why would she go out with her friends first? That doesn’t sound like a person in distress. No,” she said, shaking her head. “I smell a rat.”