I smoothed Barbie’s robe over her body, adjusted her surplice, dug around in the mounds of trash until I located her missing stole, and settled that around her shoulders again, too.
Out in the hall, Eva was still pushing the cart with the squeaky wheel down the hallway. I dashed after her, clutching the Barbie. “Eva! You left this! Don’t you want to take your Barbie?”
With a tiredness born of disappointment and regret, Eva slowed. She brushed at her cheeks before turning around, trying, without much success, to hide her tears from me. She raised her voice slightly so that I could hear. “No, I don’t think I’ll need it.”
Still holding Barbie, I hustled down the hall, catching up with my friend near the door to the kitchen. “But Pastor Barbie was a gift from your sister.”
“Yes, but every time I look at her now, she reminds me of my failures. I failed myself, my husband, and my church. But most painfully of all, I’ve failed my God.”
“You’re too good a priest to leave the Church for good, Eva. Maybe after you’ve been away for a while, you’ll see your way clear to come back.”
“Maybe,” she said, but she didn’t sound convinced.
Eva reached out and smoothed Barbie’s hair. Then, just as suddenly, she snatched her hand back as if she’d been burned. “Just throw it away,” she said.
I watched Eva, stooped, slump shouldered, and defeated, as she turned away from me and continued pushing her cart down the hall.
Holding her by her feet, I brought Barbie’s face up to meet mine. “Well, Barbie, what do you say?” I opened my handbag and tucked Pastor Barbie toes first into the pouch that normally contained my cell phone.
Eva might never return to St. Catherine’s, I thought with an ache in my heart, but someday Pastor Eva would come back to God. And when she did, Pastor Barbie would be at my house, waiting for her.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks…
As always, to my husband, Barry, for the galvanized stomach that gets him through the fast food stages of my peripatetic writing life.
To the Rev. Margaret Waters, priest, longtime friend, and ought-to-be-published novelist, for keeping me straight, liturgically speaking.
To Special Agent Marina Murphy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Annapolis Regional Authority, who answered all my questions about FBI policy and procedures with intelligence and sensitivity.
If I got it wrong, it’s entirely my fault, not theirs.
To Perverted-Justice.com, Dateline NBC, and reporter Chris Hanson, whose “To Catch A Predator” television specials both inspired and informed this story.
To the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Nation’s Missing Children Organization, Child Quest International, Beyond Missing, America’s Most Wanted, Laura Recovery Center, The Polly Klaas Foundation, The Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction, the Maryland Center for Missing Children, and similar organizations throughout the United States and abroad who work tirelessly to make the world a safer place for our children.
To Linda Jones of Bedford, England, massage therapist extraordinaire, whose hands ought to be insured by Lloyds of London; and to Barbara Holderby, for a truly inspirational “Girls Day Out” at the Spa at Pinehurst in North Carolina.
To my writers groups-Sujata Massey, John Mann, Janice McLane, and Karen Diegmueller in Baltimore and Janet Benrey, Trish Marshall, Mary Ellen Hughes, Ray Flynt, Sherriel Mattingly, and Lyn Taylor in Annapolis-for tough love.
To my amazing editor, Sarah Durand; her excellent assistant, Jeremy Cesarec; my can-do publicist, Danielle Bartlett; and everyone at HarperCollins who makes it such an incredibly supportive place for a mystery writer to be.
To my web diva and lunch buddy, Barbara Parker. Come see what Barbara can do at www.marciatalley.com.
To Erika E. Rose, attorney at law, whose generous bid at a charity auction sponsored by the Friends of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra earned her a starring role in this book.
And to Kate Charles and Deborah Crombie, without whom…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcia Talley is the author of five previous books featuring Hannah Ives. A winner of the Malice Domestic writing grant and an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel, Ms. Talley won an Agatha and an Anthony Award for her short story “Too Many Cooks” and an Agatha Award for her short story “Driven to Distraction.” She is the editor of two mystery collaborations, and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She lives with her husband in Annapolis, Maryland.
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