I went out of the office.
I don't know why I took the knife from kitchen.
Mrs. Hennessy wasn't in there, I don't where she was.
There were things cooking on the stove.
It smelled good in the kitchen.
I took the knife and... And went back to the rectory to look for him, he wasn't there.
This made me... I don't know why, but it made me angry. I I wasn't going to hurt him, so why was he from me? And then I... I heard him out in garden.., walking out there in the garden, and I to the rectory door, the sun was beginning to set, sky was red like blood, and I realized he was and all at once the hypocrisy of it, his praying to the lie of it...
I guess I stabbed him.
I don't know how many times.
God forgive me.
Afterwards, I... I went... I had to get rid of knife, you see. There wasn't any blood on my or on my hands.., isn't there supposed to be a lot blood? The blood was all over his his back, all over the knife, but none of it was on me. I couldn't go out on the street with with... I ran into the rectory again... Mrs. Hennessy didn't see me, she was in the kitchen... Everything was happening so fast... I ducked into the office... I pulled open the bottom file drawer, and threw the knife into the space at the back of the drawer, and then kept yanking things out of the drawer to make it look as if somebody had come there to rob the church and had killed... Oh dear God.
Had killed the priest.
Oh dear God.
Had killed dear Father Michael.
Carella listened now to the numb recitation of how she'd made her way home through streets already dark, how her parents had found her in the living room reading a book when they'd got home from work, how she'd told her mother the roast was already in the oven.
Thirteen, he was thinking, she's only thirteen.
And he recognized with a heavy sadness that nighttime in this city he loved seemed to come too swiftly nowadays. And he wondered if it wasn't already too late to say vespers.
Nellie Brand was watching him. As if reading mind and thinking exactly the same thing. Their e' met. In the distance, there was the sound of ambulance siren.
Marilyn Hollis was being taken to Moreho General, where they would declare her dead arrival.
Night had come.
The sky was black with rolling clouds. They sitting in the little garden behind the church. could hear the sound of an ambulance siren fading the distance. Faraway lightning flashes crazed sky.
"I haven't seen you in a long time," he said.
He was wearing a black cotton robe in richer black silk with pine cones that formed phallic pattern, slit to the waist on either side reveal his.muscular legs and thighs.
"Well, there were problems," she said.
She was wearing a red leather skin slit to thigh. Black silk blouse carved low over her breasts.
Red high-heeled shoes. Bloodred lipstick. Dangling red earrings.
"Tell me," he said.
She told him the story.
He listened thoughtfully.
Sipped at his drink and listened.
"There was a simpler way," he said at last.
"I didn't think so.”
"I'd have kicked him out,. see. Plain and simple.”
"I didn't want you to know I had a twenty-two-year-old son.”
"So you went to a Catholic priest instead.”
"Yes.”
"To ask him to intervene.”
"Yes. Because how could I continue coming here if Andrew was here with his goddamn faggot boyfriend?”
"Andrew Hobbs.”
"Yes.”
"I never once suspected.”
"That was my married name. Hobbs.”
"A twenty-two-year-old son," he said.
"Yes.”
"Abigail Finch has a twenty-two-year-old son," he said, and shook his head in wonder.
"Yes. So now you know I'm a hag," she said, and smiled.
"Oh yes, some hag," he said, and returned the smile.
"The point is," she said, "it backfired. And I'm truly penitent about that.”
"Backfired how?”
"I didn't expect him to get on his pulpit about Bornless. I only wanted him to give Andrew a little heart-to-heart. Quit seeing the Devil, son, it's bad for your soul. That sort of thing.”
"Yes.”
"Sure. Instead, he made a federal case out, "Yes.”
He was silent for a moment, sipping thou at his drink. He looked up then, and said, you should be punished, Ab. The church can you, you know.”
"I know that, and that's entirely up to you deacons, Sky. I am penitent, though, I reall' you know...”
"Yes?”
"I did get him to stop, I really did. When ... what was happening, his sermons and all, I him and told him I'd tell all about us if he harassing Bornless. He said it was blackmail,:t him it was for his own good. I was being you know. For his own good. Walking would be for his own good.”
Schuyler began laughing.
"Yeah," she said, and laughed with him. was what really ticked him off, my saying then laughing in his face. He slapped me, the can you believe it? Five minutes earlier worshipping at the mound, and all at once he me. Because I'd offended his beloved know, who he'd only been betraying since the April, fucking me six ways from Sunday. can you believe it!
Some priest. I made him that slap later. But he stopped the sermons There weren't any more sermons after Easter, did you notice?”
"To tell the truth, Ab, I didn't notice the ones before Easter, either.”
Both of them laughed.
And sipped at their drinks.
And looked up at the threatening black sky.
There was another flash of lightning.
"Rain coming," he said.
"There's another thing, too," she said. "If you're thinking of leniency.”
"And what's that?”
"I really think I accomplished something for the church, Sky.”
"How do you figure that?”
"I seduced a Catholic priest. I seduced a servant of Jesus Christ. I think that's something, Sky.”
"You do, huh?”
"Something worth considering, yes. If you're thinking of forgiving me.”
I'll see.”
There was more lightning, closer now. A faint roll of thunder.
"He told me he loved me," she said, and turned to look at him, a small pleased smile on her face.
"I can't blame him.”
"Through love, lust. Right?”
"Vice versa, actually.”
"I had him lusting for me, Sky. He'd have done anything for me. A Catholic priest, Sky. I had him panting for me. On his knees to me. Not Sky. To me.”
She looked directly into his eyes.
Lightning flashed closer. There was a of thunder.
"We're going to win," she said "Eventually, we're going to win, Sky.”
“I think we've already won," he said It was going to rain any moment now.
He took her hand. They rose together back into the church just as the first hu began pelting the path.
"Would you care to serve as altar night?" he asked.
"I'd be honored," she said.