"What I'm saying," Meyer said, "is that last night, guy is still pissed offjust thinking about it. So he out and finds himself another blonde to kill.”
"How long's he gonna stay pissed off, this guy?”
I'll bet you the one last night was the end of it.”
"Until there's another full moon," Genero said.
"Will you fuck off with your full moon?" Parker "One thing I'm glad of," Brown said.
"Tomorrow's your day off," Parker said.
"That, too. But I'm also glad this lunatic ain't it here.”
“Amen,” Parker said.
priest sent quarterly checks to the .se the last one had been written on the of March for something he listed as zum" on the stub; Carella had no idea what this might be. Six checks had been written the day of Father Michael's death:
A check to Bruce Macauley Tree Care, Inc. "Spraying done on 5/19" in the amount of $37.50.
A check to US Sprint for "Service thru 5/17 the amount of $176.80.
A check to Isola Bank and Trust for " mortgage" in the amount of $1480.75.
A check to Alfred Hart Insurance "Honda Accord LX, Policy pounds HR 9872724" amount of $580.
A check to Orkin Exterminating Co. Inc. "May services" in the amount of $36.50.
And a check to The Wanderers for deposit" in the amount of $100.00.
That was it.
Each month, the balance in the St. Roman Catholic Church Corporation c leveled off at about a thousand dollars. There to be nothing irregular about Father accounts.
The next evidence envelope cont correspondence.
The first letter Carella took out of the was written on blue stationery, addre woman's hand to Father Michael Birney Catherine's Church Rectory.
He looked at the address. Mrs. Irene Brogan. The postmark envelope was from San Diego, California, and May 19. He opened the envelope and took the letter from it:
My dearest brother, I am now in receipt of yours of May 12th, and I cannot tell you with what a saddened heart hasten to...
"I'm back," Hawes said from the gate in the slatted rail divider. "Did you solve it yet?”
III
“What's this case you're working, anyway?" said Parker, turning to Carella.
Carella told him they had a D.O.A. stab-and-slash, weapon unknown, housekeeper secretary last ones to see him alive, wild prints over the church and the rectory, random latents from the papers here, but they were most likely secretary's. He also told Parker that the thought the Devil had dusted the priest and addition to the Devil the priest had also pissed some local youngsters as well as his o, congregation.
Parker thought this was very comical. He laughing. So did Genero.
"This is his correspondence here," Carella Hawes. "Just dig in.”
“You're gonna have a lot of fun there," said, "reading a priest's mail," and burst laughing again. Genero started laughing again, Both men sat there giggling like teenagers. Hawes ;d it was spring fever.
At his own desk, Carella went back to the letter Father Michael's sister:
My dearest brother, I am now in receipt of yours of May 12th, and I cannot tell you with what a saddened heart I hasten to respond. Michael, how have you managed to construct such a tower of doubt for yourself?. And don't you feel you should relate your fears to the bishop of your diocese? l just don't know how to counsel or advise you.
I wish I could be closer to you during this difficult time. What makes matters worse is that Roger and I are leaving for Japan this Saturday, and we won't be back till the tenth of June. I'll try to call you before we leave, so we can have a good long telephone visit. Perhaps, by then, the skies above will look a bit clearer.
Meanwhile, let me say only this: I know that you are a devout and loyal servant of God and that however troubled you may now be, you will find through prayer the way to enlightenment and salvation.
Your loving sister, Irene
He turned over the envelope again.
pulled the phone to him, lifted the receiver, asked the operator for the San Diego area dialed 1-619-555-1212 for information, and listing for a Roger Brogan at the address on the of the envelope. He dialed the number and let phone ring twenty times before hanging up.
"Here's something," Hawes said.
She did not think they were policemen. If they policemen, they'd have identified themselves once to the street-corner cops she'd Flash the tin, reveal themselves as part of the fraternal order of law enforcement officers. So they weren't cops.
They were Spanish-speaking. This fri They had known the name Mary Ann and had known the nickname Mariucha. This frightened even more. They could have got the Mary Ann Houston, but not the Mariucha. This had to come from either La Fortaleza or Buenos either they'd been asking questions at the else they'd been snooping around B.A. Either they were here. Moreover, they had tracked the school. Which meant they probably knew she lived as well.
She knew she should tell Willis, but she afraid of losing him. Afraid, too, that the these men represented might somehow rub him, cause problems for him on the job. She him too dearly for that. So no, she couldn't 'd brought this trouble upon herself, whatever it out to be, and she had to handle it herself.
Which was why she had to get a gun; the :h-blade knife seemed suddenly inadequate for defense, especially against the big, ugly one. But how?
And where?
The gun laws were tough in this state. You needed a permit before you could walk into a shop and pick off the shelf. And you needed a damn good k, ason for wanting that permit. So how far would she to travel to buy a gun? Even in the immediately joining states, didn't ship-owners have to file applications well before letting you walk out a gun? So where did the gun laws get easy? far across the river and into the trees? How far east, south or west? Where in these g United States could a person legally buy to kill her husband or her mother or, better yet, Spanish-speaking goons who'd called her by her name, her Buenos Aires street name?
Where?
She was living with a cop and personally knew at three dozen cops in this city, had gone out to with them, been in their homes, but there a single one of them she could ask about ,tting a- well, maybe.., yes, that was a . Eileen Burke. Call her up, ask her out to Eileen was a cop, casually swing the an around to how and where a person acquire a hot gun in this. no, she was too smart, she'd tip in a minute, know immediately it was Marilyn herself who was looking for the Besides, she wasn't sure Eileen even liked Wasn't sure, for that matter, that any of friends liked her. A hooker. A former hooker.
Hookers knew people who knew where to' guns. In Houston, she'd have known where to gun.
In Buenos Aires, she'd have known where a gun.
But this was here and this was now, and been out of the life too long.
Or had she?
"If you're looking for a motive, this could motive," Hawes said, and handed a sheet of across the desk. It was the sort of newsletter years ago would have been typed first and mimeographed. Today, it had started as a printout and had later been photocopied, copier streaks across the page being the only duplication. Carella wondered how many of had been distributed. He also wondered how had got along before Xeroxing was Xeroxing? That was already the Stone Age.
Clerical Office's new fax machine was the miracle.
My Fellow Parishioners: For the past several weeks now, Michael Birney, the pastor assigned to guide the flock of St. Catherine's Church, has on more than one occasion seen fit to use the pulpit as a scolding board for our...