“And what do you want to do?Charge out andtrack them down, somehow?By yourself?”She shook her head.“Calling the cops doesn’t mean you’re afraid, it means you’re aboveall this shit.You’re a priest, for fuck’s sake.You save people’ssouls or whatever, and the police take care of this stuff.”
Save people’s souls.Or do paperwork.Markshook his head and made himself focus on the task at hand.“Yes.Okay.I’ll phone the police.But you don’t need to babysit me,Annie.I appreciate your support, but—”
“Mark?If I got in trouble, I’d expect myneighbors to step in.Honestly, I’d be a bit pissed if you didn’t.So, no, I don’t need to babysit you.I don’t even need to help youout.But I’m going to anyway.Understood?”
He nodded sheepishly.“Yes.”
She gestured at the door.“These guys?Whoever did this?They’re assholes, Mark.But I’m not.Most peoplearen’t.”She waited a moment for the message to sink in, thenswatted him gently on the arm and shooed him toward her door.“So,get in there and get on the phone!I’ll call the super on my celland tell him about the window.But we probably shouldn’t cleananything up until the cops come, right?”
“Probably not,” he agreed.Annie seemed toknow what needed to be done, and it was much easier to just let hertake over.He was still hearing the crash of his window shattering,still seeing the hateful word smeared on his door.It was hard tothink of much else.The only other thought that his mind seemed towant to focus on was the hope of getting out to the farm, andfinding his sanctuary.He hoped the police wouldn’t take toolong.
ChapterThirty-One
Dog shit.As soon as Father Mark hadsaid those words, Lucas had known.Well, not quite known, but closeenough.
Father Mark had been so concerned when he’dseen Lucas’s reaction.He’d apologized for upsetting him; thepolice had said there might be a connection to the situation withMr.Wilson, so he’d thought Lucas should know.But maybe heshouldn’t have gone into details, he’d said.Lucas had just shakenhis head.It was good that Father Mark had told him.
And it was good that Lucas was following upnow.He eased the truck into a once-familiar spot by the curb anddidn’t hesitate before getting out and heading for the front doorof the house.He’d come straight from work and probably smelledlike a barnyard, but he didn’t give a damn.This wasn’t a socialcall.
But it was a family home, so Lucas knocked onthe door instead of busting inside.When Tina saw him through thescreen, she smiled, then frowned as she saw his expression.“Hey,Lucas.Good to see you.”
Damn.It would have been easier if she’d beenrude.“Hi, Tina.Good to see you, too.Is Sean around?”
She paused, then nodded slowly and steppedbackward to stand at the bottom of the staircase.“Sean!”shehollered.“Lucas Cain is here for you.”She paused before adding,still at full volume, “He looks pissed!”
She waited for a response that didn’t come,then wandered back to the screen door.She pushed it open a littleand cocked a hip while smiling at Lucas.“There’s a big party thisweekend at Shelly Austin’s.You might know her brother Paul?”Thesmile got a little wicked as she added, “You should come.Peoplesay you never go out anymore.But we could have fun.”
Thankfully a door slammed somewhere upstairsand jeans-clad legs appeared at the top of the stairs.Theydescended with Sean’s familiar gate and Lucas swallowed a lump ofconfused emotions.He was here for a reason, not for reminiscing.He needed to stay focused.
Sean came to the doorway and squinted outinto the late afternoon sun.Then he turned to his sister.“Goaway, Tina.”
She rolled her eyes.“It’s my house too, youknow.And Lucas was my friend too.Just because you had a fightwith him doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get to talk to him.”
“Fuck off, Tina.”Sean’s voice had an edge toit, one that made his sister take a step backward.Sean turned hisback on her and pushed the screen door open, his face unreadable ashe asked, “You want to come in?”
“Careful, Sean.Somebody might see ustogether, and you wouldn’t want that.”But old hurts weren’t whatLucas was there for.“Come outside.”
And Sean did, firmly closing the wooden frontdoor behind him.His tractability made Lucas suspicious, but he’dcome this far so he needed to keep going.“You still hanging outwith Mikey and Tinker?”
Sean squinted at him, then nodded.“Yeah.Why?”
“Mikey still do that thing?Where he collectsdog shit and spreads it on people’s walls?Writes with it?”
Sean snorted in amusement.“You looking forsome new art?”His grin faded when he saw that Lucas wasn’tlaughing, and he slowly nodded.“Yeah.He still does that.What’sthis about?”
“Were you out with them last night,Sean?”
“Last night?No.I worked late and had towork early.I didn’t go out last night.What the fuck, Lucas?What’s with all the questions?”
Sean had never lied to Lucas.Not unless itwas something he was lying to himself about as well.If Sean saidsomething, Lucas had always believed him, and he found that hestill did.It was strange how relieved he was to know that Seanhadn’t been involved.“Somebody broke Father Webber’s window andwrote on his door in dog shit.Wrote ‘faggot’.It sounds likeMikey’s style.”
Sean looked as if he was weighing hispossible responses, then shrugged.“Yeah, it does.So what?Isthere a reason you care?”
“Fuck, Sean, I killed his brother.Hisfather’s in the hospital and he’s maybe going to lose his job justbecause he helped a kid out.You really think he needs peoplewrecking his apartment, too?”
“Scott Wilson’s been saying you and thepriest were working together,” Sean said.He was watching Lucas fora reaction.“Said you teamed up to recruit the kid to the darkside.That true, Lukey?You and the priest?You guys a team?”
Father Mark had actually used that term,Lucas remembered.They were both on Alex’s team.But he hadn’tmeant it the way Sean clearly did.Lucas shook his head in disgust.“He’s a good man, and he’s been through a lot.I’m not…”Notwhat?“I’m not going to stand by and let them put him throughmore.”
