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for him?”

“My name is John Puller Jr My father was in the Army, same as me I used to come here with my mother and brother ere little My o She was never found I’ht have happened”

The watery blue eyes softened even one by?”

Puller took out his CID cred pack

The priest studied it “CID? So is this an official investigation?”

“No, just personal Sos have occurred recently that led me to want to finally find out what happened to her”

“I can understand that, Agent Puller Not knowing is a terrible thing”

“So ht you knohat happened to Father Rooney? I don’t even know if he’s alive”

“Well, I can certainly try to find out I can certainlyback later? I have aup in about fifteen ht after that Say about two hours or so?”

“I’ll be back And thank you, Father”

Puller left the church and checked his watch He didn’t like to waste ti time—quite the reverse

Puller hadn’t even reached his Malibu when he heard the man

“What are you doing here?”

He turned to see CID special agent Ted Hull sitting in the driver’s seat of his Arht in bulk with not a thought to diversity of the product Indeed, in their eyes unifor, whether it was a soldier or a car

Puller looked back at the church and then walked over to Hull’s ride “Just revisiting old times”

Hull eyed hi the exact sa if the positions were reversed

“Is that right? At Fort Monroe, the scene of your mother’s disappearance?”

Puller shrugged and leaned closer to the“You’re the one who dropped this in my lap Made me curious What would you do if it was you and your mother?”

Hull nodded and tapped the steering wheel with his thu”

Puller straightened “Well, okay”

“You find out anything?”

Puller leaned back down “I’ve talked to a few people My ht She walked; our car was still in the driveway The church ithin walking distance She was devoutly religious Maybe she came here”

“Why here?”

“If she had a probleht come here to talk about it”

“You mean like a confession?”

“They don’t have any actual confessionals in the church, they just do it in one of the roo to a priest”

Hull eyed the church “The same priest still here?”

“No, but they’re trying to locate him”

“You think it ht be a viable lead?”

“Since I have no others I’ll take what I can get”

“I didn’t see any record of the CID agents talking to a priest thirty years ago”

“They didn’t really know ” He looked around “Place is really different now I re somewhere”

Hull nodded “Me too But we got too o When will you know if they found the priest?”

“A few hours”

Hull considered this “You can’t officially investigate this”

“I get that”

“So what are you really doing, Puller?”

“I’ainst that”

“If your father is a suspect there is You’re in uniform”

“But my father is not officially a suspect”