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"Sure Anything"

"Can you see if a woman named Elizabeth Stearns frole won’t help much with that Letup and waited But she didn’t have to wait long

"So?" she said when she answered

"Arrested on suspicion of hts of stairs He was notoriously healthy and virile for an old geezer, so no one believed that he’d just fallen"

"No conviction?"

"Nope No witnesses Spotty evidence The only really incri Elizabeth Stearns did the day after Daddy’s death was head straight for Wakefield to talk to her priest-brother"

"The cops thought she confessed the criet hih the sister’s not Catholic Apparently only baptized Catholics are supposed to go to confession so they leaned on him pretty heavily to spill it Even the diocese wanted hirounds"

"And on the grounds of covering his sister’s ass Knohat her bastard of a father did to her, I don’t blame him at all"

Patrick exhaled and the phone buzzed in her ear from the force of his breath She smiled Patrick…ould she do without hi horinned into the dark

"Got one ht?"

"Right But don’t wait up This ered on Suzanne’s face long after she’d hung up At about ten o’clock she arrived in Wakefield and Sacred Heart A few lights still burned in the church and set the stained-glass s subtly glowing How beautiful the church looked by night…how peaceful, how sacred She still didn’t really believe in God Nothing would ever convince her that so the shon here on Earth But for once she started to believe a little in one of His believers

She entered the church and found it e to turn off the lights and lock up Søren… She realized all of a sudden that he’d becoh she knew his name, knew his secrets, she didn’t feel quite worthy to call him by the name only his most trusted intimates knew him by

"Father Stearns…" she whispered aloud as she stared at the altar at the front of the church She’d never call hiain Glancing around, Suzanne saw a small staircase that led to the choir loft She clie of the balcony area and surveyed the entire sanctuary