Blood Ties (27 page)
Authors: Ralph McInerny
Father Dowling thought about it. “If there is something Edna Hospers should need at the senior center⦔
“I'll ask. Vivian and Henry are great fans. Perhaps we could combine on something or other.”
“Perhaps. Louise told me that you do volunteer work at the center.”
George looked beyond Father Dowling and then met his eyes. “My wife and I owe everything to that place. It is thanks to the center that we got Martha.”
“I was told that Martha's father had come there, making inquiries.”
George said nothing, but what he was thinking registered in his eyes.
“She also showed me the SUV you donated to them.”
There are moments so pregnant with possibilities that no one can predict what will emerge from them. This was one. Father Dowling did not need to be more explicit to let George Lynch realize what he had discovered. The foster father who would do anything for his adopted daughter had meant it. Only after a long silence did he speak.
“How can I protect Martha from this?”
“The first thing you should do is talk to Cy Horvath.”
George Lynch nodded.
“Perhaps that is the second thing.”
“And what is the first?”
“Confessing what you have done to God and asking his forgiveness.”
“How can even he forgive me?”
Father Dowling got out a stole and put it on. He was not an advocate of hustling people to the sacraments, only of making them easily available.
“Should I kneel, Father?”
“That isn't necessary.”
And so it was that Father Dowling as a stand-in for the Almighty first heard George Lynch's story. Of course, it was told to him in a different vein than it was afterward to the police. The great obstacle for George was that he could not say he wished he had not done what he had done. It would have been Pickwickian to ask him to promise never to do again what he had done. Nathaniel Fleck had been a unique case. Eventually, George acknowledged that he was sorry he was not sorry, and Father Dowling gave him absolution, praying down pardon and peace on a soul that had loved not wisely but too well.
Also by Ralph McInerny
Mysteries Set at the University of Notre Dame
On This Rockne
Lack of the Irish
Irish Tenure
Book of Kills
Emerald Aisle
Celt and Pepper
Irish Coffee
Green Thumb
Father Dowling Mystery Series
Her Death of Cold
The Seventh Station
Bishop as Pawn
Lying Three
Second Vespers
Thicker Than Water
A Loss of Patients
The Grass Widow
Getting a Way with Murder
Rest in Pieces
The Basket Case
Abracadaver
Four on the Floor
Judas Priest
Desert Sinner
Seed of Doubt
A Cardinal Offense
The Tears of Things
Grave Undertakings
Triple Pursuit
Prodigal Father
Last Things
Requiem for a Realtor
Andrew Broom Mystery Series
Cause and Effect
Body and Soul
Savings and Loam
Mom and Dead
Law and Ardor
Heirs and Parents
BLOOD TIES
. Copyright © 2005 by Ralph McInerny. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McInerny, Ralph M.
Blood ties: a Father Dowling mystery / Ralph McInerny.
   p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-33690-X
EAN 978-0-312-33690-5
1. Dowling, Father (Fictitious character)âFiction. 2. BirthfathersâCrimes againstâFiction. 3. BirthparentsâFiction. 4. CatholicsâFiction. 5. IllinoisâFiction. 6. AdopteesâFiction. 7. ClergyâFiction. I. Title.
PS3563.A31166B55Â Â 2005
813'.54âdc22
2005042759
First Edition: July 2005
eISBN 9781466841994
First eBook edition: March 2013