Something Bad (40 page)

“Wait a minute, Father.” Gabe was excited. “That last part. I think I have something there. If I recall correctly, everyone in Press’ family was killed except his daughter. She was three or four. They was killed by lightning. And the family that was killed by an earthquake—all killed except a daughter, also three or four. That fit with what you’re saying?”

Father Costello nodded. “That would fit.”

“Hold on.” Gabe’s excitement faded as quickly as it had come on. “It’s not all good. Another family was killed by a twister. All dead, including a young one under five. That screws up the whole thing.”

“Was there anything unusual about that last family?

Were they religious?”

Gabe thought for a few seconds. “Now that you mention it, they never came to church. They kept to themselves. People had it they was non-believers. That make a difference?”

“All the difference in the world,” Father Costello said with a smile. “The one exception to the under five rule is if the family is atheist or agnostic. They don’t bother to spare those children. Kind of ironic, I think. And they’re not interested in them as recruits for training. For some reason, their TSR is dismal. I can find the number if you want it.”

“That’s okay, Father.” Gabe held his hands up in a double stop sign. “No more numbers.” He slapped his palms flat on the table. “So you’re saying Thibideaux’s going to snatch Cory Dean when Deena Lee hands him off to Teddy’s wife—she’s the godmother. And then Thibideaux’ll bring harm to Deena Lee? How about if Deena Lee doesn’t give Cory Dean up during the ceremony? If she just holds him through it. Thibideaux can’t get the baby, right?”

“Sorry, but that won’t do it. Even if she doesn’t give up the child physically, she does it symbolically. She agrees to give the child’s soul to another, and not just to the godparents, but to God—that’s the main theme of the ceremony. That’s when Hughes steps in—when the child’s soul is given, but before the ceremony is complete. That’s what excites him about the plan. He said it feels like he’s snatching the child from the very hands of God. Besides, if Deena Lee holds the child while Hughes pulls off his trick, there’s a chance the child will be hurt as well.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have the baby baptized,” Gabe said in frustration.

Father Costello straightened in his chair. “No, that would be worse. There are many other ways to get a child before school age. If you can get through the baptism, the child will be protected from apprehension. You need to find some way to prevent Hughes from getting the child at the baptism.”

“How can I do that? You got all this information, but no ideas?”

Father Costello looked down at the notes and shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to that one. It’s something you’ll have to think of. Hughes seemed to think the system was infallible.”

“So you can’t give me any more help on this?” Gabe said, nearly pleading.

“Sorry Gabe. I didn’t come out on top in my experience with Hughes, so I can’t give any definitive hints.”

Gabe felt sick. All this information, but no solution. On the other hand, there had to be some answer in there. He’d just have to think about it for a while. But another matter edged into his mind.

“While I’m here, Father, I have one more question for you.”

“What’s that?”

Gabe adjusted his position in his chair so he could comfortably lean forward with his elbows on the table.

“What’d you do to get involved with Thibideaux, or Hughes, and make you keep quiet for all this time?”

The priest seemed to experience a wave of recognition, then resignation. “I guess it’s part of my penance to explain it to you. Please don’t think less of me. Try to see the higher goals of my actions.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, but I’ll try to see it your way.”

“Thank you.” Father Costello looked down at his hands, and his shoulders slumped. He took a long breath and let it out slowly. His eyes stayed on his hands. “I became involved with Hughes because of something I did, which was a moral failure on my part.” He paused again. “I became romantically involved with a young girl from Rother County. She was only sixteen at the time and she became pregnant with my child.”

Gabe’s eyes opened wide and he leaned farther forward. “So you do have a child?”

“Let me finish, Gabe. This is very difficult for me.” Father Costello seemed to be getting smaller. He took another long breath. “I wasn’t Hughes’ primary target. But when he found out about us, he recognized what a great prize my child would be to the organization. You see, the mother wasn’t a Triple O. My child became a highly significant secondary target for Hughes and his organization—a CSC with a Priest for a father was a trophy of the highest priority.

Gabe wasn’t sure how to react. Priests were human, but they weren’t supposed to do that kind of thing. But even that didn’t justify Thibideaux trying to swipe the child. He felt a light twinge in his abdomen. He pictured a grown Cory Dean, snatching babies for Thibideaux’s organization.

“When the baby was born, and still in the hospital with the mother, Hughes came to me and told me most of the information I have relayed to you today. I guess he couldn’t resist rubbing it in. He also gave me a warning. He told me he could detect a baptism from tens of miles, so I wouldn’t be able to baptize the child in the hospital and avoid his plan for apprehension of the baby. He also told me that once a baby was born, he could detect its heartbeat, so there was no way I could sneak the baby out of the hospital without him knowing it. He told me I would just have to accept the fact that my daughter would become a high-ranking member of his organization. He viewed it as the ultimate irony.” Father Costello took another deep breath, but didn’t let it out right away. “I couldn’t allow my child to be used that way, so I had to find a way to defeat Hughes regardless of how drastic the method.”

The priest paused.

To Gabe, he seemed so emotional he was having trouble getting the words out. With each sentence he slumping more and more into his chair. “You needing some water or something?”

Father Costello put up his hand. “No. Let me continue. I have to explain this.” He took in several shallow breaths. “I just couldn’t let my child be raised into that situation. I had to do something for my daughter and for our society, so I had to do the unthinkable.” A tear ran down his cheek, then one on the other. “I talked the baby’s mother into giving her up for adoption one night. I told her I had it all arranged and it would be best if I took her to her new parents right away. I had all the hospital forms signed, although I forged them.” The priest wiped his cheeks with his fingers. He lowered his face inches from the table. “I took my daughter into a maintenance closet and covered her head with a pillow until she was no longer breathing. It was the only way out. I had to do it.” Father Costello sobbed. He crossed his arms on the table and his head fell forward onto his forearms.

A feeling of horror and disgust turned outward from Gabe’s gut. He was in a state of shock. There wasn’t a single reason for ever killing a child, especially one’s own. But he wasn’t a priest, and he wasn’t faced with the situation that faced the father. And, he did agree to try to see it the father’s way. He couldn’t look straight at the priest.

Father Costello raised his head from his arms, but he still looked down at the table. He cleared his throat. “I took her body to the church so I could give her a proper burial. I had already defeated Hughes, but I had to stand before God and confess. And, I had to do the best I could for my child’s poor innocent soul. That’s when Hughes caught up to me. When he saw what I’d done, he was furious.”

The priest paused and tried to regain some of his composure.

Gabe sat in silence, still in shock.

Father Costello removed a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wiped his eyes and cheeks. It looked like the father’s body had just sprung a leak and his life force was slowly seeping from him. He seemed to be dying right there in the chair.

In a quick move, Father Costello looked up, directly into Gabe’s eyes, and Gabe recoiled. The father’s words came out as a warning.

“You’re dealing with an extremely intelligent man. And he’s as evil as he is intelligent. He proved it that night.” His eyes dropped from Gabe’s face and returned to the table. His voice faded. “He proved it that night.”

Gabe reached out to place a comforting touch on Father Costello’s arm, but he pulled away. Gabe leaned a little closer. “Father, are you all right?”

Father Costello sobbed again. In a voice so quiet Gabe could barely hear it, he uttered single sentences between sobs.

“He made me sit in a chair right there in the church … I couldn’t move … He didn’t tie me up, I just couldn’t move … He had a bag … with two lambs, a small dog, and a cat … He slaughtered the animals and spread their parts around the church … Then he took my daughter’s body…” His head jerked upward, his eyes wild. His mouth moved in silence, then his voice came, loud. “You were there. In the inhouse. Weren’t you?”

Memories swirled in Gabe’s head. The inhouse. The little man with the strange smile. Toes … he thought he saw toes. Gabe snuffled back a sob and wrung his hands. He didn’t know what to do. Was his connection with Thibideaux and Father Costello sealed back then? Twenty-five years ago? He was just a young boy.

Gabe’s mind came back to the day room. He wanted to comfort the priest. His shock and horror turned to a nearly overwhelming feeling of sorrow. Standing in the father’s shoes, he could see Thibideaux’s evil grin. A lump formed in his throat and his eyes welled with tears. He couldn’t hold them back this time. He lowered his head closer to the level of Father Costello’s. “Father, you don’t have to go on.”

Through his sobs, and without raising his head from his arms, the priest said, “Yes, I do. I have to. It’s my penance. I knew you had a reason to come here—to bring me out of my prison. But what I didn’t realize was I had a reason to come out to talk with you. I have to finish so I can return to my now-strengthened insanity.”

Gabe’s sadness was compounded by the news the priest was going back. He sat in silence until Father Costello could speak again.

After a few minutes, the father’s sobs faded into occasional whimpers. He raised his head a little and spoke in a whisper.

“After Hughes slaughtered the animals, he took my daughter’s body and did the same with it. He made me watch him. I tried to close my eyes, but I couldn’t—he wouldn’t let me. He cut her little body into such small pieces it was impossible to recognize them as human, and then he mixed them up with all the animal parts. He arranged them all as if there was some sort of ritualistic sacrifice—you saw it—and then he covered me with blood. The blood of my daughter. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move my legs. He made me sit there until the town people came in to worship. They found me sitting among all the remains, covered with blood.” He paused without moving, then raised his head and looked at the ceiling. “Father, forgive me. I’m a sinner in repentance before you. Father, forgive me.” His head collapsed back onto his arms and he wept.

Anger pierced Gabe’s emotional armor. The shock and disgust were no longer directed at the priest. He tried to place a hand on Father Costello’s arm, but the priest pulled away again.

From the cover of his arms, his voice was firm. “Please don’t try to comfort me. I don’t deserve any comforts in this world.” He peered upward. “Gabe, I’d like to ask you two favors before you leave, and before I go back to my prison. First, please don’t ever come back here again, and don’t send anyone else. I don’t want visitors and I don’t want to be cured. I’ve given you all of my information because it has renewed my shame and regret, which I need to continue to suffer through this life I’ve made so miserable.

“Second, keep the drawing of Hughes. When the situation with Cory Dean has been resolved, one way or the other, send the picture back to me with instructions for a member of the staff to hold it in front of my face, just like you did today. If Hughes wins, send it just as it is now. If you manage to defeat his plan, place a large red X through his face. That way, I’ll at least have the satisfaction of knowing he was outsmarted again, or the distaste of knowing he’s still at his craft.”

Father Costello paused. “Gabe, I want to thank you for coming all this way. I hope I’ve been of some help. You’ve given me an opportunity to further pay for my deeds, which I appreciate. Now, I have to return these lucid moments to the past and pay my debt to the future.” He turned in his chair and settled his gaze out of the window. And retreated from reality.

Gabe stared. His heart gave an extra beat, then a pause. “Thibideaux,” he said out loud. “He took your future and my past on that morning. And now he’s trying to take my future.”

It was nearly five in the afternoon when Gabe made his way to the elevator. The ride to the ground floor seemed to take forever. As he crutched past the reception desk, a high-pitched voice interrupted his depression. Gabe didn’t recognize it.

“Excuse me. Catherine wanted me to congratulate you for bringing Father Costello out of his silence. You’ve done what no doctor has been able to do for more than twenty years.”