Joshua 1:7
Tuesday, 23rd October: "Those two guys with you all the time?" Officer Donna White indicated the street outside with her uplifted hand. She was visiting Father Sebastian in the parish office at OLPH on the corner of Sumner and Mount Pleasant - and this was official. With a soft, fair face and almond eyes she already looked young; her uniform was just a little too big for her and made her look younger. It was ten in the morning.
Sebastian chuckled. He moved aside an overcoat draped across a chair back, offering Donna the seat. "Only 'till tomorrow. The two weeks are up then. And no - not all the time thank the Lord." Sebastian looked at her shrewdly. "But that's not why you're here is it?"
"No Father Seb. Your personal security is impressive. But that's not why I'm here." She shook her head and looked at the handsome priest. His dark, brooding eyes were almost mesmerising. Such a waste, she thought. "Nope, it's that knife attack I've come to talk about."
Seb growled his response. "We've been through all that."
"Yup. But I thought I'd explore this again."
"In what way?"
"The 'who could have wanted you dead?' angle."
"Somebody who had a habit to feed. Someone who needed money."
"And you attack a priest if you want money?" Donna's exasperation was genuine. "S'pose it weren't that. S'pose it was the person who wound us up over you being seen with Mary Young before she died."
Which is precisely what Seb had been supposing. But he wasn't going to share his suspicions with the police. To do so would compromise his position as a priest. They'd have to reach their own conclusions. "So?"
"What d'yu say we hypothesise Father. It could have been Bob Young. If he thought you'd been talking with Mary when she was contemplating suicide and not keeping him in the loop?"
Seb shrugged. All too near the mark, he thought. Though he so hoped it wasn't Bob.
"Or could have been the husband or lover of the woman you were with if that woman was not Mary."
Seb narrowed his eyes. He wasn't sure he liked the implication but he couldn't fault the logic. Baxter Merill. Seb shrugged the thought aside. And yet . . . "I was not with Mary. I told you that."
"Yup. But you failed to say who you were with."
Seb shook his head from side to side. "And I'm still not saying."
"Obstructing the police is a crime."
"But you're not going to read me my rights and haul me downtown."
"No," Dona forced a smile to cover her irritation. "Not this time." She shrugged. "If you're not going to help yourself we can't help you. Tell me one thing though Father Seb."
"What's that?"
"Any idea who beat you up a few days after Mary Young's death?"
Seb had been expecting this. He shook his head. "Nobody. I just fell and bruised my face."
For a moment Dona stared at the window beyond Father Seb's shoulder. She listened to the sound of a passing car. She breathed out slowly. "Priests allowed to lie, Father Seb?"
Sebastian's expression remained sympathetic. He leaned forward a little and said, "Nope. But then I'm not lying am I?"
"You're not?"
Seb laughed. "No. I am giving you a formulaic response when we both know the truth. I do that to make it easier for you. If I said that John Doe or whomever beat me up I'd be betraying that person."
Donna looked at the priest and realised for the first time that he exasperated her. "For a priest, you seem pretty screwed up Father Seb. There is no excuse for dishonesty."
Seb shook his head. "You are correct of course."
"And you're not going to tell me who hit you?"
"No."
"You know what Father Seb?"
"What?"
"I think it's past time you grew up and joined the rest of us in the real world." She narrowed her almond eyes as she said a perfunctory, "Goodnight."
She paid no attention to Father Sebastian's friendly, "Goodbye Donna." She turned and made her way to the door.
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