Miracles by John A. Vanek

Author:John A. Vanek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: camelpress
Published: 2019-03-13T22:35:51+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sunday, July 30, 12:45 p.m.

Making my way carefully back across the support beam, I put on my shoes, grabbed my sport coat and tie, and scrambled down the rickety attic stairs into an empty church foyer. Emily was nowhere in sight. I doubted that Father Marek was a threat to her, but Bishop Lucci had indicated that Marek had intimidated the priests he’d sent to investigate and may have damaged their car. Stir in a pint of booze and anything was possible. If Marek was the one who left the threat on my answering machine, then there was no telling what he might do. Unwilling to take any chances, I placed an ear against his office door, heard muffled voices, and charged into the room.

Emily sat on a folding chair across from Marek’s desk, her legs crossed primly at the ankles. He was smiling at her, his head swaying side to side. Somehow she had worked her magic and charmed the cobra.

Marek’s eyes ping-ponged from Emily to me and back, then lit with rage.

“Well, well. What a surprise,” he said. “This must be the girlfriend you spoke of, Emily.” A crooked smile danced across his lips. “I would never have taken you for a cross-dresser, Father Jake.” He ran a finger down the telephone numbers scribbled on his calendar, picked up his desk phone, and said, “I have a friend in the Camillian Order who will be very interested to hear about the way you climbed all over the Virgin Mary’s statue and desecrated the altar the other day.”

“Cut the crap, Marek, and put the phone down.” I threw my sport coat on the couch. Protected by my helmet of Faith and shield of Righteousness, I raised the plastic bag containing the needle and blood-stained tube like a sword of Vengeance. “I found this in the attic.”

Marek’s mouth opened and closed like a fish stranded on the beach. He wilted into his chair and swiveled away from my glare, staring out the window as if he’d never seen the sky before.

I opened a second folding chair and sat next to Emily.

“What is it, Jake? What’s happening?” she asked.

When I told her, her confusion dissolved into a painful sadness. Her shoulders slumped and she wiped moisture from her eyes.

With a few simple words, I’d extinguished her last hope of recovering her vision. I wondered if I’d done the right thing. Proving Marek a fraud had cost Emily dearly. Maybe I should have buried his secret under the insulation and walked away.

Marek spun his chair back toward us. His forehead had taken on a sheen and his eyes refused to meet mine.

“Guess I knew this day would come.” His words were soft and measured. “I underestimated you two. Now what?”

“Now, I report your deception to His Excellency.”

“So, Bishop Lucci wins after all. Game, set, match. That cold-hearted pencil-pusher can finally shut down this venerable old church.” He laughed without a hint of humor. “And you can bask in his good graces and move up the ecclesiastical ladder.

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