The Sister's Secret by J. R. Mathis & Susan Mathis

Author:J. R. Mathis & Susan Mathis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mercy and Justice Mysteries
Published: 2022-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen: Tom

After I drop Helen back off at the station and stop to pick up something for this indigestion I have after that chili dog, I head back to the Rectory. I’m checking the mail and find another postcard from Martin, this time from Rome. I laugh when I read what it says:

Tom, I’m happy to report that so far, married life is so much more than I thought it would be. The Holy Father sends his regards, along with his sincere wish that you avoid dangerous situations while I’m away. Martin.

“Something funny, Dad?”

I jump slightly, surprised and startled to find Gladys and her fiancé, Nate Rodriguez, behind me.

“What?–oh, Gladys, Nate,” I say, trying to catch my breath. “Just a postcard from Martin and Mae.”

“Oh, I see,” she says.

Gladys sits there, looking at me. For his part, Nate stands by Gladys, looking diffident, rocking from one foot to the other.

“Did you two stop by to see me about something?”

They take a moment before answering. “Yeah, Dad,” Gladys says, a serious–almost sad–look on her face. “Do you have a few minutes?”

Inwardly, I groan–either from fear that he and Gladys have yet another problem, or the chili dog, I’m not entirely sure–but manage to say with my best pastoral smile, “Sure, come on in.”

We enter the Rectory and I ask them, “Would you two like a cup of coffee?”

“I would,” Nate says, “if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Nothing for me, Dad, thanks,” Gladys says.

We go into the kitchen. They sit at the table. I pour a couple of cups of coffee and join them.

“So, what’s going on?” I ask.

Instead of answering my question, Nate and Gladys just look at each other.

After a couple of minutes of silence, I say, “Look, if you’re going to ask me again to dress as Obi-Wan Kenobi to officiate your wedding, I already told you–”

“No, Father,” Nate says quickly. “This has nothing to do with us.”

“Nothing at all,” Gladys says.

“So, there are no problems between you two?”

“Oh, no,” they say in unison.

They lapse into silence again for another few minutes, occasionally glancing at each other. Finally, I say, “Look, you two. I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve–”

“Dad, we have something really, really bad to tell you,” Gladys squeals.

“Now, Gladys,” Nate says, “we don’t know that anything is wrong.”

“How can you say that? You saw the same thing I did, Nate Rodriguez.”

“There’s probably a perfectly innocent explanation.”

Gladys is about to say something when I put my hand up. “Hey, guys, what’s going on?”

They glance at each other again, and Nate takes a deep breath. “Father Tom, we feel like we need to tell you something, but we don’t want to be snitches.”

“OK,” I say. “Does this something concern me or the parish?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Gladys says.

“Are you telling me this to try to hurt someone?”

“Oh, no, Father,” Nate says emphatically.

“Absolutely not,” Gladys affirms. “We wish like anything that we didn’t know about this. We wished we’d never seen what we saw.”

“Have you told anyone else what you’re about to tell me?”

“No,” Nate says.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.