Sinner Page 12

  “That simple, huh?” Billy said.

  “If you choose to go it alone, you’re free to leave after this meeting.”

  “And if we stay? What would we do? Besides sit tight up in our glass box?”

  Both Lyndsay and Lawhead spoke at once, then stopped. No shortage of ideas, naturally. The other members still sat in shock, trying to figure out if what they’d just witnessed was somehow rigged. But they were also reeling over the implications of the power, assuming it was real.

  Lawhead looked around the table. “If I may?”

  Lyndsay Nadeau nodded. She was the top authority here,Darcy thought. They would argue, but she would cast the final vote.

  “I admit, this could . . . There’s no telling what the repercussions of . . .” Lawhead shook his head. “It’s hard to believe.”He stood and walked to the bar.“We have to be cautious. See what we really have here.You’ve probably heard of these lynchings in Missouri. Homicide motivated by both race and religion with an intent to elicit revenge.”

  Darcy had heard it on the news just last night. Disturbing.

  Lawhead poured himself a drink. “Two persons of color have been hanged in the last week, in and around Kansas City, one on Kansas soil, one on Missouri soil, making the case a federal one. Both victims were abducted immediately following the religious services they’d attended and found hung behind the church. Someone clearly has a beef with black Christians.”

  He faced Billy and Darcy, drink in hand. “What would you think about helping the FBI stop the killer?”

  “No,” Ben Manning snapped. “Not before we know more about these abilities.”

  Lyndsay Nadeau came to their defense. “Please, Mr.Manning, the suggestion seems reasonable to me.”

  “They should be locked up, not escorted around the country by the FBI.”

  They all turned to the senator from Nevada.

  “Some respect for our guests,” Kinnard demanded. “I don’t think you appreciate—”

  “I appreciate the fact that I was just slapped by Miss Ruling because of this woman. I appreciate that she has no business out in public. Even less business mixing with anyone who has any power in this country.”

  Darcy felt the blood drain from her face. She didn’t know quite what to say.

  Lawhead set his glass down. “You’re overreacting,Mr.Manning.”

  But Manning wasn’t easing up. “I insist you put them both under armed guard.”

  “They are,” Kinnard said.

  “And kept there.”

  “So now you want to incarcerate us?” Billy demanded. He faced Kinnard. “This is what you bring us to?”

  “Actually . . .” Fred Hopkins, short and plump, wiped his beaded brow with a hankie. “Ben has a point. I realize this is awkward for all of us, but if the wrong party got their hands on Darcy in particular . . .” He didn’t bother finishing the thought. “And she could do some major damage on her own.”

  The room fell silent. Darcy suspected that Billy was as taken aback as she over this assault.

  Lyndsay Nadeau was the one who settled the issue.

  “I appreciate your concern, and I’m sure that the FBI will take it under advisement. For the time being, let’s keep you two under tabs, shall we? If you’re not with Kinnard it would be best to stay in secure quarters.”

  “You’re actually imprisoning us?”

  “We are protecting you, just until we can figure this out.”

  “Nonsense!” Darcy cried.

  Billy’s hand on her arm immediately settled her.

  “She’s right, Darcy. It’s for our protection.”

  But Senator Ben Manning’s stern scowl spoke nothing of protection, she thought. He looked like a man who wanted their heads on a platter.

  * * *

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  * * *

  THE AUTOMATIC weapon trembled in Katrina Kivi’s hands as she walked down the hall toward the living room where Johnny and Kelly waited for her.

  Jumbled thoughts pounded through her mind. Wrong, wrong, she was a fool to even think she could . . .

  . . . do what? What did she think she would do?

  . . . force them, force him, force anyone to just listen!

  . . . she’d never aimed a gun at anyone. This wasn’t her, not her, not Katrina Kivi, so why?

  Because she had to do something, anything. She was only doing what he would do—pretend—because whoever Father Johnny was, he wasn’t a priest.

  Her hands felt slimy on the steel of the automatic. She nearly turned and ran back to the closet. She could still get back there and dump the weapons before they had any clue she’d gone this far.

  But she kept on walking, ignoring her mother’s voice in the back of her head mumbling that mantra about how her stubbornness would get her into real trouble one day. That one day was here. It was now.

  Her eyes stung, blurring her vision, and she knew, she just knew this was a bad, bad idea.

  But she’d done it. It was too late.

  A strange concoction of fear and rage screamed through Kat’s head, and then she was around the corner, facing the back of Kelly’s head on the couch. She stood behind Kelly, momentarily affixed to the carpet, gun extended.

  “. . . never know how it could turn out,” Johnny was saying from the kitchen.

  Again Kat nearly fled.

  Again she forced her feet forward.

  And then the gun was only three feet from the back of Kelly’s head and Johnny was exiting the kitchen. “I think we . . .”

  He saw her and stopped, bottle of water half raised to his mouth.

  Kat stared at his black glasses. “Don’t move, or she dies.” Her words weren’t hers, they couldn’t be, because she wouldn’t really say that, not really. She was a sixteen-year-old girl who had run into some bad luck with the Muslims; she was not a killer!

  But she had said that. And now that she’d said it, her fear gave way to all the rage holed up for years.

  Kelly turned her head.

  “Don’t move!” Kat screamed, gripping the gun more firmly. “Neither of you, don’t—”

  Kelly moved fast, whipping around, knocking the weapon aside with a brutal chop. The weapon flew from Kat’s hands.

  Kat may have been stalled by her lack of experience when it came to guns, but she’d been in her share of fights, and now on the defensive, her instincts returned.

  She had the second gun out of her waistband before the automatic weapon hit the carpet. Fired one shot into the wall, surprised by the noise. The tremendous recoil forced her to take a step backward.

  “I said don’t move!”

  Kelly now faced her, standing just beyond the couch with her hands half raised. Johnny still hadn’t moved.

  “Don’t think I won’t shoot,” Kat cried. Her hands were still shaking, but now due to the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

  Johnny slowly lowered the bottle in his right hand. She swiveled the gun to cover him, but then thought better of it and trained the barrel back on Kelly. Oddly enough, neither of them seemed too put off by her show of force, and this angered her more.

  “I swear, I’ll shoot.”

  “What do you want, Katrina?” Johnny asked in a soft voice.

  Yes, what do you want, Katrina?

  “Sit down. I want you to sit down.”

  “Why?”

  “Be careful, Johnny,” Kelly said. “This isn’t why we are here.”

  “You think?”

  She glanced at him, hands spread, but otherwise seemingly unconcerned. “She’s nothing but a high-school student with a grudge.”

  “Is she? I don’t know.”

  “You see something I don’t?”

  “Don’t I always?” Johnny said.

  “Yes or no?”

  “I see a scared girl who was put into our path. I like her. She has a strong backbone. She needs some discipline, but I think she has a good heart.”

  Kelly faced Kat and studied her. They we
re obviously trying to distract her with all this nonsense. Kat took another step back, keeping the gun trained on the woman. “I just need your help,” she said. “I . . . You have to listen to me!”

  “I think we can trust her,” Johnny said.

  “Don’t be foolish, Johnny!”

  “They aren’t after us—”

  “You can’t know that!” Kelly snapped.

  “Stop it!” Kat shouted. “You think you can just talk nonsense and get me to drop my guard?”

  “Please, Kat.” Johnny set the bottle on the kitchen table and stepped into the living room, hands elevated by his sides. “You’re far too intelligent to think shooting one of us might encourage the judge to extend you any leniency. It’s the kind of thing dopers and pimps might try because they have a few burned circuits between the ears. You, on the other hand, know very well that harming either one of us will only ensure that your sentence is upgraded from months to years. And not jail, either. State prison.”

  He stopped by the couch in full view. “Am I wrong?”

  “Then help me,” she said.

  “I offered you help, but you didn’t want it.”

  “What are you talking about?” she cried. “You keep talking like that, but what did I do to make you hate me so much?”

  “So you do want help in changing who you are?”

  “What are you talking about? I am who I am! You can’t tolerate who I am?”

  “I can’t tolerate your intolerance for Arabs, no. Or your hatred and fear of other people in general.”

  Here she stood, pointing a gun at a blind priest who wasn’t really a priest and who couldn’t possibly be blind, discussing tolerance of all things! The absurdity of it was as maddening as the fact that she no longer felt compelled to pull off this stunt.

  But there was no way out now.

  “You want me to stop hating Arabs? Fine, I swear to stop hating the towel-heads that’ve taken over Las Vegas and forced my mother to work long nights just to put macaroni and cheese on our table. Good enough? I’m a changed woman.”

  “You see? That’s what I’m talking about. You want out of your predicament, but you don’t want to change the person who got you into the predicament in the first place.”

  “Listen to me, honey,” Kelly said. “If he’s talking to you like this, you really should listen. Don’t ask me why, but you’ve managed to get his attention. And trust me, it has nothing to do with the gun. He’s faced far more than that toy in his days.”

  “Don’t try to confuse me,”Kat snapped. “I’m warning you . . .” But she stopped because even to her, her words sounded ridiculous.

  “Kelly’s talking about a time when I could make things do what they weren’t supposed to do,” Johnny said. “But it was temporary, a kind of surge, as best we can figure out.”

  “Don’t let him fool you,” Kelly said. To Johnny, “You sure you want to do this?”

  If their intent was to distract her, they were succeeding with ease, Kat thought. They showed no fear, no real concern even. She might as well be holding a noodle. Their only dilemma was this business about whether Johnny should take her into his confidence.

  “I don’t know, Kat . . .What do you think? Are you willing to trust me on this?”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because you know it’s the right thing to do. And because you have no other reasonable option.”

  “Okay. Fine. I’ll trust you.”

  “Then lower the gun.”

  “Exactly!” she said. “You think I’m stupid?”

  “No.Which is why you will lower the gun.”

  Her stubbornness had hit a wall. And Kat’s curiosity had grown larger than her anger. So she lowered her gun, knowing that she could always lift it again.

  “Give it to Kelly.”

  “That’s not what you said.”

  “I’m saying it now.”

  Kelly held out her hand. Kat hesitated only a moment, then handed the weapon to her, relieved to be free from it. Kelly gathered up the automatic weapon and set both on the counter beside Johnny.

  Kat felt weak in her knees, but she stood strong. Because that was what she’d always done. Stood strong.

  “So who are you really, Father Johnny?”

  “The real question, Kat, is who are you? If you can understand yourself, then you’ll know where my journey started. Do you believe in God?”

  “We already—”

  “So then, I was once who you are today,” he said. “If you want to understand me, you have to understand yourself. Why don’t you believe?”

  “For starters? Because everyone runs around killing in God’s name.”

  “But that’s a child’s answer and you’re already sixteen. You don’t know much about religion, do you?”

  “Should I?”

  “Do you know the difference between Christianity and Islam?”

  “Why are we talking about this? You’re trying to get me to convert? There’s a good reason why religion is not allowed in the schools. Because it brings out the kooks!”

  “Please, humor me. The difference between Christianity and Islam?”

  “How should I know? One prays in a mosque, one prays in a cathedral.”

  “So you know nothing. To you God is simply an extension of foolish religion. And if religion had much to do with God, I might agree with you. If you want to accept my help, the first thing you’ll need to do is set any notion you have of religion aside. Put everything you think you know about Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, all of it behind you. If you can do that, I may be able to help you.”

  “What are you trying to do? Convert me?”

  “You’ve demonstrated that you have no true moral compass. No fundamental beliefs that guide what is right or wrong in this world. How can you hope to recognize good and evil for what they truly are if you have no belief in a moral authority greater than yourself?”

  “Spoken like a true blood—”

  “No!” Johnny snapped, cutting her off. “Please don’t use that word in this house.”

  “Sorry. But you’re saying that I’m going to jail because I don’t believe in God.”

  Kelly stepped up beside him. He absently took her hand and kissed it. “That’s a bit simplistic, but yes. Because you haven’t opened your eyes to see him. To love and be loved by him. ‘For him who has eyes to see, let him see.’ Jesus said that.Would you like to have your eyes opened?”

  She had never heard such a preposterous line of argument. She knew the gist of God, naturally. Big guy in the sky who made it all and forgot to tell his subjects not to rape, kill, and destroy. But Johnny was right: she hadn’t searched out the meaning behind any of the world’s major religions.

  The only religion she was truly familiar with was one called tolerance. Now the false priest was asking her if she wanted her eyes opened.

  “How do you propose to do that?”

  “I have a shortcut.”

  “Fine.”

  Johnny walked casually to the fireplace, something you wouldn’t find in most homes in Nevada these days. But it was an old house.Kelly picked up a pair of sunglasses that sat on the kitchen counter and slid them onto the bridge of her nose.

  “You’re absolutely sure about this, Johnny?” Kelly asked.

  “No.”

  He looked down at the floor, removed his own dark glasses, and stared straight down at the lenses.

  Johnny lifted his head and stared at Kat with white eyes.

  Not a speck of color, no retina, no pupil, just pure white eyes. The sight stopped her cold.

  “You like?”

  Like? She wasn’t sure how she felt. He was blind after all.

  “Can you see?”

  “The question is, can you see? Really see?”

  “Your . . .” Did she dare just blare it out? “Your eyes are white.”

  “That’s their natural color, yes. And I can’t see the world the way you see the world. It’s more like heat signa
tures and geometrical shapes. But the power in these eyes of mine has more to do with you than me. They can help you see things differently.”

  On cue, his white eyes were gone, replaced by bright blue ones, as clear as sapphires.

  Kat blinked, expecting them to change back, but they didn’t. Johnny lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. An apple appeared in his palm.

  “You like apples? If you try to eat this one, it will taste like air because it doesn’t exist.”

  Impossible.Kat stepped up and put her hands on the back of the couch. “I . . .” She didn’t know what to say.

  “An illusion,” Johnny said.“I can make you see what I want. I can either deceive you or let you see the truth.”

  He tossed the apple into the air and caught it, but now it was a snake, writhing in his fist. He struck the snake against his other palm and it became a wooden cross. He snapped his fingers and the cross vanished.

  “That’s incredible.”

  “No, it’s commonplace. Half of what you think you know has been subjected to deception. You think you know so much about what matters: we all do. But we’re blind to the real issue facing us.We’ve been sold a magic trick.”

  She was watching him, not six feet from him, when he vanished. She caught her breath. Kelly stood by the kitchen table, watching her, smiling.

  “What happened?”

  Kelly shrugged.

  Kat studied the space that Johnny had occupied just a moment ago. “Is he . . . I mean, is he there?”

  Johnny reappeared. “Exactly! Just because you didn’t see me didn’t mean I wasn’t here, any more than seeing the apple meant it was.”

  The simplicity of Johnny’s point struck Kat broadside, like a locomotive on full steam.

  “For him who has eyes to see . . .” she said.

  Johnny finished the quote.“Let him see.Are you ready to see the truth, Kat?”

  “Ummm . . .”

  “It could change everything, I warn you.”

  “How do I know what it . . .What am I supposed to say to that? How could anyone say they don’t want to see the truth?”

  “You’d be surprised.” He smiled. “Just say yes, Kat. Please say yes.”

  “Yes.”