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“Listen to you.” Bucek chuckled. “Made to minister.”

“Everybody’s gotta have a vocation,” Matt said, a bit offended by the glib line.

“Listen, I’m in Vegas. This is sudden, but are you available for dinner?”

“Yes.” Matt jumped at an unexpected lifeline. Maybe he could get some inspiration from a veteran ex-priest now in law enforcement. “This another quick visit?”

Bucek’s vigorous baritone didn’t boom right back. “Uh, no. I’m staying for a while this time.”

His tone and the vagueness told Matt his former mentor was not going to reveal more. Handling anonymous calls in the night had sensitized Matt to vocal nuances.

“Great, Frank. Where do you want to meet and eat?”

“What else? A steakhouse. How about Planet Hollywood at seven?”

“Done.”

“I’ll make reservations. It’ll be good to see you again, Matt.”

Matt echoed his sentiments and put the phone on a sleek gray cube table fronting the long red vintage couch. Temple had found the ’50s sofa for him when he’d been new to Vegas and didn’t have a stick or stitch of furniture.

Soon they’d all three be moving in together, he and Temple and Louie, one small happy family.

If he could excise Kitty the Cutter from their lives. He hoped that wouldn’t come down to razors.

* * *

The Strip House steak house at Planet Hollywood reminded Matt of a Chicago or Manhattan venue, very red with black-and-white photos on the wall, like Sardi’s famous theatrical district restaurant in Manhattan. Sardi’s featured Broadway stars on the wall. This was Vegas. Vintage black-and-white semidraped pinup girls ruled here.

As Matt glanced at, comprehended, then studied the “art” work, he realized it was highly appropriate to his current problem: how to undress a woman without any sexual element in the act whatsoever.

“You’re looking a bit glum,” Frank said as Matt joined him at the table.

“Just thinking about logistics.” That was true.

“The wall art is a bit racy,” Frank said after they’d ordered drinks, “but the steaks are prime. So what logistics are you wrestling with?”

“Temple and I are getting married.”

“Finally! When, where?”

Matt laughed. “You’re reading my mind. Those are the big questions. My family wants a big Polish Catholic wedding in Chicago. Temple’s parents are Unitarians in Minneapolis.”

“That makes ‘ecumenical’ as complex as a corporate merger.”

“Yeah. Makes you want to run away to Vegas for a civil ceremony.”

“You live with an adjoining wedding chapel for the job.”

“You know about the landlady’s side business?”

“The Lovers’ Knot Wedding Chapel, sure.”

“I’m shocked.”

“That I suggested it or knew about it. I’m FBI now. I know everything.” Frank smiled as he sipped the scotch on the rocks drink in front of him.

“I find that declaration somewhat sinister, Frank.”

Bucek shrugged. “Business has brought me to Vegas now and again. This time I’m staying for a while.”

“Are Sharon and the kids coming to stay too?”

“No. I’m solo for now.” Frank glanced at Matt. “Now, wait a minute. Don’t worry. Nothing personal is going on. I’m just needed here for a while.”

“Terrorism?” Matt wondered.

Frank tilted his head from side to side in that maybe way.

Matt sighed. “My logistics problems shrink to atom size when that word comes into play.”

“Nothing that serious, Matt. I just can’t talk about it. Let’s get back to the wedding. We married guys always like more fellow sufferers.”

* * *

The steak had been great, and Frank’s humor made discussing the intricacies of marrying a non-Catholic more amusing than discouraging.

“You’ve got to think like an American nun,” Frank had said during dessert. “You’re not going to let a bunch of old guys in dresses in Rome affect what is good and true to do here in the USA. You know that, Matt. There’s been a big disconnect between many of the American faithful and the overseas hierarchy for a long time.”

Matt had agreed, but he couldn’t tell that to Father Frankenfurter from seminary, even though almost everyone from those days had moved on to secular jobs. He couldn’t say his real problem was how not to be seduced by a psychopath.

During a conversational lull, Matt considered he might be making a mistake in labeling Kathleen the way she wanted to be categorized. Maybe he should forget her horrible sins against everyone he knew, including him and herself, really. Maybe he should regard her as just another troubled person calling in because she needed attention.

He leaned away from the tiny after-dinner liqueur glass. “All the abuse issues aren’t likely to endear the Catholic church to Temple’s parents, Frank.”

“Child abuse crosses all faiths. And professions, for that matter. Anyone who wants to work with youth these days has to tread carefully.” Frank shook his head.

“So what is the worse sin? The violation of children or that our culture covered up that issue for so long? Even the social workers went hush-hush on it.”

“That the caretakers failed the children all the way up the line.”

Matt nodded. “How do you heal the survivors?”

“You know. Counseling.”

“Words won’t erase their total distrust of anyone.”

Frank eyed him suspiciously. “You don’t get that deep into this topic on your radio show.”

“No. But … I’m dealing with a person who’s actually turned to striking out against others. It’s hard to blame her. She’s a second-generation victim. And they are victims, legally and in every other way. We can have them rethink themselves as survivors, but that doesn’t do it for anyone who’s been so…”

“Twisted?” Bucek leaned closer to Matt and dropped his voice. “Matt, you sound like you’re taking on a job for a psychiatrist. I’d advise you to leave any abuse survivor who’s turned to violence alone. That person is a ticking time bomb. That person could turn to mass violence.”

“No. This one is acting out against the one decent person in her life.”

“You?”

“Not me. Not directly.”

“Indirectly? Good God, Matt. You’re on the brink of an insanely great career and marrying a woman you’ve been lucky enough to find and love later in your life than most men. Don’t mess it up with some crusade to save a nut job.”

Matt recoiled as Frank went on.

“‘Love the little children,’ but a psychotic abuse survivor is no one for an amateur to deal with. We have FBI profilers who’ve plumbed the depths of human misbehavior, and even they don’t personally interact with the damned.”

Matt nodded as Frank sat back, relieved, taking the nod for a concession.

Matt had been nodding to himself. Yes, he’d have to continue going this alone. Bucek wouldn’t be any help.

Matt just had to be something more than Kathleen O’Connor was. Something smarter. Something more determined. Something more stable. And fast.

Chapter 41

Northern Exposure

“Hmm.” Kathleen cooed at Matt, trying to circle him in the narrow hotel room entry hall. “I smell expensive booze and steak sauce and cigar smoke on you.”

Had she been tailing him?

“What a high-end nose you have.”

He moved to keep her face-to-face while he checked out her clothes. The filmy skirt was short in front and long in back, the way women (other than Temple) were wearing them today. And she wore some hip-length floaty top.

Maybe he could see through the back of it if he positioned her correctly against the bedside lampshades, which were about at back level.