Gabriel's Revenge (The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic Book 2) (18 page)

Chapter 47

August 27, 1998

“Oh crap!”

“Something strike a chord Gabriel?” Percy asked with a small smile on his face.

I hesitated a moment, then told him about meeting
Ann
. “We met at the hospital; she worked in the ward at night. Whenever she finished her duties, she would come over and sit with me, we would… talk.”

“It seems there may have been a little more than talk my friend, more than talk.”

“That’s the thing, there wasn’t…until my last night there. We got to know each other very well over the three weeks I was laid up. And all we did was talk…until that last night. When she was sure everyone was asleep, she came over to my bed and pulled the curtains closed and…said goodbye, well, you get the picture.”

“Certainly, you were close, nothing wrong with that.”

“But I had no idea anything like this might have happened. I wouldn’t have left her there if I had known.”

“I imagine she could have found you if she had wanted to Gabriel; the hospital had records.”

“We even wrote back and forth a few times, mailed through the hospital…she never mentioned anything like this. Eventually, my letters started returning; someone had written on the back that she no longer worked there. I had no way of tracking her after that; I was being released and sent back to the States.”

“There must have been some reason she didn’t feel the need to tell you Gabriel. But I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Abby is here now, do you?”

My stomach was in knots.

“And look at her name; Gabriella, the feminine adaptation of your own?”

“Oh my God,” I said softly, now convinced beyond a doubt.

“But why this way? Why didn’t she write or call, or introduce herself right off. Why the subterfuge?”

“No one knows for sure except her, but I may have a couple of theories. Quite possibly, she wanted to see what kind of a man you were before revealing herself. That way, she could just leave if she didn’t like what she saw. Secondly, you were out of the country when she arrived, when she arrived.”

A sudden thought, “She met me at the Lima airport, on the way back. She just showed up before the flight; how would she know that?”

“She works in Allen’s department; she probably heard that Allen had asked you to come home. Seems she was
very
determined to meet you my friend. After she met you, she may not have had a good moment to reveal her secret; you
have
been quite preoccupied since your return.”

It was all making sense…sort of.

“I haven’t contributed anything to her life to this point; why would she want to meet me? I would be like a deadbeat dad to her; she should hate me.”

“People want to know their roots, Gabriel, know their roots. Her mom must not have held any ill will towards you, or Abby wouldn’t have known where to even start looking. She must have passed on things about you to her daughter, including your name it would seem.”

Sitting there, I was confused and guilt ridden, if I had only known.

“How about you?” Percy asked. “Will you now be revealing yourself to her, now that you know?”

“I can’t say,” I told him truthfully. “I don’t know what to do; I just didn’t see this coming.”

“She seems like a nice girl.”

“She’s a damn nice girl!
Anybody
would be proud to have her as a daughter.”

“Shit Percy, just shit!”

Patting me on the shoulder with a fatherly smile, “I’ve seen you work through worse problems Gabriel; I’m sure you will get through this as well, as well.”

I sat there for another minute, finally standing up, shaking Percy’s hand distractedly.

“Thanks Percy…I think.”

Turning, I started out of the lab, still not sure how to handle this, still not sure what I
thought
of this. But I was nervous, more nervous than I had been for awhile. More nervous than staring down the end of a gun, at least then I was the only one that could be hurt.

“Shit!”

Chapter 48

August 27, 1998

The man walked into the small holding area, handcuffed and led by a rolly-polly deputy named Jason Glad. Looking at the tub of lard standing next to him, he thought to himself that he would be
glad
to wring Jason’s neck for him; the guy was a waste of flesh.

The sliding gate slammed shut behind them, before the loud B
rumpt
of the electric lock in front of them blared as this gate then rolled out of their way. Jason Glad tried to walk forward with the prisoner, but the man stood steadfast, anchored to the floor, his straight white teeth showing in a big grin. The deputy looked confused, even scared for a moment, before screwing up his courage and giving the prisoner a big jerk.

“All right all right, you don’t need to push Jason
Glad
.” He said the last name with a sneer, and truth be known Jason was wishing he was any place but locked in a room with this guy.

“Get your ass in the seat Pierce, you got company.”

Just looking at him, one would never guess that Pierce Leffler at one time had been the most wanted man in Indiana. At 5’6”, he was an unassuming man of average build, with wavy black hair and pale grey eyes that twinkled when he smiled. When he had been free and had access to his wardrobe, he would cut quite a path through the ladies.

He was back at the county jail for an arraignment on another murder charge, his sixth. Already on death row at the state prison at Michigan City, Pierce was glad for the excursion back to the southern part of the state. He would be tried and convicted of this murder also, but so what? They could only kill him once.

Pierce smiled as a thought jumped into his head. When he had been finally captured three years ago, a reporter from the county paper had asked him why he had restricted his murderous spree to only Indiana.

Putting his most serious face, he had calmly explained that he had two reasons really. The first one was that he was trying to stay under the FBI’s radar; he didn’t need those guys after him.

Leaning forward then, he got a big grin on his face. The other reason, he explained, was that he loved fucking with Indiana policemen; it was like screwing with the keystone cops!

At the time, he had melted into laughter at his own joke, waving off the additional questions the reporter had tried to put forth. The interview was over; he had said all that he wanted to say.

It still tickled him, every time he thought of the quote.

He thought himself quite the comedian.

Coming back to reality, he finally looked through the glass, surprised at the person sitting on the other side of the booth. More sober now, Pierce pulled out the chair, sat and scooted it in close to the table top in front of him. After the guard left, the man on the other side of the glass indicated the phone, and they both picked up at once.

“I take it you remember who I am?” the visitor asked Pierce as he put the receiver to his ear.

“Sure, I remember, Padre,” the prisoner said evenly. “Never did know your name…what shall I call you?”

“For the purposes of this conversation, you can call me…James.”

“Ok, James, what are you doing here? I thought our business was over years ago?”

“Truly it was, but I may have some…
new
business you might be interested in; I need a favor.”

Looking down at his orange jumpsuit, Pierce put forth his best sneer before saying, “I’m not in much of a position for any new business at the moment. Why don’t you get with my secretary and she’ll squeeze you in at my very next opening, which I believe will be…IN HELL!”

Getting ready to slam down the phone, the prisoner noticed the little man across the booth smiling, still holding the phone to his ear. He stayed like that until Pierce, his interest piqued, put his phone back to his own ear.

“Now,” the bespectacled visitor said patiently into the phone, “if you are done with your rant, I have an offer for you.”

“Why, you got some way to save me from hell…James? You got redemption for me in one of those big pockets of yours?”

“I’m sorry to say, I believe you are too far from redemption for me to help you with that Mr. Leffler. What I have to offer you is, maybe a reprieve, a chance for freedom, at least until they can catch you again. Knowing you as I do, I believe that could take awhile.”

Whispering now, “You wanna spring me? Are you nuts?”

“Perhaps I am Mr. Leffler, but that is a conversation for another day. Are you interested, or should I look elsewhere?”

“Oh I’m interested; you know I am. What’s it gonna cost me? There has got to be a price for something as big as this.”

“Oh, I have a need for your talents, nothing you wouldn’t enjoy I’m sure. But you would be doing a favor for a higher power than myself, the highest power.”

Pierce thought over the proposal, his sneer suddenly returning. “God? God wants me to work for him?”

Uncontrollable laughter escaped from the prisoner; this was rich. He was gonna be God’s bitch!

After a few minutes, he started getting control of himself again, catching his breath in spurts. Having dropped the phone when the spasms of laughter had started, he finally picked it up again.

“Do we have a deal Mr. Leffler?” the visitor asked, his face serious.

Pierce leaned forward, talking low, “Sure, sure, anything you want, just get me outta here.”

“I shall return tomorrow with details; you have court in the morning, so I will be here by two. Come prepared to remember details. They will be moving you back the morning after; we have to do this tomorrow night.”

Seeing the serious look on the visitor’s face, Pierce nodded. “I’ll be here, and I’ll be ready tomorrow night; I will.”

James seemed pleased, “Would you like to pray?”

Surprised at the question at first, he nonetheless bowed his head. The visitor made the sign of the cross, grabbing the pendant and kissing it before starting a prayer.

“Don’t this beat all?”
Pierce Leffler said to himself.
“Don’t this just beat all?”

Chapter 49

August 27, 1998

The heat hit my face as I walked out of the lab like…well, like I had just found out that I had a daughter. Abby was waiting for me under a tree in the courtyard, the only shade around. Her face lit up when she saw me approach.

“Wow, that took awhile, everything ok?”

Still unsure as to how I would handle the situation, I decided to go with the best option that I had at my disposal at that moment…I put it off.

“Yeah, everything’s fine; we were just discussing an old friend’s problem.”

“What now?” she asked excitedly.

“Let’s do what you suggested, go back to the house and check on the bible verse.”

We headed back to the Jeep, and made the short trip to my house. Inside, I collected three bibles, all different versions, and we looked up the passage again.

“Gabe, look at this,” Abby said, motioning me over to the bible in front of her.

“What version is this?” I ask.

Pulling up the front of the book, “New Century Version, it’s a lot closer to modern English.”

Laying it flat again, she read the passage.

“Fools will die because they refuse to listen; they will be destroyed because they do not care.”

“I’ll be damned,” I said, excited for Abby…for the case. “It looks like you were right; he is doing this because they don’t measure up to some standard of his.”

“Not
his
standards Gabe,” folding the book to reveal the front cover again, “the bible’s!”

She was grinning ear to ear.

“At least his
interpretation
of the bible,” I added, still not sure where this led us.

“So, a religious connection,” Abby stated, thinking hard on the subject. “I suppose we could start with the churches in town, but there must be dozens of them around.”

I froze, images popping up in my mind like the previews before a movie.

The crucifix and religious picture at the Johnstone’s! She had been away at a
church
sponsored retreat!

And the eyes, the pleading eyes in the painting.

Again at Martha Jackson’s, and the dream, the haunting eyes again!

The image of the cardinal flitting off of…the Grotto! With the virgin mother, Mary, at the Gracen’s!

What had Frank told Allen about discovering the connection?

“When it finally hit him, he was pulling into the driveway of an accident victim’s family.”

“The spawn of Satan…”
, also Frank’s words!

It was the connection! I would bet my life on it!

“We don’t need to look at
all
of the churches Abby,” I said as I quickly sat down at the table.

Confused, she gave me a questioning look.

“One of the statistics that is hardly ever recorded in police records is religious affiliation, it’s personal, and
usually
isn’t pertinent to the case. We haven’t been able to find the connection because it wasn’t here! If we can find the affiliation of all of our victims’, I would bet we have the thread that ties all of the cases together!”

Unfortunately, I already had a pretty good idea which church it would lead to.

“That’s so awesome!” Abby shouted, making a fist and holding it out in front of me excitedly.

“What’s that mean?” I asked innocently.

Abby busted out laughing, then showed me how to do a “fist bump”.

“Oh, like a high five,” I said, finally getting it, my age showing.

Still smiling, “See, we have a lot to teach each other!”

I had to agree, and after my talk with Percy today, I realized that there were a
lot
of things I didn’t know, and a few of them, I didn’t know how to handle….at all.