Cat in a Leopard Spot

Chapter 40

Calling the Cops

“Molina,” the phone barked.

Matt felt a moment’s qualm. She sounded pretty disgruntled. He was making a big mistake. But what else could he do? Everything he did nowadays could be a mistake, a fatal mistake.

“This is Matt Devine. It’s vital that I talk to you.”

“Go ahead.”

“No. In person.”

She sighed pointedly. “My desk is covered with case files up to my chin. This about one of them?”

“Not really.”

“It’s personal?”

“Partly.”

“Do you have any idea of what I’m up against? All right. Come in at, um, six o’clock then. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee dregs to celebrate Thank God It’s Friday.”

He hesitated.

“Yes, no, maybe?” she demanded.

“I’d rather not see you on the job.”

“Who knows when I’ll be home? I could call you when that sweet hour arrives. You’re free nights up to eleven or so, right?”

“Right. But—”

“I don’t have time for this.”

“I don’t think it’s safe to go to your house.”

“Safe? what’s going on here?”

“That’s what I want to talk to you about. Where can we meet where no one is likely to know about it?”

“Oh, God.” He heard voices jousting for her attention in the background.

“That’s it! A church,” he said, inspired.

“Is this a scheme to up church attendance in America? Or just mine?”

“How about early mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe?”

“The old folks’ mass at six A.M.?” She groaned.

“All right. Saturday evening mass, then. You must get some time off on Saturday.”

“I suppose five P.M. Saturday is better than six A.M. Saturday.”

“We could talk afterwards in the sacristy. Father Hernandez is an understanding pastor. He wouldn’t mind. Or…I know! The confessionals. They’ve never been removed at OLG because the old folks would be lost without them.”

“Just what I want to look forward to on a Saturday night after a monthlong workweek: an assignation in a confessional after Sunday late-snoozers’ mass with an ex-priest. Do I have to kneel?”

“You can take the priest’s seat. I’ll kneel.”

“Damn it, Devine, this had better be good.”

“No. It’s bad. Very bad.”

He hung up before she could question him further.

Always leave them wanting to know more. That’s what Temple said.

Matt’s next call was to arrange cover. He made a date with Sister Seraphina and the nuns at the OLG convent for Saturday night mass.

Kitty O’Connor, he thought, would be pleased that she had made such a dent in his social life that he could only date old nuns.

Surely they would be safe from her obsessive, possessive insanity. Or were they?