A Necessary Evil. Alex Kava

Basic questions like that.”

      She shook her head at him and smiled, acknowledging that was all she was getting from him. Nick smiled back and took another swallow of beer. They knew each other too well. When had everything become a game with them? Two steps forward, three steps back—it was something his father always said, though Nick couldn’t remember at the time what his dad meant by it. Antonio Morrelli was the power broker of mind games. Or rather, he had been. There weren’t too many games the old man could play these days, lying in his bed, unable to move or speak, the massive stroke leaving him with eye movement his only communication tool.

      “Actually I shouldn’t be telling you this,” Christine said, but paused, waiting for his attention. “We’ve been putting together a piece for the paper that involves the Omaha Archdiocese. It involves O’Sullivan.”

      She got his attention, just like she wanted. He couldn’t help wondering if this was what Tony couldn’t talk about.

      “Involves the archdiocese in what exactly?” he asked, pretending it really didn’t matter to him.

      “What else? The same thing that’s been plaguing the Catholic Church all over the country for the last several years.”

      “You’re saying Monsignor O’Sullivan’s been abusing boys?”

      “Keep it down,” Christine whispered, getting up from the porch swing to glance inside the house. “If Mom found out I was working on something that might go against the church, she’d be lighting candles for the salvation of my soul for weeks.” Satisfied that their mother wasn’t listening at the door, she leaned against the porch rail and took a sip of her beer before she continued. “A lot of what we have right now is considered speculation and rumor, because no one’s willing to go on the record.”

      “Maybe no one’s willing to go on the record because it is speculation and rumor.” Nick wasn’t good at hiding his disdain for the news media, despite his sister being a part of that crazy world. And right now, he hated that Christine seemed willing to point to O’Sullivan’s death as proof of a bunch of rumors, some sort of way to validate a story she was trying to dig up. Hadn’t she learned anything from four years ago?

      “Sometimes even the most outrageous rumors have a grain of truth to them.”

      “And sometimes they’re simply started by bitter, vengeful people,” he added.

      “Okay, then how about the rumor that O’Sullivan was taking secret documents with him to Rome and now all of a sudden they’re missing.”

      Too late. The expression of surprise must have registered on his face, because she was nodding at him with that “I gotcha” look.