chapter

eleven

I sank down onto the window seat.

“What—” My lips felt numb. I don’t know if it was a complication of my concussion or what, but all of a sudden I couldn’t feel my lips. “What did you say, Jack?”

“I exorcised him for you.” Jack sounded immensely pleased with himself. “All by myself, too. Well, that lady helped a little. Did it work? Is he gone?”

Across my room, Father Dominic was looking at me questioningly. Small wonder. My conversation, from his end, had to sound completely bizarre. I hadn’t, after all, had a chance to tell him about Jack.

“Suze?” Jack said. “Are you still there?”

“When?” I murmured through my numb lips.

Jack went, “What?”

“When, Jack,” I said. “When did you do this?”

“Oh. Last night. While you were out with my brother. See, that Maria lady, she came over, and she brought that picture, and some candles, and then she told me what to say, and so I said it, and it was really cool, because this red smoke started coming out of the candles, and then it swirled and swirled, and then over our heads this big hole opened up in the air, and I looked up inside it, and it was really dark, and then I said some more words, and then that guy appeared, and he got sucked up right inside.”

I didn’t say anything. What could I say? The kid had just described an exorcism—at least, all the ones I’d ever experienced. He wasn’t making it up. He had exorcised Jesse. He had exorcised Jesse. Jesse had been exorcised.

“Suze,” Jack said. “Suze, are you still there?”

“I’m still here,” I said. I guess I must have looked pretty awful, since Father Dom came and sat down on the window seat next to me, looking all worried.

And why not? I was in shock.

And this was a different kind of shock than I’d ever felt before. This wasn’t like being thrown off a roof or having a knife held to my throat. This was worse.

Because I couldn’t believe it. I simply couldn’t believe it. Jesse had kept his promise. He hadn’t disappeared because his remains had, at long last, been found, proving he’d been murdered. He’d disappeared because Maria de Silva had had him exorcised….

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Jack asked worriedly. “I mean, I did the right thing, right? That Maria lady said Hector was really mean to you, and you would be really thankful—” There was a noise in the background, and then Jack said, “That’s Caitlin. She wants to know when you’re coming back. She wants to know if you can maybe come in this afternoon, because she has to—”

But I never did learn what Caitlin had to do. That’s because I had hung up. I just couldn’t listen to that sweet little voice telling me these horrible, awful things for one second more.

The thing was, it wouldn’t sink in. It just wouldn’t. I understood intellectually what Jack had just said, but emotionally, it wasn’t registering.

Jesse had not moved on from this plane to the next—not of his own free will. He had been ripped from his existence here the same way he’d been ripped from life and, ultimately, by the very same hands.

And why?

For the same reason he’d been killed: to keep him from embarrassing Maria de Silva.

“Susannah.” Father Dominic’s voice was gentle. “Who is Jack?”

I glanced up, startled. I had practically forgotten Father D. was in the room. But he wasn’t just in the room. He was sitting right beside me, his blue eyes filled with bewildered concern.

“Susannah,” he said. Father Dom never calls me Suze, like everyone else does. I asked him why once, and he told me it was because he thought Suze sounded vulgar. Vulgar! That really cracked me up at the time. He’s so funny, so old-fashioned.

Jesse never called me Suze, either.

“Jack’s a mediator,” I said. “He’s eight years old. I’ve been babysitting for him up at the resort.”

Father Dominic looked surprised. “A mediator? Really? How extraordinary.” Then his look of surprise turned back to one of concern. “You ought to have called me straightaway, Susannah, the moment you realized it. There aren’t many mediators in the world. I would like very much to speak to him. Show him the ropes, as it were. You know, there’s such a lot to learn for a young mediator. It mightn’t be wise for you to undertake educating one, Susannah, given your own comparative youth….”

“Yeah,” I said with a bitter laugh. To my bemusement, the sound caught in my throat on a sort of sob. “You can say that again.”

I couldn’t believe it. I was crying again.

What was this, anyway? I mean, this crying thing? I go for months dry as a bone, and then all of a sudden, I’m weeping at the drop of a hat.

“Susannah.” Father Dominic reached out and grabbed my arm. He gave me a little shake. I could tell by his expression he was really astonished. Like I said, I never cry. “Susannah, what is it? Are you crying, Susannah?”

I could only nod.

“But why, Susannah?” Father Dom asked urgently. “Why? Jesse? It’s a hard thing, and I know you’ll miss him, but—”

“You don’t understand,” I blurted. I was having trouble seeing. Everything had gotten very fuzzy. I couldn’t see my bed or even the patterns on the pillows on the window seat, and they were much closer. I raised my hands to my face, thinking maybe Father Dom had been right, and that I should get that X ray after all. Something was evidently wrong with my vision.

But when my fingers encountered wetness on my cheeks, I was forced to admit the truth. There wasn’t anything wrong with my vision. My eyes were simply overflowing with tears.

“Oh, Father,” I said, and for the second time in half an hour, I threw my arms around a priest’s neck. My forehead collided with his glasses, and they went all crooked. To say that Father Dominic was startled by this gesture would be an understatement of the grossest kind.

But judging by the way he froze up when I uttered them, he was even more surprised by the words that came out of my mouth.

“He exorcised Jesse, Father D. Maria de Silva tricked him into doing it. She told Jack that Jesse had been b-bothering me, and that he’d b-be doing me a favor, getting rid of him. Oh, Father Dominic—” My voice rose to a wail. “What am I going to do?”