Free ABSOLUTION (A Frank Renzi novel) by Susan A Fleet Page A

Lynette have some kind of a problem?”
    The priest doodled on the legal pad, puffing away on his cigarette.
    What’s he hiding? “What did Lynette want to talk to you about?”
    Daily frowned and put out his cigarette. “We spoke in confidence.”
    “ Right. And now she’s dead.”
    The priest’s eyes narrowed for an instant, then widened in innocence, or an imitation thereof. Frank had seen that look on some very guilty crooks.
    “ Surely you don’t think I had something to do with it?”
    “ Sean, I’m trying to find out who killed her, and I need to know why she came to talk to you. Was she upset about something?”
    “ You could say so, yes.”
    “ What was she upset about?”
    The priest set aside the legal pad and looked at him. “She wanted to get her own apartment and her parents wouldn’t let her.”
    “ When was this?”
    “ A couple of years ago, during her second year of college.”
    “ Her parents attend St. Elizabeth’s too, don’t they? Bart and Darleen Beauregard?”
    “ Yes. They’re the wealthiest family in the parish.” The priest puffed his cigarette. “They contribute very generously to St. Elizabeth’s.”
    “ Why wouldn’t they let her have her own apartment?”
    Daily’s mouth quirked in a frown. “They were afraid she’d get into trouble. The mother’s a bit of a fanatic when it comes to morality.”
    “ About sex, you mean?”
    “ Yes, and the father does her bidding. She’s the one with the money. Her father was a multi-millionaire, an oil man. He set up a foundation that donates money to local charities. When he died, Darlene inherited everything. Bart runs the foundation day to day, but Darlene calls the shots.”
    “ Okay, but what did Lynette expect you to do? Convince the mother to let her get her own apartment?”
    Daily looked down at his legal pad, doodling on it with a felt-tipped pen. “Lynette was pregnant.”
    That stopped him. Darleen hadn’t mentioned a pregnancy when they spoke on the phone and nothing in Lynette’s file indicated that she’d born a child. “But she never had a baby.”
    “ Maybe she miscarried. God was the first abortionist, you know.”
    An odd comment from a priest. “Who was the father?”
    “ I don’t know.”
    “ Did you ask?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Did you talk to her parents about it?”
    Daily’s lips tightened. “No.”
    “ They never spoke with you after she was murdered?”
    “ No.”
    He got the feeling Daily was still hiding something, but he had to get back to headquarters. He set his card on Daily’s desk. “Sorry to keep you from lunch, Sean. If you think of anything that might be helpful, call me.”
    _____
     
    Conscious of his galloping heart, Sean walked the NOPD detective to the door and returned to his office. How did Renzi know that he’d talked to Lynette? What else did Renzi know? Why had he come here to interrogate him? With trembling hands, he doodled Lynette’s name on the legal pad, recalling the day she’d sat in the same chair Renzi had.
    “ I can’t have this baby,” she’d sobbed.
    “ Then don’t,” he’d said. And she hadn’t.
    “ Sean,” Aurora called from the kitchen. “Lunch is ready.”
    He rose and went to the kitchen. She’d served him a large portion of seafood gumbo with slices of golden-brown garlic toast, his favorite meal, normally, but now the very thought of eating made him queasy.
    She poured Chardonnay into their wine glasses and sat down across the table from him. “Frank seems like a nice man. What did he want?”
    “ He was asking about Lynette. I told him she was pregnant.”
    “ Did you tell him about that priest?”
    “ No.”
    Aurora gazed at him with troubled eyes. “Why not?”
    “ The man’s dangerous, Aurora. If he starts investigating, he’ll find out I’m not really a priest.” If Detective Frank Renzi dug hard enough, he’d find out things even Aurora didn’t know.
    “ Sean, you’ve pulled it off all these years.”
    He forced