Altarboy novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Everything It Heard
Kaz pushed open the little door and stepped out into the dark nave.
He held out his hand.
Fintan stared at it through the open grille, still on his knees.
"Come out of the box," Kaz said. "I'm not hearing the rest of this through a window."
Fintan came out slowly, one knee and then the other, stiff from the kneeler.
They sat in the front pew, under the red lamp that burned all night beside the altar.
It was the only light in the church, and it turned his face the color of a coal.
"You wanted to know what I never said at the grave," Fintan said.
"I didn't ask that."
"You asked why I talk to the box. It's the same answer."
Kaz waited.
"My da was sexton here for thirty-four years," Fintan said. "I worked beside him from nineteen."
"At twenty-nine I took a better job in Philadelphia, hanging ceilings in a hotel."
"He told me to go. He said the church would still be standing."
He rubbed his big scarred hands together.
"He rang me on a Wednesday afternoon. I was on a ladder and the foreman was under me, timing me."
"You didn't answer."
"I let it go to voicemail. I thought, I'll call him tonight." Fintan's mouth twisted. "Thursday morning Father Cyril called me instead."
"And you drove home."
"A hundred and thirty miles in two hours and ten minutes. He was already gone."
"They'd found him in the sacristy, next to the vestment press."
Kaz's stomach turned over.
Nobody had told him that part.
He thought of the oak press and of what they had done against it, and he had to look at the floor.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Altarboy are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
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