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Read Part 18
Seeing his old friend Martin Miller walk through the diner door stopped Gilbert in his tracks. Dressed all in black as he was, save for his Roman collar, he reminded Gilbert of the way he had looked the last time they had spoken in college. Once he had made the decision to leave the university for the seminary, Martin Miller immediately began wearing all black.
Seeing him again now reminded Gilbert how it felt to hear that his friend would be leaving school. At the time, he had been surprised that it hurt. It caught him by surprise that he remembered it so clearly now. They had only known each other for a couple of semesters, but in that short period of time Martin Miller had become a close friend. More than that, he had become an important part of Gilbert’s therapy.
Gilbert had told Miller what had happened to his sister. He even shared some of the information he had shared with his therapist, Dr. Willenshow. Miller had a way of knowing when Gilbert needed to talk and could quickly put him at ease. Miller was the only person who had seen Gilbert cry, as far as he knew. He had, in a very short period of time, become like a brother to him.
And then he had left for the seminary and Gilbert was left to bumble his way through school on his own, finally achieving his undergraduate degree and moving on to law school. That hadn’t lasted long. He hit a wall in therapy and found himself unable to concentrate on a field of study that he had begun to see as more effective at obstructing justice than delivering it. He left the university after only one semester of law school.
He hadn’t seen Miller again in person since they left each other at college until the night before at the airport. Seeing him again now brought back so many conflicting feelings that he locked up completely.
Fr. Miller did not. He entered the diner and crossed the distance to embrace his friend as he had the night before. Pulling back, he seemed to see something in Gilbert’s eyes and held on to his friend’s shoulders.
“I thought we were on for lunch. I need to see my partner,” Gilbert stammered.
“He’s in a meeting with your Captain and Cardinal Mara,” Fr. Miller said, turning his friend gently back toward the table. Pat was already putting down a second coffee cup. “Let’s have a chat.”
Gilbert’s attention snapped back to the priest’s face. Those were the exact words he had used whenever he found Gilbert curled up in a ball on his dorm room bed. It was the lifeline he had thrown out on so many occasions during his first year at school. Gilbert realized that his friend had made it possible for him to advance through school as far as he had. He had never thought to thank him.
By the time the second cup of coffee was gone, Gilbert had forgotten about his partner and the fact that his was the first time he had ever missed his breakfast meeting. The friends had briefed each other on their experiences at the police academy and the seminary. To their surprise, they found many similarities. Both felt as though they had found their way into a position from which they could serve their communities. Neither found it to be quite as fulfilling as they had hoped.
For his part, Gilbert admitted that he had expected modern crime scene techniques to be more effective at gathering evidence that could be used to convict wrongdoers. Instead, he found it used more often to disqualify suspects, which he found frustrating.
Fr. Miller admitted that he had been quite fulfilled at his small Texas parish, until he was called to serve the Archdiocese of Boston. He had thought that was fantastic until he had received Gilbert’s message and discussed it with Cardinal Mara. Then, Fr. Miller said with a strange gleam in his eye, everything changed.
“I think you’ve opened a door for me, my friend,” he told Gilbert. “You’ve stumbled across something that will change my life.”
“What makes you think this isn’t just something Eagan looked up on the Internet,” Gilbert asked.
“Well, it may be. We’ll have to examine it first, which is why Cardinal Mara is visiting with your captain now. But whatever it is, it came to light when I was working with Cardinal Mara. Now, it appears that he will recruit me into his work.”
“Which is ancient church artifacts?” Gilbert asked.
“Not exactly,” Fr. Miller replied. He smiled then, very much like he had when he had first told Gilbert that he would leave school. At once it was like he could barely contain his excitement and also like he knew Gilbert could not possibly understand. "Cardinal Mara hunts demons."
Gilbert was quiet for a moment. He realized after a moment that he was waiting for his old friend to laugh at his own joke, but the earnestness in his eyes told him that wasn't going to happen. He struggled to find an appropriate response.
“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure a demon didn’t perpetrate the crime I’m investigating. All of the DNA we recovered from the scene was human, so…”
“That’s not how it works and I don’t expect you to believe me. I understand it’s quite a ways out there, but believe me, there is more to this world than what we can see.”
Gilbert didn’t know what to feel at that moment. When Martin first told him that he was going to go into the priesthood it had made a great deal of sense. While his friend was never one to go around proselytizing, he was a great listener, a wise counselor despite his youth and a good friend. He knew at the time that Martin Miller would make a great priest.
Suddenly, Gilbert felt a great sadness descend upon him as he realized the Church had taken such a good man and rendered him insane.
“Marty,” Gilbert started carefully. “I don’t think…”
His thought was cut short when Parme kicked open the diner’s front door. He stomped in with Cardinal Mara following him closer than his own shadow.
Read Part 20
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