Laurant cut him off. She was so angry, she was sputtering. "He’s lying," she repeated. "There are four witnesses. My brother, Father Clayborne, Nick, and me. You have to arrest him."

"Well, now, the way I see it, that’s four against four, ‘cause I’m sure Lonnie’s friends are going to back him up, and I don’t have any reason at all not to believe them."

"Lonnie threatened us with a knife."

Looking past Laurant to Nick, the sheriff demanded, "You’d best get your woman under control. I’m not going to put up with her yapping at me. Now you just back away, Laura, and hold your tongue."

Laurant couldn’t believe the sheriff was talking to her as though she were a naughty child. "Hold my tongue? I don’t think so," she said. "Do something," she demanded.

The sheriff glared at her. "I am going to do something," he announced. "You there," he muttered, pointing to Nick. "I want to see some identification, and I want to see it now."

Laurant’s temper exploded. She turned to Tommy and spoke in rapid French, telling him what an incompetent fool she thought the sheriff was. In fluent French, Nick told her to calm down.

The sheriff’s hands were balled into fists, and he kept glancing at his son. He wanted to kick some sense into the boy, and it took a good deal of discipline to control his fury. Besides, if he did give in to his temper, there was a good chance that Lonnie would strike back and beat the crap out of him. Lonnie had done it before, and Lloyd knew he would do it again.

"I said I want to see some identification."

"No problem," Nick replied as he pulled out his badge and flipped it open. "Nicholas Buchanan, Sheriff. FBI."

"Ah shit," the sheriff moaned.

"You’re going to have to lock him up. I’ll come by tomorrow and fill out the paperwork."

"What paperwork, Mr. FBI agent? It was my car that got damaged. Lonnie, stop your snickering or I swear I’ll backhand you."

Noah came up behind the sheriff. "I’m not real familiar with the law, being a priest and all," he said, "but it seems to me that a crime was committed here by your son. Lonnie threatened an FBI agent with a knife, and that’s some land of a crime, isn’t it?"

"Well now, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t," the sheriff hedged "I don’t see a knife, so what you’re claiming might just be fabrication Do you see my dilemma?"

"The knife’s under the car," Noah told him.

Trying to buy some time while he figured out what he was going to do, the sheriff muttered, "How’d it get under the car?"

"I kicked it there," Laurant said.

"What were you doing with a knife?"

"Oh, for the love of…" she began.

The sheriff took his hat off and scratched his head. "Now here’s what I’m going to do. You all go on home now and let me deal with this. You can come on by the office tomorrow, but you call me first," he told Nick. "I’ll have it all sorted out by then. Go on home now."

Laurant was so furious she was shaking. Without a word, she turned her back on the sheriff and walked to Nick’s car, her high heels clicking hard on the pavement.

Nick could hear her muttering under her breath. As he opened the passenger door for her, he took hold of her hand. "Are you all right? You’re trembling. You weren’t scared, were you? I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you. You do know that, don’t you?"

"Yes," she said. "I’m just angry, that’s all. The sheriff isn’t going to do anything about Lonnie. He certainly won’t arrest him. You just wait and see."

"You are angry."

"He had a knife," she cried out. "He could have hurt you."

Nick was taken aback. "You were worried about me?"

Tommy and Noah were getting into the backseat, and she didn’t want them to hear her. "Of course I was worried about you. Now will you stop grinning like an idiot and get in the car? I want to go home."

He wanted to kiss her, but he settled on squeezing her hand instead. It was a sorry substitute.

"Sheriff," Nick called out as he walked around to the driver’s side. "I’m going to want to talk to your son tomorrow."

Tommy was craning his neck to look out the back window when Nick drove the car out of the parking lot. He could see the sheriff arguing with Lonnie.

"You don’t think Lonnie could be the guy who’s stalking Laurant, do you?"

"We’re going to check him out," Nick answered. "But I don’t think he’s the man we’re after. Lonnie doesn’t strike me as real intelligent."

"The kid’s a moron," Noah said.

"Yeah, well, you did your part to spur him on," Nick said.

"How’d I do that?" he asked innocently.

"Thank the Lord we’ve got a spare? Isn’t that what you said to Lonnie after he cut the first tire?"

"Maybe," Noah allowed. "I wanted to keep him busy so he’d leave you and Laurant alone."

"Is that right? I figured you wanted to see how far he’d go."

Noah shrugged while he tugged on his stiff collar. It was chafing his neck. "This thing feels like a noose," he told Tommy.

"Nick, were there any agents at the restaurant? And if there were, why didn’t one of them come forward to help?" Laurant asked.

"It was under control," Nick answered.

"Wesson ordered me to let Tommy hear confession," Noah told Nick.

"Pete doesn’t want him to," Nick responded. "It’s a bad idea."

"That’s what I told him."

From Noah’s tone of voice, Laurant knew he didn’t like Wesson any more than Nick did. She turned in her seat to ask him why.

Nick pressed his thumb against the disc so Wesson couldn’t listen in.

Noah noticed what he was doing. "You don’t have to do that I want Wesson to hear me. For the record, I think he’s a glory seeker and power hungry. He doesn’t give a damn who he steps on to get to the top, including Morganstern."

Noah was on a roll and wasn’t going to stop until he’d spilled all of his pent-up frustration with the man running the operation. "He sure isn’t a team player," he added. "But then neither am I. Still I avoid publicity just as much as you do, but Wesson goes looking for it. Remember the Stark case?" he asked, and before Nick could answer, he added, "Of course you do. You have to kill someone… you don’t forget that. Not ever."

"What about the Stark case?" Nick asked, looking in the rearview mirror at Noah.

"I’ll bet you were surprised when you opened your newspaper a couple of days later and read that human interest story about you saving that kid. Didn’t you think it was damn odd that the reporter wrote all that stuff about you, your family, and your best friend, Tom?"

"You’re saying that Wesson leaked the story?" Nick asked. He was getting mad just thinking about the possibility.

"Hell, yes, I’m saying it," he replied. "You did notice Wesson’s name was splattered all over that article, didn’t you? If I could get that reporter alone in a room for a couple of minutes, I could prove it too."

"Why would Wesson do it?" Laurant asked. "What does he have to gain?"

"He’s got a grudge. Plus, he wants to run the Apostles," Noah said. "That’s always been his goal, and I think he figures the more publicity he can get for himself, the better his chances will be. I’m telling you, Nick, as soon as Morganstern retires or accepts a promotion, Wesson’s going to move in. When that day comes, you’d be smart to get out."

Nick pulled the car into the parking lot behind the abbey and stopped.

"Let’s just concentrate on our jobs for now. Get some rest, Tommy You look worn-out."

"See you tomorrow at the picnic," Tommy said. He reached over the seat and squeezed Laurant’s shoulder. "You still doing okay?"

"I’m fine. Good night, Tommy."

Noah climbed over the seat and got out on Tommy’s side. Leaning back in, he said, "Nighty-night, Icy"