The Widow's Mate Read Free Page B

legitimate long if the Pianones are involved. They will soon be in control of all major construction in Fox River.”
    It was Phil’s cross to be running the one division of the police force that wasn’t under the Pianone thumb. Of course, he’d had to accept Peanuts Pianone into his division, but Peanuts was regarded as too dim to be used by the family. Phil had agreed to Peanuts as his insurance against any further Pianone incursion into homicide. Into the investigating side of it, that is.
    The young pitcher who had been part of the trade for Greg Maddux was on the mound for the Cubs and hadn’t allowed a hit in four innings. Moreover, he had stroked a homer over the left field wall in the second, putting the Cubs ahead 1–0.
    â€œAnd they said that without Maddux the Cubs were dead,” Phil gloated.
    Phil’s remark about the Pianone control of the drivers at Flanagan Concrete disturbed Father Dowling. Earl Hospers, Edna’s husband, had finally been released from Joliet, and he had found employment driving one of the Flanagan mixers. If the Pianones got involved in Flanagan’s, it might be construed as a violation of Earl’s parole. He asked Phil if that was possible.
    â€œAll he has to do is keep his own nose clean.”
    â€œI’m sure he’ll do that.”
    Phil said nothing. Earl Hospers was something of a delicate subject. Phil had been involved in the arrest and conviction of Edna’s husband, a case so complicated that it was difficult to prove that a murder had been committed. The only one who hadn’t doubted Earl’s guilt was Earl himself, and he would have felt unjustly treated if he had not been sent to Joliet as an accessory to manslaughter. He had been a model prisoner. Father Dowling had proposed to Edna that she turn the then empty parish school into a center for the increasing number of seniors in the parish, and during the long years of loneliness Edna had raised their children, made the center flourish, and remained loyal to her husband. Now they were reunited, and any possibility that their refound peace could be disturbed was bothersome.
    â€œI wonder if I should mention this to Edna.”
    â€œI wouldn’t.”
    Of course Phil wouldn’t. Edna’s not wholly reasonable resentment of Phil’s role in Earl’s misfortune had never gone away, and Phil avoided Edna when he visited St. Hilary’s, and vice versa. Father Dowling decided he would mention it to Edna. Perhaps he could devise some parish job for Earl to get him out of harm’s way. He voiced the thought to Phil.
    â€œThis place will be crawling with parolees.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI understand that Gregory Packer has been attending the center.”
    â€œPacker!”
    Phil looked at him. “You didn’t know?”
    Marie Murkin had appeared in the doorway of the study, bearing another bottle of beer for Phil. She was staring at him. “What was that about Gregory Packer?”
    There were pastors who would have called this eavesdropping, but Father Dowling was not a stickler for protocol. Besides, Marie, for all her nosiness, was an invaluable asset to the parish. True enough, she sometimes acted as if the cardinal had assigned Father Dowling to St. Hilary’s as her assistant, but this was a pardonable consequence of her sense of seniority. After all, she had already been housekeeper for some years when Roger Dowling became pastor. Her relief that the parish had finally been delivered from the Franciscans made her eager to tell Father Dowling stories about his predecessors, but he soon put a stop to that. Phil, of course, was not surprised by Marie’s question.
    Father Dowling asked her if she knew Gregory Packer.
    â€œHe came to see me.”
    â€œWhen was that?”
    â€œYou were busy at the time or I would have brought him in to meet you.”
    â€œDid he want to see me?”
    â€œHe