Eve jumped in the truck and started the engine. She wasn’t sure where John Barr was going, but once she considered the fact that he might lead her to Anthony, she knew she had to follow him. At that particular moment, she realized, she was the only one who knew of the connection between the older man and the missing monk. She didn’t want to lose this lead; she didn’t want to lose the opportunity to find Brother Anthony.
Of course, she thought as she pulled out of the driveway, she had intended to make a phone call and let others in on what was happening. She had tried to find a phone and make a call letting the police and her father know what was going on just a few miles north of the monastery. However, after encountering John Barr and then seeing him speed away, she knew her first priority was to find the young monk. And after everything she had come across at the cabin, she was growing more and more certain that the man from Pecos Canyon knew where Anthony was.
She pulled onto the state highway and headed south, following the white truck that had just blown past the Tererro post office and café. She topped off at sixty miles an hour but still couldn’t see him anywhere ahead. She knew the road she was on, Highway 63, was the only main road to travel, so she was confident that if Barr was heading to any town that had a name, Glorieta or Pecos, he would stay on that paved passageway.
She drove on, slowing down as she made the curves, wondering where the man was going, wondering if he might stop at the monastery, which she thought was a good possibility. Perhaps he did recognize her back at his cabin and he was angry that she had been there. Perhaps he was planning to go to the monastery, throw her cell phone on Father Oliver’s desk, and let him know what she had done. Maybe he was going to speak to the detectives and lodge a complaint against her for breaking and entering.
However, as she followed, something told her that he had no intention of going back to the scene of the crime. Something told her that he had found her phone, knew she was on to him, and was going to Brother Anthony, ultimately leading her to the missing monk.
Eve regretted losing her phone, imagining the Captain criticizing her for such a stupid mistake and Daniel’s protests for putting herself in such danger. She also regretted the loss since it appeared she would be unable to place a call as long as she was in pursuit of Barr. She pushed the gas and sped up, looking quickly down every driveway she passed to make sure the man hadn’t turned onto another path and was heading to someplace she hadn’t considered.
She glanced down at her watch, assessing the time she had been away and what was happening at the community. It was an hour after lunch and a few more than that before vespers for those still in residence and retreat at the monastery. Eve traveled on and suddenly thought about the daily activities at her old community, how everyone who lived there had a role to play and afternoon tasks and duties to complete.
She drove along the twists and turns of Highway 63, getting closer and closer to the monastery, and knew that Father Oliver would be in his office at that hour, likely still dealing with the media and the archdiocese, perhaps even the police. Eve saw the abbot in her mind’s eye, his head in his hands as he rested his elbows on his desk. He anguished, she knew, over the whereabouts of Anthony as well as the accusations the young monk would be facing when he returned. He anguished over the death of the visiting professor and the theft of the holy writings as well.
She guessed that the vice superior would have likely fasted and prayed throughout the two nights since the body of Kelly Middlesworth was found in her guest room and that he continued to lament over what was unfolding in his community with this homicide and what had occurred regarding the nuns.
As she came near the gates of the monastery, Eve spotted the white truck just ahead of her. John Barr was less than a mile ahead. Eve pressed on the gas pedal and sped past the community and through the little village of Pecos. Barr had not stopped at the monastery. He was not lodging a complaint with Father Oliver, and she was not going to be able to stop and tell anyone what was going on; she was not going to be able to call the Captain or speak to one of the detectives. She was on her own, following Barr wherever he was leading her.
He was still traveling south, and as they drove Eve wasn’t sure if he would pick up Highway 25 and go in the direction of the state capital of Santa Fe or north to Rowe and Las Vegas, maybe even Colorado. She followed, uncertain of where he was going but trying to stay far enough behind him that Barr wouldn’t know he had a tail.
As she drove past the monastery gates, she tried to see if police cars were still in the lot or if she could spot one of the detectives walking the grounds. She was driving fast and was able to get only a glimpse, but she saw nothing that drew her attention to the community buildings. There was no black-and-white police car, no Daniel standing near the front gates, no news van, no Texas professors that she could see, and no Detective Lujan. And again, as she thought of the man partnered with her father’s old friend, she felt a slight flutter in her chest and a sense of confusion about what she was feeling.
Sister Eve shook her head, recalling her embarrassment when the Captain told Daniel that he believed she had a crush on the police officer. And she recalled the vehement denial she had made. She had changed the subject as quickly as she could, diverting the attention away from the subject of her “crush” and back to the issue at hand, namely, the murder that Daniel had come to investigate.
“I do not have a crush,” she said out loud, as if she were having a conversation with the Captain. “I am following a crazy man,” she added and pressed her foot on the gas, creeping a little closer to the white truck as it exited the state highway and headed south on the interstate.