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  For I Have Sinned

  Kristen Houghton

  A Cate Harlow Private Investigation

  FOR I HAVE SINNED

  Copyright © 2014 by Kristen Houghton

  ISBN: 9781633930346

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the express written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The names, incidents, dialogue, and opinions expressed are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  Published by

  Koehler Books

  Virginia Beach, VA

  Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  Houghton, Kristen

  For I Have Sinned: A Cate Harlow Private Investigation crime novel/Kristen Houghton-1st. ed.

  1.Cate Harlow (Fictitious character)-Fiction 2. private investigator 3.crime 4. female sleuth 5. mystery 6. detective 7. New York City

  Books by Kristen Houghton

  CRIME and MYSTERY

  CATE HARLOW PRIVATE INVESTIGATION series

  For I Have Sinned

  Grave Misgivings

  Unrepentent: Pray for Us Sinners

  FANTASY

  THE TEDDY JAMESON CHRONICLES

  Welcome to Hell, Teddy Jameson

  Life in Hell

  HISTORICAL ROMANCE

  The Anchoress: A Romantic Tale of Terror

  ANTHOLOGY

  No Woman Diets Alone-There’s Always a Man Behind Her Eating a Doughnut

  And Then I’ll Be Happy!

  DEDICATION

  For Alan William Hopper, my husband and friend and the inspiration for my stories.

  To New York City for providing a perfect setting for my book.

  Many thanks to Koehler Books Publishing, John Koehler and Joe Coccaro.

  And of course to the readers of For I Have Sinned: Enjoy!

  August 1995

  The confessional smelled of mouse droppings and old wood. The young boy’s knees were uncomfortable on the old worn leather kneeler that was rough and cracked. He nervously waited in the hot, stuffy confines for Father Moore to finish with the person on the other side of the confessional. He recognized the raised voice of old Mrs. Carletti who was eighty-six years old and nearly deaf. She said everything loudly and twice Just keep the hell talking, Mrs. Carletti, save me. Please God, let me get through this and I’ll try real hard to be a better kid, he prayed. Please. I'm sorry God. Don’t let my penance be the “bad-boy” penance. Please, please!

  He listened as Father Moore gave Mrs. Carletti absolution and told her she could go now, her sins were forgiven. The boy guessed that the fact that he’d thought the word hell added to his sins and sighed a deep, ragged sigh. The window slid back and he saw the shadowy presence of Father Moore. He knew that the priest could see him too and knew exactly who was kneeling there.

  “Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been two weeks since my last confession. These are my sins.”

  He hadn’t really sinned too much but, sometimes, a sin can happen even when you don’t expect it or can’t control it. A small lie about homework, a rude answer to his mother, being late to Mass, these were small sins compared to the unexpected sin, the sin that would get him the bad-boy penance. He rattled off the smaller sins and stopped. He hoped Father Moore would be too busy to ask about other sins. Sometimes the priest was too busy and issued a mild penance just some prayers to say at the altar railing. Today was not going to be one of those times because Father Moore didn’t say anything for a few minutes, which seemed like hours to the boy. When he did speak, the boy knew he was in for it.

  “And? And Joey? What else, what other sins did you commit?”

  The boy’s mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

  “Joey? Did you have impure thoughts again? Did you commit the worst sin a young boy can commit? Again?”

  “I-I-I, yes, I’m sorry, I’m sorry Father!” he whispered. His throat was closing up and he felt as if he couldn’t breathe.

  “Say what you did Joey, say it to me and to Jesus. It is your sin. Say it.”

  Father Moore’s words were said low and almost sweetly. “Say what you did so Jesus can hear you.”

  “I-I t-t-touched myself. Down there, I t-t-touched myself. I’m sorry!”

  “Did it feel good, Joey? Did you like it?”

  “I was asleep, though Father, I was asleep, I-I-I think I was anyway.”

  “That doesn't matter Joey, you had the impure thought in your mind before you fell asleep so it is still sinful. You thought about doing it, you thought about how it felt. A person can still commit a sin in their sleep Joey, if the impure thoughts are there.” Pause. “Joey? I asked you if it felt good. Did it feel good, Joey? Did it? Jesus wants to hear you say the truth.”

  “Y-yes.”

  “And did you like the way it felt, Joey? It felt good, didn’t it Joey, like always, right?”

  “I, y-yes, Father.”

  “What else happened, Joey? Was there the sticky stuff again?”

  The boy began to cry. All he could think of was I’m-sorry, I’m-sorry, I’m-sorry-please God, forgive-me, I’m scared to answer.

  “I can tell by your silence that the sticky stuff was there on your nice clean pajamas. Your poor mother has to wash them. How awful for her. She knows that you have committed a great sin, the greatest sin a boy can commit. She is disgusted by what you did.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Father!”

  “I hope your Dad doesn’t find out, but I guess your mother would be too ashamed to tell him. It’s a good thing too because I believe your father might send you away to juvenile hall, that terrible place for bad boys who do very bad things. That would be awful, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, Father.” He was crying now and hiccupping.

  “It's okay, Joey, you and I, we know how to deal with this behavior.”

  Silence.

  “Joey, you have to come to me after confessions. You know where.”

  “Yes.” The school basement, that horrible dark scary place where Father Moore punished bad boys like Joey. Oh God. Please, I’m afraid, I’m afraid.

  “I can’t absolve your sin until you’ve done your special, bad-boy penance. You understand?” The priest’s voice was soft and loving.

  “Please, Father Moore. Please! Don’t give me that penance. I promise, I promise with my whole heart I won’t commit that sin again. I won’t, I won’t! Please don’t hurt me…that penance … please…”

  “Joey, Joey, think of what our Lord felt, think of His pain, how he suffered so much more pain just for your sins. Do you think I like doing that to you Joey? Do you really believe I like giving you that penance? It breaks my heart to do it but I have to do it, Joey. Your sin is great and if you want to become a decent man like your father, you must take the punishment. It is my duty as a holy priest of God to give you that penance.”

  Joey sobbed quietly.

  “What you have to endure for your sins is nothing compared to what Jesus suffered. This sin that you committed hurts Jesus all over again. He went through so much pain just to save your soul from Hell, Joey. You don’t want to hurt Jesus, do you?”

  “No Father, but…I don’t, I-I-I don’t want to go there, to the basement. Please, Father.”

  “Do you want to suffer the pains of Hell, Joey?” Father Moore’s voice was still low but it had changed. The tone was one that Joey knew well. Stern and commanding.
r />   “N-n-no.”

  “Then you must do the “bad-boy” penance. I will see you in our special place at three o’clock. Your mother doesn’t need to know where we will be. She’s embarrassed enough Joey. Just tell her that you need to…do something with me. That is not a lie either, is it Joey? We know, you and I, what has to be done.”

  “Y-y-yes, Father Moore.”

  ****

  The priest gently helped the sobbing boy put his shirt back on. “Don't cry Joey, your sin has been forgiven. The bad-boy penance took it away and your soul is clean. Now you can kiss your mother because you are a good boy again. Be at peace Joey. I’ll always be here to help you because I love you.”

  CHAPTER 1

  The phone rings and wakes me out of the soundest sleep I’ve had in four nights. I answer it and hear the charming voice of my ex-husband Will—that bastard.

  “Hey, Cate, wakey, wakey. You alert?”

  “What the hell do you want?” I am such a bitch to him. The lighted numbers from my Smartphone say 4:37AM.

  “Jennifer Aniston naked on my bed for starters.” He is so funny!

  “Anything, or should I say, anyone else?” I say dripping with venom.

  “Maybe, hmmmm, maybe you naked? Been awhile, Cate. Think about it.”

  I do not want to answer him and am on the verge of hanging up when he says,

  “Found a mutilated body wearing a priest’s collar. You interested? I need your expertise, since you were on that case ten months ago. Body’s at the morgue.”

  I sigh. The last thing I want to do is to go down to the morgue at four in the morning and before I have even had my coffee. But I am intrigued. This is the second body wearing the collar of a Catholic priest found dead and mutilated in the tri-state area in less than a year. The last one had been my case, a private investigation, and it had turned out to be a mess—and unsolved. It still haunts me; I don’t like unfinished business.

  I’m the Catherine in Catherine Harlow, Private Investigations P.I. license number 420731-6632. I was named Catherine Sophie-Victoria Christina Marie Harlow; my parents got carried away naming their only child. They were in their forties when I was born, so finally having a child was a miracle to them. The only places you’ll find this name, however, are on my birth and marriage certificates—and my divorce decree. While I like the name Catherine, I prefer Cate. But I’m easy; either name is fine with me.

  A year ago, a nursing home director had contacted my office for help in finding a patient who, as he put it, “simply wandered away.” The male patient had slight dementia but was basically healthy and had never gone missing before. The staff at the home had searched for two days to no avail.. The director was adamant to keep it discreet— no police, no publicity. I was to work the case alone. A news story about a patient who had been allowed to disappear from this upscale, expensive nursing home would spell disaster for the place and its highly paid director. That was fine with me. Working alone and being discreet is part of being a good private investigator. Besides, I tend to get a lot done on my own. For my discreetness I was paid three times what I usually get.

  I had taken the case, which I thought was going to be a simple one concerning a missing elderly man. Ninety-five percent of these cases end well; the person is found, albeit confused and a little scared. I had every confidence that this was going to be one of those cases. As it turned out, this was not one with a happy ending Two months later I found the nude, horribly mutilated and sodomized body of the missing man dumped in a drainage ditch in the New York State countryside. Around his neck was the unmistakable collar worn by Roman Catholic priests. The funny thing was that the nursing home had no idea that one of their patients was a cleric. His admittance paperwork stated that he had been a retired professor of theology. It took me a while to find out that he had been a priest for more than fifty years before he admitted himself to an assisted-care facility. From there he transferred to the adjacent nursing home.

  No one was ever charged in the priest’s murder and there were no solid leads. The police and I were able to keep the details about the crime out of the news. Still being discreet, I tried for months to find any leads into the murder, anything no matter how small that might point the way to a suspect, but I came up as empty-handed as the cops had. To this day it baffles me that we found nothing at all to connect anyone to the murder. All we had was a body.

  “Cate? I can hear you breathing and if you’re breathing you’re thinking. Are you up to it? Your boyfriend is there. That should make it easier on you.”

  The emphasis he puts on the word boy is meant as a slight to the other man in my life. Even though Will and I are divorced, he has a certain proprietary air that annoys me. He dislikes anyone I date or anyone with whom I might have a semi-serious relationship.

  As far as relationships go, I’ve got two men in my life; Giles, the city’s top-notch medical examiner, and my ex-husband, Will, who is kind of a lawyer. I say kind of because at the age of forty he still has to sit for the bar exam, something he’s been avoiding for a number of years now. At the moment, he is a homicide detective and a good one. He is a bastard in many ways but fair is fair; he is excellent and relentless at what he does.

  Will and Giles are great lovers in different ways. Giles is smooth, sweet, romantic, and tender; all wine ‘em, dine ‘em, with an all-day foreplay agenda that is incredibly hot and makes me shiver and cross my legs just thinking about it. Will, on the other hand, makes sex a bit dangerous, but wildly exciting, and likes to do it in the most unexpected places. You remember that scene in the movie Unfaithful where Olivier Martinez is giving it hard and fast to Diane Lane in the ladies room of a restaurant while her totally oblivious girlfriends are waiting for her back at the table? Been there, done that, enjoyed it immensely. That, and doing it with Will in a MINI Cooper in a parking garage, have been duly catalogued in the erotica library of my mind.

  “Cate?”

  “Same type of killing?” I ask yawning and trying to stretch.

  “Preliminary findings at the scene say yes.”

  “Same dump site?”

  “Nope, this one’s off of Interstate 95, an hour ago, smack on the side of the road. Some driver called in and said he thought he saw an injured albino deer.”

  Oh God! I debate getting out of my warm bed. “And you need me because…?”

  “You worked the last case and there's a message with this one. A hand-printed note in Latin on the inside of the clerical collar.”

  I pause. Since the last murder was never solved, it is still open. There are no suspects and no real evidence. If this one has a note with it that can possibly provide clues to the first murder... Suddenly I’m alert.

  “Okay,” I say into the phone. “Give me thirty minutes. I’ll be there.”

  “Anything I can do to make getting you up this early easier for you?”

  “Yes, a large cup of hazelnut coffee from Timothy's and remember—”

  “To put some half and half in first, pour the coffee up to an inch from the top and add more half and half. Absolutely no sugar. I know, I remember how you like your coffee… and a lot of other things you like. See you at the morgue, and thanks.”

  I lay back in bed for a couple of minutes, but know that I will fall asleep if I stay prone for too long. Quick shower, no time to wash my hair, just brush my teeth, and I am good to go as soon as I get dressed in my uniform of jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie. I pull my hair into a ponytail and put on a Yankees baseball cap and sunglasses.

  Will’s right about me; if I’m breathing I’m thinking and as I walk to my car I am musing about what I’ll find at the morgue, why I’m even going to the morgue, and then I think about my latest case. My mind is a convoluted trail of what’s happening in my life.

  On the whole my latest case seems to be one that is simple and easy to close; a woman, a Marie McElroy, wants me to find her brother who disappeared ten years ago at the age of fifteen. I feel as if I’m taking her money, ten yea
rs missing and not much to go on.

  But for some reason this woman got to me. She had the saddest, sweetest eyes I have ever seen, and she looked at me with a directness and honesty that hit my emotions hard. I wanted to find her brother just to make the sadness go away.

  “Ms. Harlow?” she said as she stood up to leave my office late last week, “One thing. I have to know, no matter how bad the information is that you may find out, I have to know everything. Promise me you won’t hold anything back. If he isn’t… alive, I need to know, I have to know.”

  I promised her that I would tell her the truth about anything I found out and she walked slowly out the door as if she barely had the strength to move her body forward.

  At some time in their lives, most people think that they need the services of a private investigator and they’re pretty much willing to pay whatever is charged. Usually they’re looking to nail a cheating spouse, find a long-lost relative, or uncover some secret about their family’s past. And while I certainly don’t want to put myself out of business, in my experience they’d be better off saving their money. The truth is that if you suspect a spouse is cheating, he, or she, usually is. That long-lost relative you feel that you just have to find? In nine out of ten cases, that person doesn’t want to be found. And that crucial info, that secret, you’re so eager to find out about your family’s past? Forget it. Unless you’re prepared to face some horrible, frightening fact about your ancestors that may haunt you forever, leave it alone. When you open a locked door, you never know what slime oozes through.

  That’s my advice. But then, who would really listen to realistic, professional advice? Not many people, so I learned to keep my mouth shut. Rent’s got to be paid, car payments come monthly, credit card bills, groceries. That’s my reality.

  In my business I’ve learned to give the clients what they want. I’ve stopped trying to convince them that they’re wasting their money on something their hearts tell them is what they need to know. If they want proof of a spouse cheating, I’ll give them that proof. If they want to find someone or learn about a skeleton in a family closet, I can provide that too.