Parishioner by Walter Mosley

large face turned down and somehow in on itself. The dark beads of her eyes went cold.
    “In the old country my father was a drunkard and my mother had too many children. She died and during a famine when I was not yet a woman it was up to me to make sure that my younger brothers and sisters survived.…”
    In a rush of intuition Xavier understood that part of Hope’s self-imposed punishment was to confess her sin whenever asked. It was why she never left the church. It was her iron maiden to bear..
    “… I lured a boy into a trap I’d made. I killed him and skinned his body. I cut him into pieces and brought him home to feed my starving family. I did that fourteen times.”
    Xavier sighed and then stood. He wanted to apologize to the woman, but even that, he realized, would be another burden.
    She squared her shoulders and adjusted the loose, full-length black uniform that she always wore. They peered into each other’s eyes and accepted the pain they both felt.
    “Ecks!” a man’s voice commanded.
    The shout seemed to fit the situation. There would be no easy egress from the cannibal child-memory.
    Captain Guillermo Soto was striding down between the pews on a collision course with the Harlem hard man.
    “Guilly. How’d you know I was here?”
    “I called Clyde.”
    “Oh. I see.”
    “I’m placing you under arrest,” the LA cop exclaimed. He reached out to clamp his big hand on Xavier’s steel-banded left forearm.
    This was a mistake.
    Pivoting from his hip, Xavier pulled the larger man off balance. At the same time Ecks sent out a straight right fist that knocked the big cop flat on his back on the flagstone floor.
    But Guillermo Soto was not a soft man. He bounced from the floor with a .357 Magnum in his left hand.
    In his mind Xavier had already kicked the right-hand bench at Soto, was already crouching to his left and pulling the throwing knife he kept in a sheath on his right shin. InXavier’s mind Soto was almost already dead.…
    “Stop!” Father Frank called from the doorway behind the Speaker’s Spot.
    Sister Hope stood there passively, understanding that she, at that moment, could not stay the foolish men.
    “I can’t stop, Frank!” Soto shouted. “This is my prisoner.”
    “This is sanctuary,” Frank replied.
    Xavier stood up straight.
    Soto lowered his high-powered pistol.
    “There’s a woman dead, Frank,” the LA cop said. “A man too, and one critically wounded. There’s a girl missing and a basement filled with the skeletons of children.”
    “There was a truck left out in the Arizona sun with sixteen dead workers in it,” Frank said. “There was a shoot-out in Chihuahua where women and children were caught in the cross fire.”
    A shudder ran through Soto.
    Xavier squelched the desire to kill the man.
    “It’s my job,” Captain Soto said.
    “I’m speaking to your faith.”
    “Did you kill them, Ecks?” Soto asked.
    “I shot the one guy and threw the crowbar into the other one’s chest. But they were getting ready to kill me and burn down the house. I think they wanted to remove Sedra’s body, maybe the skeletons too.”
    “What about the girl?”
    “She was gone when I got there.”
    “Where is she now?”
    “You have all the answers you need, Brother Soto,” Frank said. “Brother Ecks is blameless.”
    “You aren’t the law, Frank.”
    “I am within these walls.”
    “I have a life, man,” Guillermo said, “and a duty.”
    “A life maintained by Hope and Ecks and the rest of us.”
    Guillermo Soto tucked his gun into a holster on his hip while staring at Xavier.
    Sister Hope turned away and left through the exit door.
    Frank watched both men with a wary and yet somehow world-weary eye.
    “Are you telling me everything, Ecks?” Soto said.
    “I told you enough.”
    “Where’s the girl?”
    “Free at last.”
    The big Mexican’s eyes narrowed. He seemed about to ask something else but swallowed the words.
    Turning to Frank he said, “I got a