It didn’t make a dent in her sunny disposition. “I told my aunts about you, and they are all excited. Aunt Helen’s biggest fear is that you won’t accept them,” she said with a laugh, then leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips.

The telephone rang, and Liam pounced on the opportunity to get away from them. “I’m averting my eyes,” he called over his shoulder as he went to answer the telephone down the hall.

Gwen turned to show Patrick another photograph of Uncle Milton holding aloft a pair of crab traps in preparation for the famed annual lobster bake. Liam’s voice soon interrupted her.

“Yo, Patrick. There’s a priest on the telephone for you.”

Patrick stood, wondering why Father Doyle would be contacting him here. He hurried down the hallway to take the receiver from Liam’s hands.

“Yes, Father?”

It wasn’t Father Doyle, but Father Murry from Pittsburgh, the one who heard Patrick’s confession.

“I’m afraid there was a break-in at the church rectory after you left the city,” Father Murry said. “Somebody stole a hundred dollars from the school fund, and the police got an anonymous complaint accusing you of doing the deed right before you skipped town.”

“That’s a lie!” Patrick’s voice echoed down the empty brick corridor. Outrage mingled with embarrassment as the old priest continued talking.

“I tried telling that to the police, but they seem convinced you and that fellow who was laid up in the hospital were in cahoots together. They’ve already issued a warrant for both your arrests. All this happened last week, but it took me a while to find you.”

Patrick’s hands curled into fists. Whoever attacked Liam was now launching another assault, and it had been going on while they were mindlessly hiding out in Queens. The police had been after him for a week. Even now they could be closing in on them.

There was no time to waste. If Father Murry could track him down in Queens, so could the Pittsburgh police. Normally the police wouldn’t cross state lines to track down a charge of petty theft, but nothing about this case was normal.

Patrick’s mind still reeled as he headed back to alert the others. It hurt to see the innocent happiness on Gwen’s face as she sat beside Liam, laughing about another photograph in her picture album, but she needed to know about the ugliness swirling around them. He explained what Father Murry had relayed to him, knowing this marked the end of their brief interlude here in Queens.

“It sounds like someone is trying to frame us,” Liam said.

Patrick nodded. Framing Liam for theft would effectively stop him from ever being allowed to serve on the board of a bank, and it would ruin Patrick’s legal career forever.