‘Even me?’ I was hurt, in spite of myself. ‘Thanks.’

He ignored me. ‘Does the priest know about this, Susannah? Did you tell the priest?’

‘Um, sure. He knows. He’s, uh, meeting me there.’

‘The priest is meeting you there?’

‘Yeah, uh-huh.’ I gave a shaky laugh. ‘You don’t think I’d try something like this on my own, do you? I mean, jeez, I’m not that stupid, no matter what you might think.’

His grip on the bike relaxed a little. ‘Well, if the priest will be there . . .’

‘Sure. Sure he will.’

The grip tightened again. Jesse’s other hand came around, and a long finger wagged in my face as he said, ‘You’re lying, aren’t you? The priest isn’t going to be there at all. She hurt him, didn’t she? This morning? I thought so. Did she kill him?’

I shook my head. I didn’t feel so much like talking all of a sudden. It felt like there was something in my throat. Something that hurt.

‘That’s why you’re so angry,’ Jesse said wonderingly. ‘I should have known. You’re going down there to get even with her for what she did to the priest.’

‘So what if I am?’ I exploded. ‘She deserves it!’

He put his finger down, gripping the handlebars of my bike with both hands. And let me tell you, he was pretty strong for a dead guy. I couldn’t budge the stupid thing with him hanging on to it like that.

‘Susannah,’ he said. ‘This isn’t the way. This wasn’t why you were given this extraordinary gift, not so you could do things like—’

‘Gift!’ I nearly burst out laughing. I had to grit my teeth to keep from doing so. ‘Yeah, that’s right, Jesse. I’ve been given a precious gift. Well, you know what? I’m sick of it. I really am. I thought coming out here, I’d be able to make a new start. I thought things might be different. And you know what? They are. They’re worse.’

‘Susannah—’

‘What am I supposed to do, Jesse? Love Heather for what she did? Embrace her wounded spirit? I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. Maybe Father Dom could do it, but not me, and he’s out of commission, so we’re going to do things my way. I’m going to get rid of her, and if you know what’s good for you, Jesse, you’ll stay away!’

I gave my kickstand a vicious kick, and at the same time, yanked on the handlebars. The move surprised Jesse so much, he let go of the bike involuntarily. A second later, I was off, spraying gravel out from beneath my back wheel, leaving Jesse in my dust. I heard him say a bunch of stuff in Spanish as I sped down the driveway. I think it was probably swear words. The word querida was definitely not mentioned.

I didn’t see much of my trip down into the Valley. The wind was so cold that tears streamed in a pretty constant flow down my cheeks and back into my hair. There wasn’t much traffic out, thank God, so when I flew through the intersection, it didn’t really matter that I couldn’t see. The cars stopped for me, anyway.