BooksBarbecue
Back We Were Killers Once
Chapters (65)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty–one
  25. Twenty–two
  26. Twenty–three
  27. Twenty–four
  28. Twenty–five
  29. Twenty–six
  30. Twenty–seven
  31. Twenty–eight
  32. Twenty–nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty–one
  35. Thirty–two
  36. Thirty–three
  37. Thirty–four
  38. Thirty–five
  39. Thirty–six
  40. Thirty–seven
  41. Thirty–eight
  42. Thirty–nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty–one
  45. Forty–two
  46. Forty–three
  47. Forty–four
  48. Forty–five
  49. Forty–six
  50. Forty–seven
  51. Forty–eight
  52. Forty–nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty–one
  55. Fifty–two
  56. Fifty–three
  57. Fifty–four
  58. Fifty–five
  59. Fifty–six
  60. Fifty–seven
  61. Author’s Note
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Also by Becky Masterman
  64. About the Author
  65. Newsletter Sign-up

That’s all he would say. His vocation ended, he was hired as an assistant professor at the local college. He talked about marrying Jane, moving to Tucson, teaching at the university, her death. As always, Carlo spoke of her respectfully, but not at length. I was content with that because I didn’t want to know. It was enough that sometimes her presence still haunted the house, in some vacation souvenir that remained on a corner shelf, or that smell in the kitchen cupboard of the spices I never used. I was a newcomer, both to Carlo’s life and to the normal world itself. But these were my own thoughts as I listened to Gemma-Kate interview Carlo.

Had he actually answered Gemma-Kate’s question about how long he was out of the priesthood before he met Jane? Had he even said her name? I thought not.

GEMMA-KATE: So your wife died, you kept teaching at the university, and that’s where you met Aunt Brigid, right?

CARLO: That’s right, five years after Jane’s passing. I was in the philosophy department. We met when Brigid took my course on the ethics of Buddhism. She was not a very good student, I recall. I kicked her out of the class.

“Oh, go on,” I said. “You just wanted to date me.”

GEMMA-KATE: Ethics …

I interrupted with “It’s a sense of right and wrong, dear.”

Carlo hid a smile and Gemma-Kate ignored me altogether.

GEMMA-KATE: How much did you know about Aunt Brigid before you married her? Did you know about what she did with the FBI or did she give you that crap about investigating copyright infringements?

I jerked to attention with another sharp word ready, but Carlo raised two fingers in almost a peace sign. “That’s your aunt’s story to tell. You and I are talking about my life right now.”

GEMMA-KATE: It seems like you stop me before we get to anything really good, but okay. Let’s see. Did you know anyone famous who was in prison while you were there?

CARLO: Just like a Quinn, always most interested in crime. No, there wasn’t really, not during my time. But there had been.

Gemma-Kate turned off the recorder, apparently having sufficiently exhausted the story of Carlo’s life. She asked, “Who?”

Carlo looked at me and we both smiled, knowing what was coming. “Have you heard the names Richard Hickock and Perry Smith?”

Gemma-Kate got sort of a rock-star-fan look on her face and Carlo noticed.

“Ah, now I’m less boring.” Carlo suggested we move inside, so we left the embers of the fire pit and sat in the living room. He went into his library in the front room, made some racket, and returned with a plastic bin. He sat on the floor with Gemma-Kate, rustled around in the bin until he found a large brown envelope, and from there drew out several articles about Hickock and Smith.