cardboard fan. 'Did you find the records you wanted?' Elizabeth asked.
'I'm afraid not, and Lauralie appears to have stolen her file, Mother Superior,' Meredyth explained.
'Theft, defiled holy water,' muttered William. 'One would almost have to believe that Lauralie had come for a visit. What is your interest in her records? Why are you here?'
'We'll let Mother Superior fill you in. It's a long story.'
'Apparently, William, she's become involved in a most unsavory affair with someone who has abducted and killed a woman.'
'Our Lauralie? Involved with a murderer?'
'Do you have a photo of Lauralie anywhere, Mother Elizabeth?' asked Lucas.
Again Elizabeth had to defer to Sister Audrey, asking if she had any ideas on the subject. Sister Audrey instantly replied, 'The yearbook, Mother Superior. She'll be in it. I'll bring one from the storage closet.'
Elizabeth caught her breath and formally introduced Father William Stoughton to Lucas and Meredyth. 'Father William comes twice a week to take confessions, to look in on us, make reports to the bishop, and to dine on our food, right, Father?'
'That's right, Mother Superior. Dr. Sanger, Detective, if there is anything I can do to help'-Stoughton brought the hem of his robe up to meet the glasses in his hand and began cleaning the lenses, lifting them back to his eyes, testing, cleaning again, as he spoke-'anything whatever, don't hesitate to contact me at St. Pete's Cathedral downtown.'
'Did you know Lauralie Blodgett well when she resided here?' asked Lucas, immediately taking him up on his offer.
'Not really. I help those who help themselves, so I hardly noticed Lauralie. She was sullen, moody, you know how she was, Mother Elizabeth. Extremely hard to reach.'
'Yes, she was all those things,' Elizabeth agreed.
Father William continued, seeming anxious to distance himself from Lauralie. 'She refused any notion of confessing her sins, told me she had none. Imagine it. I tried to counsel her, of course, but she remained stone- hearted, insisting she had nothing whatever to confess. I explained the doctrine of Original Sin to her, of course, the blood of the lamb, all of it, but she remained adamant that she was without sin; that she was sinned against.'
Meredyth took Lucas aside for a moment to confer. 'Should we call in Chang, have the church vestibule and fount cordoned off as a crime scene?'
He shook his head. 'They won't find anything useful, and we'll only disturb the rhythm of this place more than we already have. I say we keep it to ourselves for now. But how is this girl so closely shadowing us that we don't see her?'
'Hell, you're the Indian. You tell me. But I did see a girl. It could've been Lauralie, but it could as well have been Rachel, or one of the others. Actually, at first, I was sure it was Rachel, wanting to add to her testimony, you know, but I was stopped at the sight of the bloody holy water.'
'Another defiled religious holy item,' he muttered. 'A pattern emerges.'
Sister Audrey returned with the yearbook, two pages already marked for their perusal. Lucas and Meredyth studied the two photos of Lauralie Blodgett that had made the yearbook, her head-shot graduation photo and a photo taken with her entire class. She was a striking young woman who appeared far older than eighteen years of age. In the full body shot, it was evident that she had filled out her Catholic school uniform, and she exuded sex appeal even in the frumpy plaid skirt and suspenders over a white blouse.
'No way Father William didn't notice her,' whispered Lucas to Meredyth. 'Given his nervousness when asked about her, I wouldn't put it past him to have put a move on her.'
'Or she on him for favors.'
Lauralie stood almost a head taller than any of her classmates. In both photos, she wore an expressionless face, but her eyes rose up from the flat page and seemed to bum with a strange, penetrating radiance. Dark- skinned, exotic in appearance, she might pass for Mexican or Indian. When Lucas asked about her nationality, William said, 'Mexican… she was Mexican and Caucasian.'
'No, Father Will, she was Irish on her mother's side, Croombs, and a mix of Mexican and Native American on her father's side.'
'Croombs?' asked Meredyth.
'She showed me her father's photo once, and a photo of the woman she had located, Katherine Croombs. Quite the Caucasian, looked like the Irish stereotype.'
Lucas and Meredyth thanked the woman again for her time and hospitality as they prepared to leave. Mother Elizabeth, forgiving them their trespasses against Father William, suddenly insisted that they must remain for the dinner meal, 'To see how well the children prepare the meal, wait the tables, and clean up afterwards.'
Meredyth begged off, saying they hoped to get to the county clerk's office before the Children and Family Services Department shut down for the evening. 'As it is, we may not make it.'
'All the more reason to stay for the meal. Father William always stays for dinner.'
The mother superior had earlier asked Father William to replace the holy water in the fount, and he'd seemed anxious to fulfill her wish and had eagerly gone to the front vestibule for the chore. Lucas went to Father William now and asked, 'You have no idea of Lauralie' s current whereabouts? Where we might find her? We really need to ask her a few routine questions.'
'Sorry…as Mother Elizabeth can tell you, none of us have seen or heard from Lauralie in months.'
'She was a pretty girl, Father.'
'All children are beautiful in the eyes of the Lord, Detective.'
'I'm sure they are.' Lucas put a mental note in the back of his head to talk to Rachel again someday about Father William. Instinct told Lucas that the man was not the saint he purported to be, and that perhaps Rachel and others here were not so demure as they were frightened.
Lucas and Meredyth left, to Mother Elizabeth's and Sister Audrey's smiles and waving of hands as Lucas pulled from the lot, Sister Audrey again electronically opening and closing the gate.
'Place is like a small castle missing a drawbridge and a moat,' said Lucas. 'There must be ways in and out the students alone know about.'
'What're you suggesting? That we have the church staked out?'
'Maybe…'
'Whoever's playing games with us, she knows the lay of the grounds here, the ins and outs, and Rachel mans the kitchen door. Suppose Rachel is still being dominated by Lauralie. Suppose Rachel's suspicion that Mother Orleans's accident was no accident is true. Maybe the fire was no accident either, but a first attempt on the old mother nun's life? Rachel might make an excellent witness for the prosecution if Lauralie is as involved in the abduction and death of Mira Lourdes as she seems to be.'
'Where is Lauralie?'
'I'd like to get Rachel out of that place and into a real interrogation room downtown.'
'Rachel knows a lot, agreed. Like someone who has spent her entire life here should know.'
'And I'm telling you now, Mere, there's something not kosher with that priest. He may deserve a great deal more thrashing than I gave him.'
'He did seem odd, defensive, especially when you were strangling him with his own robes!' She laughed recalling the image.
Both Meredyth and Lucas felt great relief at passing from the church grounds and back into the world of the city of Houston. 'Poor Rachel,' Meredyth said. 'I feel like we ought to've hidden her in the trunk of the car and rescued her from all those characters.'
'I know…me too, but then that'd be agin the law.'
'Mother Elizabeth is a strange mix of strength, intelligence, and naivete, isn't she?'
'I think her heart's in the right place, but no one's playing by her rules, not really.'
'Behind those bars, she's created a fanciful fantasy existence, a place apart for her separate peace, yet she's convinced herself that she's preparing those girls for the real world.'
'Still, I liked her. Heart of gold. I been searching for a heart of gold…and I'm growin' old,' he sang out.
Meredyth insisted they try to make the downtown courthouse before closing time, but Lucas replied, 'In this traffic, no way we can make it before the offices close. We may as well call it a day, Mere.'
