The Religious Body

a certain way you could catch sight of your own reflection. Sister Gertrude paused, squinted up at herself and pulled her coif quite straight. Very wrong of her, of course. She would try not to do it again. But it was a temptation.

She joined the Mother Superior and went into the Parlour.

“So it was Mr. Ranby all the time,” said the Mother Superior directly.

“Yes, marm,” said Sloan. “He swallowed the bait— Sergeant Perkins—hook, line and sinker. If I may say so, Father MacAuley has a real talent for dissembling. Ranby never guessed the idea of the night watch was all a put- up job.”

“Inspector, there is no doubt is there?”

“No, marm, we’ve found out other things too. He shaved twice that day and so on.”

“Poor soul,” she said compassionately, “to be so concerned with the passing things of this world.”

“Yes, marm.” He coughed. “Miss Faine… how…”

“Father MacAuley went to see her this morning after Mass. We must pray for her.”

Sloan shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Of course.”

“The two boys from the Institute?” she enquired.

Sloan brightened. “They’re taking it very well. It’s quite taken their minds off Tewn.”

“Inspector, when did you first suspect… ?”

“Sister Lucy was white and shaking when I got here yesterday after you’d found Tewn’s body. It wasn’t that that had upset her because she hadn’t seen it. What she had seen, of course, was Ranby. And Ranby had seen her and realised he’d killed the wrong Sister.”

“He must have been a desperate man by last night.”

“He was, marm. He tried to kill Sergeant Perkins. There was no doubt about that.”

The Mother Superior inclined her head. “Sergeant Perkins is a courageous woman.”

“In the course of duty, marm,” he said hastily. It was a different discipline, a different dedication from that of the Sisters, but for all that it was still an equally dedicated way. “About Hobbett…”

“In future,” she said dryly, “he can ring for Sister Polycarp.”

A bell suddenly echoed through the Convent. Both nuns rose, Sister Gertrude with a perceptible start. She had been wondering who it would be among the Community who would be bidden to move into the cell that had been Sister Anne’s, the cell next to Sister St. Hilda the snorer. Was it wrong to pray God it wouldn’t be her?

Sister Polycarp stumped to the door with the two policemen. “Good day, gentlemen…”

Was it Sloan’s imagination or did she slam the grille behind them?

Crosby looked back at the Convent. “You wouldn’t have thought, sir, would you, that after all that, it would turn out to be a crime passionnel?” He pronounced it “cream.” “Not here.”

“No,” said Sloan shortly, “you wouldn’t.”

“That motto on the door, Inspector…”

“Well?”

“Do we really know what it means?”

Sloan turned on his heel and stared at the writing. “Pax Intrantibus, Salus Exeuntibus. Didn’t you look it up, Crosby? You should have done. Very enlightening.”

“Please sir…”

“Peace to those who enter,” translated Sloan. “Salvation to those who leave.”

—«»—«»—«»—

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Aird had never tried her hand at writing suspense stories before publishing The Religious Body— a novel which immediately established her as one of the genre’s most talented writers. A Late Phoenix, The Stately Home Murder, His Burial Too, Some Die Eloquent, Henrietta Who? and A Most Contagious Game have subsequently enhanced her reputation. Her ancestry is Scottish, but she now lives in a village in East Kent, near Canterbury, where she serves as an aid to her father, a doctor, and takes an interest in local affairs.

—«»—«»—«»—