‘She will be committed to a mental home? Treated?’
‘Certainly kept in protective custody — for other people’s protection‚’ he said wryly. ‘I don’t have much faith in these clever doctors, you know. Granted she had a rotten start with parents like those two but she’s their flesh and blood, after all.’
‘And evil is a reality that takes no account of chronological age.’ The Prioress nodded gravely.
‘I wondered — for my own satisfaction more than anything what alerted Sister Joan to the identity of the killer.’
‘I really wasn’t sure, Detective Sergeant Mill,’ she said. ‘All the little pieces were floating around and I couldn’t fit them together. But then Sister Hilaria had made a comment when we were on our way to the dentist — we stopped off briefly at the gate of the old Druid place and Samantha came out with the Dutch boy. Sister Hilaria seemed to be looking at him and as we drove off she said she’d been thinking of Lucifer, so for a time I wondered if — but then I realized that Sister Hilaria speaks as her thoughts wander, without any apparently logical pattern. She could have been referring to Samantha.’
‘Isn’t Lucifer supposed to be male?’ He cocked an impudent eyebrow.
‘The angels are androgynous, Sergeant,’ she said primly.
‘How dull for them. Also he was supposed to be beautiful — well, yes, that would fit. Samantha Olive is one of those children who may well grow up to be stunningly lovely. When she smiles — there’s an other-worldly quality there.’
‘Not,’ said the Prioress, ‘a world with which I would care for any of my nuns to be intimately acquainted.’
‘I reckon not. Well, ladies, that’s about it. It’ll be months before the case comes to court. Now I’d better be getting back. I’ve a report to write up.’
‘We haven’t offered you any tea or coffee,’ Mother Dorothy began.
‘Nothing for me, thanks. We’re awash with tea and coffee down at the station. You’ll be at the boy’s funeral tomorrow?’
‘Sister Joan, Sister David and myself. In the afternoon Sister Margaret will be laid to rest in the convent enclosure. Her parents are staying in Bodmin — very nice people and naturally deeply upset.’
‘Well, I’m not a religious man,’ he said, ‘but I’d like to pay my respects in the chapel before I leave if that’s all right with you.’
‘Sister Joan will escort you. Sister, relieve Sister Katherine for the next couple of hours.’
‘Sister Katherine?’ He glanced questioningly at her as they left the parlour.
‘She is our linen mistress,’ Sister Joan reminded him. ‘She does the most exquisite embroidery.’
‘You sounded envious.’
‘Only of her opportunities. I love embroidery myself but the rest of us are more useful doing plain sewing and knitting. Sometimes it is very good for our humility to hold our talents in abeyance for a time.’
‘If you ever say that again,’ he advised as they went into the chapel, ‘try to sound more convincing.’
In the candlelit chapel Sister Katherine rose, gliding out with bowed head as Sister Joan made the gesture of dismissal.
‘She looks very peaceful. The dead usually do,’ he said briefly.
‘That’s only her shell,’ Sister Joan said. ‘Sister Margaret is probably very busy at this moment elsewhere.’
‘I’ve enough problems in this world without worrying about the bare possibility there might be a next one. Too many responsibilities, too few pounds in my pay packet at the end of the month, a hefty mortgage, two boys to educate. I don’t get on with my wife, Sister. Nothing tangible. Just mutual boredom and incompatibility.’
‘I am very sorry, Detective Sergeant Mill. How good of you both to stay together, for the children.’
‘We stay out of habit,’ he said briefly. ‘They’re nice boys though. Mischievous.’
‘Shall we say a prayer?’ she suggested.
‘Say one for me, Sister. I was never very good at getting on my knees. She was a good woman was Sister Margaret — a good woman. And what about you now?’
‘Me?’ She was startled into a question.
‘I hope you didn’t get into any trouble as a result of helping out. You’re a very good woman yourself.’
‘Oh, I’m not good at all,’ she assured him hastily. ‘Believe me, but I’m full of faults. I’ll have to work pretty hard to eradicate them.’
‘Here in the convent?’
‘Wherever I am sent. In the summer I shall go into retreat in our Scottish house — I shall have a whole month completely alone to refresh my spirit.’
‘On bread and water, I suppose? Medievalism.’
‘Well, it won’t be caviar,’ she said impishly. ‘But it will be a marvellous month. So peaceful and quiet with nothing to disturb the tranquillity.’
‘I wouldn’t care to make a bet on that, Sister.’ He sounded amused. ‘You and tranquillity don’t mix very easily. Thank you for your help anyway. Say a prayer for me.’
Bending
