CHAPTER ELEVEN #2
It didn’t help to know Liam was watching her, judging her. She didn’t want to care, but she did. For all she thought of herself as cold and heartless, apparently she was wrong. After all this time, did she even know herself at all?
Who really knows themselves?
Her gaze drifted to her partner. He sat trim and neat on the edge of his hard chair, taking prodigious notes with a fountain pen, brow scrunched as the pen flowed across the sheets of yellow paper.
Well, maybe Keen does. The simple ones always do.
The first staff member from Clementine was the school nurse, a Mrs Abigail Hollander, red-eyed and weepy like all the others, though maybe a tad more attractive than the average woman.
Hero was a terrible judge of looks, but there was a certain appeal to her sleek black hair, held back by velvet ribbons, and the porcelain paleness of her skin which evoked fragility.
Hero waited for Keen to begin the questioning.
He put their witnesses at ease, leaving it to her to knock them off balance.
“Mrs Hollander,” Keen said, rising when she entered and even going so far as to pull out her seat.
Hero lifted an eyebrow. He hadn’t done that for a single nun, no matter how pretty, and as he returned to his seat she noted a bit more color in his face and a sudden nervousness in his manner. Interesting.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked the witness. “Would you like some hot tea? I apologize for the temperature in here.”
“I’m fine,” she said with a hint of a smile. “I am here to help in any way I can. Catarine and I–” She seemed to choke for a moment. “We were very close.”
“Of course. I understand this is difficult–”
“Everyone says you were best friends,” Hero interjected. Now that she was focused again, she recalled a few mentions of this woman from the other witnesses. “The very best of friends, in fact. You must be quite devastated.”
Mrs Hollander lifted a lace-edged handkerchief to her reddened nose, nodding. Too distraught to speak, apparently. Keen cast Hero a dark look. She ignored him, keeping her attention on the witness.
“Did you know anyone who might have wished to harm Sister Catarine?” Keen asked gently, starting with the obvious. “Perhaps she’d confided something to you that she wouldn’t say to anyone else?”
She shook her head adamantly. “Everyone adored Cat. She was very popular.”
“Even when she brought up the unfair discrimination against those with demon heritage?” Hero asked.
Between interviews, during her so-called “breaks,” she’d had a chance to skim through the letters she’d found in Catarine’s apartment, missives from religious authorities concerning the treatment of certain individuals “cursed” with demon blood.
Apparently, she’d been petitioning the Church to reconsider its stance on children of demonic heritage, to allow them some grace.
Admirable. Hero would have appreciated such advocacy on her behalf all those years ago.
The pale woman blinked, barely glancing Hero’s way.
“Caring about the fate of the unfortunate is hardly a reason to dislike a person. It just proves Cat had a soft heart.” She shrugged.
“Some might have found it offensive, but they wouldn’t have dared speak out against Sister Catarine. Like I said, she was very popular.”
“Wouldn’t have dared?” Hero echoed. “Sounds ominous.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Her gaze remained on Keen, limpid and soft. “You know how schools can be – so many cliques. Even the teachers aren’t immune to sorting themselves into groups. I merely meant Catarine’s eccentricities were well known and accepted.”
Keen’s jaw had hardened at her words. “Still,” he said, catching on to Hero’s line of questioning. “It’s a very controversial stance. Many believe all those cursed with demon blood should be culled.”
He said it matter-of-factly. Coldly. Hero tried not to take it personally; she’d started them down this road.
“And many people don’t think that way,” Mrs Hollander countered, a bit sharply. “Catarine was one of them, that’s all. Do you really think this has anything to do with her death?”
Hero pulled the stack of letters from the satchel sitting at her feet. She tossed them onto the table. “She went to great lengths to conceal these,” she said. “It certainly leads one to believe she did it out of fear. Are you certain she never mentioned any concerns for her own safety?”
“Think carefully, Abigail,” Keen urged. “She might have hinted at it, not said it outright. Or maybe she began behaving in a strange manner. Had she become withdrawn? Secretive?”
This gave Hollander pause. Her delicate brow grew pinched, and she sniffed a few times.
“Maybe. She was very distant the last few days before… before she went missing. Distant and a little angry, almost.” A look of pain creased her face.
“I told her to stop acting so self-righteous. There must have been something very wrong. I wish I had paid better attention! Goddess save me, she needed me and I failed her.”
The woman dissolved into tears. Keen jumped up to attend to her like a proper gentleman, throwing Hero a look of castigation as if she were responsible for the woman’s hysterics. “Perhaps we should give Abby a moment, Inspector? This must be very upsetting for her.”
So, it’s Abby, is it? Hero adjusted her glasses, watching the woman to gauge the validity of her tears. They seemed genuine.
“No, no,” Abby protested, giving Keen’s hand on her shoulder a gentle pat.
“I want to help. Please. Though I don’t know if I have anything more to tell.
Those last few days, Cat kept to herself, like I said.
” She sniffled, dabbing at her eyes with her kerchief.
Keen lingered at her side, hovering. Her eyes grew wide all of a sudden and she met Hero’s gaze, unflinching, evidently refusing to be put off by her swirling eyes.
“You need to talk with Father Kellan. He spent more time with Cat than anyone, even me.”
“Yes,” Hero drawled. “We’ve spoken with Kellan. Did you know about the two of them? Their relationship?”
A deep blush infused her cheeks. “I did,” she said faintly. “I warned Cat not to let herself be led astray, but she was a stubborn soul, and free-spirited.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “They were planning to leave the order. Together. ”
Keen exchanged a look of surprise with Hero. They’d been unable to drag that fact from either Kellan or Catarine’s roommate.
Hero felt a swelling of satisfaction. “Thank you for being so forthcoming, Mrs Hollander. DH Keen will see you out. Have a good day.”