Chapter 6 #2
“Then she looked back up at me and her expression was wary, but I knew she knew, and I wasn’t up to lying to her. She can unnerve a man, that Madeline Grace.”
“Yes. There’s a lot of that going around.” Dane thought of Shana and wondered how she was doing with her unnerving of Sister Anne.
“What did you tell Mrs. Governor?”
“I told her I found the baby abandoned in the front pew of the church.
She asked what I was going to do. I decided that was a good sign.
A sign of a tolerant soul. So I told her I realized that normally one would call social services in these circumstances, but I would like to find the mother.
I wanted very much to have some time to do that.
“She called her husband then. Took out her phone and dialed without another word and asked him. He asked to speak to me and we struck a deal.”
“Did you tell the governor you wanted to find the mother because you were concerned about who the baby might be and that you didn’t want her in the system?”
“Not exactly. I told him I didn’t want her in the system, yes, and that I wanted to find the parents.”
“And for some reason the governor thought you might be able to find her parents because…?”
“I told him I had some ideas of who they might be and that it would be best for the parents if we could handle it outside the system.”
“So you asked for a week and the governor gave it to you.”
“Yes. Now I have five days left.” The priest gave him a hard stare like maybe he was wasting his time and his money, but Dane didn’t care. This was about Paulette.
“Who’s the blackmailer?”
Father Donahue sat back at the abruptness of the question, but answered quickly enough.
“That’s the million-dollar question. I don’t know.” He looked pained and frustrated now.
“Not the baby’s mother?”
“I thought that at first. But now I don’t think so. Why would she leave Paulette with me if she was the blackmailer?”
“What’s behind this charity project for down-and-out single mothers? Is it a thinly disguised way to help Paulette and her mother on the QT?”
“No. Well, yes it could help. But I believe in the cause—”
“Don’t bullshit me.”
He slumped forward and bent his head forward, resting it in his hands.
“It was Sister Anne’s idea.”
Dane had not seen that one coming. He automatically looked toward the anteroom door where Shana and Sister Anne had disappeared.
*****
“Would you like something cold to drink?” Sister Anne said as she walked to the sideboard in the cozy little den attached to Father Donahue’s office.
It was a comfortable, masculine space with all the creature comforts of a man cave—except it was clearly built for a party of one.
There was one good, large, worn armchair with an ottoman next to the hearth and positioned in front of a fairly new, fairly large television.
The only other chairs were a pair of less substantial side chairs.
Shana took a seat in one of them and said she’d love some ice water.
In truth she’d love something stronger, but that was the breaks with a church case.
Sister Anne brought her ice water and took the other side chair.
Shana took a sip and set the heavy crystal glass on the small table between them.
The church’s decorator could have been a time traveler from the middle ages.
The colors were all dark and the style of the hard furnishings like the sideboard was ornate. She focused on Sister Anne.
“How long have you known?” Shana asked.
Sister Anne looked down and took a deep breath and gulped again. Shana felt like giving her the glass of water, but she knew better than to show mercy at this stage of the investigation. Dane would be proud. She felt like a heel.
“I don’t know. A while.”
“Tell me about it.” She didn’t say because it’ll make you feel better but those were the implied next words.
“I’ve been working at the rectory for about a year and a half now.
And I don’t know how long ago it was that I noticed, but at some point I did.
I noticed he—Father Donahue going out at night.
He’d leave late—I’d be in my room reading and the place would be quiet—shut down for the night—by maybe about nine o’clock or so.
He must have thought I was asleep or too busy to notice.
At first I didn’t think too much about it and figured he had business and it was none of my business.
But after a couple of weeks of pretty regular nighttime absences, he never said anything about it.
I waited for him to mention it—for someone to mention it or say something about where he might be going—like to an event or a late-night basketball league or something.
Other nights he’d be out—it was earlier and he’d get home by ten or so.
But these nights when he went out late, well, I had no idea what time he came in at first. And then one night I decided to find out.
After I got curious and could no longer invent excuses for him. I waited up.”
“Did you confront him when he came in?”
“Yes. I waited up in the kitchen and he came in that way, through the backdoor. He stopped short and looked guilty as sin the second he saw me. I didn’t even say a thing. He didn’t say a thing. Not that night.”
“Nothing?”
“Not a word. He rushed past me and went up the back stairs and left me in the drafty kitchen with the door wide open behind him. Maybe he thought I was going to chase him down and demand an explanation or something. He was in a hurry to get away.”
She sighed and looked pensive for a beat and Shana let the nun gather herself. She had a feeling Sister Anne was glad to be getting this off her chest and Shana didn’t mind playing therapist for a few more minutes.
“He never gave any explanation, but it was this unacknowledged thing between us. It was strange. After that he treated me with greater deference and respect than ever—I didn’t mind keeping his secret—until now.
Because the first time I laid eyes on the baby I saw the resemblance.
Father D brought the baby straight to me after Ms. Grace left. ”
“Tell me about that—what did Ms. Grace say? What was Father D’s explanation to her?”
“Father D tried to tell Ms. Grace that this kind of thing was why he wanted to start the house, but she gave him one of those looks and stood without saying anything—almost accusing him just with her eyes. She would have made a great nun schoolteacher.”
“Did Father D give her any explanation?”
“He begged her for time to find the mother, who must surely be desperate. He must have stashed away the note from the mother before he saw Ms. Grace. I never saw it. I’ve still never seen it.”
Shana nodded. She knew why Father D was holding that note close. She hoped dearly that Dane got it from him before he destroyed it—if he hadn’t already.
Sister Anne continued. “He was in a hurry to get Paulette hidden away, right away.”
“Where were you when all this happened?”
“I was in the anteroom. They had walked inside to the front parlor—where he usually took guests. He sounded nervous.”
“I bet. So you have anterooms off of every room in this place?” Shana shouldn’t have said that out loud, but Sister Anne laughed.
Shana liked the nun. Sister Anne was no more than a few years older than her and probably considerably less experienced in worldly matters, but she managed to take things in stride.
“I don’t know how he managed it, but Madeline Grace left without holding or really getting a good look at the baby. Father D convinced Ms. Grace to give the baby a chance before putting her into the system, so she called her husband. I heard them arrange for a week’s forbearance.”
“So Madeline—Ms. Grace left and that’s when you came in?”
“Yes.” Sister Anne stopped talking but Shana could see volumes in her face, as she was probably thinking about the baby—tenderness, concern and regret, if she wasn’t mistaken.
“Tell me about the break-in. Every detail. Every minute detail from the first second—from before the first second, leaving nothing out.”
“It was early—about ten past five—but I was up feeding Paulette. She was so good and I sat in my chair wishing it was a rocker, and holding her and feeding her and falling in love with her, to be perfectly honest.” She paused a beat and sighed.
Shana knew exactly what she meant. She stifled her own sigh and almost frowned to prevent the longing from taking hold.
What the heck was wrong with her anyway?
Maybe this was the reason Dane didn’t like baby cases—because he didn’t want to be reminded of the kind of life he’d given up.
Sister Anne continued, thank God, saving her from going down that ditch of thought.
“I heard someone in the hall. My door was slightly ajar and I had a soft light on but the rest of the place was dark—not nighttime dark but that dim light of dawn. This is a dark house with lots of big windows covered in heavy draperies and tall buildings all around blocking the sun.
“Anyway, I wasn’t concerned that I heard someone in the hallway. I didn’t think it would be Father D up so early, but others sometimes rise at dawn for prayer.”
“How many of you live here?”
“Me, Father D, Father John and Father Carl and Marian, Father D’s personal assistant or girl Friday or whatever you want to call her. She runs the parish administration pretty much. This is her third pastor.”
“And she lives here?”
“Long ago the tradition of offering room and board as part of the deal, to compensate the parish mother, was established. It used to be a nun I’m told, but there are few nuns who wanted that post and once they hired Marian they’d discovered gold.
She was—is a widow with no children and not much family so it suited her well to live here. ”
“Okay—so you figured someone else was up and in the kitchen.”
“Yes, it would not be unusual for Marian to get coffee started although it’s supposed to be my job.”
“Did she know about the baby?”