Read Online Bad Catholics by James Green - Free Book Online

stabbed?’
    â€˜When I went out the second time, I could see blood just under the edge of her coat.’
    â€˜Anything else?’
    â€˜Her car keys were on the pavement.’
    The inspector took over again. ‘Close by her?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Anything else? A handbag?’
    â€˜Not that I can remember.’
    â€˜Your memory again.’
    Jimmy went back to studying his thumbs. He gave the very strong impression that there was nothing more he had to say and now, please, he really did want to get on with the study of his thumbs.
    Inspector Deal stood up.
    â€˜We may want to speak to you again, Mr Costello. Please don’t leave the area, and inform your local police station if you change your address. All right, Sergeant.’
    The sergeant put away his notebook and pen and stood up. At the dining room door the inspector turned.
    â€˜Let the nun know we’ve finished, for the time being.’
    Jimmy nodded but didn’t look at them. He was still busy with his thumbs. Philomena came in a few minutes later.
    â€˜I heard the front door. Have they gone?’
    â€˜They’re gone.’
    â€˜What did you think of them?’
    â€˜They’ll do whatever has to be done.’
    â€˜What about the inspector? What did you think of him?’
    â€˜Nothing in particular.’
    â€˜I think he was not a nice man, Jimmy.’
    â€˜So long as he does his job, does he have to be nice?’
    â€˜I suppose not. Will they find out who did it, do you think? There’s police in the alley looking round but there doesn’t seem much to go on.’
    â€˜They might get someone. Mrs Amhurst wasn’t like our clients, she wasn’t a nobody and her husband’s very well-off, isn’t he? He’ll want a result, so they might get someone.’
    â€˜But will they get the right one?’
    â€˜It’ll be close enough to suit most people.’
    â€˜You sound a dreadful cynic.’
    â€˜I just know how these things work. I’ll go upstairs and lie down for a bit, Sister, if that’s OK.’
    â€˜Go on, then. Janine needs to keep busy, so she and I can use today to catch up on cleaning and the like. God knows there’s plenty of it to catch up on. When will they let us re-open do you think?’
    â€˜Couple of days maybe. When there’s nothing more to be got from the scene of crime.’
    Jimmy went up to his room and sat on his bed and thought about the inspector for a moment, then the sergeant. The sergeant hadn’t told the inspector that he knew him. Now why was that, he wondered. He kicked off his shoes and lay on the bed. Did it matter one way or another, he asked himself, and fell asleep thinking about it.
    Philomena sat alone in the dining room. There would be trouble, maybe a lot of trouble, she knew it for certain, but she couldn’t tell how she knew. It was like the rains coming in the African bush, the signs were all there long before the clouds could be seen.
    All you had to do was look for the signs.
    Soroti Diocese, Northern Uganda, 1974
    Soroti diocese was remote from Kampala, situated in the north-east of Uganda. But its remoteness had not saved it from the terror of President Idi Amin’s regime. People in many parts of the diocese had suffered, but the small convent school of Our Lady of Pity, had so far been spared any violence. The school served a large and sparsely populated area and the hundred or so girls it educated were all boarders. There was a staff of four teaching Sisters, two Irish, one Belgian and one, the youngest, a Ugandan.
    It was just after dawn. Sister Philomena, the headmistress, was already up and about, directing the few lay workers who cleaned and cooked, when the Land Rovers arrived. She went out to meet the visitors, whoever they might be, as soon as she heard engines. Visitors were rare and anyone who passed the school always stopped. Places to rest and refresh yourself were few