A VOW OF PENANCE an utterly gripping crime mystery (Sister Joan Murder Mystery Book 5) by VERONICA BLACK

Author:VERONICA BLACK [BLACK, VERONICA]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller, mystery and suspense
Published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Nine

What she needed to do was to find somewhere quiet where she could sit down and sort out the information she had into some kind of coherent order. For the moment however that was a luxury she couldn’t afford. She said reassuringly if inaccurately to Sister Teresa, ‘There, you see! Poor Sister Jerome suffers from insomnia. That’s probably why she was prescribed Valium in the first place. There’s nothing to worry your head about.’

She went out into the passage briskly, wondering if that particular drug was ever prescribed for insomnia. Her own experience of medication was limited to an occasional aspirin and Sister Perpetua’s cough mixture. She had, however, set Sister Teresa’s mind at rest for the moment.

‘Are you going back now, Sister?’ Sister Mary Concepta’s voice drifted plaintively out of the infirmary.

‘Very soon, Sister, but I have a few minutes.’ Sister Joan went into the warm, pleasant room where the two old ladies were living the long twilight of their old age, spending much of their time in the two basket chairs by the winter fire but still managing to get to most of the devotions and even, on occasion, to get up the stairs to eat and join in the recreation.

‘Don’t do us any favours, girl.’ Sister Gabrielle spoke crustily, her eyes holding a decided twinkle. ‘You’re probably longing to get back to the fleshpots of the outside world.’

‘Take no notice of her, Sister. She’s only teasing you,’ Sister Mary Concepta said.

‘Good heavens, Mary Concepta, the child knows that!’ Sister Gabrielle said.

‘And there aren’t many fleshpots around the presbytery,’ Sister Joan added.

‘Not with that new priest there,’ Sister Gabrielle said, her grin stretching into a grimace. ‘I never saw such a joyless creature in my life. All starch and no smile.’

‘Sister, he is a priest,’ Sister Mary Concepta gently reproached.

‘I wasn’t under the impression he was a rabbi,’ Sister Gabrielle said, looking pleased with her own wit. ‘I’ve known priests of all shapes and conditions in my life and this one doesn’t please me at all. He trotted in here after Mass this morning and told us that it wouldn’t be very long before we were released from our earthly exile.’

‘Well, I suppose that it’s true,’ Sister Mary Concepta said.

‘Of course it’s true,’ Sister Gabrielle said impatiently, ‘but I don’t need to be reminded of it. Sister Joan, hand me my stick and I’ll walk out with you to the car.’

Sister Joan did as she was bade wondering if the old lady were merely indulging a whim or if she had something private to say. It was evidently the latter since, the moment the back door had closed, the other said, ‘Suicide, accident or have you hit upon a murder?’

‘There has been a murder,’ Sister Joan said. ‘A body was found on the railway track, unidentified; a man apparently who’d been stripped naked and was very badly mutilated.’

‘What has that to do with the housekeeper?’

‘Her niece, a Miss Potter, was expected today. Father Timothy waited for hours at the station but she never turned up.

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