Capital Crimes: A Sister Agnes Omnibus by Joseph Alison

Author:Joseph, Alison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Published: 2018-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The directions were precise. Langley House was a handsome, red-brick building. Agnes crossed the clipped lawn and approached the shiny gloss-painted front door. The doorbell chimed and she waited.

There was no answer.

From the drive she could see the white house belonging to the Bewleys. It would be so easy, she thought, to ask for the keys, let herself in, begin to search the house.

For what? she wondered. What did I hope to find?

There was the sound of footsteps within, and then the door opened a crack. A woman stood there. She wore a long skirt, and had dreadlocked hair wrapped up into a turban.

‘What?’ she said.

Agnes cleared her throat. ‘I was looking for Helena,’ she said. ‘Helena Padgett. I believe this is her parents’ house.’

The woman hesitated, then said, ‘She’s not here. I haven’t seen her.’

‘And little Leila,’ Agnes added.

The door opened slightly wider. Inside Agnes glimpsed an untidy hallway, coats hanging on a set of hooks. One coat was small and covered in pink flowers.

‘I don’t know who you mean,’ the woman said.

‘And you are—’ Agnes tried.

‘None of your business.’ She went to close the door, but something was blocking it. She kicked it out of the way with her foot. It was a red plastic beaker, a child’s drinking mug.

‘They left in a hurry, then?’ Agnes said, but the door had slammed shut.

Agnes stood on the driveway. She wondered what to do now. In the distance, a church bell chimed three.

Agnes got back into her car and set off, slowly, idling through the village, past a pub, a run-down shop, another pub, and then out onto the main road. A sign said Thornby, then Naseby, and then Agnes found she’d turned across towards the battle site itself.

She stopped the car and got out. A breeze rippled the long grass, tickled the branches of the trees. She left the car and began to walk across the field, aimlessly, wondering whether it belonged to anyone, wondering whether she was at risk of attack by farmers armed with shotguns, as she would have been in France.

Soft sunlight drenched the landscape. She listened to the birdsong and thought about the battlefield beneath her feet; how the earth had long since closed over the fallen; how the blood-soaked scars had healed.

Perhaps I’m wrong to chase the past, she thought. Perhaps, with the passage of time, events lose their power, and after centuries, their meaning, until in the end there’s just this pretty green hill with the birds singing in the trees.

She set off again, her hands in her pockets. Perhaps I should look forward, rather than back, she thought. Whatever happened to Alice Hawker happened long ago, and it’s only my urge to run away that makes me—

Her fingers in her pocket closed over Alice’s rosary. She pulled it out and looked at it.

The beads swung there, glinting in the sunlight. When Alice held this in her hand, Agnes thought, there were the bodies of men in shallow graves, still keenly mourned, on this field where I’m standing now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.