Darlinghurst Road by T.C. Doust

Author:T.C. Doust
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: crime, addiction, prostitution, australia, sydney, organized crime, kings cross
Publisher: T.C. Doust

Katie

Like the woman herself, her dress was always casual, feminine but modest and with the exception of a small gold cross, there was nothing to indicate that she was in any way religious. The only habit that I could see was the way that she played with her right earring when she was distracted or lost in thought but there was no doubt about it: Katie was a nun, the real McCoy.

Sister Mary Kathleen had never known privilege but she had certainly known hardship. Katie's mother was a prostitute who worked the streets of St. Kilda in Melbourne, her father was presumably a client; name and details, unknown. At the age of fourteen, her mother sent her out on the street to follow in her footsteps and for a year, Katie's body bought the drugs that her mother so desperately craved.

She calls it her miracle and perhaps it was, a man walked towards her, she made her approach and he picked her up. Instead of taking her to his bed like she expected, he took her to his church; his name was Father John and he was a Catholic Priest.

Something clicked, they sat and talked for hours until Katie found the courage to examine her life and see it from her own perspective instead of her mothers. Father John arranged for her to stay with an elderly parishioner and between them, they gently weaned Katie away from the life. The years that followed bought peace and belonging to a life that had never known it.

It was a decision made deep within her, a calling so strongly felt that she found it impossible to ignore. Katie applied to a religious order, holding nothing back about her past and submitting herself to the rigorous process of assessment that preceded her acceptance. When she took her final vows, Katie described a peace, a sense of purpose; Katie knew what she needed to do and where her God wanted her to be.

Katie worked out of a small house in a side street of Surry Hills that I believe belonged to the church and served as some sort of halfway house for prostitutes that had been released from prison. I'm not sure what the organization was or what she actually did there but I do know that Katie was probably not the most orthodox Nun in the world. The first time that I met her, she walked into the Pleasure Palace and without any introductions started to describe a woman in her twenties.

“Have you seen her?”

“Doesn't ring any bells, why do you want to know?”

“Do you care?”

“I like to know who I'm talking to.”

“It doesn't matter, either you've seen her or you haven't, this job's just a pay check isn't it?” She added with a taunt.

“Okay, we're done here, time to go.”

“Suits me, why talk to someone who doesn't care.” She said with a shrug.

“Care about what?”

She said in a softer tone, “Another human being, the girl I'm asking you about is another human being. Her name is Vicky and I'm trying to find her before the police do.

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