Sign of the Cross by Anne Emery

Author:Anne Emery [Emery, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Mystery, FIC022000
ISBN: 9781550227185
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2006-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison.

(Lord have merey, Christ have merey, Lord have merey.)

— The Mass

I

Father Burke was still under oath and I could not speak with him. He was escorted from the courtroom. Susan Drummond and I bolted for our conference room. I was about to shut the door behind us when I saw my wife coming towards me. “May I?” she asked, obviously in deference to Susan; otherwise, Maura would have made herself at home with nary an if you please. The two women knew each other and said their hellos.

“Let’s start at the end,” I said. “What was the reaction?”

Susan had been on the ball, I was relieved to learn. “The jurors were stupefied. We can’t assume they’re all believers and mystics. We know from jury selection that some of them are far from it. But every last one of them gaped at what Burke said. I can’t believe Schenk left it like that. It’s not often you see Schenk flummoxed.”

“True enough,” put in Maura. “And it wasn’t just the jurors who looked poleaxed. The woman sitting beside me had just squeezed in a few minutes before. When she heard Burke say he wasn’t wearing a crucifix, she looked as if someone had entered her from the rear!”

“Who was the woman?” I said.

“Don’t know. She had short, straight dun-coloured hair, and she was kind of chunky. About thirty-five. She looked as if she was seeing God Almighty Himself. Her hands flew up to her face, which was the colour of oatmeal, and she didn’t quite manage to stifle a little cry. She’ll be saying her prayers with fervour tonight, whoever she is.”

“That must have been Eileen,” I answered. She had sat in occasionally during the trial. “Eileen Darragh. Assistant at the youth centre. She’s always thought Burke was God. Now she knows for sure.

“What’s the jury’s attitude to our guy, do you think? I don’t mean the mystical stuff. What about the sniping between him and Schenk? The woman in Brazil. Breaking the vows. That was only four years ago.” Anger made its way into my delivery. “I asked him straight out. Who could have seen that scar? Had he slept with anyone? He said no. Lying to the lawyer. De rigueur for any client. I guess they like to keep us in suspense —”

“Lighten up, Monty,” Susan said. “This is all the Crown can find on him in terms of character. Promises of chastity and obedience, he said. He didn’t use the word ‘vows.’ They’re not going to get a bishop to testify that he’s disobedient. The poverty angle is too nebulous, and we can be sure they’ve looked into his assets. So all they have is celibacy, and his evasiveness and dissembling about it. And —” Sue mouthed the words “— Mount A.”

Maura caught my warning look. I had not told her about the young woman at Mount Allison.

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