The Abomination by Jonathan Holt

Author:Jonathan Holt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781443420761
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-18T06:49:08+00:00

Thirty-three

KAT DROVE OUT to the Institute of Christina Mirabilis, where Father Uriel had grudgingly agreed she could speak to one of the older nuns about Poveglia. But her mind wasn’t on the forthcoming interview so much as her conversation with Daniele Barbo.

She tried not to make snap judgements about people. Detective work had taught her that the smiling father who proudly showed you pictures of his children might turn out to be abusing them. The likeable old rogue who spent most of his time tending his vegetable patch might turn out to be a killer for the Mafia. Young professionals, to all intents and purposes no different from her, might be slaves to their cocaine habits, or beat up their partners.

But she’d formed a strong opinion about Daniele, which was that he could be useful to this investigation. She wouldn’t go so far as to say that she trusted him – but whatever her feelings about his website, his stand on not allowing the government access to it at least pointed to someone who could be principled when he chose to be.

Piola, she knew, would say the decision wasn’t theirs to make. When police officers started making their own rules, they became part of the problem. And the logic she was employing – that Daniele was trustworthy precisely because he had refused to cooperate with a lawful request by the government – was hardly one she would be able to defend in court.

She was no nearer resolving her dilemma by the time she was shown into Father Uriel’s office. Sitting in a leather armchair, and almost dwarfed by it, was a woman so tiny she looked barely more substantial than a child, although a slight stoop to her neck betrayed her real age. She was wearing the grey habit and white wimple of a nun.

Father Uriel obviously intended to stay and listen to their conversation; Kat was equally adamant that he wouldn’t. Once she’d persuaded him to leave, she asked a few introductory questions to put the nun at her ease. She quickly realised it was hardly necessary: Sister Anna was only too keen to talk.

She was, she said at once, one of the longest-serving nurses in the hospital. “That’s the advantage of being a nun,” she exclaimed. “There’s no one making you retire.”

“So you worked in the hospital on Poveglia before this?”

“I did. And a horrible place it was too. Oh, not the hospital, that was fine enough. But the island had a bad feel to it.” The nun lowered her voice. “They did say it was haunted. And although I’m not saying I ever saw anything myself, it definitely had an atmosphere. Those poor plague victims, you know. None of us would eat the fish.” She nodded significantly, as if to say that not eating the fish was all the proof that could be required.

“What sort of people were the patients?”

“Oh, it wasn’t like now,” Sister Anna assured her. “Most of the Reverend Fathers we treat here . .

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