The Mathematical Bridge by Jim Kelly

Author:Jim Kelly [Jim Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749022624
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2019-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

An inscription had been added in a confident hand:

Colm – God will remember your good deeds

It was signed by the priest.

Ward had to retrieve reading glasses from the office to study the inscription.

‘Good heavens,’ he said. ‘It’s Colm, Colm Hendrie. This terrible man O’Leary was really gentle Colm?’ He looked around the church, saw Aitken and beckoned her over. ‘Marie. Look at this.’

Again, shoulder to shoulder, they studied the words and letters as if memorising the Rosetta Stone.

‘I can’t believe it, Father. The man was a saint, and so meek. Hardly a word, unless you spoke to him.’

Between them they composed a succinct biography. Hendrie had been a parishioner for a year, had attended the eleven o’clock Mass each Sunday and special feast days. His obvious strength and practical skills had been utilised during the several months when there had been no caretaker, until the arrival of young Joe Smith. He’d fixed the boiler, rewired the school office and fixed leaking drainpipes.

Ward held the picture of the youngster in boxing gloves: ‘You can see the likeness now, of course. But this must have been taken forty years ago.’

‘The children loved him,’ said Aitken. ‘He painted the hopscotch out for them and put up the netball post.’

‘Family?’ asked Brooke.

‘I think he said he was a widower, but he sent money home, I know, for his children.’

Ward seemed close to tears. ‘Colm – a wonderful name. I asked him what it meant. It’s for the dove. A sign of peace. And now look at his sins.’ He shook his head. ‘Where will it end?’

Brooke was holding the missal when the photograph fell out.

A passport-sized shot of a woman: faded, foxed, with an odd rosy tint added to the cheeks. She’d been set on a high-backed wooden chair against a Gothic background of a ruined abbey. Brooke held the picture out to the priest and the housekeeper, but they shook their heads. Brooke was not surprised, because he knew who she was, and he doubted she’d ever been as far as Cambridge. On Saturday that would be rectified, for it was Mary Flynn, the mother of the murdered child.

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.