Nun After the Other by Alice Loweecey

Author:Alice Loweecey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal mystery
Publisher: Henery Press
Published: 2018-03-01T19:43:23+00:00

Forty-Three

As soon as Bart and Giulia reached the first floor, Olive said into the phone, “Our representative is the person you want to speak to. One moment, please.” She put her hand over the mouthpiece and whispered, “It’s Eagle Developers. I don’t know what to say to them and Kathryn’s not here yet. Please?”

Giulia took the phone. “Driscoll Investigations speaking.”

A beat. The voice on the other end said, “One moment, please.” A click.

Giulia moved the mouthpiece away from her face and said to Bart, “‘Purple Rain’ as hold music.” Bart made a gagging gesture.

Another click. “Ms. Beech would like to meet with the Sisters’ representative regarding the sale of the house. What time would be convenient?”

If the developers thought this was a curve ball, they needed to up their research game. She checked the clock. Eleven thirty. “I’m available any time after four.”

Without a pause, “Ms. Beech will expect you at four fifteen.”

“Thank you.” Giulia hung up.

If Olive were any closer to Giulia, she’d be breathing down her neck. “What’s happening? What are you going to do? You’ll have to clear it with Kathryn.”

“Who has to check what with me?” Kathryn held the front door open for Diane as she finished locking their beater Subaru station wagon.

Before Giulia could explain, Olive launched into a wildly speculative narration of Giulia’s phone call.

Kathryn held up a hand. “Stop, please. We’ve been fighting lunch traffic to make it here in time. Ms. Driscoll, what’s happening?”

Giulia gathered everyone in the second-floor hall. Sister Agatha was either having a quiet day or napping. Giulia felt guilty for appreciating the silence.

“I’m meeting with the new head of Eagle Developers at quarter after four. I need to go in armed and ready. What options has the Order offered you for new housing?”

All the nuns looked at Kathryn.

“They will accommodate our second-floor residents into the Massachusetts Motherhouse. The rest of us are expected to find reasonably priced apartments on public transportation routes to our places of employment. Dorothy is to find a position at a hospice or as a home aide.”

Silence followed her clipped words.

Giulia broke it. “What about the retired sisters and Bart?”

Kathryn’s furious despair bled into her reply. “The retired Sisters are each expected to share an apartment with one working Sister.”

Eugenie cackled. “Remember when steamy lesbian nun sex, AKA having a ‘Particular Friend’, was the worst sin any of us could commit, including murder? Now all that matters is living on the cheap.”

Olive got in the last word. “Grab your ice skates because Hell has frozen over.”

Kathryn finished, “Sister Bartholomew will also be accommodated at the Motherhouse.”

Bart wailed. “They’ll make me a glorified Novice. I’ll end up with the laundry and the heavy cleaning. Aren’t there about fifteen old nuns up there who still wear the traditional habit? I’ll have to starch all their veils.”

“It’s That bad?” Giulia said.

She paced the hall. “There hasn’t been a new Postulant in three years. They don’t know how to handle nonconformity in that mausoleum.”

Giulia dredged up an underground saying from her own Novice years.

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