Queens Noir by Robert Knightly Read Free Book Online

of any such mon strous thing happening and she had woken up fully clothed.
She was not beaten or bruised. She had no memory of seeing
any puppies. She called Sheridan, but he didn't return her
calls. She had no proof that she had ever been with him, in his
car, his house, or on his boat. Never mind his bed.

    Afraid she would be punished, or asked to leave the Novitiate, she kept her dark fears of having been raped to herself.
She did not go to a hospital or to the police right away. Instead,
she prayed. She did a Novena and the Stations of the Cross.
She lit votive candles. She worked with orphan children who
had more problems that she could ever know. She went to
confession in Manhattan where no one would recognize her.
She kept a diary for her and God's eyes only.
    The diaries revealed that after the night on Sheridan's
boat, Eileen missed a menstrual cycle. Then a second. After
three and a half months without a period, she confided in
her Mother Superior that she feared she was pregnant. That
she'd been raped. The stern, skeptical, no-nonsense head sister who'd seen many a young novice surrender over the years
to the weakness of the flesh before taking final vows asked
why Eileen hadn't told anyone till then. Eileen said she'd been
afraid.
    "You were afraid of going to hell," Mother Superior said.
    "I wasn't sure I was raped. Or even pregnant. Until now."
    "The alternative being that you are the second coming of
the Blessed Virgin?"
    "I was afraid! Afraid of you. Afraid of the shame to my
parents. Afraid of God."
    "And so now, three months later, you blame a young man,
a good Catholic boy from St. John's studying to be a veterinarian? You aren't even sure he ever laid a hand on you. You have
no memory of any such thing. No evidence. Yet you accuse him and bring shame on him, upon a great Catholic university,
to make up for your own weakness? Your own mortal sin?"

    "You have it all wrong. I was a virgin when I stepped on
his boat!"
    "You've violated your vows," Mother Superior said.
"You've committed the sin of fornication. You are bringing
a child out of wedlock into the world. Stop pointing fingers
at others. Go home and point the finger at the dirty girl in
the mirror."
    When she was four months pregnant, Eileen Lavin was
told she could not take her vows of sisterhood. She had not
kept her temporary vow of chastity. She'd sinned, covered up
that sin, compounded the sin by lying about the original sin,
and now she was carrying a bastard child. "There is no room
for untruthful, unwed mothers in the sisterhood," Mother Superior said.
    The diaries revealed that when Eileen finally contacted
the police, they asked why she'd waited four months to report
a rape. They asked why she hadn't gone to a hospital. Why
she hadn't contacted police right away. They asked why any
woman would give birth to a rapist's baby. She explained that
she was a devout Catholic, and could never abort any baby.
The skeptical detectives from the 111th Precinct made a cursory call on Sheridan. He denied ever having Eileen Lavin
aboard his boat or in his house. He invited them to dust for
fingerprints. He said the woman was delusional. That her
nickname was Sister Psycho.
    The cops believed Sheridan. They apologized for bothering him. "We cannot indict a man on the word of a defrocked
nun with no memory of the alleged crime," said the Queens
District Attorney's office who investigated the case in 1982.
"There's no proof the baby is Sheridan's. A blood test could only eliminate him, not identify him." There was no definitive
DNA test in 1982.

    Eileen's devout, old-world, immigrant Irish Catholic parents ostracized her. They had been shamed by a whispering
campaign in their Bayside parish where they had previously
bragged about their pious daughter going into the convent.
Eileen had become just another unwed, knocked-up college
slut. Gossip swirled. Neighbors snickered. Friends didn't return her calls.