Blood on the Bones by Geraldine Evans Read Free Book Online Page B

contend with than the one you've already got.’
    Rafferty refused to give Sam the pleasure of a response, though he swore he heard Sam give a muffled snigger as he walked away.
    He grimaced, then turned to Llewellyn and commented, ‘Sam's right. We mustn't keep the ladies waiting. Come on.’

Chapter Four
    Sister Rita, the nun who had found the body by – literally – stumbling over the exposed forearm of the cadaver in its shallow grave, was the first member of the community whom Rafferty wished to question. He sent Llewellyn to fetch her from her cell where she had been sequestered, incommunicado, with Lizzie Green.
    While he awaited her arrival, Rafferty studied the information the Mother Superior had supplied, both on the origins and rituals of the community and on its other members.
    Along with the files and the other information she had provided, she had given them some of the literature about the community here in Elmhurst, the Carmelite order as a whole, its origins and its history, which they sold from their website as a supplement to the other income they made from making crafts, communion wafers, priestly vestments and so on.
    He picked up one of the community's brochures and read that: 'the Carmelite emblem depicts the Holy Land's Mount Carmel with a cross on top of it, and three stars.
    'Mount Carmel was where the first hermits, mostly former crusaders and pilgrims, calling themselves the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, gathered in imitation of the prophet, Elijah, in a life of solitude and prayer. The cross on it is a reminder of the central importance of the death of Christ. The one star below represents Mary, mother of God, first among the redeemed, who stood at the foot of the cross. On either side were two other stars, to represent the prophets most associated with the Carmelite origins and ideals, Elijah and John the Baptist.
    ‘It is thought by some,’ Rafferty determinedly continued with this unappealing tract, ‘that the central star was representative of an opening, of a cave, not a star, a cave wherein Elijah sheltered when the Lord appeared to him as the still, small wind. This alternative possibility', said the brochure, ‘suited the life of Carmel, silent and separated, away from the busyness of ordinary life.’
    Rafferty grunted, dumped this brochure to one side and picked up another.
    ‘Until the fifteenth century,’ he read, 'the Order consisted just of priests, friars and lay brothers, although, even then, several groups of pious women lived according to the Carmelite spirit. Following the 1452 founding of the Second Order of nuns, by Blessed John Soreth, Prior General of the Order, the 16th century Reformation saw the initiation of a reform movement by the Spanish Carmelite, Teresa of Avila and after her death reformed monasteries were established in France and Belgium, with later communities settled in Britain and thence across the world.
    ‘The two branches of the Order are those of the Ancient Observance and the Reformed, or Discalced Carmelites.’
    ‘Ouch,’ said Rafferty, as he read that the word Discalced meant 'without shoes', which as far as Rafferty was concerned, would certainly have been a reform too far.
    In spite of his earlier determination to get a grip on 'this religion thing', as he was want to call it and not let it get a grip on him, Rafferty decided he'd read enough religious tracts; he'd hand them over to Llewellyn to wade through. His holier-than-thou Welsh sergeant might even enjoy it. He certainly didn't.
    Besides, he thought, as a sly grin found its way to his lips, what were sergeants for but to do the heavy work? Instead, he turned back to the study of the sisters' files, which the arrival of Timothy Smales had disturbed.
    Sister Rita, the nun who had made the shocking discovery, was aged fifty-five and had been a member of Elmhurst's small Carmel community for twenty years, since several years after the early, untimely death of her husband.