The Religious Body by Catherine Aird Read Free Book Online Page B

that, do you?”
    But Sister Gertrude did not know what it was she regretted, and at the first sound of the Convent bell she thankfully fled the refectory.
    It was unfortunate for her peace of mind that the first person she bumped into was little Sister Peter. She was walking up the great staircase looking rather less cheerful than Mary Queen of Scots mounting the scaffold at Fotheringhay. She was holding her hand out in front of her with her thumb stuck out in odd disassociation from the rest of her body.
    â€œHasn’t the Inspector finished with your thumb, Sister?” Sister Gertrude asked.
    â€œOh, yes,” she said mournfully. “He’s fingerprinted my hand, and confirmed that the blood did get on the Gradual from my thumb.”
    â€œWell, then,” said Sister Gertrude a little testily, “surely you can put it away now?”
    Sister Peter regarded the offending member. “He doesn’t know how the blood got on it and neither do I. I’ve shown him everything I did this morning after you woke me—my own door, two flights of stairs to the long landing, the gallery, this staircase and straight into the Chapel. The Chapel door was open, Sister Polycarp does that. Sister Sacrist had got the Gradual ready like she always does. Besides everywhere’s been cleaned by now. I just don’t know …” This last was said tremolo .
    â€œNeither do I,” said Sister Gertrude firmly. “But you’ve helped all you can.…”
    â€œI can’t think why anyone should want to harm poor Sister Anne.”
    â€œNeither can I,” said Sister Gertrude somewhat less firmly. “It might have been an accident, you know.…”
    Sister Peter looked unconvinced and continued on her way.
    â€œNow, Sister St. Bernard, I realize that this business must have given you an unpleasant shock, but I would like you to describe how you found Sister Anne.”
    Sloan was back in the Parlor with Crosby in attendance facing the Reverend Mother with Sister Lucy at her side. Sister St. Bernard was standing between them. There would come a time when he would want to see a nun on her own but that time was not yet. Sister Lucy looked anxious and strained, but the Reverend Mother sat calm and dignified, an air of timelessness about her.
    Sloan was being the perfect policeman talking to the nervous witness. There was no doubt that Sister St. Bernard was nervous. Her damp palms trembled slightly until she hit on the idea of clasping them together in front of her, but she could not keep a faint quaver out of her voice so easily.
    â€œWe were asked to help look for Sister Anne about an hour after Mass this morning in case she had been taken ill anywhere. Sister Lucy and the others were going through the upstairs rooms and Sister Perpetua and I were doing the downstairs ones.…”
    Sloan was prepared to bet that Sister Perpetua was as young as Sister St. Bernard and that no one had expected either of them to find the missing Sister.
    â€œI don’t know what made me open the cellar door.… I had been in all the rooms along that corridor and—”
    â€œWas it closed?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œProperly?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWas it locked?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAre you sure about that?”
    â€œOh, yes. It was because it was usually locked that I put the light on when I opened it. Otherwise I don’t think I would have seen Sister Anne.”
    â€œThe door is normally kept locked, Inspector,” explained the Reverend Mother in a very dry voice, “on account of the danger of falling down the steep steps in the dark.”
    â€œI see, marm, thank you. Then what did you do, Sister?”
    She had done very little, decided Sloan, except give the alarm and encourage the destruction of useful clues by opening and shutting the cellar door and fetching people who went up and down the steps.
    And Sister Peter had been scarcely