Last Things
Page 27
Phil Keegan entered into speculation with Marie, imagining Eleanor getting her husband drunk and pushing him over the upstairs railing in their house. Father Dowling held his peace, remembering Fulvio’s confession in the hospital. But even without the barrier of confidentiality he would not have joined in constructing the lugubrious scenario Marie and Phil imagined. Only a fraction of the misdeeds done in this world receive their just punishment, in any case, and Fulvio had received the grace of going into the next world absolved of his sins. And he had been at most a secondary cause of Alfred Wygant’s death.
“If Eleanor will not claim the money, that is an end of it,” Amos said. So perhaps even the justice of this world was satisfied.
Andrew had moved into his mother’s house and, the estate having been probated, Raymond’s duties in Fox River were done. He had formed the habit of accompanying his mother to the noon Mass, and one day Father Dowling asked him to come back for lunch after he had taken his mother home.
Marie outdid herself, overcoming her aversion to feeding a runaway priest. At table they talked only of the Bernardo family, but when they adjourned to the study Father Dowling asked Raymond what he intended to do.
“I will go back to California.”
“To resume your work as counselor?”
“To wind it up. Phyllis has formed another attachment, and I am free.”
“Free.”
“Free to return to the Edmundites.”
“And will you?”
Raymond fell silent for a time. “It’s all too easy, Father. I came home expecting to be excoriated, but only my father treated me as I deserve. As far as the other Edmundites are concerned, I can just move back in and take up where I left off.”
“And will you?”
“As I say, it is too easy. My father’s judgment was the right one. I betrayed my vocation. Coming home made me realize that as I never had before. Then I thought I faced the dilemma of continuing the betrayal or of betraying Phyllis. Now she has removed that difficulty. Everything is far too easy.”
“So what will you do?”
“When I have taken care of things in California, I am going on an extended retreat with the Benedictines in Manchester, New Hampshire. St. Anselm’s Abbey. They will let me live a community life with them. A time of penance. When my inner house is in order, I will go back to the Edmundites.” He looked around the study. “I almost long to have someone accuse me, call me a Judas as my father did.”
“Your own judgment is severe enough, I think.”
When he rose to go, Father Dowling accompanied him to the front door. Before they went outside, Raymond asked for his blessing, and Roger Dowling was happy to give it. “Now you must give me yours.
Raymond hesitated. “When I return from St. Anselm’s.”
Father Dowling watched him go out to the family car. He doubted that things were as easy for Raymond as he said.
“Is he gone?” Marie asked when he came down the hall.
“Yes.”
“He seems such a nice man.”
“I think he is.”
“But what he did!”
“You should have said something.”
Marie was shocked. She stepped back, eyes wide, her mouth agape.
“Oh, I would never do that.”
“That was his complaint.”
Jessica’s novel had been finished. She dedicated it to Walter, and her Raymond character ended quite differently than did her brother. Her hero, if that is what he was, returned to his beloved, happy to escape again what the Church had become. But as he walked along the Pacific shore with the waves rolling inexorably in, his mind was troubled by memories of the faith he had lost. Time would take its toll on him, he realized that. After all, even in California people were mortal. The Four Last Things tumbled like breakers in his mind.
“I’m surprised she knew of them,” Amos said. “The Four Last Things.”
“She reads Dante, you know. She and Walter are taking Italian and intend to read the Comedy only in the original.”
“Perhaps Western civilization will survive after all,” Amos said.
“Stranger things have happened,” said Father Dowling, and began to fill his pipe.
Also by Ralph McInerny
Father Dowling Mystery Series
Her Death of Cold
The Seventh Station
Bishop as Pawn
Lying Three
Second Vespers
Thicker Than Water
A Loss of Patients
The Grass Widow
Getting a Way with Murder
Rest in Pieces
The Basket Case
Abracadaver
Four on the Floor
Judas Priest
Desert Sinner
Seed of Doubt
A Cardinal Offense
The Tears of Things
Grave Undertakings
Triple Pursuit
Prodigal Father
Mysteries Set at the University of Notre Dame
On This Rockne
Lack of the Irish
Irish Tenure
The Book of Kills
Emerald Aisle
Celt and Pepper
Andrew Broom Mystery Series
Cause and Effect
Body and Soul
Savings and Loam
Mom and Dead
Law and Ardor
Heirs and Parents
LAST THINGS. Copyright © 2003 by Ralph McInerny. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
eISBN 9781429977784
First eBook Edition : May 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McInerny, Ralph M.
Last things / Ralph McInerny.—1st ed. p. cm.
1. Dowling, Father (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. 3. Women novelists—Fiction. 4. Catholic Church—Fiction. 5. Illinois—Fiction. 6. Clergy—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3563 A31166L64 2003
813’.54—dc21
2003040641
First Edition: July 2003