Glancing again at himself in the mirror, he breathed out slowly and noisily. Breakfast would be ready. He had places to go, things to do, crucial things, and this morning’s caller and her venom would be forgotten. Connor Bell must be seen and then St John’s inspected. But first he must speak to Donald Keegan.
After less than seven rings, the answerphone in the man’s empty office clicked into action, prompting him to leave a message. ‘Donald,’ he began, ‘I really need to talk to you. I think they’re connected, these murders: May, Taylor and Yule. They were all priests, you see, eons ago. All child-abusers too, or so I’ve heard. Suppose they were all listed in that book, the one that wasn’t stolen? Ring me back as soon as you can, please. It’s Vincent, Father Vincent Ross, and I need your help.’
The disordered state of Connor Bell’s sitting-room in Scotlandwell took Vincent by surprise. The walls were painted scarlet as he had been told, but the emulsion on the ceiling was faded and powdery, peeling in parts, and the skirting boards looked in sore need of a coat of gloss. Only three pieces of furniture remained in the room: a couch, a table and an old-fashioned armchair. Half a dozen cardboard boxes had been deposited around the unlit gas-effect fire, and in one of them could be seen the ship picture that the boy, Kyle, had described. Its glass was smashed, a star-shaped fracture radiating from the centre. Old copies of The Times were stacked on the stained cushions of the couch, and on a tray beside them were packages, each wrapped in a single sheet of newspaper. The brown carpet on the floor was pocked by the imprints where chairs had stood, and in the middle of it was a perfect, fawn-coloured rectangle where a rug had once been. The rug itself had been rolled up and laid across the arms of the one remaining armchair. The air was cold and damp, and condensation ran down the inside of the picture windows to collect on their ledges.
‘Would you like a coffee? Or something to eat?’ Connor Bell asked, taking a forkful of cold baked beans from a tin on top of the pile of newspapers. One of his arms was in a sling, and on his left cheek, above the edge of his black beard, he had a red scar. It looked as if someone had slashed a knife across his skin.
‘No thanks. Are you moving or something?’
‘Yes.’
Still holding the forkful of beans, the man did not look up to meet his eyes.
‘When did you get out of hospital?’
‘Yesterday. They let me out yesterday. Well, I asked to go, actually. I discharged myself. Having had a double fracture, pins, plates and everything in my leg, they said I should wait for the consultant but I walked away – hobbled, really.’
Father Vincent said nothing, watching the man as he ate and then attempted, with one arm, to wrap a glass ornament in a sheet of newspaper.
‘Need a hand? Sorry, tactless of me, but could I help?’
‘No thanks, I’d rather do it myself. I’ve got a system, you see. I needed out,’ Bell continued, head down, biting his lip with concentration. ‘I’m out of here, I said. No time to spare. Need to get home and go. Vamoose, eh? One of the nurses, she can only have been seventeen, twenty at the most, she said to me, “Father, be responsible.” But I didn’t listen.’
‘Are you in a hurry, off to a new parish, then?’
‘No. Nope. Not me. I’m done … giving up, setting off on a new life, a different life. No one can talk me out of it. I’ve had enough of this – life. In someone else’s crappy house. No life. No life at all, actually. Always at everyone else’s beck and call. No time to yourself, no time for yourself. Unappreciated …’
Father Vincent stood by the window, looking out onto the garden. Concrete slabs covered the small area and a couple of frost-chipped ceramic pots were dotted about its dismal expanse, weeds and moss growing in them. The front of a newly cleaned VW Golf peeped out of a wooden garage that was parallel to the main road. Looking at it, suddenly something struck him.
‘Is that your car?’ he asked idly, keeping his back to the other man. ‘The one in the garage?’
‘Yup. That’s her, Lydia, my pride and joy, a gift from my dad,’ Bell replied, stowing his most recently wrapped parcel into one of the boxes and turning his attention back to his visitor.
‘Do you know,’ Vincent asked, turning round to face the man, ‘a boy called Kyle?’
‘Why?’
It was the answer that a guilty man would choose, the response of the defensive or the afraid. A simple yes or no would not, in themselves, have betrayed him as much as that question had. He was hiding something.
‘You weren’t in a car crash, were you?’
‘What d’you mean? What are you talking about, Vincent? I was … I was going along on the back road to Stirling, you know, the one by Vicar’s Bridge. I was going on the downhill stretch and, from nowhere, a car came out of the junction on my right and went straight slap-bang into my car! Then he drove off, just drove off, leaving me there. I told them in the hospital, you know. I said that often quiet country roads are much more deadly than motorways with a seventy miles an hour limit and so on. Because, well, because …’
‘So,’ Vincent interrupted ‘while you were in hospital someone else attended to your car, the paperwork and so on, dealt with the insurance company, got the car repaired, had had it returned here in its present as-new state.’
Connor Bell did not answer immediately. Unconsciously, he began to stroke the elbow of his damaged arm with his good hand.
‘Yes.’
‘Sure about that?’
‘Sure! How could I not be sure?’
‘Who did all of that for you?’
‘My mother. Well, no, not her, actually. No, she was going to, but, for various reasons, she couldn’t, so, instead, my brother …’
‘That’s what the insurance company would say, is it? He’s the man they dealt with, is he? Who are they by the way? And the police, were they called? Or an ambulance, maybe? It’ll all be in their records, of course. Or, perhaps, despite your broken right arm, you managed to drive yourself from Vicar’s Bridge to hospital?’
‘No. No police, no ambulance. My brother, he took me to hospital … honestly, he did.’
‘He may well have done. In fact, I expect that he did. But not because of any car crash. He probably took you from here, eh? From this house. You were beaten up, weren’t you? That’s why you’re leaving. You abused Kyle and he, or his pals, took the law into their own hands and assaulted you, beat you black and blue. Broke your bones. There was no car crash, no car repairs – they beat you up.’
‘I’m saying nothing more,’ Bell retorted. ‘Dominic knows everything. No one’s complained, including the so-called victim. It was all rubbish anyway. You say one word, Vincent, just one word … to anyone. Do you actually want the Church to be further disgraced? I’ve no worries about you, anyway, because you’re tainted goods yourself, aren’t you?’
‘No,’ Vincent replied. Now simply looking at the man sickened him.
‘Oh yes, you are. No one would listen to you, or to anything you have to say any more, and I’m out of here. Out of here! No, no one will listen to you – they’ll think you’re just trying to get your own back on the Bishop or whoever. You’ve a grudge of your own now, haven’t you? That’s why you’ve turned on poor old Mother Church. No one, inside the Church or, probably, outside it, would listen to you, Vincent. Not after that newspaper report. After all, you’ve had it away with hundreds of women, haven’t you? Donkeys, for all I know. I’m not taking lessons in morality, or anything else, from the likes of you. There’s nothing to pick between us – except that everyone knows about you.’
Twenty minutes later, Vincent entered the church, his church, and it brought tears to his eyes. The place seemed so tranquil, so calm after all the storms that had been buffeting him for so long in the outside world. Its silence enveloped him, embraced him, and in the half-light he felt at peace. The only illumination in it, apart from the muted daylight which filtered through the stained glass, came from the flickering sanctuary light. The very air was fam
iliar, scented with the usual mix of damp carpet and stale incense. Deliberately breathing it in, he felt, immediately, that he had come home, felt like a small child returning to the bosom of its mother. Nowhere else could one find oneself alone and yet not alone, an invisible presence watching over and giving love from afar. As he walked towards the nave he slid his hand along the edges of each of the wooden pews, feeling the warmth of the wood and its smooth solidity. Taking a seat opposite the altar, he looked up at the stone sculpture of the crucified Christ and tried to lose himself in the place, abandon all his thoughts and anxieties, and just be. In here he would be bathed and cleansed. In here he could rid himself of the distrust, anger and hostility that now clung to him like a second skin, went with him wherever he went. In here he could be his old self, drop this heavy burden.
Maria de Thuy, a harp teacher at a nearby private school, crept past him on her pigeon toes and then, realising belatedly who he was, she turned back to give him one of her widest smiles. Along with a clarinettist and a guitar player, she was a founder member of the church music group. Her head was covered by a black mantilla and, genuflecting and crossing herself at the same time, she edged into a nearby pew. Immediately, she knelt down and began praying, whispering excitedly through her thick lips, transported to find herself in the presence of her Lord. Having made the sign of the cross again, she began passing her rosary beads between her extraordinarily muscular thumb and forefinger, focusing her entire body and soul on her prayer.
Looking at the kneeling figure, the priest felt envious of her; envious of her certainty, her simple faith and the joy she found in it. She, he felt sure, experienced no shame in being a Catholic or admitting that she was one. All the child abuse scandals in the world would not dent her admiration for the papacy. Il Papa could do no wrong in her eyes and nor could his minions: the cardinals, archbishops or bishops. Always it would be someone else’s fault. She had an innocent, childlike faith, and however bright the light which was shone into the Church, she would never see the snakes writhing in its darkest corners or hear the scratchings of the rats. Her faith was, truly, blind; deaf and dumb too.
The confessional box had, in his absence, undergone a transformation. It no longer functioned as an extra broom cupboard, and in a nice touch someone had placed a vase of flowers on the shelf which had been cleared. He sat inside the box, trying to recreate in his mind the circumstances of that fateful confession. The CD which had been playing that night had come to an end, so there had been no background noise. All that he had heard had been the man’s voice, a rumbling baritone, with an accent suggestive of Tyneside or Northumberland; the singsong sounds that he associated with fishing boats, cold winds and the North East of England. With his spine resting against the back of the box, he had seen almost nothing, partly because the penitent’s head had been bent down, and partly because the grille had obscured the man’s features.
Unforgettably, of course, there had been that strange odour, and breathing in he tried to smell it again, analyse all the constituent parts that made up the full aroma. The scent of the freesias in their vase proved a distraction. That night the dominant strand had been the warm, fruity tang of raspberries. That was the part which had surprised him the most. Running through it had been something else; a sharp note, possibly Dettol, and then an undertone of something industrial, paraffin or some kind of oil or petrol fumes. The scent of raspberries suggested that it was some kind of household product, designed to appeal to the noses of domestic consumers. He sniffed the air delicately, filtering out the perfume of the freesias, analysing what remained, concluding that the box had recently been occupied by an illicit smoker, one keen to camouflage the scent of tobacco on his breath with minty polo fumes. So, almost certainly, a teenager, and that narrowed it down to three.
As he was stepping out of the box, he almost bumped into Father Roderick. A look of annoyance flashed across the old fellow’s face, as if he had caught someone snooping or playing in forbidden territory, but it evaporated as he recognised Father Vincent. In his outstretched hands he held a tray with the chalice, the water and wine vessels and the Tupperware box with the unconsecrated hosts in it.
‘I’m sorry, I’m just setting up for Mass,’ he said, as if he was the one required to explain himself, ‘and I’m on the late side as usual. I fell asleep after confession, in my chair … or rather, your chair …’
‘Right,’ Vincent replied, ‘I was just …’
He stopped, unable to finish his sentence. No truthful explanation was possible even if it would have been believed, so he carried on walking, adding lamely, ‘Since you’re late, Roderick, I’ll not hold you up any more.’
Someone had flung a couple of raw eggs at his windscreen. One had slid all the way down the glass, some of it now trapped by the windscreen wipers. The other, which had caught the edge of the roof of the car on impact, was still dribbling down, dragging its eggshell with it and leaving a smear of orange yolk in its wake. He looked around, searching for the culprit, and saw, stationary on the other side of the road, a male figure watching him. The man was silhouetted against the dim, late afternoon light but the priest recognised him without difficulty. The giveaway was his hair which looked unnatural, all over to one side and with a fixed, solid look. Pausing to allow the Perth bus to pass, he crossed the road and approached Mark Houston.
‘Did you do that?’ he asked, his anger banishing his fear despite Houston’s bulk and proven aggression.
‘Aha.’
‘Why? Haven’t you done enough already?’
‘No,’ the man replied, matter-of-factly, patting his toupee absent-mindedly, smoothing it down over his own thin locks with his pudgy fingers.
‘I never touched your wife!’
‘I know that.’
‘What?’
‘I said “I know that.”’
‘You know? Then what’s all this about? What the hell’s going on?’
‘I didn’t always know. I thought you had when I came after you with Norm, but one night, a couple of weeks ago, she told me. She’d had a few too many. Vodka and Coke, that’s her tipple, or Bacardi and Coke. Said she’d been after you, I mean, not the other way round. She threw it in my face. ’Course you’re not the first – not by a long chalk – but that’s worse for me, like, isn’t it?’
‘Is it?’
‘Obviously it is. You’re not very savvy are you? It doesn’t reflect well on me – as a man. Her putting it about, or at least trying to. How do you think it makes me look? I’d rather everyone thinks you came after her. We moved from the last parish because she’d picked someone up there. I’m not having that again. But I can’t tell Norman and the rest that, can I?’
‘If you know I didn’t do it – touch your wife – why are you throwing eggs at my car, for God’s sake?’
‘You not listen? People here have got to think you were after her. It’s better for me …’
‘It’s not better for me.’
‘Yeah,’ the man replied, unmoved. ‘I can see that, pal. But what can I do? She’s my wife, isn’t she? If she tells the truth to anyone else, hopefully they’ll just think she’s trying to protect you now anyway. You lot are into suffering, aren’t you? Nails through hands and spears into ribcages – crowns of barbed wire and that. You papes think it does you good, don’t you? Well, add it, add all of this to your total. Every little bit helps on the way to Heaven, doesn’t it? Think of it like air miles or something.’
To his mind, Elizabeth’s kitchen in Curate’s Wynd was perfect. It was painted a bright yellow and felt light and airy as a summerhouse. It was neat, but not too neat, warm, but not too warm; felt alive, occupied by someone intent upon living their life to the full. A mouth-organ rested on top of a music tutorial booklet and everywhere paperbacks were piled high, ranging from a book of recipes for chocolate to the autobiography of the aviator Beryl Markham. Stacks of cookery books had taken over an entire kitchen unit and a small table, and on the top of the fridge perched
two pots of red geraniums. In one corner of the room there was a dog bed occupied by a pair of elderly Labradors, Humphrey and Lauren, the dog’s head resting on the bitch’s flank. Vincent loved the orderly chaos of the house, saw in it only the outward manifestations of a lively mind. He was blind to its cobwebs and its crumbs.
Elizabeth gave him a cup of tea and then, explaining that she had a meeting to go to in less than half an hour, she continued with her housework. Her voice sounded thick, dulled with a cold.
‘It’ll all be over soon,’ she said, pulling a couple of chairs to one side, intent upon sweeping the wooden floor underneath the kitchen table.
‘Not if Mark Houston has his way. It suits him to keep it all going. He actually told me that.’ Neurotically, as he was talking to her, he checked his phone for missed calls. Still nothing from Keegan, not even a text.
‘Would you mind moving your feet, please. Maybe it does. But he’s shot his bolt and so has she. According to them there isn’t a woman in Kinross who’s been safe from you – except me, of course.’
‘No offence taken, I hope, as I’m obviously not very choosy. Anyway, at least things seem to be moving in the diocesan office. I saw their lawyer yesterday, and the only other person he really needs to see is Sarah Houston.’
The Good Priest Page 16