Back in the Habit

by Alice Loweecey

  “How did that affect the general morale?”

  “Everyone was numb by then. Even the most gossip-ready hardly gave her a glance.”

  “But you said the three Sisters are gone.”

  Sister Gretchen looked like she was making an effort to appear ashamed. “Even police officers have to use the facilities. Sister Theresa volunteered to take her place in the hallway for those times.” A pause. “After Compline, when she was in the bathroom, Sister Winifred spirited them out and to the airport. By this time, they’re back home.”

  “What? They set off a homemade bomb. That’s an act of terrorism. Homeland Security will—”

  “Actually, there’s a ninety-five percent chance they won’t. The Church has more power than I imagined, even in this modern day. A few years back a diocese in Arizona had a priest accused of pedophilia. His bishop put him on a two a.m. flight out of the country before an arrest warrant was issued. The priest made it to Ireland, and the Justice Department decided it wasn’t worth fighting the might of the Church to extradite him.”

  “You’ll forgive me for saying this, but I hope someone took care of him in a dark alley the same day he landed.”

  Sister Gretchen didn’t blink. “I confess to hoping the same when I heard about it. But the precedent helps our situation.”

  Giulia nodded. “It’s a good bet that they won’t want to fight the Church to extradite three eighty-year-old nuns who took out a criminal like Father Ray.”

  “That’s what we’re hoping. I should be appalled at myself for allowing this to happen.” She met Giulia’s gaze. “But I’m not. I wanted them to go free, and I want Raymond to end up in a prison that doesn’t take kindly to priests who—rape—young nuns.” Her jaw clenched.

  “We’ll do our best to see that it happens. And we’ll keep telling ourselves that we’re fighting for justice, not vengeance.”

  Sister Gretchen unclenched. “You too? I’ll pray for you if you’ll pray for me.”

  “Deal.” Giulia stood. “I have to get back to work. I couldn’t count all the emails waiting for me. And I have an admin who’s going to burst if I don’t tell her what the convent is like.”

  Sister Gretchen opened the door. “Bart will escort you down. Now that you’re ‘you,’ it would raise a few eyebrows if you walked around by yourself.”

  Bart didn’t say anything until they reached the front door. “Giulia, would you, um, write to me occasionally? I’m going to miss you.”

  “Of course I will.” She gave Bart a crushing hug.

  “Are you going to marry the detective who kissed you?”

  Giulia gaped, then laughed. “One kiss does not a proposal make. Besides, he has issues with dating a former nun. Sometimes I think he sees a phantom veil on my head.”

  “And you’ve been wearing a real one again.”

  She grimaced. “I know. We’ve regressed to the days when I first talked to him. It’s tough to uproot the indoctrination in some Cradle Catholics, but I’ll work at it.”

  Sister Alphonsus opened the door and they stepped out onto the porch.

  “Get inside before you catch your death. What do you think this is, a midnight coffee run?”

  Bart laughed and returned to the foyer. The door closed. Giulia took another deep, wonderful breath and jogged to her car. While she waited for the heat to kick in, she drove two blocks to the Double Shot.

  “A large pumpkin cappuccino, please.” The barista did a double-take, then shook his head and brewed her coffee.

  She took the first sip inside the car just as her phone rang.

  Frank started talking as soon as she opened the phone. “Where are you?”

  “Hello, Frank. I’m in the car about to come back to the office.”

  “Good. Sidney says she’s getting pizza for lunch in honor of your triumphant return, and she promises it won’t have too much tofu.”

  “Despite the threat of tofu, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  “Wait. Are you ready for this? The Diocese of Pittsburgh just called. They’re so happy with the way we kept the scandal out of the news that they want to talk about putting us on retainer. Can you imagine? The Church! My grandmother is step-dancing in Heaven right now.”

  Giulia turned the heat up. “That’s great, Frank, but fair warning. If we get any more convent jobs, you’re going undercover in drag.”

  THE END

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks are due to several people who helped with Giulia’s personal wormhole journey.

  To my editor, Terri Bischoff, and my production editor, Brett Fechheimer. You two make me look good.

  To my friends and fellow writers who graciously allowed me to turn them into nuns for this book. I’ll keep your true identities a secret: enjoy pointing out your new self to your friends! To my beta readers, Julia Austin and Sue Laybourn. To the people who graciously shared their knowledge with me: Amy Bai for the correct way to smudge, Susan Owens for her medical knowledge, Joe Richardson for police information, Max Quaye and K. A. Stewart for correcting my Swedish. To the many brilliant and creative people at Absolute Write, without whom these books wouldn’t be shelf-worthy.

  And always to Purgatory, home of the best friends and writers on the planet. /bootay shakes and *vamp dust* for all of you. Purgatory Will Rule the Publishing World!

  About the Author

  Alice Loweecey is a former nun who went from the convent to playing prostitutes on stage to accepting her husband’s marriage proposal on the second date. A contributor to BuddyHollywood

  .com, she is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She lives with her family in Western New York. Force of Habit was her first novel.

  Please visit Alice’s website, at www.aliceloweecey.net.

  Author Photo by D. Steven Hodge.