Hardscrabble Road(67)

“Yes, Mr. Demarkian. The art is awful. But it, like everything else in this room, including the paint job on the walls, was donated to us by the Sodality Friends of Carmel, and we appreciate their concern and support for our life lived within these walls. Would you all sit down please? We’ve got a few problems I need to discuss.”

The men all remained standing. Beata looked even more amused, then made an elaborate show of sitting down herself. The men all sat.

“I thought that sort of thing went out with my mother’s generation,” she said.

“It’s,” Giametti said. “Ah. It’s—”

“It’s the habit, Officer Giametti, I know,” Beata said. “It’s ironic, really, because this habit marks me as an extern sister, and as an extern sister I’m the lowliest creature in a cloistered community. I am, however, able to be here with you. Nuns who have taken solemn vows are not able to be here with you. They live in strict enclosure. They never leave the confines of the consecrated area of the monastery. They don’t see people face-to-face. If you want to visit with them, you must talk to them in the conversation room while they remain behind the grille. Reverend Mother Constanzia is in fact a cloistered nun.”

Rob Benedetti stirred in his seat. “You know, that’s not going to work,” he said. “We’re going to have to talk to the Reverend Mother, if she’s the one who is Drew Harrigan’s sister—”

“—She’s the one,” Beata said.

Rob Benedetti plowed determinedly on. “And we’re going to have to do it face-to-face, not behind a grille. We do try to make accommodations for religious convictions, but—”

“It’s quite all right, Mr. Benedetti. The Reverend Mother and I discussed that this morning. It’s a little more complicated than you realize, but we’ve asked permission from the Cardinal for Reverend Mother to break enclosure in this matter and for the community to abandon enclosure so that the police may search where they like.”

“The barn,” Marbury said quickly.

“The barn is not within the enclosure,” Beata said. “You’ll see when you get back there. There’s a wall separating it from the enclosure. We used to use it for a garage before we gave up the cars, and we needed a place mechanics could get to when they broke down. They were a nuisance, really, and you don’t need cars in the city, and we don’t go anywhere anyway. But here’s the thing. We are arranging it, but it hasn’t been arranged yet. Before you can see Reverend Mother anywhere but through the grille, before you can search the monastery proper, we’ve got to have permission from the Cardinal. I’m sure he’ll give it. The problem is, he hasn’t given it yet. He’s in Rome.”

“And you want us to wait until he gets back from Rome?” Marbury said.

“Hardly,” Beata said. “We’ve got a call in. The thing is, we don’t have permission now, and we may not get it while you’re here this time, and that may mean—”

“—That we’ll have to come back,” Rob Benedetti said.

“I know it’s a long way,” Beata said, “and I do apologize, but we didn’t think. We should have, of course. I remembered it almost as soon as I tried to get to sleep. Things were confused.”

“I’m sure they were,” Gregor said. “But we can talk to you now, can’t we, Sister?”

“Of course,” Sister Beata said.

“You said before that you didn’t go anywhere anyway, but that isn’t strictly true, is it?” Gregor asked. “You yourself do go places, and I’d expect you’re not the only one. That’s why you’re an extern sister.”

“True,” Beata said. “There’s me, Sister Immaculata, and Sister Marie Bernadette. We are all allowed to go out into the world and do what the community needs us to do. The shopping, for instance.”

“Do you go out often?” Gregor asked. “Almost every day.” “What about the post office?” Gregor asked. “Do you go to the post office?”

“Once a week, on Friday,” Beata said. “There’s almost always something. We need stamps. Or we need to send packages. That used to be easier. They used to pick those up at the door. Now with all the Homeland Security initiatives, they want us to bring the packages in personally. So I do.”

“What kind of packages do you send?” Rob Benedetti asked.

“We send copies of the works of St. Teresa of Avila, our foundress, to people interested in Carmelite spirituality,” Beata said. “Also the works of St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and St. Edith Stein, all Carmelites, all writers. We send holy cards, especially the one with the Blessed Virgin giving the scapular to St. Simon Stock—”