The Janus Stone

So Ruth tells him about the baby and the two-headed calf, about the writing in blood and the presence lurking outside her house. She probably tells him more than she means to and she attributes this to some innate spooky priest power. Certainly Hennessey’s pale blue eyes never leave her face.

‘So,’ she concludes, ‘someone is trying to scare me. Someone linked to the house. And I wondered if you had any idea who that could be.’

She forces herself to confront that blue stare. Father Hennessey looks steadily back at her. ‘Do you have any ideas yourself?’ he asks.

‘No,’ says Ruth though, in truth, she does.

‘Have you ever met anyone else from the children’s home?’ asks Hennessey.

‘Only Kevin Davies.’

‘None of the nuns?’

‘No.’

Is he really, as Ted would say, going to pin it on the nuns? But the only person Ruth knows from the Sacred Heart Children’s Home is Father Hennessey himself.

‘Why do you ask?’ says Ruth.

For the first time, Hennessey does not meet her eyes. He looks down at the murky grey liquid in his coffee cup.

‘There are other secrets,’ he says at last. ‘The evil in that house began long before I ever saw it.’

Nelson is actually at Judy’s desk when she calls him. He has been looking for the transcript of her interview with Sister Immaculata and is, therefore, surprised and a little spooked to hear that Judy is actually on her way to Southport to see the nun again.

‘What are you playing at, Johnson?’

‘I think I’ve discovered something about Sister Immaculata. I think it’s important.’

Nelson starts to counts to ten and gives up on five. ‘When will you be back?’

‘Later tonight.’

He sighs. Judy is a good officer. He trusts her instincts and, God knows, they could do with a breakthrough.

‘No. Stay the night if you have to. I’ll get Tanya to stay at Ruth’s tonight.’

Some routine surveillance will do Tanya good, he thinks. She’s been a bit too pleased with herself lately. He hopes she hasn’t got her eyes on Judy’s job. Tanya is obviously intelligent but she still has a lot to learn. Besides he would never promote a newcomer over a long-standing officer. Nelson believes in precedence; it comes of being the youngest of three.

He continues rifling through Judy’s (incredibly neat) papers and comes across the sheet of paper on which she has jotted down the Spens family tree.

He stares at the scribbled names, sure he is missing something. He is so deep in thought that he doesn’t hear his name being called. It is not until Cathbad is actually in the room with him that he registers his presence, purple cloak and all. Tom, the desk sergeant, hovers in the background looking embarrassed.

Since the Saltmarsh case, Nelson and Cathbad have almost become friends. There is an understanding between them, despite Nelson’s contempt for new age philosophy and Cathbad’s dislike for authority. Cathbad has even visited Nelson’s house, bearing dreamcatchers for the girls and Nelson has once or twice met him for a drink in dodgy pubs where the beers all have names and, unless you are careful, people play folk music at you.

‘I’m sorry, sir,’ says Tom. ‘He said it was important.’

Nelson notices that, cloak notwithstanding, Cathbad does look unusually serious, even worried.

‘What it about?’ he asks.

‘Max Grey,’ Cathbad answers.

Judy arrives at Southport at just after four to be told that Sister Immaculata is ‘unwell’ and can’t see anyone.

‘It’s important,’ pleads Judy, standing in the spotless reception area surrounded by tropical plants and pictures of saints.

‘I’m sure it is,’ says the Sister sympathetically, ‘but Sister Immaculata is having a bad day. Perhaps she’ll be brighter tomorrow.’

So, after promising to be back tomorrow, Judy finds herself on Southport seafront, tired, hungry, discouraged and slightly scared. What if Nelson is furious with her for disappearing like that? What if Ruth gets murdered tonight and it’s all her fault? What if Tanya finds the dental records, solves the case and gets promoted? She sighs and starts to walk towards the nearest B and B.

Ruth had not been pleased to open her door expecting Judy but finding Tanya Fuller, designer glasses flashing, on the doorstep. She likes Judy and had been looking forward to seeing her again. The morning’s conversation with Father Hennessey has left her rather more unsettled than before. What did he mean, ‘The evil in that house began long before I ever saw it.’? ‘Surely you don’t mean the place is haunted?’ Ruth had answered lightly.

‘Maybe I do,’ the priest had replied.

‘But priests don’t believe in ghosts.’

‘Sure we do,’ Hennessey had smiled. ‘What about the Holy Ghost? The most important one of the trilogy as far as I’m concerned.’

All rubbish as far as Ruth is concerned but, driving back along the misty Saltmarsh road, she kept having a ridiculous compulsion to look in her mirror to check that no one was sitting on the back seat. Even now, as she cooks supper for herself and Tanya, she puts on the radio to stop herself wondering if she can hear breathing outside.