"How exactly did her mother die?" asked Lucas.
The mother superior had returned to her desk, sitting stiffly behind it now, as if using it as a barrier between herself and the city officials before her. "Lauralie's sudden appearance after all the years obviously brought back a great deal of grief, and one night Lauralie's mother, an alcoholic, drank herself to death. I suppose in a fit of remorse and guilt over having abandoned Lauralie in her infancy.
"Imagine, she located her birth mother, living right here in Houston, and they were getting to know one another, doing famously according to Lauralie, when suddenly she left her again. After that, Lauralie's calls became infrequent, and soon nonexistent. She'd been living with her mother, but I tried contacting her there, only to learn she'd vanished, and I've worried about her, prayed for her since, and now you are here."
"What about her father?" asked Lucas.
"Deceased. She learned of it from her mother. Died some years before. She told me she laid flowers at his grave."
"When Lauralie was here at Our Lady, given her record of trouble and vandalism, however did she become a trustworthy?" asked Meredyth.
"She earned it. Straightened up her act, as they say, mightily. Took Mother Orleans's death very hard, she did…as did all the girls, but I convinced her that Mother Orleans would want her to pull out of her depression."
"And she made a miraculous recovery?" Meredyth watched the nun's response closely. She had begun to analyze the woman, Lucas realized.
"Yes, miraculous… with the help of God…came to her senses, began using that intellect I convinced her she had to use to survive on the outside."
"Inventive, resourceful, and adroit, would you say?"
"Only in the best sense. She turned a comer in her mind, began soaking up knowledge, learned to like the programs I put into place, and excelled."
Meredyth, nodding added, "Particularly the Work for Trust Program?"
"In everything, she began to excel, to discover her own power, that she owned her intellect and her emotions and must turn them toward the greater glory of God."
"Despite all the hardships life had meted out to her?"
"Perhaps because of them. Small miracle, I say. She learned to control her pent-up rage and anger at the world, and win trust points in the bargain."
Mother Elizabeth stared out into space as if picturing Lauralie. "Previous to my taking charge, she would do nothing around the convent, and although a bright girl, her grades were deplorable." She shivered with the thought. "She spent most of her time staring out the windows and swinging on the gate out there. After my programs were initiated, she was soon outside those bars looking in."
"Then as early as what, fifteen, sixteen, she was off the grounds at times, looking for her parents?" asked Meredyth, probing.
"Oh, no! It took time, years. She took to winning trust only after she'd turned seventeen, and she graduated and opted to leave at eighteen. It was in her junior year of high school that I allowed her some latitude in her search for her parents, although I warned her she might not like what she found out there beyond the gates of Our Lady."
"Careful of what you wish…you may get it," commented Lucas.
"Something like that, yes."
Meredyth, a strand of hair falling over her right eye, asked, "Did you open her records to her?"
"Not exactly. She broke into them one night and found them on her own."
"Clever girl."
"Cunning when she wished, yes. This was before we had our heart-to-heart. It was after that that I gave into her unquenchable desire to locate her parents, to help her in any way that I could. However, I failed her miserably."
"How so?" Meredyth tiptoed lightly. Lucas knew to keep quiet. Mother Elizabeth wiped a tear from her eye.
"Her mother was no longer at the recorded address or phone number, and I had an institution to save, and so…. Still, that young lady kept doggedly at it, taking it entirely upon herself to research her mother's whereabouts. Primarily, that meant she was spending more and more time away from here and on the street in her quest."
"Where are the records on Lauralie's adoption now? Can we have a look?" Meredyth asked.
"Archive files, as I said, in the basement. Not pleasant surroundings. Are you sure?"
"I'll brave the surroundings. Perhaps your assistant could show us the way?" asked Meredyth.
"I'll fetch Audrey, and we'll both show you the way. I need the walk, exercise for a bad hip and knees." Ignoring the intercom, she went next door to Sister Audrey.
Alone with Meredyth now, Lucas said, "Remember what Kelton said about the vandalized grave of a guy named Blood at Greenhaven Meadows?"
"Off Berwyn, yeah."
"Blood is not far off from Blodgett. This girl's name is Blodgett. You think Kelton may've gotten it wrong?"
"Or maybe we have a genuine coincidence?"
"Might be worth a look-see all the same. Greenhaven Meadows Cemetery's not too awfully far from here."
"If there's time, depends on the condition of these records I want a gander at, and I want to get back downtown before the courthouse closes, and you…you wanted to hit the mortuary, remember?"
"First things first, I know. Lauralie, you're reckoning, is one of the infants you placed, right?"
"If so Lucas…and if she turns out to be the courier we're seeking, God forbid but then there's a tie between this place, the Ripper, her mother, the murder of Mira Lourdes, and me…."
CHAPTER 11
Mother Elizabeth had not exaggerated the inaccessibility of their files and records. Going back as far as 1984 proved a daunting task. Meredyth wondered if she'd ever locate the files she'd come to peruse. While Mother Elizabeth apologized, saying they had not had money to place the records on computer, and that they hadn't the space for the hard files anywhere but in the basement, Meredyth and Lucas knew better. Record-keeping simply hadn't ever been a big priority here, and certainly not given the attention that it ought to have been given over the years. The orphanage was lucky to have gotten away with such poor record-keeping this long. And hadn't Mother Elizabeth said something about some woman associated with the state who wanted to shut them down? It likely began with a look at the records relegated to this damp and dismal place.
"If you don't want that Allison woman to shut you down, Mother Elizabeth, you really ought to do something about these records," Lucas warned as Meredyth stumbled over boxes.
She had had to literally climb over and past obstacles ranging from retired podiums and old furniture to ancient garden tools, box springs, and file boxes. Amid the leftovers of a lifetime in the convent, on neatly stacked crates, they finally found some promising old files labeled with black marker. They had to wipe away cobwebs and beetle debris to read the labels.
Lucas had gotten no answer from the elderly nun or Sister Audrey, and staring across the dimly lit room to where they stood in the doorway, he read a glazed dull look in the old woman's eyes, and a pained look in the younger woman's gaze. Shaking her head as if looking at a problem without solution, Mother Elizabeth chose to leave so as to not look at the problem a moment longer. Sister Audrey ducked out with her.
By this time, wheezing had evolved into sneezing for both of them, but Lucas had developed a case of nonstop asthmatic coughing. His eyes began to tear up from the particle dust and mites.
A handheld flashlight helped somewhat in the poorly lit area in which they worked.
"Here! I've found 1984," announced Meredyth.
She pulled the box from beneath another as Lucas held and replaced the one that had sat atop it. Lucas then took the box from Meredyth's grasp, and he carried it up the stone steps, into a corridor, and out into the open church where at least some air circulated. He placed the box on a pew and Meredyth rifled through it, looking for any court papers with her signature on them. She found none. "I'm trying to recall if I had any of these cases, but its all a blur. So long ago. None of these documents would have required a social worker's signature, so I have no way of tracking it from these files."