“Right, Father, we’ll get on with it then.”
Lafferty watched as the two men brought Mary O’Donnell’s coffin out of the side room and placed it on a roller-topped trolley in front of the oven door. He drew back a little when it was opened and a blast of hot air swept past him. The coffin was manoeuvred into position and slid inside. The door was closed and the gas turned up.
“Thank you gentlemen,” said Lafferty. “I’m obliged to you.”
Most of the mourners from the O’Donnell funeral had already left when Lafferty returned to the parking area outside the chapel. The next funeral was already under way and he could hear the sound of the twenty-third psalm drifting out into the cold damp air yet again. Jean and Joe had not yet left. It was clear that Jean had been holding up matters to wait for him. The driver of the car was looking at his watch.
“Sorry about that, Jean,” said Lafferty as he joined the O’Donnells.
“Is something the matter, Father?” asked Jean.
Lafferty looked her in the eye and said, “No Jean, nothing at all, just a technicality.” Lying was getting easier by the minute, he noted.
Jean O’Donnell looked doubtful but the moment passed and she said, “You’ll come back to the house?”
“Of course,” said Lafferty, ushering Jean into the car.
It was two in the afternoon when Lafferty got back to St Xavier’s. Mrs Grogan asked him if he wanted some lunch.
Lafferty said that he wasn’t hungry. He had gone back to the O’Donnell’s flat and had had boiled ham sandwiches.
“You made your own bed this morning, Father,” remarked Mrs Grogan.
“I didn’t make it Mrs Grogan,” he replied. “I didn’t go to bed last night.”
“I see, Father,” said Mrs Grogan. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You’ve been looking a bit off-colour lately.”
Lafferty smiled and thanked Mrs Grogan for her concern. “I’m all right. I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”
“I see, Father.”
He looked at her and thought, no you don’t, “Mrs Grogan. You most definitely don’t.”
Lafferty shut himself away in his study and poured himself a drink. He felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights of some heavy oncoming vehicle. He desperately wanted to go to the police and hand everything over to them. God! that would be so good. He could be free of the whole nightmare in one fell swoop. But he couldn’t. He had to think of what it would do to John Main and the O’Donnells. Neither Main nor the O’Donnell family could cope with the stress of his awful secret being made public. Besides, by allowing Mary O’Donnell’s coffin to be burned he had destroyed the evidence that it was empty. He picked up the phone and called the hospital; he asked to speak to Sarah Lasseter at HTU. He was told that Sarah was not on duty.
“When will she be on duty?” he asked.
“Dr Lasseter is due on at six. May I say who’s calling?”
“Father Lafferty.”
“Very good, Father, I’ll tell her you called.”
More waiting, thought Lafferty as he drained his glass. He couldn’t face being trapped indoors until six. He had to seek distraction in doing something — something that demanded physical effort; that would make him hurt and take his mind off the problem. It had been at least two years since he had last gone for a run. There had been at a time when running for charity had been much in vogue and he had felt obliged to join a group of younger members of the local churches in running for ‘the world’. In the event, he had enjoyed the training runs and even taking part in the final event — a half marathon. He had hoped to keep up his running but, like so many other things, the notion had faded as other matters made demands on his time. He tried to think where the kit he had bought at the time might be. In the end, he asked Mrs Grogan.
“Track suit?” she exclaimed.
“A Navy blue one with a green flash down the trousers as I remember,” said Lafferty, slightly irked that the notion of him going for a run should provoke such astonishment.
Mrs Grogan shook her head slowly then her face lit up as she remembered. “Oh yes, I know,” she said. “I’ll get it.”
“Just tell me,” he said but it was too late. Mrs Grogan had rushed off. He shook his head. Mrs Grogan getting on his nerves today. He concluded that she probably was but this was a more a reflection of his own state of mind rather than any fault of hers. His nerves were strung to breaking point.
Mrs Grogan came back with the track suit and Lafferty thanked her. He knew where his training shoes were; they were in a cardboard box in the hall cupboard along with the table-tennis gear for the church hall. Within five minutes he was running out through the gates of St Xavier’s and heading briskly towards the park. For the first mile or so Lafferty could do nothing but think about the aches and pains that were developing in his limbs, but as his bones seemed to settle down and accept that he wasn’t going to stop just yet, his mind turned again to the nightmare. Finding out that Mary O’Donnell’s coffin had been empty had proved that his suspicions concerning Simon Main’s fate had been right. He need have no qualms about alarming John Main unnecessarily now. The question was just when and where to tell him. Perhaps it would be a good idea to arrange a meeting between the three of them — Sarah Lasseter, Main and himself. They could perhaps decide on a joint course of action.
Lafferty came to a particularly steep section in his chosen route and stopped thinking until he had crested the top and his breathing had settled down again. There was only one thing against involving John Main, he thought, and that was the fact that he was personally involved. His heart might rule his head and that might make him a liability. On the other hand, the man had a right to know what had happened to his son and the mere fact that satanic ritual and black magic were probably not involved after all must surely afford him some comfort. Main was an intelligent man. Perhaps he could be constrained into following a jointly agreed course of action.
Lafferty decided that this was the way ahead. He would call Main after he had spoken to Sarah Lasseter. He was now sweating freely and the original sharpness of the pain in his limbs was being replaced by a dull ache as fatigue began to set in. This was the pain he had sought. It was going to dull his sense to everything else for the next half hour.
Sarah Lasseter called at six thirty. “I got your message,” she said.
“Can we meet?” asked Lafferty. “We have to talk.”
“I’m on duty until the morning,” said Sarah.
“And then you’ll have to catch up on some sleep,” said Lafferty thoughtfully. “That would make it some time tomorrow evening...”
“I wish!” said Sarah. “I’m back on duty at two in the afternoon tomorrow.”
“Oh dear,” said Lafferty. “I didn’t realise...”
“Most people don’t, Father.”
“Are you the only doctor on duty tonight in HTU?”
“Yes, why?”
“Could I come up there?”
The suggestion took Sarah by surprise. “I suppose so...” she said uncertainly.
“I don’t want to cause you any problems,” said Lafferty quickly. “Just say if you think it’s not a good idea.”
“No,” said Sarah firmly, now that she had had time to think. “I don’t see that anyone could object. We can talk in the doctors’ room and I’ll be here if anyone needs me.”
“Good,” said Lafferty. “What time would be best?”
“Let me see... Let’s say, any time after eleven. The nursing staff will have changed by then and everything should be settled for the night. With any luck we won’t be disturbed.”
“I’ll come at half past,” said Lafferty.