The Four Streets Saga

by Nadine Dorries

  As Sister Evangelista approached the murdered priest’s dark-oak desk, she crossed herself.

  As she surveyed the surface, she noticed his diary was open on the day he had died. Pushing her thin wire-framed spectacles to the top of her nose with one hand, she placed the other on the open page and let it travel across the words, as though they were written in braille.

  The police had not yet gained entry to the Priory. They required permission from the bishop, which was one of the reasons he was arriving today. Everything was just as it had been on the day the priest had died.

  It now crossed her mind that maybe Father James’s belongings held a clue as to who had murdered him and that maybe packing away his personal effects might not be the right thing to do after all.

  But the bishop had been most insistent. ‘We must protect the Church,’ he had said. What had that meant exactly?

  Father James would have done nothing other than protect the Church, surely?

  ‘Oh, Daisy, you and that tea are a welcome sight. Bring the tray here, dear,’ she said, as she looked up to see Daisy standing in the doorway, the sacks rolled up and tucked under her arm. Daisy laid the tray on the table.

  ‘Who was Austin Tattershall, Daisy?’ Sister Evangelista enquired. The name glared up at her from the diary page. Four o’clock, Austin Tattershall. The diary entry had jumped out as the name wasn’t Irish and was certainly one Sister Evangelista had never heard before.

  ‘I don’t know, Sister,’ Daisy said. ‘He came here sometimes to see the father.’

  Daisy was whispering, almost into her chest, as she poured the tea.

  Sister Evangelista looked squarely at Daisy, who avoided her gaze as she handed over the cup and saucer, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the desk as she did so.

  ‘Did the father keep his appointment with him at four o’clock?’ she asked.

  Daisy still kept her head down as she replied, ‘He didn’t, Sister.’

  A silence fell between them.

  Sister Evangelista had spent her life being lied to.

  The reasons given for why children came to school with no food in their bellies, shoes falling off their feet and lice dancing on their heads had to be heard to be believed. Sister Evangelista could smell a rat a mile away and she smelt an enormous one right here in this room, right now. Either Daisy was lying, or there was something she wasn’t telling her.

  She flicked over the diary pages, feeling worse than a thief. Father James was dead and these earthly possessions were of no use to him now, but, even so, she felt extremely uncomfortable. She had always been an intensely private woman herself, raised to have impeccable manners.

  Now she saw that there was a diary entry on the same day each week with names she didn’t recognize. Arthur, Stanley, Cyril, Brian. Who were these men?

  ‘Manners won’t get his belongings to his family, I suppose.’ She suddenly spoke her thoughts out loud as she snapped the diary shut, making Daisy jump.

  ‘No, Sister,’ said Daisy, unfolding one of the small sacks.

  Sister Evangelista placed the diary carefully in the hessian sack.

  On top she laid his silver letter opener and a leather-bound volume containing his precious stamp collection, which he often brought children into his office to view.

  ‘The stamp collection is so beautiful. The children would never have seen anything like it before,’ she had often said to Miss Devlin.

  Sister Evangelista had always thought Father James the most patient of men. She had repeatedly said so to Miss Devlin.

  ‘He is so busy, with barely a moment to spare, and yet he always finds the time to share his knowledge of the world with the children through his wonderful collection of stamps. He never minds them visiting him in his study. I just don’t know where he finds the patience.’

  Sister Evangelista surveyed the contents of the bookcase on the opposite side of the room and realized she couldn’t place the precious stamp collection in a sack along with the books.

  ‘Daisy, I think we are going to need some newspaper. Are there any old rag sheets we can rip up to wrap things in? I would like to protect his stamp collection, at the very least.’

  As Daisy left the room in search of dust sheets, Sister Evangelista slowly lowered herself into the father’s chair behind the desk. Tears that had never been far from the surface since the murder now threatened once again to pour down her cheeks.

  She felt a hum. A sizzling static in the air.

  Daisy’s receding footsteps had taken her downstairs into the kitchen and could no longer be heard. Sister Evangelista felt as though the father were standing in the room, objecting to the use of his chair. It was a real presence.

  The air smelt of the last time it was occupied. An odour trapped by locked windows and doors.

  Musty. Ink. Hair grease and man.

  He was there.

  There was another smell too. Faintly familiar, of lavender floor wax and polish. Daisy may have been simple, but Sister Evangelista acknowledged that the Priory was spotless.

  He was there.

  ‘Don’t cry,’ she whispered to herself, clasping her hands together in front as though in prayer. She was a nun, unafraid of ghosts. She was protected by God’s light. ‘Just get through this as quickly as possible,’ she whispered, defiant, challenging the empty space. Father James might have been a saint in her eyes, but he was no Lazarus.

  Distracting herself, she glanced down at the desk drawers. Each one was locked. A small bunch of keys lay on top of the desk next to the open inkwell.

  There was still no sign of Daisy. Should she wait for Daisy to return before opening the drawers?

  Picking up the keys, she tried first the top right-hand drawer. The key turned easily. Feeling bold and moving quickly before she could think about what she was doing and hesitate, not waiting for encouragement from Daisy nor permission from the bishop, she swiftly opened the drawer and pulled it out as far as it would extend. It was stuffed full of bundles of white envelopes stacked in three neat rows and tied with string.

  She lifted the first bundle and flicked her fingers down the side, revealing the addresses printed on the front. All of the envelopes, she noticed, were addressed to people she did not know and had been sent to a PO Box number. Some coincided with the names in the diary entries. The first one was addressed to Austin Tattershall.

  Sister Evangelista took out the envelope and lifted the flap, revealing a wad of black-and-white photographs.

  What she saw made her feel as though she had been punched in the heart.

  Winded and breathless, in a state of acute shock and creeping numbness, she examined the photographs, one by one.

  When she considered the events in her mind later that evening, she wondered to herself how in God’s name she hadn’t fainted. How had she managed to behave as though she was looking at photographs of a beautiful rural landscape, instead of the most vile and depraved images of young girls and boys she had ever seen?

  Some of the photographs had been taken abroad, that much was obvious by the name stamped on the back. Most were of men with children, girls mostly and the occasional boy. Some were obviously taken in a hospital setting. Others were of very young girls. With horror, she realized that one picture had been taken in the father’s study and it was of a child she recognized from the school.

  She furtively glanced at the door to see if Daisy had returned and hurriedly slipped the pictures back into the envelope, scooping the remaining envelopes in the drawer onto her lap.

  Daisy walked into the room with what had once been a large sheet now torn into squares for dusting cloths.

  ‘Thank you, Daisy. I think maybe there are some things I had better take to the convent for the bishop to deal with. Could you begin lifting the books down from the bookcase?’

  Sister Evangelista felt as though her head were spinning but she knew she had to remain calm.

  Daisy noticed that the Reverend Mother was breathing faster, that perspira
tion stood out on her top lip, and that her forehead and her cheeks were burning red. Daisy was not quite as simple as people thought.

  All the sister could think about was how much she and the entire community had loved Father James and yet all the time this filth was sitting in his drawer. She was out of her depth and had no idea what to do. She had to speak to the bishop as soon as she could, ask him to finish the remainder of the packing up himself. She felt as though the ground were shaking beneath her. She must ask the bishop, should they show this to the police?

  ‘We have to protect the Church,’ he had said.

  She placed the diary and the envelopes on a square of white linen and tied up the four corners.

  ‘Daisy, I don’t want to do this just now, I have to speak to the bishop. We will finish all of this later.’

  Daisy had never seen the sister so agitated. This upset her. She didn’t like to stay at the Priory. She wanted to be at the convent and had hoped to talk to Sister Evangelista about maybe leaving with her when she had finished the packing. Daisy had only ever lived with nuns or in the Priory with the priest, and she knew she preferred to live with the nuns. There were no men in the convent.

  ‘Who came here to visit the father, Daisy?’ Sister Evangelista spoke rapidly. There was an impatience and roughness to her voice that hadn’t been there before. ‘Who visited him here that I wouldn’t know of?’

  Daisy remembered what she had been told by the father. Her lips were sealed. She looked silently down at the floor. Daisy always did as she was told.

  ‘Daisy, tell me, who did the father see that I do know? He used to visit lots of people on the streets, didn’t he, Daisy? Sure, I know he was mad busy, always calling in on the sick and the poor. Was there anyone he saw more often than others?’

  Sister Evangelista was running on instinct. She recognized the child in the picture as a little girl from Waterloo Street who had been in Miss Devlin’s class last year. She was no more than six years old. Her mother had been seriously ill and when she was bedbound, Sister Evangelista knew the father had visited daily to take mass at home at her bedside.

  ‘Well, I cannot say who came here, Sister, but where the father went is a different question altogether. He liked to visit the Doherty house a great deal, Sister. He visited lots of folk but he was regular to the Doherty house.’

  The Doherty house.

  The image of Kitty Doherty, one of Sister Evangelista’s star pupils, crossed her mind.

  Ten minutes later, Sister Evangelista ran down the street towards the convent, hugging a large parcel to her chest with Daisy at her side. On the way she almost bumped into Nellie Deane with her arm round Kitty, leaving the school gates.

  ‘Nellie, where are you off to?’ she said, alarmed.

  ‘I have to take Kitty home, Sister. Miss Devlin sent for me. She doesn’t feel too good.’

  Then, without any warning whatsoever, Kitty threw up all over the pavement.

  Sister Evangelista stared at the child who had turned a ghastly shade of grey.

  Kitty had been sick in the playground yesterday morning. As she grappled with the realization of what may be happening, she felt as though the vomit-strewn pavement was opening up beneath her.

  She needed to help Kitty, but she was frozen to the spot.

  She could hear Kitty’s voice somewhere in the background, as she said, ‘Sorry, Sister, I’m so sorry,’ but she couldn’t reply. The world as she knew it and all that was familiar to her was collapsing around her and she along with it.

  Daisy, a forced keeper of secrets, was staring at her. Her expression was unfathomable.

  Sister Evangelista focused her attention on what Nellie was saying.

  Kitty’s innocence with her wet eyes and pale skin brought her to her senses. Only yesterday Miss Devlin had said how sickly Kitty had been in the mornings.

  ‘If the child wasn’t so young and an angel herself, I would swear she was pregnant.’

  Oh Holy Mother, this cannot be true, she thought, and then suddenly, pulling herself up, she addressed Kitty.

  ‘It is all right, child, you go home for the rest of the day. I will send the janitor out to clean the pavement. Are you sure you are all right, Nellie?’

  Nellie put her arm round Kitty once more and smiled weakly at Sister Evangelista, who realized she could no longer wait for the bishop. This was beyond either of them. She knew what she had to do.

  Howard sat at his desk, drumming his fingers and staring at the array of police notebooks before him. It was only ten o’clock and he was already lighting up his fifth cigarette of the day. Not one of the notebooks held a single clue.

  They had no witness or a shred of motive but they did have the superintendent breathing down their necks, urging them to find the priest’s killer as soon as possible.

  Simon walked into the office with two mugs of tea and a message that made Howard feel weak.

  ‘The super wants a meeting at twelve and an update on the priest’s case.’

  ‘Have you any bright ideas?’ Howard threw across the table to Simon as he picked up his mug.

  ‘Apart from the fact that we both have a gut feeling Jerry Deane knows something, we have absolutely fuck all to go on. Not a single frigging lead. The whole lot of ’em are either ignorant or stupid. No one knows owt,’ said Simon unhelpfully.

  Howard picked up his tea and groaned.

  ‘Well, sergeant clever dick, we have got two hours, so what do you suggest?’

  The black Bakelite phone on the desk between them began to ring.

  ‘There you go, it’s a message from the dead priest.’ Simon began to laugh to himself. ‘He’s sending you a little clue from above.’

  ‘Shut the fuck up,’ said Howard as he flicked his cigarette stump at Simon. Picking up the handset, he turned to face the wall before speaking into the mouthpiece.

  Less than thirty seconds later Simon almost spat out his tea as Howard spoke soothingly into the phone.

  ‘Now, now, Sister, you must not upset yourself. We will be at the school in less than half an hour. I can assure you, you have done exactly the right thing calling me and we will make sure the bishop knows that.’

  Howard replaced the receiver with far more enthusiasm than he had picked it up.

  ‘That was Sister Evangelista, she’s got news, good news, full of clues news. It sounds as though she has got our motive, mate. Drink up, one very upset nun seems to want to tell us all.’

  They both banged their mugs down on the table and two minutes later were whizzing through Liverpool city centre in a pale blue and white panda car, heading up towards Nelson Street school.

  2

  LIFE ON THE four streets had very slowly returned to a normal routine. After all, the women could only last so many days without baking bread.

  From the second the news had broken, floor-mop handles had banged constantly on kitchen walls, summoning the women to a conference in whichever home had the freshest piece of gossip first.

  As they ran up and down the entry and in and out of one another’s homes, with babies on hips, holding half-full bottles of sterilized milk for the tea or a shovel of coal to keep a fire burning, they became engrossed by the most intense speculation. Who on this earth could have done such an awful thing and why?

  The women talked of nothing else and almost wore themselves out.

  Even the children playing on the green huddled into groups and repeated the whispered conversations they had heard at home. Rehearsing for the future. Dealing in the currency of the streets.

  ‘The Pope is in such a rage, so he is, he is coming from Rome to Liverpool to kill whoever did it with his own bare hands,’ said Declan, Maura and Tommy’s little rascal, to his rather serious twin brother, Harry.

  ‘No,’ said Harry, shocked at the thought of the Pope strangling someone. ‘That cannot be true, ye liar, where did ye hear that?’

  ‘It is so, I heard Mammy say it to Sheila in the kitchen this morning.’

&nbs
p; If his mammy was telling Sheila, then it must be true for sure. Harry gasped and put his fist in his mouth before he ran off to tell his mate Little Paddy, who had been a bit down of late, having caused such a fuss himself.

  He had been at the very centre of his own storm in relation to the murder and was now maintaining a low profile.

  As a result of what Little Paddy had blurted out, the police had taken in one of their own, Jerry Deane, for questioning. Everyone agreed this was a fanciful notion on the part of the police, who must have been desperate indeed. And all on the back of Peggy and Paddy’s stupid Little Paddy, looking to make a name for himself as the clever one at school. Claiming he had seen Jerry Deane running down the entry on the night of the murder, skulking like a thief in the night.

  As if anyone would ever believe anything Little Paddy said.

  Jerry Deane had been back at home within the day. Following the beating he took from his da, Little Paddy struggled to sit down for a week.

  ‘That is one child who will never be described as clever,’ said Molly Barrett to Annie O’Prey, just loud enough for Little Paddy to hear, as they both stood on the pavement to sweep their front steps.

  ‘As if any child from that family could know anything,’ Annie O’Prey replied, not breaking her stroke with her broom.

  Little Paddy’s da might have thrashed the living daylights out of him, but Little Paddy knew what he had seen, and he knew it was true, and no matter how many thrashings he was given, he knew he was right. He had seen Uncle Jerry running down the entry in the middle of the night. How was he supposed to know that he was only off to Brigid and Sean’s house for a card school and to tuck into the wedding whiskey they had all been given as a present by Mrs Keating’s publican in-laws on the morning her daughter got married?

  Not that he would ever say it again, mind. Next time his da might use his belt and Little Paddy idolized his da. He didn’t want that to happen. Little Paddy would keep his gob shut in future.