Page 22 of The Altar Girls

‘Does your mother know you’re here?’

‘Yeah, so what?’

‘Run along home.’

He walked down Bishop Street and stalled at the school lane. No classes today and a tape blocked the entrance. It wasn’t manned. It seemed all the guards were searching the cathedral grounds. He ducked under the tape and made his way up the lane. He knew a shortcut through the school into the grounds.

He wondered if Naomi was still lying on the snow.

19

Father Maguire led them into the parlour. Lottie had been there a few years previously on another case. That time an old nun had brought her tea. Today there was no nun, and tea wasn’t offered. The priest seemed to be on edge. Not that she blamed him. She felt jittery herself after last night, and even more so since her conversation with Jane. And she still had a missing girl to find.

She and Boyd sat at the large mahogany table with Maguire adjacent to them. This morning he was dressed in black slacks, and his white priest’s collar was partially shoved in beneath the open collar of his black shirt. Over it he wore a maroon sleeveless jumper.

Watching him closely, she placed the copy of the hymn sheet on the table between them. Jane had emailed it over promptly, though it meant nothing to any of the team. Hopefully it would to the priest.

‘What is this?’ he said.

‘I was hoping you could tell me that.’

He tugged the plastic-covered page towards him. ‘Is it something to do with Naomi’s death?’

‘It’s part of a murder investigation.’

Lifting his jumper, he slipped spectacles from his shirt pocket. With the silver frames perched on his nose, he examined the sheet.

‘It’s the music for a Christmas carol. “Away in a Manger”.’

‘How do you know that? There are no words on it.’

‘I can read music. I’ve been doing that carol with the children’s choir. Give me a minute. I’ll be back.’

Nodding, Lottie let him go.

‘Boyd, is the hymn trying to tell us something?’

‘If so, it’s a message we will have to decipher. I fear for little Willow.’

‘We’ll check in with the search team once we’re finished here.’

Father Maguire returned with a folder bulging with plastic inserts.

‘This is where I keep some copies of the carols I teach the children. The kids know the words already, but as some of them are learning the recorder in school I was trying to get them to sight-read music.’ He flicked through the folder and extracted a copy of ‘Away in a Manger’, which he handed to Lottie.

‘Who else had this sheet music?’

‘Any number of people. It’s freely available to buy. And of course, the children in the choir would have copies.’

‘It would speed things up if you gave me the parents’ contact details.’

‘I’ll do it today.’

‘Now would be great.’

‘I’ll see what I can do, but I have to work at the food bank until two thirty, and then I’ve a meeting with the bishop at three.’

‘Food bank?’