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“My boss,” she said, rolling her eyes. “We had to get out some skirts. Two of the girls didn’t show. Woulda been worth my job to tell her I had kids to worry about. God bless you, Sister. You have no idea what it means to know that the kids arc safely with you. Jerry, say good night and thank you to Sister.”
Stellina did not need to be reminded. “Good night, Sister,” she said quietly. “And thank you very much.” Then with a rare smile she added, “No
Maeve locked the door behind them and quickly began turning off the lights. Cordelia must either still be with Kate Durkin or she stopped in for a visit with some of the old girls, Maeve decided. She sighed with concern over what kind of news she would hear when she got home.
As she was putting on her coat she heard a tapping on the front window. She turned to see the face of a man who appeared to be fortyish, his features illuminated by the streetlight. Maeve stared at him with an ex-cop’s intuitive sense of unease.
“Sister, is my little girl still here? I mean Stellina Centino,” he called.
Stellina’s father! Maeve hurried to the door and opened it. With professional detachment she studied the thin-faced man, immediately distrusting both his vague good looks and his hangdog expression. “I’m sorry, Mr. Centino,” she said coolly, “we didn’t expect you. Stellina went home as usual with Mrs. Nunez.”
“Oh, yeah, okay,” Le
“You should be proud. She’s a beautiful child in every way,” Maeve Marie said shortly. She stood in the doorway and watched him leave. She sensed something disturbing and unsettling about that man.
Still troubled by concern for Sister Cordelia, she made a final check of the premises, turned on the security system and walked home through the dusting of snow that was promising to turn into another full-blown storm.
She found Sister Cordelia sitting with Sister Bernadette and Sister Catherine, two elderly retired nuns who shared their apartment-convent. “Maeve, I confess to being weary to the soul,” Cordelia said, and then proceeded to tell her about the newfound will left by Bessie Durkin Maher.
Instantly suspicious, Maeve asked questions about the new document: “Aside from the use of the word ‘pristine,’ is there anything to suggest the will is a fake?”
Cordelia smiled wanly. “Only Alvirah’s instinct,” she said.
Sister Bernadette, who would be ninety on her next birthday, had been nodding in an easy chair. “Alvirah’s instinct, and something the Lord told us, Cordelia,” she said. “You all know what I mean.”
Smiling at their puzzled expressions, she murmured, “‘Suffer the little children to come unto me.’ I don’t think Bessie would have forgotten that, however house proud she was.”
8
Stellina kept the key to the apartment in a zippered pocket of her coat. No
Now she always used it when she got home so No
It used to be that when she came home from school she would find No
But No
Some nights, if No
Stellina bent down to kiss her. “No
No
“Daddy’s home?” Stellina asked, trying to hide her distress at the news. She wouldn’t tell even No
No
Stellina reached out her arm to help steady No
“Such a good girl,” No
Stellina was hungry, and No
The click of the lock in the front door told them that Daddy was home. Immediately No
Le
Stellina tried to pull away. He was hurting her.
“Put her down, you roughneck!” No
Le
Then he turned around and went out, slamming the door behind him. Stellina could see that No
No
As Stellina tried to comfort her, she heard her great-aunt whisper, “He is the father. He is the guardian. Dear God, dear God, what am I to do?”
She wondered why her No