AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Dr Ruth Galloway,’ the man reads her name aloud.
‘Thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to have a picnic.’
Judy is also on the Cathbad trail. She has parked at the Slipper Chapel and is preparing to walk to Walsingham. She is following the ancient route, when the pilgrims would leave their shoes at the chapel– hence the name– and walk the last mile, the so-called Holy Mile, to Walsingham. Judy doesn’t know why but it suddenly seems very important to follow the pilgrimage path. It’s what Cathbad would do and has done many times. She remembers him saying that he lit a candle at the Slipper Chapel to give thanks for his recovery from Covid. Is it possible that he made the journey here again?
Judy would have liked to have come on her own but, as soon as she mentioned going out, both children, not to mention Maddie and Thing, made it clear that they wanted to accompany her. So Judy’s solitary expedition has become a family excursion. She might as well have brought sandwiches.
Judy has told the children that Cathbad has gone on ‘a long walk’, wishing that it didn’t sound so much like a euphemism. But they both, especially Michael, know that something is wrong. Cathbad’s non-appearance at the school gate, the visits from Uncle Nelson, the behaviour of their mother and their dog– they know that this isn’t one of Cathbad’s regular ‘spiritual cleansing treks’. This is probably why they are now sticking so closely to their mother.
The Slipper Chapel is a strange building, somehow too grand for its size, like a miniature cathedral that has found itself by the side of a Norfolk lane. Judy knows that it’s a fairly new restoration. The original chapel fell into disuse after the Reformation and was even used as a cowshed for a time. She remembers visiting the shrine with her school and finding it a slightly unsettling place, blazing with candles lit for supplicants’ intentions. The prayer cards were pinned to the wall. ‘For the souls of my grandparents’. ‘For Susan, may she find peace’. ‘Please God, help me pass my exams.’ So much hope. So much faith.
They don’t go inside the church this time. Michael and Miranda run ahead with Thing. Judy and Maddie follow more slowly.
‘Do you think Cathbad believes in any of this stuff?’ asks Maddie. ‘Save our souls. Heaven and hell. Purgatory and limbo.’
‘Well, he was brought up as a Catholic,’ says Judy. ‘I was too but all that stuff about limbo and purgatory was old-fashioned by then. It might have been different for Cathbad, growing up in Ireland.’
‘What’s the deal with purgatory again?’
They are walking between fields of yellowing wheat, the sky a bright hard blue above. The primary colours make Judy’s head ache. It’s like a child’s painting.
‘I can’t remember exactly but I think, when you die, you go to purgatory to atone for your sins. People on earth can pray for you and get you time off your sentence. Then you go to heaven.’
‘What about limbo?’
‘It’s a kind of in-between place, I think. People used to think babies went there if they died before being baptised.’
‘I thought we all went to heaven when we died?’
‘That’s more or less what everyone believes now. I mean, how unfair to send a baby to a sort of waiting room.’
‘I’m not baptised,’ says Maddie. ‘I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I’d been brought up by Cathbad instead of Delilah and Alan.’
‘It might have had more sacred bonfires in it,’ says Judy.
‘Oh, Mum was keen on that sort of stuff too,’ says Maddie. ‘I suppose that’s why they got together in the first place. But I’m glad they broke up. Otherwise Dad wouldn’t have met you.’
Maybe it’s the sweetness of the sentiment, or the fact that Maddie called Cathbad ‘Dad’, but Judy finds herself in tears. She wipes them away and continues to walk between the yellow and the blue.
Tanya drives to Ely and drops Bradley outside St Etheldreda’s Church.
‘Have fun,’ she says.
‘Happy to lend a hand,’ says Bradley. Tanya smiles but she hopes that Bradley isn’t about to start making puns. It was one of Clough’s more tedious habits.
‘I’ll pick you up after I’ve seen Gaia,’ she says.
Gaia Fernandez, nee Webster, lives in a terraced house within sight of Ely Cathedral. Following Nelson’s instructions, Tanya doesn’t phone her until she is parked outside the front door. Luckily Gaia is in. She sounds surprised but says she’ll be happy to talk. Tanya then texts Tony to give him the go-ahead to ring Freya.
Gaia is a tall woman with the kind of grey hair that fair-haired people describe as ‘ash blonde’. It’s coiled around her head in a style that Tanya considers unsuitable for a middle-aged woman. She’s also wearing a floaty dress but, in spite of this, sounds quite rational.
‘What’s all this about, Detective Sergeant Fuller?’
She’s got Tanya’s name and rank right too.
‘You’re aware that human remains were found inside a building once owned by your family?’
‘Yes,’ says Gaia. ‘Freya told me. How horrible.’
