Admission of Innocence: Chapter 1, part 8

‘Well, of course, converts are always the most extreme and the most enthusiastic, aren’t they?’ his friend smiled back, amused at his brother priest’s apparent discomfiture with this aspect of traditional Catholicism. ‘But in Peter’s case it’s not that. He chose the Catholic Church precisely because it’s the only one that takes the veneration of Mary seriously, and he has a special reason for that.’

‘Oh? Enlighten me, do.’

‘Last summer – not the summer just gone, I mean 2017 – his baby granddaughter was snatched from her pram.[1] During the period when she was missing, Peter wandered into St Cyprian’s. His step-daughter, Lucy, wanted to light a candle for them and he came with her. We’ve got a rather unusual Madonna-and-Child statue – I’ll show you it later. The infant Jesus has dark skin and curly black hair. According to Peter, he’s the spitting image of Peter’s son Eddie – the one whose baby went missing. Anyway, Peter was standing there looking at it when Our Lady spoke to him, and he promised her that he’d become a Catholic if little Abigail came home safe.’

‘Whew!’ Gerry whistled through his teeth. ‘And I gather the baby was recovered OK?’

‘Yup! The police tracked her down and got her back safe and sound a couple of days later. So you can see why Peter feels a special bond with the BVM[2], can’t you? He’ll be there now, checking what she thinks about this story you’ve just told us.’

‘But …,’ Gerry began, unsure what to make of this. ‘But … surely he can’t really …? I mean … Look Damien,’ he began again, speaking more seriously now, ‘are you sure he’s the right man for this job? You don’t think maybe he could be past it? I mean, a man who talks to statues is hardly going to carry much weight with the lawyers, is he? Or the jury, for that matter.’

‘O ye of little faith!’ Damien sighed, but with a smile on his face. ‘Trust me – Peter has got his feet very firmly planted on the ground. He’s exactly the person you need: bags of experience in the police force and total commitment once he makes up his mind to something. And he is absolutely not going ga-ga, however much he may remind you of your Irish granny!’

The sound of footsteps on the quarry tiles in the passage heralded Peter’s return. He stood in the doorway, glancing round a little sheepishly at the two men seated at the table. Damien looked back at him enquiringly.

‘Did you say this Vanessa has a child?’ Peter asked, looking towards Gerry.

‘Yes. A little girl called Leah. She’s two.’

‘And they’ll be separated if Vanessa’s convicted?’

‘That’s what the lawyers say,’ Gerry confirmed. ‘If it’s murder, there’s a statutory life sentence.’

Peter took a deep breath. ‘OK,’ he said as he let it out again. ‘I’ll have a go – but I’m not sure what good it’ll do.’

‘That’s great!’ Gerry got to his feet and squeezed past the back of Damien’s chair to reach Peter. ‘I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have you say that,’ he continued, grasping him by the hand. ‘I just know Vanessa didn’t do it, and it would be a travesty for her to be sent to jail.’

‘Like I said, I don’t know that I’ll be able to do much good,’ Peter repeated. Then, after a brief pause, he went on, ‘and you ought to know – it won’t just be me you’re taking on. If I’m going to be chasing murderers across Worcestershire, there are a couple of other people who are going to expect to be doing it with me.’

‘Oh?’ Gerry looked at Peter and then round at Damien, who was smiling broadly.

‘There’s my wife, Bernie, for a start,’ Peter went on, ‘and then there’s Jonah.’ He paused. It was difficult to explain how Jonah fitted into their family. ‘He’s a friend of ours, and another ex-copper. He lives with us. He only retired a few weeks ago and he’s still getting withdrawal symptoms. There’s no way he’s going to let me keep a case like this to myself!’

‘He’s talking about DCI Jonah Porter,’ Damien explained. ‘You may have heard of him. The press call him the wheelchair cop. He was shot in the spine about a decade ago, but he refused to be pensioned off[3]. Peter and Bernie took him in when his wife died.’

‘Oh yes!’ Gerry said excitedly. ‘I remember! Didn’t he solve a murder in one of the Oxford colleges a few years back?[4]’

‘That’s right. And he was in charge of finding out who that corpse was that turned up under our organ a few months ago[5]. I told you about that, didn’t I?’

‘Yes, but you didn’t mention that you’d had a celebrity investigating it!’ Gerry answered with undisguised delight at the prospect of meeting the famous police officer who had defied his superiors and insisted on returning to his job after life-changing injuries. He turned back to Peter, trying not to sound as relieved as he felt that they would not be relying solely on him to find Christopher Wellesley’s killer. ‘That’s great! The more manpower we can muster the better. We’ve got quite a tight schedule. The trial is set to start on the first.’

‘The first of October?’ Peter queried anxiously. ‘That’s less than three weeks away.’

‘I know,’ Gerry grimaced. ‘It was when the date was announced that it really hit me that this is for real. I suddenly realised that if we didn’t do something soon, it was going to be too late. So now – where do we start?’ He looked round eagerly at Peter and Damien.

‘I think the first thing is for me to meet this Vanessa and check that she wants us to try to help,’ Peter said, more decisively than he had appeared up to now. ‘And, if she does, then we ought to see her lawyers and be officially appointed to the defence team. That will give us the right to ask the police for disclosure of any evidence they’ve found that could be helpful to her case. Where’s she being held?’

‘She isn’t,’ Gerry replied promptly. ‘She’s been remanded on bail – which just goes to show that nobody thinks she’s a danger to anyone or has any intention of trying to abscond. She’s required to live at her parents’ house and to report to the local police station every few days. Like I said, her parents are stalwarts of the church. I know them well. I can give them a ring now and arrange for us to go over. Would tomorrow be OK for you?’

Peter hastily consulted the calendar app on his mobile phone. ‘You’re in luck,’ he smiled back at the eager priest. ‘It’s an off-duty day for Crystal, so I don’t have any childcare responsibilities.’

Crystal was his daughter-in-law and the mother of baby Abigail and her older brother, Ricky.

‘Smashing!’ Gerry reached into his briefcase and took out a mobile phone. Within a few minutes, he was turning back to Peter again. ‘It’s all arranged. We’re going to meet them at half-ten. If you come to the presbytery first, I’ll drive you over there and introduce you.’

‘OK,’ Peter agreed. ‘We’ll aim to be there by ten; but we’d better take our own car – Jonah’s wheelchair won’t fit in yours.’

‘You’re sure he’s going to want to come then?’

‘Oh yes!’ Peter said confidently. ‘He won’t want to miss out!’

That's the end of this preview of the first chapter. If you want to know what happens next, you can pre-order the e-book, to be delivered on 22nd December, or you can wait for the paperback or audiobook editions, which should be available by then too. All the links you need, and some more nforamtion about the book, may be found here: Admission of Innocence

[1] You can read about this in “Sorrowful Mystery” ? 2017, 2018 Judy Ford, ISBN 978-1-911083-46-7.

[2] Abbreviation for “Blessed Virgin Mary”

[3] Jonah’s life story is recounted in “Changing Scenes of Life” ? 2015 Judy Ford, ISBN: 978-1-911083-09-2

[4] See “Awayday” ? 2015 Judy Ford, ISBN: 978-1-911083-06-1

[5] You can read about this in “Organ Failure” ? 2018 Judy Ford, ISBN: 978-1-911083-38-2.