Page 12 of Dead Rattled
“Dentist appointment,” Ronan said.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let Ronan do the talking until the Novocain wears off.” Cisco shook his head. “It’s a world gone mad. Spill it, Ronan.”
“Actually, it’s Ten who should start.” Ronan winked at his husband.
“I had a reading with a woman on Monday who had been sent to St. Agnes House in 1972 to have her baby,” Ten began.
“St. Agnes House? Shit, that’s a name I haven’t heard in years. We went to that church when I was a kid. By the time I was a teenager, the house was used as a cautionary tale for girls and what happens to them if they don’t save themselves for marriage.”
“What a bunch of bullshit,” Ronan said. “Everyone needs that talk. Birth control is a man’s responsibility too.”
“I can’t wait to hear you change your tune when Everly is old enough to go on her first car date.” Jude snorted.
“My child will not need birth control because she’s not leaving the house from the time she turns thirteen until she turns thirty.” Ronan folded his arms over his chest, as if his decree was the final word on the matter.
“Anyway,” Ten continued. “It had been Natalie’s plan to stay in Salem and raise her baby after it was born. She went into labor and was drugged unconscious. When she woke up, she was told that the baby was dead. I can’t even imagine what that must have felt like. Natalie asked to hold her daughter and the nurse nun told her the baby’s remains had already been sent to the funeral home. Two days later, she watched her daughter’s tiny casket be lowered into the ground.”
“That’s a very sad story, Ten, but what does that have to do with Ronan’s claim that this case will shake the very foundation our society is built on?” Cisco looked ready to launch into a tirade.
“Let him finish, Cisco. I promise the long story is worth the payoff,” Ronan said, hoping to calm the chief down.
“Natalie came to me to connect with her lost daughter. The problem was, I couldn’t reach the spirit. The mother had the blanket the baby had been wrapped in and even when I held it, I still couldn’t reach the spirit.”
Cisco wore a thoughtful look. “Not exactly the money shot I was waiting for, Ten.”
Looking undeterred by Cisco’s sarcasm, Ten continued, “This has only ever happened to me twice before. In each of those instances I couldn’t connect with the spirit because the person was still alive.” Ten paused, studying the chief.
“Alive?” Cisco nearly fell over backward in his chair. You think this woman’s child is still alive fifty plus years later?”
Ten nodded. “My advice to Natalie was to take a DNA test and upload it to the public databases. I’m hoping she’ll find her long lost daughter or perhaps grandchildren. We went to Angel of Mercy this morning to check out Amanda’s grave, that’s the name Natalie planned on giving to her daughter. Everly came with us and found that the grave was empty.”
Cisco’s eyes widened. “Empty? There’s nothing buried there at all?”
“Just the casket, which I imagine was the one Natalie saw buried days after her child died.” Ten paused, nibbling his bottom lip.
“Is that all, one empty grave?” Cisco was on full alert now, his eyes darting back and forth between Ronan and Tennyson.
Ronan shook his head. “There were fifty-seven grave markers in the St. Agnes House portion of the cemetery. All of them were empty.”
“You’re certain?” Cisco asked, sounding as stunned as he looked.
“Everly’s sure and that’s good enough for me. She suggested that Ten tell Natalie and ask to have the grave exhumed to prove it was empty. We could also bring in ground penetrating radar and search for bodies that way.”
“That kind of radar can’t see through caskets. All it will tell you is that there’s a disturbance in the soil. It might be able to see the casket, but wouldn’t be able to identify adult bones, never mind baby bones,” Fitz said, sounding more like himself.
Cisco nodded when Fitz finished speaking. “You were right, Ronan. This is the kind of case that could cause a lot of upheaval in the church and with the mothers of these babies.”
“Mark this in your calendar, Cisco said I was right.” Ronan crowed, but quickly sobered. “How do you want us to handle this?”
“Carefully,” Cisco said, looking contemplative. “You need to gather as much information about this situation as possible without alerting the church or the media about what’s going on. Do research on St. Agnes House. See if there are any nurses or priests left alive who were affiliated with it. We’ll wait for the results of Natalie’s DNA test before making our next move.”
“I agree with all of that,” Fitz said. “Do you want us to try to find and reach out to other women who lost children at St. Agnes House?”
“No, not yet. Let’s just gather information for now. Newspaper archives and social media might be a good place to start. See if there are pages for St. Agnes House and the women who lived there. Same goes for the church, parish, and the Archdiocese of Boston. If memory serves, it covers all of eastern Massachusetts.”
“We’ll get right on it.”
“Just remember to keep this between us. The last thing I want is for this story to leak out before we have relevant facts to present. This isn’t just a Salem or a Massachusetts story, it will go worldwide. I want it to break the right way.” Cisco headed for the door. “Thank Everly for all her hard work, Ten.”
