Carla Neggers - Saints Gate

EMMA SHARPE STEELED HERSELF AGAINST THE sights and sounds of her past and kept up with the nervous woman rushing ahead of her in the dense southern Maine fog. They came to a tall iron fence, a folk-art granite statue of Saint Francis of Assisi glistening with drizzle among purple coneflowers and cheerful golden daylilies by the gate.

The little bird perched on Saint Franciss shoulder still had a couple of missing tail feathers.

Sister Joan Mary Fabriani stopped at the gate. On the other side was the tower, the private work space where the Sisters of the Joyful Heart performed their restoration and conservation work. In violation of convent protocol, Sister Joan had escorted Emma onto the convent grounds without having her first stop at the motherhouse to register as a visitor.

And a visitor she was, in boot-cut jeans, a brown leather jacket, Frye boots and a Smith & Wesson 442 strapped to her left calf.

The gates locked, Sister Joan said, turning to Emma. I have to get the key.

Ill go with you.

No. Wait here, please. The older woman, whod spent the past thirty years as a member of her order, frowned slightly at the gate, which crossed the meandering stone walk two hundred yards from the main gate at the convents entrance. I thought I left it unlocked. It doesnt matter. Ill only be a few minutes.

Youre preoccupied, Sister, Emma said. I should go with you.

The shortest route to the tower is through an area restricted to members of our community here.

The meditation garden. I remember.

Yes. Of course you do.

No one will be there at this hour. The sisters are busy with their daily work.

Im in no danger, Emma. Sister Joan smiled, her doe-brown eyes and wide, round face helping to soften her sometimes too-frank demeanor. Its all right if I call you Emma, isnt it? Or should I call you Agent Sharpe?

Emma noted an almost imperceptible bite in Sister Joans voice. Emmas fine.

With a broad hand, Sister Joan brushed a mosquito off the wide, stretchy black headband holding back her graying dark hair. Instead of the traditional nuns habit, the Sisters of the Joyful Heart wore plainclothes; in Sister Joans case a dark gray hand-knitted sweater and calf-length skirt, black tights and sturdy black leather walking shoes. The simple silver profession cross hanging from her neck and the gold band on her left ring finger were the only external indications that she was a Roman Catholic nun.

She looked pained. Ive already broken enough rules by having you here without telling anyone.

Sister Joan hadnt given any details when shed called Emma in Boston early that morning and asked her to make the two-hour drive north to the convent, located on a small peninsula on a beautiful, quiet stretch of rockbound Maine coast.

At least give me an idea of what you want to talk to me about, Emma said.

Sister Joan hesitated. Id like to get your opinion on a painting.

As if there could be any other reason. Do you suspect its stolen?

Let me get the key and show you. Itll be easier than trying to explain. Sister Joan stepped off the walk onto the lush, wet grass, still very green late in the season, and looked back at Emma. I want to thank you for not bringing a weapon onto the grounds.

Emma made no comment about the .38 tucked under the hem of her jeans. Shed left her nine-millimeter Sig Sauer locked in its case in her car outside the convents main gate but had never considered going completely unarmed.

Without waiting for a response, Sister Joan followed the fence into a half dozen mature evergreens. The evergreens would open into a beautiful garden Mother Superior Sarah Jane Linden, the foundress of the Sisters of the Joyful Heart, had started herself more than sixty years ago in a clearing on a rocky ledge above a horseshoe-shaped cove. The sisters had added to it over the yearsEmma herself had planted a pear treebut the design remained essentially the one Mother Linden, whod died almost twenty years ago, had envisioned.

As she lost sight of Sister Joan in the fog and trees, Emma stayed close to the tall gate. Even the breeze drifting through the evergreens and the taste of the salt in the damp air called up the longings of the woman shed beenthe possibilities of the woman shed never become.

She pushed them aside and concentrated on the present. The morning fog, rain and wind would have attracted passing boats into the protected cove, one of the well-known hurricane holes on the Maine coast.

Watching guys on the boats when she was supposed to be in deep reflection and contemplation had been an early clue she wasnt cut out to be a nun.

Sister Joan, honest and straightforward to a fault, had always known. Youre an art detective, Emma. Youre a Sharpe. Be who you are.

Emma touched a fingertip to a raindrop on Saint Franciss shoulder. The statue was the work of Mother Linden, an accomplished artist whod have considered the absent tail feathers part of its charm as it aged.

The Sisters of the Joyful Heart was a tiny religious order, independently funded and self-sufficient. The twenty or so sisters grew their own fruits and vegetables and baked their own bread, but they also ran a shop and studio in the nearby village of Herons CoveEmmas hometownand were skilled in art restoration, conservation and education. During the summer and early fall, the convent held retreats for art educators and conservators, as well as people who just wanted to learn how to protect family treasures. Various sisters were dispatched to Catholic schools throughout the region as art teachers. Hope, joy and love were central to their work and to their identity as women and religious sisters.

All well and good, Emma thought, but hope, joy and love hadnt prompted Sister Joans call early that morning. Fear had.

Its a personal favor, she had told Emma. Its not FBI business. Please come alone.

Emma felt the cold mist gather on her hair, which she wore long now, and sighed at Saint Francis, the beloved early-thirteenth-century friar who had given up his wealth to follow a life of poverty. What do you think, my friend? She peered through the gate and made out a corner of the stone tower in the gray. I know.

Sister Joan was afraid, and she was in trouble.

SISTER JOAN REACHED THE MEDITATION GARDEN and took a breath as she entered the labyrinth of mulched paths, fountains and native plants. Bright purple New England asters brushed against her calves as she shivered in the damp air and tried to let go of her fear, pride and resentment. She envisioned Mother Linden out here as a very old woman, the hem of her traditional habit wet and muddy and her contentment complete. Shed understood and accepted that each sister brought her own gifts and frailties to their small community.

Lately, Sister Joan was more aware of her frailties. She often pushed herself and others too hard, and she had a tendency to probe and question when standing back and letting events unfold would have been better.

Too late to stand back now, she thought as she veered past a weathered brass sundial onto a narrow path that would take her through dwarf apple and pear trees, back to the fence. A large garden and a dozen full-size fruit trees were on the other side of the convent grounds, away from the worst of the ocean wind and salt. With the long New England winter ahead, the sisters had been canning and freezing, making jams and sauces, since the first spring peas had ripened. They were as self-sufficient as possible. Nothing went to waste.