Kate's daily schedule is structured around prayer. The seven canonical hours.
Prime comes at six A.M. Terce is at nine. Sext is said at noon. Nones is the three P.M. prayer. Vespers is the evening prayer. And comp line is said before bedtime. Structured. Ritualized.
There are strict rules here.
life has been dropping steadily. Kate entering class numbers only eighteen as compared to a hundred and four in 1965 . the intensity of OSCM training has not diminished in the slightest. Postulants may not speak to second-year novices or to any of the professed sisters, all of whom are in their fifties or sixties. They may not enter another novice's room. They may not break the code of silence. They may not be tardy for morning prayers. They may not meet privately with another sister. They may not ... "Well, it's very much like boot camp,”
Carmelita says, and laughs again. "But they're learning to relinquish the material world and concentrate upon their spiritual selves. They're learning to sacrifice joyously, for those who follow Christ receive in hundredfold.”
For Kate, the six-month postulancy seems an eternity.
When at last she is asked by Sister Carmelita if she indeed has a vocation, she answers, "I do, Sister.”
"And do you feel ready to enter a year of concentrated spiritual preparation for your first vows?”
“I am, Sister.”
"Are you ready to dedicate yourself completely to the work of the apostolate?”
"I am, Sister.”
"To give up all to serve our Lord Jesus Christ ...”
“I am.”
"... for He who clothes the lilies of the field and provides for the little sparrows cares infinitely more for the needs of His brides.”
Kate is asked to choose a new name.
She picks "Mary" after Christ's. mother and "Vincent," which is her brother's name, but also the name of one of God's saints. When she later becomes a professed nun, she may decide for herself whether she wishes to continue using the name she chose at the beginning of her novitiate. But as she starts her instruction in the Holy Rule, and the obligations of the vows, and the spiritual life, she is Sister Mary Vincent.
A year later, just as she is ready to take her first vows, she tells Sister Carmelita that she wishes to leave the order.
9.
"It's called a qualified act of exclaustration," Carella said.
"Sounds dirty," Brown said.
"It's like a leave of absence from the diocese. What it amounted to, Kate wanted to check out for a year.”
“The Head Penguin told you this?”
“On the phone last night.”
"You can do that, huh? Just say, "Hey, I think I want to go home for a year, see you later?" ' "It's not that easy. There are complicated church laws regarding all this. From what Carmelita told me, qualified exclaustration isn't a penalty, it's a grace. A favor. Its purpose is to help the religious person to overcome a vocation crisis. It's granted only when there's a reasonable hope of recovery.”
"Meaning they expected to get her back.”
“Exactly. Carmelita talked it over with her cabinet, and they tried to figure out the best way they could help Kate. Who was already Mary Vincent by then, don't forget. I wonder why she chose her brother's name?”
“Are they allowed to use men's names?”
“Carmelita says it's okay long as they're saints' names. You think there are any nuns out there named Sister Peter Paul?”
"In a mausoleum colossal," Brown quoted, "the explorers discovered a fossil. They could tell by the bend, and the knob on the end, 'twas the peter of Paul the Apostle.”
"You're not a very religious person, are you?" Carella said.
"You suppose? What else did the Top Tux have to say?”
"She said, believe it or not, their conversations with Kate were not about getting her to stay. Instead, they were trying to support her, help her make the best possible decision. She told me lots of nuns leave the order for various reasons. They're fed up, they're mixed up, they're in love, they may just want to clear out their heads.”
"Why'd Kate want to leave all of a sudden?”
“She wanted to be a rock singer.”
Brown turned to look at him. The detectives were sitting side by side in proper lightweight business suits, shirts, and ties, on the 9:20 A.M. train to Philadelphia, due to arrive at the 30th Street Station at 10:42. They looked like commuting businessmen, except they didn't have newspapers. Vincent Cochran knew they were coming. Carella had called him early this morning. "A rock singer," Brown repeated. "Yes.”
"A singing nun.”
"That's how she first got interested in the church, 9”
remember? The God-given voice.
"So now she wanted to leave the order ...”
"Just for a year. To take voice lessons, get a job with a band ...”
"This must've gone over very big with Carmelita, huh?".
"Actually, she took it pretty calmly. Suggested Kate see a psychiatrist ...”
"That's taking it calmly, all right.”
"Asked her not to be hasty, explained the benefits of exclaustration ...”
"Still sounds dirty.”
"... and the drawbacks. Told her there'd be documents to sign if she decided to go ahead with this, explained that the order might not accept her back if she decided to return after her year away “
"I thought it was a leave of absence.”
"More or less. Carmelita struck me as a very unusual person, Artie.
Almost a visionary. She felt that if Kate believed so strongly in what she wanted to do, then maybe it was what God wanted for her. A calling of another sort. This new career, this new walk of life. And if that's what God wanted, then Carmelita was there to encourage Kate. Try it, she told her. See what happens. If you're truly serious about singing ...”
“Rock singing?”
"I got the feeling she'd have preferred opera. But God works in mysterious ways ...”
"So they let her go.”
"Eventually. It took about four months before she signed off. That was in San Diego. Apparently, you have to end it in your original diocese. Kate went out on her own, started managing her own money ...”
"Money again," Brown said.
"... kept in touch with the convent as requested ...”
“She ever become a rock singer?”
"The last Carmelita heard, she'd signed with a talent agent.”
"Which one?”
“She didn't know?”
“Here? L.A.?”
“She didn't know.”
"Got to be one or the other. Where else are there talent agents?”
"In any case, it didn't work out.”
"What do you mean?”
"Knocked on the convent door six months after she'd left. Said she'd had a conversion and seen the light, wanted to be taken back in.”
"Big Mama must've been tickled to death.”
"She was. This past June, Kate took her final vows?”
“And now she's dead.”
"Now she's dead," Carella said. "Here's our station.”
It was difficult to draw a family resemblance. They had seen Kate only after she'd been murdered, her face already beginning to look bloated in the summer heat. Vincent Cochran was a tall thin man with Kate's blue eyes, though hers had been open and staring when first they'd seen her. He had the same blondish hair, too, though hers was disheveled and tangled after the struggle that had left her dead on a park path.
Cochran looked as annoyed as he'd sounded on the telephone the first time they'd spoken to him, when he'd hung up on them, and the next time they'd spoken to him, only this morning, when he'd finally agreed to see them if they came to Philadelphia. The reason he'd acquiesced was the phone bills. Carella showed him those bills now.