Altarboy novel · Chapter 7 of 24
Chapter 7: Locked Out
On Saturday at a quarter to four, forty-one people stood on the church steps in the cold, and the doors would not open.
Kaz stood among them in his hoodie with his hands jammed in his armpits.
Fintan was at the main doors with his ring of keys.
He had tried every one twice.
"The lock's new," he said.
He said it flatly, and Kaz saw the muscle jump in his jaw.
Beside the doors, a young man in a gray work shirt was packing a toolbox into a van with CITYWIDE LOCK stenciled on the side.
"Diocese order," the locksmith said. "Safety review. Ms. Pelc has the keys."
"Where is Ms. Pelc?" Fintan said.
"Inside the car."
She was.
Halina Pelc sat in a silver sedan at the curb with the window down an inch and her clipboard on the steering wheel.
She did not get out.
A ripple of anger ran through the steps.
"It's the vigil," one of the widows said. "People have come."
"I'm afraid the building is closed pending a structural inspection," Halina called through the gap. "For everyone's safety. Mass will be held at the chancery chapel."
"That's across the river," said another widow.
"There is a bus."
"Father can't take a bus."
"Then Father can rest."
Father Cyril stood at the edge of the steps in his good black coat, turning his hat in his hands.
He looked, Kaz thought, very small.
"Is it Sunday?" he said.
Nobody answered him.
Fintan stood with his arms hanging, looking at the doors like a man looking at a death notice.
He could have broken them.
Kaz could see it in the set of his shoulders, and he could see the sedan too, and the phone in Halina's hand, held up just inside the window.
She wanted it.
She wanted a picture of the sexton kicking in the church door.
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