28th November 2021
Veronica, the organist at St Cyprian’s is ill. She had a fall yesterday and broke her wrist. We were surprised to find her substitute playing at the early Mass this morning. We don’t usually have music, but the young organist who was standing in for her wanted a dry run before the main event at 11. He was only about thirteen, but he tackled Bach like a professional! Jonah, who seems to know about theses things (Is there anything that he isn’t an expert on?!) says that they were some really difficult pieces. Then, we had an even bigger surprise, when his mother gave us a solo rendition of “Let all mortal flesh keep silence” while Father Damien was distributing the host. Apparently, the family have been coming to the 11 o’clock services for months, but of course we always go to the early one, so we’ve never met them before.
The really queer thing happened after the end of the service, when Father Damien introduced us and it turned out that the boy, Gabriel, was actually in Goose Lane at about the time when Andy’s murder must have taken place. He might be a key witness! Jonah would have cross-examined him then and there, but Father Damien wasn’t having any of it! We’d already invited Andy for tea – to give hm an opportunity to get whatever it was he rang about yesterday off his chest with Peter – so now he knows and he’s going to interview Gabriel tomorrow.