He flicked a switch and the machine got to work, making a terrible grinding noise. When Meehan was satisfied, he switched off and unscrewed a metal urn on the underside and showed it to Fallon, who saw that it was about three-quarters full of powdery grey ash.
“You notice there’s a label already on the urn?5 Meehan said. “That’s very important. We do everything in strict rotation. No possibility of a mistake.” He pulled open a drawer in a nearby desk and took out a white card edged in black. “And the next of kin get one of these with the plot number on.
What we call a Rest-in-Peace card. Now come outside and I’ll show you the final step.”
It was still raining as they moved along the path at the back of the building between cypress trees. They came out into a lawned area, criss-crossed by box hedges. The edges of the paths were lined with numbered plates.
A gardener was working away beside a wheelbarrow hoeing a flower-bed and Meehan called, “More work for the under-taker, Fred. Better note it down in your little black book.”
The gardener produced a notebook into which he entered the particulars typed on the urn label. “Number five hundred and thirty-seven, Mr.. Meehan,” he said when he’d finished.
“All right, Fred, get it down,” Meehan told him.
The gardener moved to the plate with the correct number and strewed the ashes across the damp grass. Then he got a besom and brushed them in.
Meehan turned to Fallon. “That’s it. The whole story. Ashes to ashes. A Rest-in-Peace card with the right number on it is all that’s left.”
They walked back towards the chapel. Meehan said, Td rather be buried myself. It’s more fitting, but you’ve got to give people what they want”
They went round to the front of the chapel. Billy and Bonati had gone, but Dormer was still there and Varley had arrived in the other limousine. The crematorium superintendent appeared, wanting a word with Meehan, and Fallon was for the moment left alone.
The stench of that open grave was still in his nostrils. Just inside the main door to the chapel there was a toilet and he went inside and bathed his face and hands in cold water.
A pane of glass in the small window above the basin was missing and rain drifted through. He stood there for a moment, suddenly depressed. The open grave, the toeless feet protruding from the rotting coffin had been a hell of a start to the day and now this. A man came down to so little in the end. A handful of ashes.
When he went outside, Meehan was waiting for him. “Well, that’s it,” he said. Do you want to see another one?”
“Not if I can help it.”
Meehan chuckled. I’ve got two more this morning, but never mind. Varley can take you back to Jenny’s place.” He grinned broadly. “Not worth going out on a day like this unless you have to. I’d stay in if I were you. I mean, it could get interesting. She’s a real little firecracker when she gets going is our Jenny.”
“I know,” Fallon said. “You told me.”
He got into the rear seat of the limousine and Varley drove away. Instead of going down to the main gate, he followed a track that was barely wide enough for the car and round to the right through trees.
“I hope you don’t mind, Mr.. Fallon, but it saves a good mile and a half this way.”
They came to a five-barred gate. He got out, opened it, drove through and got out to close the gate again. The main road was fifty yards farther on at the end of the track.
As they moved down towards the centre of the city, Fallon said, “You can drop me anywhere here, Charlie.”
“But you can’t do that, Mr.. Fallon. You know you can’t,” Varley groaned. “You know what Mr.. Meehan said. I’ve got to take you back to Jenny’s place.”
“Well, you tell Mr.. Meehan, with my compliments, that he can do the other thing.”
They were moving along Rockingham Street now and as they came to the Holy Name, Fallon leaned over suddenly and switched off the ignition. As the car coasted to a halt, he opened the door, jumped out and crossed the road, Varley ùwatched him go into the side entrance of the church, then drove rapidly away to report.