‘The bishop is Robert Meade and Andrew Malone is the archbishop of Southwark.’

‘And how would I go about contacting them?’

‘The diocesan head office is at Archbishop’s House in St George’s Road, Southwark. The archbishop is currently visiting the Vatican, helping to organise Pope John Paul II’s forthcoming visit to the UK.’

‘I never realised churches in Bromley would come under Southwark,’ Jane remarked.

‘The archdiocese covers a wide area of London, Kent and Surrey. There are 180 parishes in it.’

‘Do you know much about the old convent?’ Jane asked.

‘Not really. I only became the parish priest here ten months ago. I was told the Sisters of Mercy nuns lived and worked at the convent from the mid-1800s until the mid-sixties, then a local man bought it and built a load of flats.’

‘Why did the Church sell the convent?’ Jane asked.

‘One of my regular Sunday worshippers told me that during the early sixties the number of nuns slowly declined, and the convent became unmanageable for the few that remained. Eventually escalating running costs meant they had to move out.’

‘Would the convent land have been consecrated when it was first built?’

‘I’d have thought the church and any graveyard land would have been.’

‘Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, but what exactly is consecrated ground according to the Catholic faith?’

‘Catholic burials are steeped in tradition, with specific rules that date back thousands of years. Our doctrine requires human remains be buried in consecrated ground, or ground blessed by a bishop and deemed an appropriate final resting place by the Church.’

‘We haven’t found any indication that the coffin was in a communal cemetery,’ Jane said.

‘What sort of coffin was it?’

‘No name plate, grey metal, with a large inlaid silver cross on top and about six to seven feet long.’

‘A priest or bishop might be buried in that type of coffin. Nuns are usually buried in a wooden coffin, but that’s just conjecture on my part.’

‘Don’t worry, Father, as a detective I’m often guilty of conjecture myself. Quite a bit of digging work has already been done by the developer and no other coffins or headstones have been found on the land . . . as yet.’

‘If any nuns or priests were buried on the convent grounds then they’d probably have had a small wooden or metal cross in the ground to remember them by. Headstones are too expensive. It’s also possible any nuns who died at the convent were reburied in another graveyard on consecrated ground.’

‘Would it be local?’

‘Possibly. St Luke’s, Magpie Hall Lane, is the nearest cemetery.’

Jane made a note. ‘There’s one last thing. I wondered, if the coffin is empty, who should I restore it to?’

‘If it’s helpful, I can speak with Bishop Meade for you. I’m sure he’ll know a lot more than me about the old convent and what should be done with the coffin and its contents.’

‘I’d appreciate that. Is there a phone number I can contact you on to let you know if there is, or isn’t, a body in the coffin?’