by Douglas Hall
“Seen enough to convince you that I am not exaggerating?” Culpepper waited a moment for everyone to look out the window then ordered, “Close the blind, Deputy King.”
“Before we begin,” intoned Brunson, “let me go on record, in front of these witnesses, and say I object to your high-handed conduct and that of your officers in the strongest of terms possible. This is an outrageous invasion of privacy. I shall be advising my client Pastor Paul Proctor to instruct me to proceed with legal action.”
“So noted and that is Pastor Paul’s privilege, but by the time I am finished, I think you will have more pressing things to take up your time.”
Noticing that Brockhurst was typing on her laptop, Culpepper turned to West, “Would you kindly relieve Miss Brockhurst of her laptop and give it to one of the deputies at the door to be marked as evidence and ask one of the female deputies to join us.”
Brockhurst reacted angrily. She slapped down the laptop lid and held it close to her ample bosom with two folded arms.
“If you will, madam,” instructed West as he half-wrenched the laptop from her grasp.
“While you are at it, please relieve Pastor Paul of his laptop.”
Proctor reacted defensively, “My sermon for next Sunday is saved on it.”
“We will want to see what else is on it, and I don’t think you will be needing it for next Sunday,” Culpepper countered.
Looking pleadingly at Brunson, all Proctor received in return was a nod and “you have no choice; give it to him”.
Culpepper sent a further chill throughout the room when he said, “All computers in the business office will be seized as well, and I shall be asking Miss Brockhurst to supply a list of passwords necessary to open them and all directory files. Am I correct in assuming that all files, especially financial, are backed up and stored on an external hard drive?”
Before replying, Brockhurst stared at Brunson for directions but received none. His head was down and he avoided eye contact.
“I shall take that as a ‘yes’. I’ll have the officer, who just entered, accompany you to your office to obtain the external backup drives after we are finished here. Please cooperate.”
“And just who will be checking the confidential content of those files,” Brunson asked as he tried to keep his growing anger in check.
“My two deputies. Trust me, they are experienced in such matters.”
This was Culpepper’s show as West and King became side line observers which they enjoyed as they watched a master as he reeled in his catch.
“May I ask just what your deputies will be looking for,” Brunson asked.
“You may and I’ll tell you. They will want to see Sammy Pines bank records going back to the period before the Canadian girl went missing to ascertain if any Child Waiting deposits can be identified as coming from her. They will also want the names and addresses of all monthly contributors. In addition, they will be checking company and personal iPhones for text messages of interest, so kindly give Deputy King your iPhones.”
Jayden Mayfield was the one to react when he heard Culpepper mention banking records.
His face flushed. The reaction caught Culpepper’s attention.
“I am sure you will be asked to assist the deputies, Jayden. Your background knowledge and input will be invaluable. I ask you to make yourself available and give them your full cooperation.”
“I am no longer a bank employee,” Mayfield spluttered. “I was terminated late last evening, and I signed a non-disclosure. I cannot discuss any business the bank conducted on behalf of Sammy Pines which I was privy to during my tenure as bank manager. To do so would cost me my pension and I could be sued.”
“It could also put you in jail for contempt,” Culpepper suggested.
“That could be argued,” Brunson countered.
“Not successfully I would venture.”
The only reaction between Brockhurst and Proctor, while Culpepper’s questioning was going on, were furtive glances that did not miss the notice of Culpepper and his deputies.
“Are you through with this witch hunt, or do you have more?” Brunson asked in exasperation. He feared the worst was to come and was not to be disappointed.
“There is one more item on my agenda, and it is suspected rape and murder,” Culpepper said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
Brockhurst gasped and put a hand over her mouth. Proctor stiffened in his chair.
“Why do you have to make such an outrageous, accusatory and damnable statement?!” Brunson demanded with as much authority as he could summon.
“I have the sworn statement of a witness who said she was told by Cindy Madison, who I am sure your clients know better as Ashley Kirk, when she was an employee of Sammy Pines. She is willing to swear under oath that she had been raped by Pastor Proctor in the boathouse and was going to the police, but there was someone she had had to see first. She disappeared that night never to be heard from again.”
Proctor exploded in rage and denial. Before he could say anything damaging, Brunson ordered him, in a stern voice, to remain silent.
“Young girls who have been rejected can become vengeful. It’s an historical fact. I put the question to you, Pastor Paul. Did this girl in question ever come on to you?” Culpepper asked.
Proctor cleared his throat, “Yes, more than once.”
“Did anyone witness it?”
“Yes, my executive assistant.”
“Is that correct, Miss Brockhurst?”
“Yes.”
“Once, twice or more times?”
Everyone had their eyes glued on Brockhurst, “I never kept track but it was more than once I can tell you that.”
“Did you do anything about it?” Culpepper kept boring in.
“I really felt sorry for her. I remember what I was like when I came to work for his father as a young girl fresh out of high school. The hormones were raging, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him when his father let him preach, I understood what she was going through, and I really felt sorry for her…I really did.”
Proctor fidgeted in his chair and ran a hand over his perspiring forehead.
“Did you tell Pastor Paul what you just told me?” Culpepper asked.
“Yes,” Brockhurst said, “I told him to be careful around her because she had the hots for him.”
“What did he have to say to that?”
“He just laughed and said all the young ladies had the hots for him. I didn’t like it.”
“Why didn’t you like it?”
“Too many men of God have had their ministries shattered by not seeing the signs and crossing the line.”
“I don’t recall hearing gossip like that when it came to his father.”
“You didn’t, sheriff, and you never will. If you recall, at the time, I let my feelings known about what I thought of him and what I thought of you when you came to arrest him.”
“Indeed, I do, and for years following, you refused to even talk to me and would cross Moody Brook’s main street if you saw me coming towards you.”
“Can you blame me? Now you are up to your old tricks and are crucifying another man of God.”
“I am just doing the job I was elected to do and make no apology.”
“It’s the last vote you’ll get from me.”
“I was warmed to see you come to the defence of the young woman who appeared to have been infatuated with the charismatic, single and high-profile man she had probably ever come in contact with.”
“Someone had to warn her to back off.”
“Why you?”
“I remembered what I went through. I liked her and felt sorry for her.”
“Then to the best of your knowledge, this young impressionable girl was no longer an amorous threat after you had a word with her?” Culpepper asked.
“Correct, I thought I had gotten through to her.”
“Were you surprised when she disappeared in the dead of night without any warning?”
&
nbsp; Brockhurst shook her head, “Not really, I am sure she was embarrassed and left under the cover of darkness. She was not the first who had the wisdom to know that the only solution to an awkward situation was to leave.”
“Do you know these girls by name?”
“Of course, I remember each one!” Brockhurst replied with a defeated tone of voice.
“Did you warn any of the others like you warned Ashley Kirk?”
“I believe I did.”
“Did they back off as you call it?”
“I suppose so. I can’t remember.”
“Did any leave in the middle of the night never to be heard from again?”
“I can’t recall. Girls are always coming and going.”
“I will need the names and addresses of any girls who left service over the past three years. Give them to the deputy when she escorts you to your office. Make sure that you give her everything as I don’t want to have to come back.”
“Whatever do you want that information for?”
“I will want to talk to them and hear their side of the story.”
Brunson could not believe that Brockhurst had been so fatuous as to totally ignore his counsel to be careful in how she answered questions. Ignoring it left him no option but to play hardball and try to salvage anything positive that might remain.
“Miss Brockhurst has put everything in clear perspective, and you are left with nothing more than the wildest conjecture to justify your outrageous course of action. I ask you, with respect, to remove yourself and your deputies from Sammy Pines and issue a written apology to Pastor Paul and Miss Brockhurst with an acknowledgement that there was no justification to support this invasion of privacy and the seizing of documents and computers.”
“I believe we are finished,” Culpepper said with a nod to West and King. He stood up and headed for the door with West and King in step behind him. Before he reached, there was a knock on the door. He opened it and a forensic officer in his Tyvek suit whispered to Culpepper. He listened without comment then closed the door and returned to the room with West and King.
He was the centre of attention as he stood with his eyes looking down then raising his head he scanned the faces peering at him and said, “I have just been giving new information. The cadaver dogs found something and it changes everything. I shall return in the fullness of time so everyone will remain here with a deputy at the door until I return.”
Mandy was standing by the open reception door with a look of utter shock registering on her face. She pointed to the veranda when Culpepper arrived with West and King. It was a shamble. Every potted canna lily had been yanked out and scattered on the veranda floor and the cadaver dogs were in the back of the police car barking incessantly.
Before Culpepper could say anything, the forensic officer said in a low controlled tone so that nothing would be missed, “We were just about to leave and the handlers were leading the dogs past the building when they set up an uproar. They had smelled decomposition. They led the handlers to the veranda and began sniffing the pots holding the canna lilies. It didn’t take long to confirm that they had smelt items of interest once the first plant was pulled out. At the bottom of the pot was something wrapped in butcher paper and tied with butcher string. The officers are not finished, and at last count when I came for you, they had found eight items of interest. I suspect that count will go up by the time they are finished…there are still a lot of pots to do.”
“What did they find?”
“Body parts, but it will take an autopsy to confirm identification. They haven’t found the head yet. I contacted the chief coroner in Birmingham, and we were ordered not to touch a thing with the exception of opening up each pot. He is coming by helicopter and will be here shortly. We are to stay put until he arrives.”
“You did well, officer. I and my two deputies will wait with you for the coroner. In the meantime, I will send the search deputies back to their headquarters.”
“More than one body?” West asked.
“No idea, but I can tell you this, if it is only one, it was cut up into small portions.”
“Anything to report on your sweep of the boathouse?” Culpepper asked the forensic officer.
“I was about to write it up as a clean sweep when one of the officers spotted the hand tools hanging on the wall and decided to give them a look. A small residue which looks like blood and tissue was found between the teeth of a hand-held electric saw. A swabbed was taken for DNA analysis, and it will be crossed referenced with existing DNA on file.”
“My short-term deputy, who is a Canadian police inspector and is working on the case of a missing girl, could arrange to have her DNA sent to you for comparison.”
“That would be helpful. We will be on it as soon as everything gets back to the lab. I’ll call immediately with the results.”
“I appreciate that, officer. If you will excuse me, I and my two deputies have some business to attend to in Pastor Paul’s study.”
Culpepper was prepared for the blast he would receive from Brunson when he told him that he and Mayfield were free to leave, but Proctor and Brockhurst would remain under guard.
“Outrageous!” trumpeted Brunson. “I thought this charade was over.”
“That was then and this is now. I have just been provided solid evidence to justify holding Pastor Proctor and Miss Brockhurst.”
“Explain.”
“The cadaver dogs set up a howl when they hit on the smell of decomposition coming from the flower pots on the veranda. Forensics found body parts in the bottom under the canna lilies. If that isn’t enough to charge your clients with suspicion of murder, there were miniscule drops of blood and bits of tissue found on the blade of an electric hand saw in the boathouse. Too early to tell if they came from the missing Canadian girl, but the DNA will be cross checked with Cindy Madison’s.”
Proctor turned white and Brockhurst sucked in her breath.
“Please stand up, and put your hands behind your back while Deputy West and Deputy King apply handcuffs, and I’ll read you both your rights. I am arresting you Pastor Paul Proctor and you Miss Brockhurst on suspicion of the murder of Cindy Madison.”
Proctor and Brockhurst stood stone-faced as Culpepper read the full Miranda rights to both of them.
“Can he do this, Gaylord?” Proctor asked in a pathetic wail.
“I am afraid he can, and I recommend that both of you do what he says without protest. These charges have yet to be proven in a court of law. I shall be appearing before a judge before the day is out to ask for immediate bail. Based upon your sterling records in Moody Brook, I feel confident it will be granted. May I go now, Virgil? I have a lot a work ahead of me and don’t want to waste a moment,” Brunson’s bluster and tone of voice had changed dramatically.
“Please do.”
“And me as well?” a subdued Jayden Mayfield asked.
Culpepper stepped aside, “By all means.”
Once Mayfield and Brunson hurriedly left, Culpepper gave instruction to the two deputies in the room, “Please escort these two to Deputy Bain who will be waiting by his vehicle. They will be transported to headquarters and placed in the holding cell until Mr Brunson can work his bail magic.”
“Sheriff, can I do something before I am taken away?”
“And what is that?”
“I’d like to ask Bethany Walker if she would look after my cat or arrange with someone to do it.”
“She is in reception, and you can speak to her on the way out.”
“Allow Miss Brockhurst ample time to have a word with Miss Walker on the way out.”
Culpepper instructed the deputy.
“By the way,” Culpepper said to Brockhurst, “Bethany Walker isn’t her real name.”
“It’s Mandy Perkins and she works for me,” West added.
“She was a plant,” Proctor snarled with no attempt to mask his anger.
“And an exceptional one,” Culpepper replied. “We would not b
e nearly as close to solving this murder if it wasn’t for her outstanding experience and ability to follow orders to the letter.”
Twenty-Two
TO CULPEPPERS SURPRISE, but not disappointment, Brunson’s eloquent and moving motion for bail was turned down. He energetically argued, but to no avail, that Proctor and Brockhurst were not flight risks and their outstanding, unblemished reputations in the Moody Brook area were more than enough to grant them bail. They were transferred, late at night, to the county jail and lodged in segregated cells away from the general population.
Having been through the media circus when Pastor Sammy was arrested, and charged with money laundering, Culpepper told West and King what to expect. He followed with a surprise request. He wanted them to stay on to interrogate Brockhurst, Proctor and Mayfield before they returned to Canada. He needed their hard-hitting interviews to present to the district attorney in order to show just cause before he assigned a prosecutor, in his office, to take the case to court.
There would be many unanswered questions to be asked once forensic submitted the DNA report on the blood drops and tissue found in the boathouse. The coroner’s complete autopsy, on all the body parts, hopefully, would reveal the cause of death and his report, which would take another couple of days, at least, would be crucial as to how they handled their interviews.
In addition, he wanted the money laundering fully investigated. It was no longer speculation but a proven fact thanks to Mandy’s diligent work. Further questioning of Jayden Mayfield was also on the books but that could come later.
It was a request they couldn’t refuse. Since Mandy had fulfilled her duties and was longer needed at Sammy Pines, West told her to return home. Before she left, she had a suggestion which completely floored West and King and further confirmed her importance to the investigation.
“I have had the opportunity of get to know Thelma Jean Turner and I liked her,” Mandy said. "She is refreshingly candid and honest. If she is cut loose, God only knows where she will land next, and she could be difficult to find when it came time to subpoena her as a witness. She can’t return home because she wouldn’t be welcomed once her father knew that she was the one who fingered Proctor.