“First things first. Could have been someone pranking you.”
“Or not.” I frowned. “Are you thinking this could be related to Sister Erma’s death?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. At least not yet.”
“But…” I heaved a sigh as I spotted Houston Gregory headed our way from his church next door. I waved at my friend, watching him amble across the parking lot, his suit coat flapping in the wind.
“Houston’s looking a bit more like himself these days,” I said. Enduring pneumonia, not to mention a terrifying kidnapping and escape, would take the wind out of anyone’s sails. But Houston also bore the daily burden of loving someone who was trapped in the clutches of addiction.
“It’s been a hard road.” Todd took my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “But Houston is making it with God’s help, and we are going to make it through whatever happens with all this too.”
I gave him a half-smile. “I’m glad you said ‘we’ and not ‘you’.”
His gaze softened, and the promise in it made my knees turn to mush.
Too bad Houston chose that moment to trip over Purl.
Todd and I both grabbed for him, but he caught himself before he pitched into the hedge of nandinas. Purl lumbered over to sit on Todd’s foot, clueless.
“Hi there.” I grinned up at Houston, grateful for a moment of normalcy in a difficult day.
Houston swiped his curly brown hair back from his forehead. “You know me. Always have to make a grand entrance.”
Todd and I laughed. The Reverend Houston Gregory was about as theatrical as a door knob.
“How are you, man?” Todd flung an arm around Houston’s shoulder for a quick man-hug. “Been praying for you.”
“Thanks. I’m…regaining my balance, I think. No pun intended.” He smiled at me. “And learning how to be at peace in the midst of the storm.”
We both nodded. Despite pastoring First Church for years, Houston was a new follower of Christ, having realized during last year’s crises that he had never accepted Christ’s offer of salvation until then. Now, he led his church and his life with the enthusiasm and joy of his new-found faith.
“I’m glad I caught you, Callie,” he said. “Sylvia keeps delivering your mail to the church for some reason. This morning, she dropped off a bunch of big boxes outside the door, then hopped back in her truck and was gone before I could talk to her. And Mona’s out today.”
“Probably that shipment of back-ordered yarn. I hope Sylvia figures things out before too long.” I had three customers waiting for that yarn, and it had already taken a week longer than promised. “I’ll walk over to the church with you to see what I’ve got.”
Todd’s walkie talkie squawked. He grabbed it off his belt and barked something into it, then grabbed me in a brief hug before heading toward his truck. “I’ve got to run. I’ll meet you at the Hope House meeting later, okay? I’ll be praying.”
“Okay. Be careful.” I sighed as he left. Why did I have to fall in love with someone who had such a dangerous job?
“He’ll be fine, Callie.” Houston kicked at a dandelion sticking up out of a crack in the pavement. “One day at a time, right?”
I grimaced as we headed toward the church. “Sometimes more like ‘one hour at a time’.”
“Or one minute at a time.”
Speaking of which… “How is Nicole doing with her recovery?”
Houston stroked Annie’s black back. “On the whole, I would say she’s doing pretty well. Some days are tougher than others, especially since she’s dealing with so much more than just drug addiction.”
I nodded. Nicole’s plight of being sex-trafficked had been the impetus for our decision to open a place of healing for other such young women in our community. “I wish we had Hope House already up and running now.”
Houston stayed silent, keeping pace with me as we each grabbed a box of yarn and headed back toward C. Willikers. All three dogs trailed behind us.
“Man, it’s hot for spring.” I could feel the heat rising from the blacktop. “Gonna be a hot summer.”
We pushed through the open spot in the hedge, then stopped.
An enormous semi-truck idled in front of my shop, the sun glinting off the white cab. “Surprise!” Mona and her husband, Rob, popped out from behind the truck, all smiles. “Do you like it?”
Houston and I stared. “This is yours?”
Rob nodded, beaming, his hand on Mona’s shoulder. He towered over her in his Sunday-best boots. “We done saved up for this baby for a long time, didn’t we, honey bun?” He squeezed Mona to his side.
“Wow, guys! I’m so happy for you.” Except that this might mean I’d lose my best friend. Mona sometimes talked about going on the road with Rob, but I’d sort of hoped she wouldn’t.
Houston plunked the box down on the porch, then joined Rob to thump the tires or whatever things men do when they are smitten with a motorized vehicle.
Mona bustled over to me, her cloud of perfume preceding her by about ten feet. “Can you believe we actually got it? Rob found it online, and we kept praying and praying that God would show us if this was the one, and it was all the way up in Amarillo. We weren’t sure we were going to get it, but I kept tellin’ Rob that we just had to have a slither of faith and God would let us have it if it was the right one. We drove right on up there yesterday and then right back here.”
She paused for a breath.
I truly had been listening, but I got stuck on the “slither of faith” and missed the rest of what she said. “I don’t know much about trucks, but it looks like it’s in good shape.”
“In good shape?” Her bracelets clacked together as she waved her arm toward the truck. “It’s practically new. Well, it was until we took the grandkids for a ride in it this morning and Llewellyn spilled his blue razzleberry slushy in the cab. Thought Rob would have a conniption right then and there. But y’all know how he’s been lettin’ the Lord work on his temper, so he just hollered a little bit. Then we got it all cleaned up and took the kids home.”
“Wow. Sounds like quite a morning.” I felt dizzy just thinking about it, especially the part about taking all nine of the grandkids for a ride. At once. “So…when are you and Rob hitting the road?”
She stiffened, and her eyes filled with tears.
Uh-oh. I must have said something wrong. “I’m sorry. I thought—”
She shook her head, then dabbed at her eyes. “It’s okay. Rob’s been all fired up to buy the truck, and I’m so happy and excited for him because he’s dreamed of having his own for, like, forever, and I didn’t want to do anything that would ruin this special time for him. But, Callie, I’m so worried.” She moved closer to me and clutched my forearm, her back to the men. “I found a lump in my breast yesterday morning. A pretty big one.”
Chapter Seven
I winced, reading the naked fear in her eyes.
Oh, my dear friend. I covered her hand with my own. “I’m sorry. That’s so scary. Did you schedule an appointment?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to tell Rob yet.” Her gaze pleaded with me. “We’ve talked and dreamed for years about the time when we’d finally be able to be together all of the time, and all the things we’d do and places we’d get to see and now…” She crossed her arms over her ample bosom. “I can’t tell him yet.”
“I understand. But don’t you want him to go to your appointment with you? You might feel better if he was with you.”
She shook her head, her enormous heart-shaped earrings jangling. “No. This first appointment is only a mammogram. I’ve done a billion of those dang things in my lifetime, and he won’t have to know that it’s not just my annual routine appointment.”
She wasn’t going to listen to me, but I said it anyway. “I think he should know. It would be better for you two to face this together.”
“No.” She shook her head again. “Not yet.”
I sighed
. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No. I can do this by myself.”
“But you don’t have to.” Why was she being so stubborn?
“But I’m going to. I only told you so you could pray for me, okay?” Her lip quivered.
“You know I will. When is the appointment?”
“What appointment?” Rob strode up behind Mona, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Her head didn’t even come up to the middle of his chest, but she leaned into his embrace. His white beard touched the top of her head.
“Oh, nothing important.” Mona nodded toward Houston. “What’d you think of the truck, boss?”
Houston raised his eyebrows. “If it was a woman, I’d be in love,” he drawled, and Rob beamed. “Seriously, though, does this mean I’m going to lose my receptionist?”
Wrong question, Houston. I tried to send him the message, but he wasn’t the best at picking up on nonverbal communication.
But Mona fielded it with her usual spunk. “What? You really think I’d leave you in the middle of the church kitchen remodel? And with Lent almost upon us? And don’t even get me started on Hope House, because you know I have to be around for that.”
Yes, yes you do, friend. I swallowed hard. Please, Lord…
Rob chuckled, hooking his thumb into the belt loop of his jeans. “You can have her for a little while longer, Preacher. But after that, this good-looking gal is all mine. We’ve been waitin’ ten years for this, haven’t we, sugar dumplin’?”
She smiled up at him, and my heart broke at the thought of what may lie ahead. Rob and Mona had married later in life, after they had each already raised families, made many mistakes, and lived a lot of life. Finding the Lord and each other a decade ago had been a dream come true for both of them. To have something like this happen—
Houston nodded. “I understand. I’m pleased to hear that I don’t have to go looking for someone else right now.”
“You’ll never find anyone to replace Mona.” I teased Houston. “Who else would remind you to make sure your socks match? Or that your glasses are out of style?”
“There is that,” he said dryly. “You’d better stick around, Mona.”
I nodded, looking her in the eye. “Yeah, you better stick around, Mona.”
I pulled up to my little house on Peach Street. Its mature oaks, cheery flower garden, and white lace-curtained windows never failed to welcome me back to my own peaceful sanctuary. Here, I could put aside the noise and busyness of the day and relax.
“Whew, what a day,” I said to the dogs.
They all clambered out the second I slid open the door of my van. I had bought it mostly for flower deliveries, but it came in handy taxiing around two pugs and a German shepherd. I didn’t always take the dogs to the shop with me, but the customers seemed to enjoy having them around, and it seemed better than leaving them home alone all day. Today, they had seen their share of adventure between the field trip to the church and then Rob and Mona’s visit.
I grabbed the mail from my box next to the street, then set it and my purse on the rocking chair beside the front door and turned on the hose. We had received a fair amount of rain in the last couple of weeks, but the pots of pansies on the front porch were sheltered from the weather. I took my time watering them, admiring their lovely velvety petals in various deep shades of blues, purples and mauves.
A muffled ring sounded from my purse. I ran for it, hoping it would be Todd with information about the mysterious caller.
It wasn’t. I sank down on the porch steps. “Hey, Karen.” I hadn’t talked to my friend since the other day when she came by the shop but had been mulling over the circumstances surrounding Sister Erma’s death.
“Hi, do you have a minute?” Karen sounded frazzled.
“Sure. Just got home from the shop. Are you hanging in there?”
“Yes, but I’m still bothered by everything. The sheriff’s office won’t give me much information. It’s so frustrating.”
“Surely they’d let you read their report.” I noticed a tip of green poking up through the mulch next to the steps. The daffodils were coming up.
“Oh, well, they did do that. But that’s the problem. Because she was older, and nothing seemed amiss to them, they never looked into it like they should have.”
The pugs wandered up to me, and I pulled Intarsia into my lap. “Hmm. I wish Todd had been there that day. Of all the times for him to be in Dallas—”
“I know, right?”
“Maybe he can still find something out.” I smoothed my hand down the pug’s sleek black fur. “Have you talked to Sharlene? Did the sheriff ever talk to her?” I hated to think it, but I had been bothered by the thought of Sharlene’s possible involvement since that first day she showed up at C. Willikers crying about it. And now with the caller’s threat fresh in my memory…
“Yes, I talked to her the day after Grandma passed. She was super upset and kept saying that it was her fault and maybe if she had been there, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“I don’t see how she could have prevented anything by being there.” Unless she was the one who had done it.
Done what?
We had already discussed this once, but I had to make sure we were both on the same page. “Karen, are you telling me that you believe for certain that Sister Erma did not die of natural causes?”
She blew out her breath. “Yes, that’s what I believe. I can’t prove it yet, but I can’t ignore what I saw and what I sense in my spirit. I don’t believe that her death was caused from something normal.”
“Okay.” I gulped. This did not have anything to do with my muffins. “But why would anyone want to harm your grandma?”
“I have no idea, but I keep praying and praying about it. If someone did kill her, it was obviously on purpose, and what if that person would try to do that again to someone else?”
“What does Justin think?” Karen’s husband, Justin, was a level-headed guy if ever there was one.
“He’s not convinced that it wasn’t a natural cause, but he understands my need to know so I can have closure. I wish we had had an autopsy done, but at first, there seemed to be no reason for it.”
I set Intarsia down on her little puggy paws and stood to retrieve my mail. “I hate to ask this, but do you think Sharlene could have anything to do with it? I mean, your grandma hadn’t known her that long. Sharlene would be the obvious person, since she would have had every opportunity to, um, do something terrible.”
“I know.” She sighed. “But I just can’t picture her being capable of that.”
I reached into my mailbox, envisioning Sharlene’s sad eyes and nervous disposition. “I can’t either, but I’m still troubled about her involvement in the whole situation. I’m going to ask Todd to look into it, now that he’s back in town for a while. Oh, and I asked Harry to check into the donor records and see if he could figure out if Erma had given a donation to Hope House or not.” Should I tell Karen about the phone call I had received?
“Okay, thanks. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. I’m trying to match her paperwork to her bank statements. Oh, and I found something else you need to see.”
Great. Things kept getting more and more complicated. “Okay. Are you coming to prayer in the morning? You could bring it then. We’re meeting at Lonnie’s house this month, remember?”
“Thanks for reminding me. The twins all have the flu, but Justin has tomorrow off, so if I have the energy to get up that early, I’ll be there.”
I trotted down Aunt Dot’s hallway at Willowbough the next morning after prayer group, carrying a bouquet of freesia and fervently hoping not to run into her unfriendly neighbor—the one who apparently thought I was his erstwhile daughter coming to spy on him. I had enough on my mind already. Mona. Hope House. Sharlene. Erma’s death.
I tiptoed past Kenny’s door and tapped on Aunt Dot’s open door. “Auntie, it’s me.” I popped through the doorway with my flowers, then stopped short. Ken
ny sat across from my aunt, grinning from ear to ear.
“Oh, hi, honey.” Aunt Dot held out her hand to me. “You remember my friend Kenny?”
“Yes, of course.” I bent to hug her. “Is he going to run me off?” I whispered in her ear.
She laughed as I stood to face him. “Kenny, I believe you’ve met my granddaughter Callie?
He squinted at me, extending a shaky hand. “Can’t say that I’ve had the pleasure, ma’am.”
Okay. I guess he had forgotten our previous encounter. Maybe that was a good thing. I handed the bouquet to Aunt Dot and took his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Kenny. Aunt Dot tells me you guys go back a long way together.”
He cackled and swiped at his nose with a crumpled handkerchief. I tried not to look at it. “Yes, ma’am. Ain’t nothin’ that went on in this little town for the past eighty years that we didn’t know about. Isn’t that right, Dorrie?”
Though she had always been “Aunt Dot” to me, I loved how her older friends called her “Dorrie.”
“That’s right.” Aunt Dot smiled at him, then looked at me. “Kenny owns the property next to that acreage y’all are trying to purchase for Hope House. Out on 95.”
“Ah.” Maybe that was why the land was rumored to be put on the market soon. “Have you lived here at Willowbough for long?”
Kenny cocked his head. “I’m not right certain. How long I been here, Dorrie?”
“Oh, a month or so. It’s been nice having an old friend around again.” She sighed.
“I’m sure you’re both missing Sister Erma, too,” I said, then kicked myself. Why had I brought that up?
But they both nodded.
“Never thought she’d go before me. If I’d a thought she’d up and die, I’d a gone over and talked to her sooner. Now it’s too late.” Kenny swiped at his nose again. “Such a dern shame, that was. One of the finest women I ever knew.”
“Yes, she was. I miss her sorely.” Aunt Dot’s voice broke. “I have to keep reminding myself that if God chose that day for her to go home, then that’s it. We have to accept His plan.”
Where There's a Will Page 6