Normal was relative.
“Things were interesting at work, too,” Cindy said after a minute.
“Oh?”
“Dave threatened to quit.”
“Wildman?” Jeremiah asked, surprised. “What happened?”
“The head pastor and the music director are at each other’s throats again and they both dragged him into it.”
“That’s a shame,” Jeremiah said. Fights like that could tear organizations apart, churches being no exception. “Well, if anyone needs a good counselor,” he joked.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t tease. I might make you come in and facilitate.”
He chuckled. “Now that would be funny.”
Cindy glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late.”
“I need to get a little more done,” he said, wishing that weren’t the case.
She looked torn. Finally he suggested, “Why don’t you go home and get some rest? I’m going to be here all day tomorrow and you can look at it all with fresh eyes then.”
She nodded. “Do you want me to swing by and take Captain out for a walk?” Captain was Jeremiah’s German Shepherd who he’d had for the better part of a year now.
“No, I asked Marie to walk him on her way home. Thanks, though.”
“Okay. If you’re sure,” she said, still hesitating even as she grabbed her purse.
“Completely. One of us should get some rest.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
After she left he noticed that the empty house seemed so much colder. He grabbed the digital recorder and went back to work.
Cindy hated leaving Jeremiah alone in the dead man’s house, but she was exhausted and knew he was right that she’d be able to do a better job of searching the next day. She wished she didn’t have to go to work so she could head over right after breakfast and continue the search.
In the back of her mind she knew that she was jumping into this case with an eagerness that was new and uncharacteristic. Usually she was dragged into these things kicking and screaming but this time she had marched in cheerfully.
It had to be because Mark had already involved Jeremiah. It wasn’t right to make him go through this by himself. If Jeremiah hadn’t been involved she probably wouldn’t have even given a thought to getting involved. Of course, Mark never would have called her and she wouldn’t even have known there was something to get involved in.
When she made it home she found Geanie and Joseph snuggled up on the couch watching a movie. Geanie turned off the television and practically pounced on her. “What happened? You were gone longer than just dinner.”
“I kind of got involved searching the house for clues,” Cindy admitted.
“And?” Geanie asked, eyes wide.
“I found one,” Cindy said, feeling the thrill of discovery anew as she got to share. “Of course, it ended up being really weird.”
“Don’t leave us in suspense,” Joseph said.
Cindy smiled. Over the last year-and-a-half Joseph had become a really good friend. It really was weird. Before finding the body in the church she’d had no close friends at all and now she had three of them.
I guess it’s true that adversity can really bring people closer together.
“Well, I found a painting hidden under a trap door in a closet under the stairs. There was blood on the packaging.”
“No!” Geanie said.
“Yes,” Cindy answered, delighted to have such an enthusiastic audience.
“Was it valuable?” Joseph asked.
“Hardly. It just turned out to be one of those prints of the dogs playing poker.”
“Why was it hidden?” Geanie asked.
“No idea.”
“Whose blood was it?” Joseph asked.
“Mark is having forensics try to figure that out. Hopefully we’ll know more soon.”
“I can’t believe you’re involved in another mystery,” Geanie said. “You didn’t even get sucked into this one either.”
“Which as far as I’m concerned begs the question of whether this is about solving the mystery or spending even more time with the guy?” Joseph said.
Cindy felt herself flush. “Trust me, Joseph, if I had feelings for anyone in that way, you’d be the first to know.”
“So you say,” he said with a smile.
It was probably true. She had been the first person Joseph had told that he was planning to propose to Geanie several months before. Odds were good she’d end up confiding those types of things in him even before she confided them to Geanie.
But there was nothing to confide. Absolutely nothing, she told herself.
“So, what are you guys watching?” she asked.
“A clever ruse to change the subject,” Geanie noted.
Cindy rolled her eyes. Geanie was right back to center, seeing love in all the wrong places.
“Okay, let’s not tease,” Joseph said, squeezing Geanie’s shoulders. “We were watching one of Geanie’s weird horror movies that she loves.
“Weird?” Geanie asked in mock outrage. “You want to talk about weird?”
“No, not really,” Joseph said with a cherubic smile.
Cindy couldn’t help but laugh. The two of them were an adorable couple.
“You want to join us?” Joseph asked.
“Sure, I haven’t been subjected to one of her weird horror films in like two weeks,” Cindy said.
“I’ll grab you some popcorn,” Geanie said.
“But I was told it’s bad form to throw it at the screen,” Joseph said straight-faced.
Cindy started laughing harder. It felt so good. She remembered her life before when she’d never really laughed much. It had been such a sad life, even if it was safe. Then, after what had happened to her over Memorial Day weekend, she’d worried she’d never be able to laugh and relax again. She shouldn’t have feared. She still had nightmares and still got jittery from time-to-time, but with Geanie and Joseph around, it was impossible to stay freaked out for too long.
“Better explain to her what a Triffid is,” Joseph said.
“No need, we can just start from the beginning,” Geanie said brightly.
Joseph groaned.
Cindy joined them on the couch and let herself be taken away by the cheesy film. A part of her mind still couldn’t stop thinking about Jeremiah, the ink covered walls, and the painting. She almost felt like she was two people, one laughing and cringing at the television and one furiously working on solving the most challenging puzzle she’d ever encountered. It was a bit surreal, which strangely fit with the movie they were trying to watch.
They were just reaching the climax of the film when the house phone rang shrilly and made all three of them jump.
Cindy got up and grabbed it, glancing at the clock as she did so. It was too late for anyone she knew to be calling. A knife twisted in her stomach, wondering if something had happened to someone.
“Hello?” she asked, hearing her voice shake.
“Cindy, it’s Jeremiah,” he said, his voice hushed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, heart beginning to race.
“Get over here right n-”
The call disconnected.
5
“Jeremiah!” Cindy shouted, but he was gone. She dialed with shaking hands but it went straight to his voicemail. She grabbed her purse and keys.
“What’s wrong?” Geanie asked, starting up from the couch.
“Something’s happened to Jeremiah,” Cindy shouted on her way to the door.
She heard Geanie yelling something after her, but she didn’t know what. She yanked her phone out of her purse and saw that she’d missed a call from him right before he’d called her house. He hadn’t left a message.
She called Mark and was reversing her car down the driveway when he picked up.
“Jeremiah called me,” she began.
“I know, I’m on my way over there,” he said. “I’ll call once I know what’s going on.�
�
He hung up and she screamed in frustration as she threw her phone into the passenger seat. She drove as fast as she dared and nearly ran a red light before she realized there was too much traffic. When she finally pulled up outside the house and saw Mark’s car as well as several others her heart sank.
She stopped in the middle of the street and ran to the house abandoning her car, her purse, everything. She got tangled in the police line tape and sobbed in frustration until one end ripped free and she was able to make it into the house. She searched for a face she recognized as she kept running farther into the house.
She made it into the writing room and came to a stop. There was Jeremiah, seemingly unharmed, talking intently with Mark. She leaped over to them.
“I got here as soon as I could, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I wanted you to see what I found before they took it away and my cell phone died on me,” Jeremiah said.
She blinked at him. “You weren’t in any danger.”
“No, I’m sorry, did you think-”
She felt woozy, like she was going to be sick or pass out. As one in a dream she saw herself raising her hand and she slapped Jeremiah across the face. “How could you do that to me! I thought you were attacked!” she heard herself shouting.
Hands were grabbing her shoulders and she was vaguely aware that they were Mark’s.
Jeremiah stared at her, a look of complete shock on his face. He slowly lifted his hand to his cheek where a bright red handprint was emblazoned. She could hear herself sobbing, but it sounded like somebody else far away. Her cheeks felt wet and she tasted salt on her lips.
She was being pulled away and she didn’t want to go, but something told her that she should. Mark was whispering something to her, or maybe he was shouting, she couldn’t tell, but he was steering her toward the front door.
Outside there was a light breeze that fanned her cheeks. There was a roaring sound in her ears and the corners of her vision were going black. She felt pressure downward on her shoulders and she let Mark push her down to a seat on the curb.
Then he pressed against the back of her head until she realized that she had her head between her knees. She still felt sick, but slowly the roaring in her ears eased up. She squeezed her eyes shut and realized she was crying.
And then she heard Mark distinctly say, “Are you any better?”
“I guess not,” she whispered. She’d thought the stress of what had happened to her and Jeremiah in Hawaii had faded into the background and that she had mostly recovered from the experience. But in one moment she had been right back there and all the feelings of terror and helplessness had come racing back. She had thought for sure that Jeremiah had survived drowning then only to be killed by someone now.
“I get that, but you can hear me now?”
She nodded.
He put his hand on her back and rubbed it gently up and down. “You feel like you’re going to pass out still?”
“I’m not sure, I don’t think so. How did you know that’s what was happening?”
“I’ve seen it before,” he said.
She should lift her head and talk to him, but she kept it between her knees with her eyes tightly shut. She no longer felt like she was going to pass out, but she still felt terrible and she didn’t know what to do about it.
“It’s okay. It’s called Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.”
“But I’ve been doing so well.”
“PTSD shows up in many people about three months away from the event that caused it but sometimes can start years later even. I’d say you’re about right on schedule. You know, I could recommend a really good counselor, but unfortunately he’s the guy you just slapped.”
“Are you actually teasing me?” she asked.
“Only a little. I will admit, I’ll treasure the look on his face for years to come. I’ve almost hit him myself more times than I can count.”
She finally looked up. Mark was smiling gently at her, but it was a compassionate smile.
“I know after I was kidnapped, your wife Traci said that if I ever needed to talk about it, I could talk with her.”
“And she would be happy to talk to you about her own experiences after she was kidnapped. She can certainly relate better than I or your roommate or that guy in there can.”
Cindy nodded. “Maybe I’ll ask her out to lunch.”
“I’d say that would be a good first step. You want to talk to a doctor or a therapist, or whomever, you let me know and I’ll find you the best.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” she said.
“You’re going to get through this.”
She nodded. “I just...that all came out of nowhere.”
Mark tilted his head to the side. “Not really. It was the first time you thought you were facing a threat to someone you care about since everything happened. Until you encountered a situation where you felt that type of fear there was no telling how you’d react. But, frankly, that’s about what I would have expected. For my part, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize his phone cut out before he could explain things to you. I was trying to steer around a group of pedestrians and had to get off the phone fast. Had I realized what you were thinking I would have told you everything was okay.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said.
“No, but I’m still going to buy you a milkshake or whatever you drink so I feel better about it.”
“Now you are teasing me,” she accused.
“Yes.”
“Then you do owe me a milkshake.”
“Fair enough. So, how are you feeling now?” he asked.
“Better. Really embarrassed.”
“Don’t be. We’ve all been there or at least seen someone who has. No one here is going to hold that against you. In fact,” he said, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “I’m betting everyone inside wishes they had gotten to slap him instead.”
“I have a hard time believing that.”
“Believe it. They were all here earlier and they’re pretty irritated that they didn’t find what he did.”
Cindy wiped her eyes. Her curiosity started to rear its head. “Okay, what is it he found.”
Mark gave her a huge grin. “Trust me, you’ll have to see it to believe it. When you’re ready, I’ll take you inside and show you.”
“Can you at least give me a hint?”
“Oh, okay,” he said, sounding like a parent caving in to the demands of an eager child. “Well, let’s see. I can tell you how he found what he did.”
“Okay.”
“As he told it, he was just finishing up for the night. He went into the master bedroom to use the master bathroom.”
“You mean the reading room?” she asked.
“See! You are feeling better,” Mark said.
“I’m trying to,” she admitted. Making the joke at least helped make her feel a little more human, a little more normal. Then again, she was a fine one to talk about normal. She never had been normal, not since her sister...she shook her head, refusing to let herself go there.
“Okay, so he was heading for the reading room to splash some cold water on his face.”
“Not to read then?” she asked weakly.
“Excellent, keep them coming. No, at least, that’s his story. He was busy thinking about everything he had just read when he noticed that there was an odd bump in the carpet in the bedroom, just a small one, but he could tell it was there.”
“I didn’t get to really search that room well after finding the painting,” she said.
“If you had, you might have been the one to find it,” Mark said. “Of course, none of us would have even thought twice about a bump, small as it was, before you found that trapdoor. Next he notices that the carpet pad seems to be much thicker than in the rest of the house, more cushiony.”
“Okay.”
“So, he was thinking about the painting that you found, obviously and he just kept staring at that tiny bump and sort of bouncing up
and down feeling the cushion and he decided that just maybe there was something hidden under the carpet.”
“Was there?”
Mark smiled. “Wait for it. So, he got down on the floor and he started checking all the edges, looking for one that might be loose.”
“Because he doesn’t want to rip up the carpet if he’s wrong?”
“You guessed it.”
“Well, back behind the bed he actually found a section that was loose. He was able to pull it up just a tiny bit.”
“And?”
“And what he found made him rip half the carpet out anyway before he called me and then you.”
She stared at him in anticipation. “And that was?”
He wagged his finger under her nose. “Nope, I told you, you have to see it to believe it. He wouldn’t tell me when he called me and now I know why. I wouldn’t have truly gotten the...scope...of it. Either that or I would have decided he was hallucinating and told him to go get some sleep.”
“You have to tell me.”
“I don’t have to do anything. But, when you’re ready to stand up, I’ll take you in there to see it just like I promised.”
Cindy took a deep breath. “I’m ready,” she said.
She wasn’t, but then she couldn’t imagine ever being ready to go inside and face the music. She was still trying to wrap her head around exactly what had happened. She didn’t know how she’d even begin to apologize to Jeremiah let alone look at all the officers who’d just seen her meltdown. She needed to get it over with, though, and she did really want to see whatever it was that had caused all of this in the first place.
She took another deep breath, bowed her head, and prayed that God would give her the strength to do what she had to. When she finally lifted her head Mark said, “Amen.”
She glanced at him in surprise. She knew he wasn’t religious.
He shrugged. “I figured that’s what you were doing. Was I wrong?”
“No, you weren’t.”
“Okay then, stop looking at me like I’m crazy then.” He stood up and offered her his hands.
She took both of them and felt a bit ashamed that he had to exert more effort to get her on her feet than she did. Once up she wobbled for a moment, her legs weak feeling and she leaned against him.
Restoreth My Soul (Psalm 23 Mysteries) Page 5