Pane and Suffering

by Cheryl Hollon

  Edward took a step toward her with the notebooks stretched out in front of him. “Here are the notebooks. Take them. Take them. Let go of Savannah.”

  Reverend Kline pressed her even tighter into the window, the sill digging sharply into her back. “It was so easy to use the church funds to buy them back. Some of them I stole from selfish collectors. It was going very nicely until John was appointed as church treasurer. He spotted the financial discrepancies, immediately knew something was wrong and asked me to stop.”

  “You didn’t have to kill him. He would have helped you make things right.”

  “He didn’t understand. I tried to explain it to John, but he didn’t understand how loudly the icons called to me. I could hear them cry for their homes when I found them. That’s all they wanted. They wanted to go home. John didn’t understand that.”

  He yelled at Edward. “Hand those notebooks over right now.”

  Edward was just out of reach in front of Savannah. “You’ll have to let her go in order to take the books. Just drop the knife and I’ll put them in your hand.”

  The reverend kept the knife at her throat. “No, no, no. That’s not going to work. You give the notebooks to Savannah first. Then after she hands them over to me, I’ll release her.”

  Savannah watched Edward inch toward her and extend the notebooks. She moved her right hand forward as if reaching for the books.

  Edward halted. “Let up with the knife and I’ll give them to her.”

  The reverend didn’t move. “Give the books to Savannah. I’ll release her.”

  “I won’t hand over the notebooks with that knife so close to her throat. Be reasonable. You could slip. She could slip. Anything could happen. Just loosen up a little. That point is close to breaking the skin.”

  Reverend Kline slowly released his iron grip on Savannah’s left upper arm and her back sprung away from the windowsill, leaving an ache and the start of a cramp. He slightly relaxed the hand that held the blade pressing into her throat but didn’t let go.

  “Savannah, get the books with your left hand. Reach out now.”

  Savannah stretched out her arm.

  “Good. Thank you.” Edward took a cautious step toward them. “I’m handing the notebooks over to Savannah so she can give them to you and we can go. You don’t want to hurt her. You can’t hurt her. You’ve known her since she was a baby. You christened her. You watched her grow into a young woman.” He stepped closer and reached out the notebooks with both hands.

  In her ear, Savannah heard the reverend’s raspy whisper. “Take the notebooks, Savannah. Take them from him.”

  Savannah exhaled a controlled breath and gritted her teeth. Reverend Kline is lying. He’s going to keep me at knife point in order to control Edward. “That is not going to happen, Reverend. You killed my dad.”

  She sharply slumped back against the reverend and blocked the knife by snapping her right forearm up into his arm then back to his forehead. She heard him gasp at the ferocity of the punch and felt a sharp pinch at her collarbone. “Run, Edward. Now!” she shouted louder than she believed was possible.

  Still terrified of the box cutter’s sharp edge, Savannah turned around and slammed the window down on the outstretched arms of the reverend. The box cutter dropped from his hand and skittered down the roof. She registered a faint clink as it fell to the paved parking lot.

  He yelped in pain. “My arm! You’ve broken my arm.” He raised the window awkwardly with his left hand, cradled his right arm, and slowly slid down and disappeared from view. Savannah could hear his moans but turned away. She needed to get to Edward.

  He hadn’t moved. She bent her knees and tentatively took a step toward him, but her balance was off. To recover, she windmilled her arms, but that only made it worse.

  Reaching out to save her teetering balance, Savannah jerked the notebooks from Edward’s outstretched hand. The unexpected pull caused him to tip over backward. His feet skittered on the tiles and he slid down the slanted slope of the church roof on his side.

  Savannah froze when she saw him disappear over the edge of the tiled roof. “Edward,” she whispered in a high shrill voice. “Edward! Answer me.”

  He replied in a tense voice, “I’m just over the edge of the roof. There’s a gutter here that looks ancient, but it’s holding me for now. I can’t pull myself over. I need help.”

  By leaning over, Savannah could see his hands holding the gutters. She watched him struggling to get his chest up and over the protruding gutter.

  The fear in her stomach was boiling over, but she pushed it down and put it in a place where it could boil alone. She forced her stiff legs to take a tiny step toward him. With one tiny step after another, she inched along the peak of the roof until she was even with where he was hanging.

  Getting down on all fours, she crawled backwards down the sharp pitch. Slowly, slowly, slowly was the answer. Fear was what got her on the roof and moving towards Edward. She couldn’t let anything happen to him.

  When she had traveled down the tiles to within a foot from the edge, she reached into her back jean pocket. She pulled out her dad’s Swiss Army knife, opened the ice pick attachment, and plunged it into the roof as deep as it would go. “I’m here, Edward. Hang on just a bit longer.”

  Interlocking her fingers, she grasped the red knife handle with both hands and let her entire body lie flat on the roof with her legs dangling over the edge of the slope. “Edward, climb up on me. I’m anchored and can take the weight.”

  “We’ll both go down.” He gasped from the effort of pulling himself up.

  “No, you must trust me. I can be your ladder.”

  “But—”

  “Do it now!” Savannah screamed.

  She felt Edward’s hand grab the shin of her right leg and then felt his weight shift as he grabbed her left knee.

  “Now, grab my belt at the back of my waist.” She tightened her grip on the knife and pressed her forehead against the roof shingles.

  She felt his weight on her lower body and then the weight was gone. He was lying faceup on the roof next to her with his smile lighting up the night sky.

  Panting like a steam engine, he looked into her eyes. “I thought you were afraid of heights? What happened?”

  “I was terrified. But I was more afraid of letting you fall. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just stood there and watched.”

  The police announced their arrival with sirens and flashing lights. Amanda, cell phone in hand, ran up to them, pointing at the roof.

  Edward looked over. “I’m fairly impressed with the strength required for glassblowing. Woman, you are strong—really strong.” His eyes opened wide as he looked at the blood soaking into her shirt. He used his handkerchief to press the wound.

  “He stabbed me!”

  “This will help a wee bit, but we need to get you to hospital as quickly as possible and that means getting off this roof.”

  “But, I can’t get back up there.”

  “Oh yes you can. You got down here. You can get back up.”

  Savannah was beginning to feel that his voice was fading away into a black fog. She knew she had to move or the fog would overtake her. With the stability of his grip on her arm, she crawled back to the peak of the roof and over to the window. Through a dizzy fog, she recognized the face of Detective Parker reaching out for her.

  “Let’s get you down to the EMTs.” Parker looked at the cut on Savannah’s collarbone. “That’s going to need some stiches.”

  Savannah nodded and let Detective Parker lead her over to the flashing vehicle. She got a glimpse of Edward and Amanda being driven away in a cruiser. “Where are they going?”

  “They need to be interviewed and fill out statements so that we can press charges. As soon as you get treated, I’ll be doing the same with you.”

  “As long as I don’t have to talk to Officer Boulli, I’m good. Where’s Reverend Kline?”

  “He was taken to the emergency room
to see to his injury.”

  Savannah let Parker help her into the back of the EMT vehicle. He began to walk away and then turned to her, “You know, I thought Edward was my principal suspect because his fingerprints were on the mug. I would have been very wrong.”

  Savannah’s eyes widened, “Edward?” Then she tilted her head back and laughed. “Edward brings coffee, tea, and scones to Webb’s every morning. He’s been doing that for months for my dad.”

  “You saved me from making a career-limiting decision. I won’t forget it.”

  Chapter 32

  Saturday Morning

  Sipping her cappuccino in the office at Webb’s, Savannah looked at Edward over the rim. “I’m gonna need another one of these. I didn’t get to bed until four o’clock this morning. I didn’t know that making statements for the police could take so long.”

  “It was a first-time experience for all of us.”

  “Naturally, Rooney woke up at seven and that was all the sleep I got.”

  “Are you sure you’re all right? Shouldn’t you be resting?”

  “I’m good. The EMT said I could resume normal activities. Not rescuing bar owners about to fall off steep roofs, but normal activities. He also gave me a medical kit for changing the dressing.”

  “Where did you learn to block that knife? That looked very smooth and practiced.”

  “I’m a trained glassblower, remember? That kind of upper body strength is the result of years and years of manhandling those long blowpipes with molten glass hanging off the end. I started doing larger and larger pieces at the studio in Seattle and as a result, I’ve been gradually getting stronger.”

  “But you really looked like you knew what you were doing.”

  “That was just pure dumb luck. It wasn’t blood free as you know—my stitch count was five.” She fingered the expertly bandaged compress taped to her collarbone. “It was an unexpected outcome for me as well as for the reverend.”

  “He deflated into a lump after you broke his arm.”

  “I think the pain shocked him into fully realizing what he had done. That his obsessive collecting of Russian icons was misguided and that he had killed two friends to keep them.”

  “He’s confessed everything.”

  “Dad must have become suspicious when he was going through the financials of the church. I’d bet anything Dad created the ciphers first and then confronted Reverend Kline with the evidence he had uncovered.”

  Edward nodded, “I think John would have confided in Hugh and Reverend Kline would have known that.”

  “After he killed Dad, he took the time to set up Jacob. Really, there wasn’t anyone else he could frame.” Savannah pressed a hand on the bandage.

  “It was nice to see Jacob get released while we were giving our statements.”

  “I think Detective Parker was very relieved that he didn’t have to deal with Jacob’s parents and their lawyer.”

  Edward laughed. “He did shake that lawyer’s hand a little enthusiastically, don’t you think?”

  Savannah giggled and had to put her cup down to keep from spilling cappuccino all over the desk. “He was extremely grateful. Didn’t you think it was funny that Suzy took a real liking to him? She didn’t feel that Jacob was in any danger at all.”

  “Her instincts are spot on.”

  Amanda bolted in through the front door giving the bell an unholy shatter of ringing. She trotted back to the office, catching the last of their conversation as Savannah said, “When I was getting patched up, Detective Parker told me that you were his main suspect—that besides Jacob, your print was also found on my dad’s mug.”

  “Me?” Edward reared back his head. “Kill John and Hugh? No way! John was so great to me. But I’ll be honest, I’m so glad Parker didn’t tell you that my print was on the mug until last night. You hated me when you found out about the loan. If you would have thought I had anything to do with your dad’s death, I’d never have a chance with you, now would I?”

  Savannah tilted her head coyly. “Who said you ever had a chance with me?”

  Amanda burst out laughing, “Cut it out, you two. Savannah, tell us more! What else did Parker say?”

  “He was basically about where we were in the investigation. He had eliminated Frank and Smythe just like we had and although Edward was at the top of his list of suspects, they were checking into the background of Dad’s Cold War activities as well as his position in the church. I think he was probably only a few days away from finding the connection to Reverend Kline.”

  Edward shifted in his seat, “I’m not so sure.”

  “I know the detective was very happy to have the real murderer in custody and as a bonus, Officer Boulli was relieved of duty awaiting an investigation.”

  “What? The idiot was fired?” blurted Amanda. “I have a new respect for the city’s police department. I was afraid that Officer Boulli was the norm.”

  “I told him my principal reason for getting involved in the investigation was because I thought Officer Boulli was so incompetent that Dad and Hugh’s deaths would never be resolved,” said Savannah. “It does happen, you know. No one ever finds out.”

  Jacob piped up as he entered from the back door carrying Suzy. “I heard Detective Parker tell my mother that because of me and Suzy, Officer Boulli would not be working for the police. Something about child endangerment. I think that means me.”

  “Yes, it means you,” agreed Savannah. “We certainly missed you while we were trying to solve the last puzzle. You would have spotted the solution instantly. It took us hours.”

  “It was no fun to be a suspect,” Jacob said.

  “True, but to be fair to Detective Parker, you looked like the best bet.”

  Jacob said softly. “I was the worst bet because I didn’t do the murders.” He turned and settled Suzy into the dog bed. “Reverend Kline was the best bet.”

  “You’re absolutely right, you know,” said Savannah. “We all knew you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Amanda frowned. “Hey, did you guys spend the whole night down at the station? I finally got home just after midnight.”

  Edward grinned. “I’ll get more coffee. It looks like you’re going to need a whole pot.”

  “Hurry,” Savannah called after him.

  Amanda walked into the classroom and put her class material down on her student worktable. Savannah followed and Jacob was already setting up his tools.

  Amanda’s brow scrunched in a knot. “What’s going to happen to the Russian icons that the reverend had in his secret hiding place?”

  “They’re going to be used as evidence, so they’re in police custody right now. Because he bought them with church funds, it looks like they belong to the church. Knowing the other deacons, those that were stolen will be returned to their owners.”

  The bell jangled and the newlyweds followed the twins into the classroom.

  Nancy spoke first. “What’s been going on? We saw you on the news last night. What’s this about murders?”

  “Murders?” the twins asked in unison.

  Rachel spoke quickly. “I told you this place was going to the dogs. There have never been murders in our neighborhood. Now we have had two. It’s going to make the glass shop very difficult to sell. You have to disclose those things, you know.”

  “She hasn’t said that she’ll sell,” said Faith.

  Nancy put her carton down on the worktable. “Well, it would be crazy not to think about it. Terrible events leave behind a bad aura.”

  “Now, honeybee. You don’t know that for certain.” Arthur was finally feeling comfortable speaking to the group. “That’s just what your Aunt Melda says about her hometown. But to be honest, Salem, Massachusetts, has a lot to answer for.”

  Amanda turned to Nancy. “Oh, I know just what you mean. It could totally affect the creativity of anyone taking classes. I think we need a spiritual cleansing.”

  Savannah cleared her throat, “I know you’ve all heard it on th
e news, but just to clear the air, Reverend Kline has confessed to the murder of Hugh Trevor and John Webb. He is in a terrible state and I wouldn’t be surprised if they find him unable to stand trial.”

  Rachel blurted, “I knew it was him all along. He’s been snooping around the place for weeks trying to convince Mr. Webb of something. I could never hear closely enough to tell what it was.”

  “One more announcement. Hugh’s funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon. Mrs. Webberly said to please come to the First United Christian Church for a memorial service followed by a supper at her house. She said that most of the business owners will be attending and you are all welcome, too. I highly recommend her peanut butter pie. It rivals anything I’ve ever tasted. Now let’s get back to work.”

  Everyone laid out his or her project and Savannah was happy to see that the soldering was almost finished. In spite of all the interruptions and disruptions, she was going to finish the class on time. Her dad would have been proud.

  “Okay, class. We’re on the home stretch now with our turtle sun catchers. All we have to do is apply the final coating of solder on all the joins, attach the hanging loops, clean off all the flux with alcohol, and apply the final finish to protect your project.”

  She looked at Arthur’s progress and expected to see a hot mess and maybe treat a few more burns. As she watched, he proceeded to slowly and gently form a perfect solder bead.

  He looked up and beamed. “I think I’ve got this. I fix in my mind the way I feel when I play Antonio Vivaldi’s “Spring Concerto” on my cello and my mind sends calming messages to my hand. Isn’t that simply splendid?”

  Savannah smiled. “Arthur, it’s more than splendid. It’s a secret you can use for many things in life. Well done.”

  The front door jangled and Gregory Smythe and Frank Lattimer blustered into the display room.

  “Get out of my way,” said Gregory. “I have the best offer by far. I even have the approval of my corporate office.”