by Glen Ebisch
“Well, we do have a few candidates,” Ashley replied. “Ames could have seen George Blanchard kill Llewellyn and have been blackmailing him for years. Harry might have taken over the job after his father died.”
“But Harry seemed pretty surprised at the notion that his father was a killer.”
“Mostly he seemed angry. There’s a difference,” Ashley said.
“Fair enough. I guess Harry has to stay on our list, even if he seems to act innocent.” Clarissa paused. “And I suppose our other prime suspect would be Morris Hazelton. He might have killed Llewellyn because he was using underhanded methods to destroy Hazelton’s hotel.”
“Right. His grandson Ronald might have been continuing to pay the blackmail, and finally got fed up when Ames decided to pass on the information to Jack Spurlock.”
“But Ronald Hazelton is a high school teacher.”
Ashley smirked. “I’ve known some pretty desperate high school teachers in my time.”
“Okay,” Clarissa said with a smile. “He stays on the list. And there’s always Maggie Preston. What if right after he had that big blowout with his daughter, Royce went to her and said that it was all over—he was going to choose his wife and daughter over her? Wouldn’t that be enough motive for murder?”
“The woman scorned angle is always a good one. But could Maggie really have afforded to pay blackmail forty years ago?” Ashley asked. “Now she has a thriving business, but I’ll bet that in the early years, she didn’t have much.”
Clarissa stared across the room. “You’re right about that, but you know, one of the odd things about Ames as a blackmailer is that he must not have been asking for much. He wasn’t living an extravagant lifestyle. It was more like he used the blackmail money to supplement his income, just so he could have a few extras. And, of course, some of it had to go to Owen.”
“So you’re saying that whoever he was blackmailing didn’t find it hard to meet his demands. So what changed to make this person decide to kill him?”
“Ames’ decision to pass along his information on his deathbed to a new blackmailer.”
“Jack Spurlock,” Ashley finished.
Clarissa nodded. “I personally doubt that Jack would have continued the blackmail. His wife had pretty much reformed him, but the killer must have been worried that he would.”
“So by passing along the one thing of value he had to an old friend, Ames signed his death warrant.”
Clarissa nodded again.
“But how did the killer find out that Ames was going to pass his information on to Jack?” Ashley asked.
“Well, David’s nurse told me that he asked for his cell phone right after I was there. She plugged it into the charger for him.” Clarissa paused. “I guess I assumed that he contacted the person he was blackmailing to let them know that he was passing on the information to someone new.”
Ashley looked doubtful. “Do you really think he’d do that? Wouldn’t he be putting himself in danger? And if he told this person that he was handing on the information to Jack, he’d also be putting Spurlock’s life at risk.”
“And that’s exactly what happened,” Clarissa said.
“Yeah, but would Ames really be stupid enough to have volunteered that information? Did anyone actually see him make the call?”
“I’m not sure,” Clarissa admitted. “I think Wanda Bascomb said she didn’t, and I doubt that anyone else would have been around to know. The guy sharing his room seemed pretty out of it.”
“So we don’t actually know that he called anyone?”
“Correct.”
“Who has the phone now?” asked Ashley.
“I imagine it’s in the hands of the police.”
“Maybe you should contact Detective Baker to find out if they checked the call history to see who Ames spoke to last.”
“I can’t believe they wouldn’t have done that,” Clarissa said doubtfully.
“They probably did, but they might not be approaching things the way we are, so it might not mean as much to them,” Ashley said.
Clarissa nodded. “That’s a good idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s what partners are for. They remind us of things we already knew.” The younger woman looked satisfied with herself.
“I think I’ll give Detective Baker a call right now and see what they found on the phone,” Clarissa said.
Ashley gave her a thumbs-up, so she headed into her office and closed the door.
“What can I do for you today, Pastor?” Baker asked when the call was put through. “Let me take a guess. It has something to do with the David Ames case.”
“You’re right,” Clarissa admitted, feeling a bit sheepish. She thought she heard a deep sigh come from the other end of the phone.
“Fire away, then. I’ll answer it if I can,” Baker said.
“I was wondering about David’s cell phone. You did find one, right?” she asked.
“Sure. It was packed up with his things. The staff had cleared away his stuff when he died, but we took the bag with everything he had there. The phone was inside.”
“And I’m sure you checked his call history.”
“Of course.”
“Whom did he call last when he was in the hospital?”
“No one.”
“You mean his call history was erased?” Clarissa asked in surprise.
“No,” Baker replied. “There were several calls from before he went into the hospital. There was one call to his girlfriend right before he went into the hospital, and apparently he called out for pizza rather frequently. He also received a couple of robocalls, but apparently he didn’t make or receive any calls while in the hospital.”
“But the nurse said that he asked her to plug his phone into the charger shortly before he died.”
“Well, apparently he never used it.”
“Because he was murdered before he got a chance to.”
“That’s very possible,” the detective admitted.
Clarissa sat there in silence for a moment, thinking. “Did he have any visitors?” she asked.
“We talked to all the nurses who worked on his floor. They don’t keep a record of visitors, and no one was sure whether anyone came to see him. The other man in the room had some folks come to see him.”
“The man who seemed comatose?”
“That’s right. Apparently he has a very dedicated family. Ames had no family to speak of, at least in the area, and apparently very few friends.”
“I don’t think he wanted to be seen when he was that sick. He even warned his girlfriend to stay away,” Clarissa said.
“The only possible visitor is that guy in the hoodie that the nurse thinks she may have seen enter his room shortly before his death. But we’ve had no luck confirming that.” Detective Baker cleared his throat. “Do you have any information, Pastor, that might be helpful to our investigation? If so, I’d like to hear about it.”
Clarissa told him about her visit to Maggie Preston and Ronald Hazelton.
“I’ll have a conversation with each of them and see if I can find out more,” Baker said. “That might be helpful, although I have my doubts about Ron Hazelton being a murderer. He’s quite a pillar of the educational community.”
Clarissa almost said something about even pillars having feet of clay, but decided it was a mixed metaphor.
“You haven’t received any more threats, have you?” the detective asked.
“No,” she said. “I think the killer has probably decided that I’m never going to solve this thing, and he may be right. I’m certainly close to a dead end right now.”
“Maybe it would be best to leave it at that,” Baker suggested. “Our investigation is still ongoing, and eventually we’ll identify the killer.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“And there’s no sense in putting yourself at risk.”
Clarissa agreed with him and ended the call. Then she sat and stared at
the mahogany walls; she’d found herself doing a lot of that lately.
She wondered whether it was worthwhile during her visit to the hospital today to seek out Wanda Bascom, the nurse who had been in charge of caring for David Ames. The same one who claimed to have seen the mysterious visitor and had plugged his phone into the charger. Clarissa decided that such an interview would be worthwhile. After all, people sometimes remembered new things after an event and didn’t bother notifying the police.
The fact that David had apparently not made a phone call to the person he was blackmailing left open the question as to how the killer had known Ames was going to share his secret with Jack Spurlock. Perhaps the murderer had visited David at some point before returning to kill him. Yes, Clarissa decided with a firm nod of her head, she would definitely go to see that nurse today.
Her office door opened, and Ashley stepped into the room before carefully closing the door behind her. “There’s someone here to see you,” she said.
“Who is it?” Clarissa asked. “I don’t think I had any appointments this morning. Is it a member of the congregation?”
Ashley shook her head. “He says that he’s got something personal to discuss with you.” She gave a wicked grin. “He’s dreamy. Shall I show him in?”
Clarissa stood. “No, I’ll go out and deal with this,” she said. “It could be one of Kenneth Rogers’ flunkies up to something. He seems like the type of man who never gives up.”
Putting on a stern face, Clarissa strode into the outer office. When she saw the man standing there, though, she came to a sudden stop, causing Ashley to bump into her.
“Hello, Clarissa,” the man said softly. He came toward her and gave Clarissa an awkward hug.
She didn’t respond and quickly stepped back from him.
She turned to Ashley. “Ashley, I’d like you to meet Tyler Hamilton, my former fiancé,” she said, hoping her voice wasn’t wavering.
Ashley put out her hand, her eyes going wide. “Nice to meet you,” she mumbled.
“Likewise,” Tyler said, giving her a pleasant smile while quickly glancing over her black dress. He hesitantly shook her hand.
“Tyler is also a minister,” Clarissa said to Ashley.
“But I’m not currently working as one,” he said.
“Oh, really?” Clarissa gave him a surprised look.
Tyler glanced meaningfully toward her office door. “Perhaps you can give me a few moments to explain?”
Clarissa considered the request for a moment and then nodded. She directed him into her office and motioned for him to take the chair in front of her desk. She sat behind her desk, hoping that physical distance would give her emotional distance.
She took a long look at him as he settled into the chair, noticing (almost against her will) that his skin had begun to tan to a golden glow, as it always did in the summer. She’d often referred to him as her “beach boy.”
“Why are you here, Tyler?” she asked, not seeing any point in beating around the bush. She was concerned that the longer she talked to him, the less rational any decision she made would be.
He frowned, as if not sure how to express himself. “I’ve come to win you back,” he finally said in a firm voice.
Clarissa shook her head. “Maybe you don’t realize how deeply you hurt me, but one quick visit isn’t going to sort it out.”
“I understand,” he said. “That’s why I’ve given up my job as assistant minister up North and taken a job down here. I thought it would give us a chance to start over again.”
Clarissa felt breathless for a moment. She wasn’t sure whether this news was appealing, disturbing, or some combination of the two.
“What kind of work are you doing?” she asked, partly out of genuine interest and partly to buy some time to recover from the shock of his audacious plan.
“I’m currently working for a private youth services organization,” he said. “We provide places for at-risk young people to go after school for recreation, help with their homework, counseling—pretty much whatever they need. In some ways, it’s not a lot different from what I was doing in the church, just for a different population.”
“How long have you had the job?” Clarissa asked.
“Two weeks.”
“So you didn’t stay in your ministerial assignment very long?”
Tyler gave a short laugh. “I stayed for two of the longest months of my life,” he said. “I realized right after I took the job what a fool I had been for letting work get in the way of our relationship. I knew that I couldn’t just call you and ask you to take me back. I had to do something to prove to you how committed I was to us.”
“So you’ve moved down here to show me how much you’ve missed me,” she said in a cool tone.
He blushed. “That was the idea.”
Clarissa smiled slightly. “Well, I appreciate how hard that must have been—really, I do. But maybe you should have phoned first, so we could have talked it over before you made such a drastic move. Because moving down here really doesn’t solve our problem,” she said. “We both want to be ministers, and it is extremely unlikely that we’ll get churches close to each other. So if we’re going to be together, someone has to give up his or her dream. We had an agreement that, when the time came, the person with the lesser job would give up their position, but when that time came, you refused. Do you think it would be any different in the future?”
Tyler held up a hand. “I know that backing out of our agreement was wrong, and I apologize.”
“Maybe it was wrong, but it was also completely understandable. We were being hopelessly unrealistic in expecting one of us to give up what he had hoped and dreamed about in order for us to be together.”
“But I have given up everything by coming here,” Tyler insisted.
“Do you see yourself working in youth services for the rest of your life and not in the ministry?” Clarissa asked.
“I don’t know. They’re not the same.” He paused for a moment and looked down. When he glanced up again, he was obviously in pain. “Okay, I’ll admit it. I still want to be a minister.”
“So there we are,” Clarissa said glumly. “We still have the same intractable problem.”
“But look, can’t we just see how it goes for a while?” Tyler pleaded. “I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, and you keep being a minister. We continue to see each other and find out what happens.”
“Won’t we just be torturing ourselves? This problem isn’t going to just disappear over time,” she said.
“Please, Clarissa, let’s give it a try. You never know what options the future might bring.”
Clarissa stared at the top of her desk. She had to admit, sometimes the future did bring new and unimagined options. But she still felt that by giving in to her emotions, she was making a mistake. “Okay, we give your way a chance,” she relented with a sigh. “But only on one condition.”
“Name it,” Tyler said with a relieved smile.
“We continue to see each other, but we remain free to date other people.”
“Is there someone else?” he asked with a quick frown.
“No one serious, but I don’t want to miss out on any of those ‘future options’ while waiting to find out what happens with us,” Clarissa said carefully.
After a moment’s hesitation, Tyler thrust his hand across the desk. “I’ll admit that I’m not happy with your condition, but if that’s the way it has to be, it’s a deal,” he said.
Clarissa shook his hand, wondering once again if she had just made a big mistake.
***
“Wow, now you’ve got two hunks on the line,” Ashley said once the door had closed behind Tyler. “Some girls have all the luck.”
“I’m not so sure that I’m all that lucky,” Clarissa replied with a frown.
“Well, if you’d like to pass one of them along to me, feel free. I’ll take either, I’m not fussy.” Clarissa had to smile at the exaggerated eagerness on Ashley�
�s face. “But seriously,” she continued, “how is this a bad thing?”
“They’re bound to find out about each other eventually, and then there will be some kind of macho contest to see which one I’ll pick,” Clarissa said with a roll of her eyes.
“Just like in the wild, with rams butting heads,” Ashley said, bumping her fists together.
“Hopefully nothing quite that violent. Of course, it could happen that each will decide I’m not worth the effort, and I’ll end up with nobody.”
“If that should happen, I’m sure a replacement will come along soon enough. Men are attracted to women in authority.”
Clarissa gave her a curious look. “That hasn’t been my experience.”
“Boys aren’t, but real men are,” Ashley said with confidence.
“The other problem is that I’m not sure whether either one of them is a good long-term prospect,” Clarissa said. “Andrew sort of messed up on our last date, and Tyler didn’t do too well when push came to shove.”
“What do you mean?” Ashley asked.
Clarissa explained about Tyler refusing to give up his church position to be with her.
“I can see where that would have been a hard decision for him,” Ashley said.
“I would have done it if our positions were reversed,” Clarissa pointed out.
“Probably so, but you know how men are; their jobs are everything to them. And if you had given up the ministry to be with him, don’t you think you would have eventually come to resent him? You would have spent every day watching him do the job that you wanted to have.”
“I never really thought about that,” Clarissa said after a moment. “You might be right. But that just goes to show that we shouldn’t be together because one of us will end up resenting the other, whichever way it works out.”
“Maybe, but I think you’re right to give it some time,” said Ashley. “Things usually have a way of working themselves out. Both of these guys are attractive and educated, and you’ve found things to like about both of them. And you’ve already decided to give both of them a second chance, so why don’t you just go with the flow and see what happens?”
“I guess that’s what I’ll try to do.” Clarissa looked at the clock. “It’s time for me to head to the hospital. I want to visit with Vera Sanford.” She was one of the more elderly members of the congregation.