The First Ladies Club Box Set

by J B Hawker

  “This is the door to the belfry, isn’t it?” Ransom asked. “Maybe I’d better go up alone.”

  He climbed the stairs with a feeling of dread, remembering the last time he’d been there.

  He had a sense of foreboding and breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the platform and there was no body swinging from the rafters.

  He trotted down the stairs, calling, “All clear up here,” to the others, whom he suspected of sharing his own anxiety about this particular location.

  “Where to next?” Ransom asked, as he emerged from the stairwell.

  “We haven’t looked in the annex. Maybe Aunt Merri fell over there and hurt herself,” Ryan suggested.

  Ransom sent Ryan to search the grounds, while he and Peter hurried over to the annex, beginning their search in the social hall.

  The men split up to check the classrooms but found no trace of Merrill.

  They were standing in the kitchen trying to decide the next move, when Alden confronted them.

  “What are you guys doing here? This is private property. You better leave or I’ll have to call the cops,” he said.

  Looking at Peter he added, “You’re that guy who’s been hanging around the preacher, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Peter replied, ignoring Alden’s rudeness. “In fact, we are here looking for her. Have you seen Pastor Bishop today?”

  “She got tired of you, huh? Well, if she’s avoiding you, I’m not going to squeal on her.”

  “I’m with the Sheriff’s Office,” Ransom said, showing his badge. “I’m conducting a missing persons investigation. If you know where your pastor is, you’d better tell me.”

  “Pastor Merrill’s missing? Why didn’t you say so? I can’t help you, though. I haven’t seen her since this morning.”

  “Where did you see her?” Peter asked.

  “Out back of the church. She headed down that path to the highway. I figured she was off on one of her exercise walks down to the beach. I see her trekking down there all the time.”

  “Has anyone checked the beach?” Ransom asked Peter, who was already headed for the exit.

  Ransom caught up with Peter at the top of the path behind the apartment.

  When Ryan saw the two men, he ran to join them.

  “Where are we going? Did you find a clue?”

  “The church custodian saw your aunt heading down to the highway early this morning. He seemed to think she was going for a walk on the beach,” Ransom explained.

  “She wouldn’t stay down there all day. She’s always going on about the dreaded sneaker waves…you don’t suppose…” Ryan began before Peter cut him off.

  “We aren’t supposing anything. We just want to see if we can find any clues to where Merrill might have gone,” Peter said.

  “Yes, let’s not get ahead of the facts, okay?” Ransom added.

  Ryan nodded, but remained pale and silent as they walked along the shoulder of the highway waiting for a break in the traffic.

  *

  Elizabeth’s knock on Merrill’s apartment door got no response.

  She was standing on the step deciding what to do next when she heard a shout.

  “Nobody’s home!”

  “I was looking for Pastor Bishop,” she said to Alden as he walked up.

  “That’s what I figured. She’s missing, you know,” he said. “I was helping the Sheriff’s search party.”

  “A search party? Oh, dear, then this is really serious,” Elizabeth said.

  “That’s right. I figure she’s probably drowned.”

  “Why do you say that?” Elizabeth asked, growing pale.

  “I saw her head down to the beach early this morning. She never came back, so it’s pretty easy to figure what must’ve happened. She’s from California, not used to our beaches. Californians are always going out too far and getting swept away.”

  Elizabeth turned away without responding to Alden’s remarks and returned to her car.

  “Of course, Merrill hasn’t drowned! What an odious man,” she muttered as she started the ignition to drive home.

  *

  Merrill’s prayer time ended abruptly when the surging tide splashed over her legs and hips.

  With renewed energy and resolve, she pulled her good knee under herself and rose up onto all-fours, or all-threes, in this case.

  She was able to hold her broken leg above the sand with her quivering thigh and hip muscles, but, her every move was accompanied by a jolt of pain.

  Gritting her teeth, she lurched forward until reaching the soft, dry sand above the tide line.

  She stopped here, well out of reach of the tide, and whispered a prayer of thanksgiving before tackling the sandy slope.

  “I knew it! I just knew it!” a dreaded high-pitched voice screeched.

  “Something told me to come back, that you couldn’t be trusted, and I was right!”

  Manota slogged down the slope from the highway where she’d parked her car on the shoulder. She held her walking-stick-cum-cudgel overhead and hurried toward Merrill, slipping and sliding in the loose sand in her haste.

  She continued to rail against Merrill as she came, flecks of spittle flying out of her mouth along with the abuse.

  Merrill pushed herself back up onto her one good knee, tilting sideways to balance herself with one hand and braced for the assault.

  Manota was in a frenzy when she reached Merrill.

  Swinging the ax handle wildly, she missed, and Merrill grabbed the end of the stick, throwing both struggling women off balance.

  Manota sprawled in the sand and Merrill flung herself atop the smaller woman, pinning her, so she couldn’t reach the stick she’d dropped as she fell.

  Manota screamed and bucked furiously, punching, scratching and pinching Merrill.

  Merrill, tears of pain streaming down her face, used all her strength to simply hang on to the demented woman thrashing beneath her.

  “Lord, help me. I can’t hold on,” she moaned aloud.

  “I’m coming!” a deep voice called out from above.

  “Come quickly, Lord,” she responded, before her rescuers arrived in a flurry of sand.

  Peter lifted Merrill off Manota as Ransom pulled the hysterical woman to her feet.

  Once upright, Manota lunged for the ax handle, swinging it wildly at Merrill as soon as it was in her grasp.

  Finally parsing the situation, Ransom disarmed her, and flung her to the ground before securing her flailing arms with his handcuffs.

  “Merrill! What’s going on?” Peter asked, holding her away to look at her.

  Unable to hold onto her rescuer for balance, Merrill teetered and began to fall, but Ryan ran up behind and steadied her, slipping beneath her left arm.

  “Auntie Merri, what happened?” he asked.

  Merrill tried to speak, but only managed incoherent sobs, while tears streamed down her sand-crusted, sunburned cheeks.

  Together, Peter and Ryan eased her down onto the sand while Ransom called for an ambulance.

  The men stood powerlessly beside the two distraught women at their feet, one softly weeping and the other rambling incoherently.

  Apparently, explanations were going to have to wait.

  Chapter 30

  Merrill opened her eyes and groaned against the bright lights before shutting them again.

  She felt terrible.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so awful. Her head was pounding, and her mouth was parched.

  Merrill decided to get out of bed, get a drink and take a couple of aspirins, but when she tried to roll over, she was so caught up in the bed covers, she couldn’t get her legs over the side of the bed.

  Opening her eyes again to untangle herself, she became fully alert.

  Her leg, discolored and bristling with stitches, was held in a sort of sling contraption, IV lines connected her to machines and a quick glance through the railing revealed a bag hanging off the mattress.

  She was in a ho
spital.

  Spying the pitcher of water with a cup and straw on the bedside tray, she groped for the bed controls and raised herself enough to get a drink.

  Her raw throat was eased by the cold water, but she choked a bit before putting the cup back down.

  Hearing her cough, a nurse walked into the room.

  “We’re happy to see you awake, Mrs. Bishop.”

  “Have I been here long?” Merrill asked.

  “You were admitted last evening. Our Doctor James operated on your leg. He’ll be in later to check on you and leave orders. How are you feeling?”

  “Sort of woozy,” Merrill said over the sound of her growling stomach. “Can I have something to eat? My last meal must have been yesterday’s breakfast.”

  “Certainly. I’ll have a tray brought in.”

  The nurse efficiently checked the equipment, made notes in the patient’s chart and went out, leaving Merrill feeling abandoned.

  “It’s no fun waking up in the hospital all alone,” she decided, then lay back against the pillow trying to remember everything from the day before.

  Bits and pieces came back, but she still couldn’t make any sense of it. It seemed like Manota had wanted to kill her. But why?

  Merrill was finishing up her breakfast of bland cream of wheat and applesauce when Detective Ransom looked in.

  “Feeling up to talking?” he asked.

  “Of course. I hoped you would stop by. I want to thank you for coming to my rescue yesterday.”

  “Just doing my job. I’m glad we got there in time. You know, I think you really owe your rescue to your church janitor. He’s the one who sent us to the beach.”

  “Alden? Really? I wonder how he knew where I was,” Merrill said.

  She hadn’t thought Alden paid much attention to her.

  “Seems like he keeps pretty close tabs on his pastor. Lucky for us he remembered seeing you head to the beach, so we decided to check it out.”

  “I’m grateful to you both,” Merrill said.

  “It was Peter Compton and your nephew who raised the alarm, so you should be thanking them, too.”

  “Oh, I will… if I ever see them.”

  Ransom, smiling at this small display of petulance, sat in the visitor’s chair and pulled out his notebook to get Merrill’s statement.

  *

  After lunch, Merrill’s loneliness was alleviated by a parade of well-wishers.

  Her friends from the First Ladies Club dropped by, singly and in pairs, along with many of the members of Merrill’s congregation.

  “You don’t need to worry about Ryan, Pastor. He can stay with us as long as you like. He’s no trouble and DeRay loves having him,” DeRay’s mother, Dorothy, said.

  “Thank you so much. I haven’t talked to Ryan since the, uh, accident. I was beginning to wonder about him,” Merrill said.

  “He’s still in school, but he’ll be by after class. I had to convince him to go to school instead of coming to the hospital this morning. He’s been worried about you.”

  “So, have we all,” boomed a familiar male voice from the doorway.

  “Wolf! I’m so glad you came,” Merrill said. “Dorothy, this is my brother, Wolf Rose.”

  “So, nice to meet you, Mr. Rose. We think a lot of your sister around here,” Dorothy said before turning to Merrill. “I’ll let you have a nice visit now and bring Ryan to see you later.”

  “Thanks so much,” Merrill replied.

  Wolf sat in the visitor’s chair and took his sister’s hand.

  “So, Bluebell, you really got yourself into something this time. How are you holding up?”

  “I’m okay. My head aches, but the doctor says that’s from the concussion and should go away in a few days.”

  Glancing at the large bruised area surrounding the bandage on the side of Merrill’s face, Wolf said, “More like a few weeks from the looks of it.”

  “Is it awful?” Merrill asked.

  She hadn’t seen a mirror and, until her brother’s comment, hadn’t even begun to think about how she must look.

  Maybe it was a good thing Peter hadn’t come to visit, yet.

  “Nah,” Wolf replied. “I’ve seen worse…in the war,” he teased.

  “Thanks. Heaps,” she said, then added, “I’m still glad you are here, Wolf. It’s good to have family at a time like this.”

  “So, the more the merrier, eh?” Sage said as he came into the room. “How you doing, Sis? You look awful!”

  Merrill laughed and held out her arms for a hug.

  Her brothers leaned in, gently, trying to avoid the IV line, wires, and tubes.

  “Are your girls coming?” Sage asked, sitting precariously on the side of the bed next to his sister’s uninjured leg.

  “I spoke with both of them this morning. They each offered to fly up, but I told them to wait. They can’t do anything for me while I’m in the hospital, but I might need them when I go home. I promised to call every day and let them know when I want them to come. I’d love to see them, but they have jobs and families to take care of.”

  “And who takes care of you?” Wolf asked.

  “God is in control,” Merrill replied with tears in her eyes.

  “Hey, you okay? I wasn’t trying to make you cry.”

  “I’m just so happy to have you two here. I guess I’m a little weepy from the surgery and all.”

  “And all…yeah. When Wolf called me last night and told me what happened, I almost couldn’t believe it. What a terrible experience,” Sage said.

  “Where is the woman who did it, anyway?” Wolf asked.

  “The detective was here this morning. He said Manota is still incoherent. Apparently, she had what’s called a ‘psychotic break’ and had to be restrained in a secure mental facility. She’s being charged, but can’t be arraigned in her current state,” Merrill explained.

  “So, as long as she acts crazy, she gets off for killing three people and trying to murder you, too? Where’s the justice in that?” Sage asked.

  “I’m not worried about it, as long as she can’t get out and hurt anyone ever again. She will eventually answer for her sins.”

  “Okay, preacher-lady, but I think she needs a little retribution in the here and now, too.”

  “That’s up to the courts. I’m not going to think about it,” Merrill said. “Say, Wolf, who told you I was hurt? Did someone from the church call you?”

  “No. Peter called on his way to Seattle last night.”

  “Seattle? Peter went back to Seattle last night?” Merrill asked, tears appearing in her eyes once more.

  “He had to get back to touch base with his editor and file his story for today’s paper. He said you told him everything in the ambulance on the ride to the hospital. He stuck around until you were out of surgery, then headed north, driving all night,” Wolf explained.

  When Merrill didn’t respond, Sage stood up.

  “Merrill’s getting tired, we’d better let her get some sleep,” he said.

  “Of course. You’ve been through a lot. You sleep now and we’ll be back this evening,” Wolf said, patting her shoulder.

  “You can stay at my place while you’re in town,” Merrill said. “Ryan is staying with a friend from school, so you can each have a room.”

  “Thanks, Sis. We appreciate that,” Sage said and dropped a kiss on his sister’s forehead before leaving the room.

  Merrill closed her eyes and tried to rest, but the voice in her head kept whispering words of betrayal. Was Peter’s time in Bannoch only about getting a story? Had he been using her friendship to get information? Didn’t his kisses mean anything at all?

  The nurse came in to administer pain medication and Merrill soon drifted into blessedly dreamless sleep.

  *

  When Merrill awoke, Ryan was sitting in the visitor’s chair with a binder open in his lap, doing his homework.

  “Hiya,” she said.

  “Aunt Merri! I didn’t disturb you, did I?”
<
br />   “Not a bit. How long have you been here?”

  “Only a little while. Long enough to get most of my homework done, though. It’s real peaceful here, so it was easy to concentrate,” Ryan said.

  “How are you doing? Are you okay staying at DeRay’s?”

  “Sure. His folks are great. But I want to come home and take care of you when you get out of here,” he assured her.

  “You are a sweet boy. I may take you up on that offer. We’ll see.”

  “Did the doctors say when you can come home?” Ryan asked.

  “Dr. James says my incision has to heal, first. Then they can put some sort of brace on my leg and teach me to use crutches before I can be discharged. He thought it could be as long as a week.”

  Ryan was standing beside the bed looking at Merrill’s leg.

  “Was it a very bad break? Why did they have to operate, instead of putting a cast on it?”

  “It was necessary to put a piece of metal inside to connect the broken bones, but I should be almost as good as new, once it heals,” Merrill said.

  “That woman was crazy, wasn’t she?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “She was a member of our church, too. Did you guess she was loony before?”

  “I knew she was unhappy about something, but I didn’t have any idea she was so unbalanced. I actually thought she might have some sort intestinal disorder. I guess I’m not much of a diagnostician,” Merrill said with a shrug.

  “Did they lock her up? She won’t be trying to hurt you again, will she?”

  “No, dear. She won’t ever hurt anyone again. Now, let’s take a look at that homework.”

  *

  Merrill’s brothers arrived in time to eat dinner with her, or at least to eat the pizza they picked up on the way over, while she ate from the hospital’s menu.

  “You sure you don’t want a slice, Sis? You’re going to starve on what you’ve got on that tray,” Wolf said.

  “Yeah, is that beige-pink blob a slice of boiled tongue or what?” Sage added.

  “This is a perfectly nice piece of ham…I think. Anyway, it’s what the doctor ordered, so I’m eating it,” Merrill retorted, while continuing to chew the rubbery substance.

  “How’s eating bad food supposed to make your leg better, anyway?” Wolf asked.