It was a beautiful day, sunny and clear, with a slight fall nip in the air. He took them to the small Jessborough park, located just a block from Main Street, bordered with trees so outrageously colorful you just stood there marveling at them. In the middle was a big swing set for the kids.
Katie went to her office to brief Wade and all the deputies on the situation. She’d no sooner gotten into her office than Agent Glen Hodges appeared in the doorway. He had his arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head at her.
She sat down behind her desk. “Good morning, Agent Hodges.”
He gave her a small salute. “Hi, Sheriff. You’re amazing, absolutely amazing. You took out both bad guys.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t really want to, and you probably know Clancy practically admitted he was working for somebody else.”
“We’ll find out who that somebody is,” he said. “I spoke with Butch Ashburn. He gave me a rundown. Now I’m thinking I should go interview the McCamys.”
Katie smiled. “Admittedly, I’m just a backwoods sheriff, but Agent Sherlock and I have already been to see them. I’d appreciate it if you’d let us deal with the McCamys.”
He wasn’t happy about that, but he nodded.
“What I’d really like you to do is come along to the briefing I’m giving to my deputies.”
He wasn’t happy about this either, but on the other hand, Katie wasn’t very happy with him. When he left for the department’s conference room, Katie called Wade in.
Wade always walked like a guy on the prowl. He was two years older than Katie and he’d wanted very much to be elected sheriff, but the truth was, the powers in town owed a lot to the Benedict Pulp Mill, and so Katie was the one to get the nod. Wade had been a deputy to the old sheriff, a good old boy named Bud Owens who’d believed computers were for wussies. When he’d finally retired, he’d told everyone he wanted Wade. Unfortunately for him, Wade didn’t have Katie’s education, or her experience as a cop in a big city. Certainly her desire to be sheriff equaled or surpassed Wade’s. Her cop experience had been in Knoxville, for two years, and that’s where she’d met Carlo Silvestri, who turned her life upside down. For one year, her life had been one screaming crisis after another. Then Carlo’s father had come and they’d both left Knoxville.
Katie had taken stock, realized she was a cop to her toes, and what she really wanted was to be sheriff of Jessborough. It was what she needed, too. She loved her work. It had helped her get through the worst of her father’s illness, the devastating and inevitable march of Alzheimer’s, which had turned him into an angry stranger before killing him.
She watched Wade, her eyes half-closed. When she’d had enough of his fidgeting around, she said, “Well, Wade, would you like to continue working with Agent Hodges for as long as he remains here?”
“Well, sure, I’d really like that, Katie.”
“Thing is, I don’t really trust him to tell us stuff, to give us everything we need to know. Can I trust you to keep me filled in?”
She saw it in his eyes. Wade wasn’t good at deception, not like she was. She was so good that when she was in Knoxville, they wanted to put her in undercover operations. She smiled at him and waited.
He said, one eyelid twitching furiously, “Of course, Katie. After all, I work for the Jessborough Sheriff’s Department.”
“Well, actually, Wade, you work for me. I am the Sheriff’s Department.”
He flushed, blood rushing to his cheeks. He got all stiff, but he wasn’t stupid, and he knew he couldn’t cross her openly or she just might fire his ass.
“Yeah, I work for you.”
“Okay, you’re now my liaison with Agent Hodges.” She sat forward, her eyes hard on him. “Listen to me now, this is important. Don’t be impressed just because he tells you something. Make sure you know everything that’s going on, you got that?”
After he’d assured her he understood, he sauntered out of her office, more enthusiasm in his step.
Katie followed him after a minute. Conversation stopped when she came into the small room. She walked to the head of the table and stood behind a small lectern, her hands clasped in front of her. “There are just eight of us this morning. Nate and Jamie are at home recovering.” She looked around the conference at her seven deputies, all of them looking excited and important. She wished she had a basket of candy to hand out to them, they looked so much like school kids. Linnie, her dispatcher and assistant, had already handed out coffee.
She introduced them to Agent Hodges, then went through events chronologically. It took her a good fifteen minutes. “Do you have anything to add, Agent Hodges?”
He didn’t, though he wanted to. The problem was that Katie had been thorough, and thankfully, Agent Hodges had the grace to say, “No, you’ve covered things quite nicely, Sheriff.”
“Okay, now here’s what we’re going to do. I found out that Hester Granby is the church secretary at the Sinful Children of God. I want Wade to get the names of the members from her. He’ll split them up and each of you will go interview as many church members as you can today. If you find out anything at all interesting about church operations or either of the McCamys, leave me a message on my voice mail. Don’t forget now, we have to be nice. Remember that we have no evidence to connect the McCamys to the kidnapping, it’s just that they’re our only lead. You already know some of their people, but the majority aren’t local. That should give you a head start at least.”
Deputy Cole Osborne said, “Sheriff, how will we know if we find out anything significant?”
“You’re smart enough. Listen carefully, anything you hear that might sound the least bit off, that’s what I want to know about.”
After she’d dismissed them all, and said fond good-byes to Agent Hodges, she pulled Deputy Danny Peevley aside. He was the best-liked of all her deputies, just about magic with people. His mama would say that he could get an onion to peel off its own skin. “I have someone real special I want you to speak to, Danny. His name is Homer Bean and he lives in Elizabethton. He owns the Union 76 gas station. I saw Bea Hipple yesterday at the church and she called me, gave me Homer Bean’s name. She said she liked Homer, and he’d been unhappy with Reverend McCamy. That’s all she knew. Mr. Bean left the church about six months ago. Find out why, Danny. Find out what he thinks of Reverend McCamy.”
Once Katie’s door closed, she sat down at her desk actually happy to have a chance to look at the three active cases Linnie had left for her to review. Three cases very nearly constituted a crime spree for Jessborough. One DUI—Timmy Engels was at this moment still sleeping off his drunk in the only cell that had a soft cushion. One assault case—Marvin Dickerson was in back in a cell for beating on his wife, Ellie. Katie would keep him locked up until Judge Denver saw him at an arraignment on Wednesday. And she would speak to his wife again, beg her to press charges. But she wouldn’t, she never did, so the best Katie could do was keep the bastard locked up as long as she could. And one last case: shoplifting—Ben Chivers, a kid whose parents were so poor, it broke Katie’s heart. And the fact that they were usually passed out at night after drinking themselves blind didn’t help matters. I made you give back that Snickers bar you stole, Ben; now what am I going to do with you? She closed her eyes and mulled that one over.
Then it came to her and she smiled. It was worth a shot. She picked up the phone, spoke to Mrs. Cerlew, who owned Emmy’s One-Stop Grocery, named after her suffragette grandmother. That was where Ben had ineptly lifted the Snickers bar. When she hung up, she grabbed her hat, and stopped by Linnie’s desk. “I’m off to see Ben Chivers. I know he’s in school, and I’m going to get him out of class. It’ll make his reputation if the sheriff comes to see him, don’t you think?”
“He’ll strut,” Linnie said, then shook her head. “That’s a bad situation, Katie. Those folks of his, all they do is lie around drunk and bitch.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Katie said, gave Linnie a small salute, and drove her truck to
the local middle school.
Savich looked up to see Sherlock tuck her cell phone back in her shirt pocket. They were in their bedroom at Mother’s Very Best. He was still sitting forward, trying to ignore the constant throb in his back, working on MAX.
“What did the medical examiner have to say?”
“Clancy,” Sherlock said as she bounced up and down on the bed a couple of times, “was stronger than a bull, ate like a pig, and had arteries clogged all the way to his ears. Katie’s bullet killed him. Nothing more, nothing less.” She eased off the bed, smoothed down the covers and walked to her husband. She leaned down and kissed his mouth. She felt the immediate hitch in his breath, and stood again. “About all we can do is play with my hair rollers,” she said, a wealth of disappointment in her voice.
“Where are they?”
Sherlock laughed. “You’ve been working on MAX all afternoon. What have you got?” She affectionately patted the laptop as she spoke. At least Dillon didn’t have to worry about the math teacher killer case since Jimmy Maitland had told him to chill out until he was better.
“I’ve been reading about Reverend Sooner McCamy. He’s fifty-four years old, born near Nashville, Tennessee, went to Orrin Midvale Junior College, married and divorced once, no children. He sold cars at the Nashville Porsche dealership, and did very well financially. Then he quit and moved to his rich aunt’s house here in Jessborough. He hasn’t done anything since then to earn money, I guess because he didn’t have to. He married Elsbeth Bird of Johnson City ten-plus years ago when she was only about twenty-four and he was forty-four. He didn’t become a preacher until about six years ago.”
He tapped his fingertips together, frowned down at MAX, who was humming placidly.
“He’s married to Elsbeth four years before he finds his calling?”
“Apparently. But when the calling hit him, it hit him hard. Suddenly he’s the founder and leader of this pretty strange-sounding church, the Sinful Children of God.”
“He didn’t go to a seminary?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm. What did his aunt die of?”
Savich’s back was throbbing like the very devil.
She hated seeing the pain in his eyes. “You’re taking a pill, buddy, no arguments.”
After he’d swallowed the pill, she made him sit for a few minutes until his back stopped throbbing. He said, “Let’s see about that aunt. She died something like six months after Sooner married Elsbeth. They both lived with the aunt in that lovely big house that his aunt, Eleanor Marie McCamy Ward, inherited from her husband. Ah, do you have Katie’s cell? Ask her.”
Katie answered immediately and listened. She said, “That’s an excellent question, Sherlock. I’m in the middle of a delinquent problem right now, but I’ll get back to you.”
When Sherlock hung up, she said, “Katie will check it out. We’re having dinner tonight at Katie’s mom’s. You can tell each other what you know about Sooner McCamy and she can tell us all about Aunt Eleanor Marie. Do you want Agent Hodges to come?”
“Sure, the more we compare notes the better. I think Miles is still with Sam and Keely, even though Katie’s mother volunteered to watch them.”
“But Miles didn’t want Sam out of his sight.”
“You got it. I told him to come here—”
There was a knock on the door, then Sam’s voice, “Uncle Dillon! Aunt Sherlock! We’re here.”
Savich slowly rose. He knew the pain would knock him on his butt if he moved too fast. He took a handful of Sherlock’s hair, kissed her—lust, pain, frustration in that kiss. “I want to do something with those big hair rollers later.”
She said against his jaw, “I’ve been thinking that just maybe we can figure something out that won’t hurt you too much.”
That perked him up.
23
They went to Katie’s mom’s for dinner, a large ranch-style home built in the sixties located in the middle of Jessborough on Tulip Lane. She’d lived there for twenty-nine years with her husband. Now, she lived with two canaries, three King Charles spaniels, and an aquarium, temporarily empty. She was serving a huge tuna casserola that the kids would love, Minna Benedict had assured Miles when she met him at the front door.
“Is that the same as a tuna casserole, ma’am?” Miles asked her.
“My granny called it a casserola and that’s just the way it is around here. Hello, Dillon, Sherlock. And who are you, sir?”
“I’m Agent Glen Hodges, ma’am.”
She shook his hand. “Welcome, all of you. Please, call me Minna. Ah, and the beyond-perfect specimens of kidness—Sam and Keely. Come on in, and let me give you each a big hug and an even bigger chocolate chip cookie, fresh out of the oven.”
“What about us, Mom? Just look at Dillon here. The man’s back is hurting bad. He could probably use a cookie about now.”
Minna Benedict was not quite as tall and slender as her daughter, but she had thick red brown hair even more lustrous than Katie’s. She said, “All right. One for each of you, and two for Dillon because of his back. Come in, come in, don’t dawdle. There’s enough time before dinner. Dessert is always better than dinner any day of the week, isn’t it?”
After the three King Charles spaniels had finally calmed down, their silky ears stroked by every adult and child, and the canaries were quiet beneath their night sheets, everyone trooped into the small dining room. To Miles’s surprise, Sam took one bite of the tuna casserola and didn’t stop until he downed two helpings and three of Minna’s homemade biscuits. He and Keely had their heads together throughout the meal.
“Let me tell you one good thing I did today,” Katie announced to the table at large.
Sherlock waved her fork. “Out with it, Katie, we need to hear something positive.”
“I had a boy steal a Snickers bar from a local grocery. His family’s poorer than dirt and both parents drink. I went to the middle school, pulled twelve-year-old Ben Chivers out of class and offered him a deal. He works for Mrs. Cerlew at the grocery three hours a day after school. She pays him minimum wage for two of those hours, then he works free for the other hour. Mrs. Cerlew is all for it, too. If he does well for a month, she’ll keep him on and pay him for the full three hours, three days a week.”
Miles’s head was cocked to the side. “That’s very good, Katie. This way the kid doesn’t have to go into the juvenile system.”
Katie shuddered. “Something I like to avoid at all costs. He’s not bad, just helpless. This will give him a sense of worth, and a bit of money. I told him to keep his new job to himself as long as he could, or his dad would hit him up to buy some cheap wine.”
Minna said, “Of course old Ben would too. Now, Katie, Mrs. Cerlew doesn’t have an extra dime, so I’ll just bet that you’re subsidizing his wages, aren’t you, dear?”
Katie gave her mother a tight-lipped frown and didn’t say anything.
How, Miles wondered, could a sheriff, on a small-town sheriff’s pay, afford to subsidize a kid’s wages? He was chewing his tongue he wanted to ask so badly when Katie’s mom said, smiling, “After the settlement, Katie saved Benedict Pulp Mill, and a lot of local folks’ jobs, and every so often, she helps folk here in Jessborough, mainly the kids.”
“This is my home,” Katie said very quietly. “Actually, you could have pulled the mill out of trouble yourself, Mama.” She added to everyone at the table, “She’s an excellent manager, something Dad just wasn’t. Now, that’s enough.” She looked down at the last bite of tuna casserola on her plate. “Keely, you want one more forkful?”
Truth be told, the very large tuna casserola and the platter of biscuits were memories in fifteen minutes.
Miles sat back and folded his hands over his stomach. “That was delicious, Minna. Thank you very much for letting us come.”
“Well, I put up with you adults just so I can get my hands on Sam and Keely. Now, who’s ready for coffee and apple pie?”
Savich said, “May I give
you my mom’s e-mail, Minna? You can give her your recipe for the casserola and she’ll give you hers for Irish beef stew.” He grinned at his wife. “Then Sherlock and I can bid good-bye to our waistlines.”
After Minna assured the adults that both kids were lying in front of the television, glued to Wheel of Fortune, Katie set down her cup of coffee, pulled out a file and said, “Eleanor Marie McCamy Ward was only sixty-three when she died of a fall down the front stairs. The ME’s report showed that her neck was broken and that the broken bones and internal injuries were consistent with such a fall. Neither Sooner nor Elsbeth apparently were at the house at the time of the accident. He didn’t preach his first sermon for five more years, then he was invited to the Assembly of God over in Martinville. Six months after that, he established the Sinful Children of God here in Jessborough. He started with only a dozen or so worshipers. There are now a good sixty in the congregation. He’s what you’d call a natural.”
“He was an accomplished car salesman,” Savich said. “It makes sense that he’d be a natural as a preacher. Minna, do you know anything more about Reverend McCamy?”
“I remember Eleanor told me that Sooner had been an intense, quiet boy, self-sufficient, very into himself, but when he spoke, he was always so sure of himself that people believed what he said. She said he wasn’t a happy man, understandable with a bad marriage and living in that big city selling those ridiculously expensive cars. She was quite religious herself. She prayed he would find what he was meant to do in life before she died.”
“But she didn’t live long enough to see him become an evangelist,” Sherlock said.
“No, she didn’t,” Minna said. “Her death was a shock to all of us. She was a fine woman. But evidently Sooner did find his calling. He’s very much admired and respected by his congregation. He’s a big part of their lives. Whether that’s healthy or not, I won’t speculate.”
Katie looked directly at Sherlock. “Do you think Eleanor’s fall down the front stairs might not have been an accident?”
The FBI Thrillers Collection Page 76