by Anne Hagan
Opera House Ops
Episode 9 - Twofer
A Morelville Cozies Serial Mystery
Anne Hagan
To Mrs. Rotunno for words of praise that sparked a lifelong passion for writing
PUBLISHED BY:
Jug Run Press, USA
Copyright © 2016
https://annehaganauthor.com/
All rights reserved: No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without prior written consent of the author or the publisher except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages for review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are actual places used in an entirely fictitious manner and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1 – Fainting Spell
Wednesday Evening, October 14th
Morelville Christian Church
Doris, eyes closed, slid down in her chair as though she were melting.
“She’s fainted!” Mildred said as she lunged from her seat next to the church secretary and tried to stop her descent. The 70 year old woman nearly flipped herself out of her own chair in her effort to assist.
Faye sprang up from her seat to Mildred’s right and Chloe rushed toward them from the standing position she’d been in for the previous ten minutes. By the time Chloe got around the pushed together tables to Doris, she was on the floor, her chair toppled, but Faye had her sitting up and was patting her face in an attempt to revive her.
Chloe righted the chair and then commanded Mildred to hold it steady while she and Faye lifted the barely coherent woman off the floor. She was heavier than they thought and Aiden jumped over to lend a hand too.
By the time the three of them had her seated again, and Faye and Chloe had each taken an arm to hold her in place while Mildred fanned her with a file folder, she was coming back around. Aiden backed off slightly then and looked across the table at Kent and Evan and the meek and typically silent worship committee chair, Willetta Mosley.
All three were staring wide eyed at Doris. Kara, who was still standing behind them, looked puzzled.
“She’ll be all right everyone. She’ll be all right,” Aiden said and then blew out a breath in an effort to calm himself as he walked back around to his place at the head of the table.
He looked at Kara. “Maybe it would be best if you explain what you just insinuated.” He spun and grabbed a chair from the end of a table across the aisle and pulled it over at an angle between himself and Evan then indicated she should sit.
She declined. “It’s rough driving out there at night around here. There are deer jumping out here there and everywhere. I need to get going.”
“Not so fast,” Evan bellowed. “You can’t drop a bombshell accusation like you just did and then leave. Please, indulge us for a couple of more minutes and fill us in. It’s not going to make any difference in the number of deer who decide to cross in front of you this evening.”
“Very well then,” Kara huffed. “Your beloved Pastor, is Seth Scott, is he not?”
Several heads around the table nodded. Kent started to speak but caught a glare from Aiden and thought better of it.
“I thought I recognized him the first time I was in town, when I was, uh, trying to find the opera house. He was walking out of the gas station as I drove by it, trying to follow my GPS and find the darn place. Seth Scott,” she practically spat out his name, “was married to my ex-husband Gregory’s sister Amanda 15 years or so ago. The three of them met in college where both guys and Amanda all went to school.”
“We were aware of Seth’s previous marriage when he applied to become our Pastor,” Evan told her.
“Previous? Not hardly.”
Aiden looked stricken. “So Gregory Sellers, your ex-husband who died in the opera house, was Seth’s brother-in-law?”
“Was…is…was, I guess, since Gregory’s gone.”
“Wow.” Aiden pulled a cupped hand down over his mouth and chin. “Maybe you better tell us the rest.”
“So,” she said, “Seth and Amanda married right after he graduated. She actually left school after her Junior year to be with him. He took a job at some teeny, tiny church in a little town in the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia that wasn’t much bigger than this…town.”
“It’s a village,” Faye reminded her.
Kara shrugged. “Anyway, by the time they got married, Gregory and I were engaged and we were living in New York. He was working on Wall Street and I was trying to break into musical theater. Amanda was…what’s the word? Envious? She decided she’d made a mistake and wanted out of the marriage after maybe a year.”
“She thought Seth was a handsome man, yes, but he was devoted to his calling much more so than she thought he might be. That little church, his first assignment, was very poor and didn’t pay him much at all. She didn’t take well to being a poor pastor’s wife and living the sort of life the people there lived. I guess it just didn’t coincide with her vision of the future. She left him, though he begged her to stay, telling her things would get better.”
“You’re saying she left him,” Kent asked, “but didn’t file for divorce?”
“Well, not right away. Not that I know of anyway. She didn’t have the money. She borrowed money to go back to school and finish her degree then she started working in New York and going to night school to get an MBA. She stayed in the city for a time while Gregory and I were there. She didn’t date. She was completely career focused then. When Gregory and I split and he left for Florida, Amanda picked up stakes too and moved out west to L.A. to work for some company out there but now, as far as I know, she’s in Atlanta and she’s been there for a while.”
“You really haven’t been in touch with her in how long then?” Aiden asked.
“It’s been seven or eight years since we’ve been together but I’ve kept track of her over all that time because I stayed in touch with Gregory and asked after her. We had gotten to be pretty close friends, of sorts, after all. Neither one of us had ever had a sister.”
“Seth,” she continued, “eventually moved on, going from church to church to church but he stayed in touch with Gregory too and he also occasionally inquired after Amanda from him.” As far as I know they never divorced, not the way Gregory told me the story, anyway. I figured Seth always hoped she’d ‘see the error of her ways.’ Now, for whatever reason, he’s gone and gotten married and has a whole new family so he might very well be married to two women...probably is.”
Faye’s mind was running a hundred miles an hour, thinking the worst. To her, it sounded an awful lot like Seth might have killed his former friend to keep him quiet when he showed up in the village and then the thought of what he’d done got to be too much for him to bear and he’d disappeared. As she looked at the faces around the table, she could tell that Aiden and Evan both looked pained by Kara’s revelations too.
Doris started to slip. Faye tightened her grip on the woman’s right arm and shot Chloe a look.
More jaded than Faye from living in the Pittsburgh most of her life and having a high ranking cop for a son, Chloe just pursed her lips and shook her head slightly. She’d put two and two together also and come up with the same grim answer that Faye had.
It was all too much for Doris. She keeled forward and was only saved from hitting her he
ad on the table by the sheer determination of Faye and Chloe to hold her back. They quickly revived her again, then got her up and assisted her to the sofa in the anteroom of the downstairs ladies room.
Chapter 2 – Grilling Lauren
6:52 PM, Wednesday October 14th
“There’s no point in continuing,” Aiden told the rest of the group. “Ms. Bradshaw, while I appreciate the information you’ve given us, this is one of those innocent until proven guilty situations…er, as far as the bigamy is concerned and, uh…”
“I know,” Kara interrupted him, “that you’re probably thinking Seth killed Gregory. I don’t think he did. He didn’t have it in him. He may be a bigamist…he is a bigamist, mark my words, but he’s not a killer.”
“Well, there’s a measure of comfort in that,” Evan said.
Aiden looked around at those who remained at the table. “Either way, this is all best left in the hands of the proper authorities. I’ll speak to our local Sheriff first thing in the morning, before I come to Zanesville to meet with you Ms. Bradshaw; that is, if we’re still on for that?”
“Of course.”
Aiden adjourned the meeting and then arranged with Kara more privately on a meeting time. Once he was sure she was on her way, he walked across the fellowship hall and entered the little vestibule that branched off into restrooms for men and women.
He knocked at the ladies’ room door and called out for Faye.
She appeared seconds later.
“How’s she doing?”
“Better,” Faye said. “All of that seems to have been quite a shock to her but she’s coming back around.”
Whispering, he asked, “Did you hear any of the rest of the conversation out here?”
“A little. Enough to know Bradshaw thinks Seth didn’t kill Sellers. In my heart, I want to believe that but we’re seeing that we don’t know him as well as we thought we did.”
Aiden nodded, “True. Has Doris said anything about what Ms. Bradshaw told us?”
Faye shook her head. “She hasn’t said a thing but her color is coming back and her eyes are clear. I’m assuming she walked over here tonight since it’s just a few blocks. If you like, I’ll run her home and see that she gets settled in safely.”
He looked relieved. “Thank you. You’re a saint.”
Faye flipped a hand at him.
“I’m meeting Ms. Bradshaw at 10:00 tomorrow morning. I’ll handle working up a deal with her and then circle back around with you about Cole’s Scout Project once I’ve got the building deed. Do me a favor though;” he cautioned, “don’t say anything to Cole until you hear from me that everything is a go. If anything at all goes wrong, and he has his hopes up, I’ll feel really bad about it all.”
“You’re worried Kara won’t go through with the sale?”
“Not that so much as, I don’t think it can all happen near as fast as she wants it to. She didn’t let me have a copy of the contract she supposedly has to let me read it over tonight. Failing that, I definitely want my own legal opinion on it but getting in to see anyone in the firm I use, last minute, is a toss-up. Send up a prayer or two.”
Faye nodded. “Of course.”
“I’ll stick to my word about a transfer to the Community Foundation later, once you’re all approved, chartered and ready to go. We can work out the financing – if any – later.”
She smiled. “I know you will and I’m not concerned. You’ll be getting reimbursed for the building as well but it may take a little time. I do have to ask though, were you serious about being on the board? We’d love to have you.”
“I am. It’s in my own best interest to see the heritage of this community preserved and nothing would make my father happier either.”
Faye managed to convince Doris to accept a ride home. Chloe followed behind them in her car.
It took a little bit of doing but they got her into the house and settled into a chair. Chloe went to the kitchen to make tea while Faye tried to question her. She relented when the secretary began to cry. “That poor man,” she blubbered, “he just didn’t deserve all of this. That poor, poor man.”
“Which man?” Faye asked gently. “Gregory Sellers?”
Doris just rocked in her chair. Faye could see it was useless to try and get anything more out of her.
The two women retreated as soon as they felt comfortable that Doris was not in any danger of fainting again.
“What was she going on about?” Chloe asked, when they got outside.
“Beats me,” Faye said. “She’s upset about what happened to a man but I’m not sure if her concern is over Sellers or Seth Scott.”
“Hmm,” Chloe eyed her friend. “You know who I’d put money on.” They stopped walking when they reached Faye’s car.
“I’m curious,” Faye said, to know what all Lauren, Seth’s wife, knows.”
“Do you think she knows about the bigamy?”
“Maybe, maybe not. She’s a tough one to read…keeps to herself and rarely steps outside the house other than for church functions. There might be something there worth digging for. Don’t you think it’s odd that we’ve barely heard a peep out of her since they day Seth went missing?”
“Maybe he’s been in contact after all and she’s just not telling us?”
“But why?” Faye asked.
“I don’t know…embarrassed?”
“It can’t be even 7:30 yet. What do you say we pay her a visit?”
Chloe scratched the side of her head. “And say what?”
“Just follow my lead.
The Scotts’ had four children. As the two grandmothers stood on the doorstep of the tidy little house about a mile out of the village, waiting for Lauren to answer the bell, Faye could hear a ruckus inside.
Lauren’s voice called out over the din, “Put that down and leave your brother alone now!” Seconds later, she called out again, “Jacob, this is your last warning!”
Faye pushed the doorbell button again.
Apparently hearing it the second time around, Lauren called out, “Everyone settle down!” The sound of her voice drew closer to the front door as she said it. Seconds later, the heavy wood door opened and she stood behind the glass storm door, peering out at them.
When she realized who was standing there she reached right for the handle to open it, asking, “Faye, what on earth brings you out tonight? And, Chloe is it? Come on in.” The two women both tried to hide their surprise at the unexpected boisterous greeting. She showed them from the center hallway into the living room that was strewn with toys.
“Please don’t mind the mess. It will be bath time shortly so they’ll be picking these up very soon.” She shot a look around at the children lurking in the background.
“We won’t keep you long,” Faye said. “We were in the village and just thought we’d stop in and check on you, see how you’re holding up?”
Lauren half shrugged and spread her hands, some of her quieter demeanor returning. “About as well as could be expected, I guess. We’re coping for now but I don’t know what we’re going to do…what the church will do, if Seth doesn’t reappear soon.”
“So you haven’t heard from him at all?” Chloe asked.
“No, not a word and I’m worried sick. Something has to be wrong or he’d be here or have called by now. This just isn’t Seth. He’s as rock steady as they come. I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed for word, for his safe return, anything…” She trailed off, her eyes getting misty.
Chloe stole a quick look at Faye.
“There dear,” Faye put a hand on Lauren’s shoulder. “We didn’t mean to upset you.”
The potential waterworks were headed off by the Scott’s youngest child, four year old David, running pell-mell into his mother’s legs as he tried to get away from his slightly older sister Sarah. “Mama, mama, mama!” the youngest one cried.
“What? What’s wrong baby.” She looked at the toddler but, when he raised his arms, she didn’t pick him up.
“We were just playing mommy,” Sarah said. “I wanted to comb his hair but he won’t let me.”
“You know he doesn’t like that,” Lauren reminded her only daughter.
To Faye and Chloe she said, “I wish we’d have had two of each. I think that would have made play time a little less of a challenge.”
Both grandmothers laughed knowingly. “Sweetie, Chloe said, “you have no idea what you’re saying.”
Faye tried to think of a way to turn the subject back around to Seth when the doorbell rang.
“Now who on earth could that be?” Lauren looked at them both quizzically and then moved to answer it.
The two women weren’t positioned to see the door but they heard all they needed to from Lauren’s greeting as she said hello to Doris. They shot each other incredulous looks.
“What brings you by?” Mrs. Scott asked her.
Her reply came back, “Oh, we were just having a little meeting over at the church, nothing serious, you understand, and I got to thinking about you. When it ended, I thought I’d just pop on over and check in on you and the kids.”
“You’re always so kind. Come on in. Faye Crane and Chloe Rossi are here too,” she told Doris as she led her into the living room.
“No one told me there was a meeting.” She looked at the two women in front of her as they watched Doris’s face register shock behind her. “Were you two there as well?”
“I was. Just our usual Wednesday night thing,” Faye lied. “We finished quickly.” At least that wasn’t a lie.
Chloe made a show of looking at her watch. “We really should get going. I didn’t say anything to Marco about going visiting after I closed the store tonight.”
“Mommie!” a young male voice called out from a room somewhere else in the house. A loud thud sounded right after that.