Lie Down in Green Pastures

by Debbie Viguié

  "Of course," Max said without hesitating.

  "Do you know who he is?" Mark asked.

  "A pain in the butt, but like all such pains he's not worth much attention. He's one of those environmental activists.Why, has something happened to him?"

  "What makes you ask that?" Paul said.

  Max Diamond laughed. "Gentlemen, I'm not stupid.Detectives come around with pictures asking if you know somebody there are very few reasons why. Either he committed some sort of crime, accused me of some sort of crime, is missing, or is dead."

  "Very good, Max," Mark said. "In this case, dead."

  "I can't say I'm sorry. He was an annoying little pest. He confronted me late Wednesday, all bluster about how he was going to make sure the deal for that camp didn't go through.Something about birds. I've dealt with his kind before so I wasn't overly concerned. They usually go away in their own time."

  "If you pay them off?" Paul asked.

  Max shrugged. "I've never had to. I'm an expert on getting the community on my side, despite whatever concerns people like him have."

  "And just how do you do that?" Mark queried.

  Max smiled. "That, gentlemen, is a trade secret, so to speak.Are we done or do you have more questions?"

  "Oh, we have more questions," Mark said, irritated and refusing to be dismissed so easily. "Were there any witnesses to your little conversation?"

  "Sure, he got me while I was having a drink downstairs at the bar. He wasn't exactly quiet. His type never are. There were probably a dozen witnesses. You could start with the bartender, I'm sure."

  "And what time did this all take place?" Paul asked.

  "Between six and six-thirty. I had dinner reservations at sixthirty.I invited him to join me and continue our philosophical discussions. I think that upset him and he left."

  "And how did you spend the rest of your evening?" Paul asked.

  "Dinner here at the hotel. Around ten I retired to my room where I stayed until eight in the morning when I came down for a late breakfast."

  "How are your negotiations going with the Green Pastures board?" Mark asked, changing topics.

  "Well. I'm sure they'll come around to my point of view.Although I have to hand it to the chairman, he's a tough one.Smart, shrewd, and principled."

  "You sound like you almost admire him."

  "I do in a way. He's not like that weasel," Max said, pointing to the picture of Kelly. "He knows how to create something, how to be a success, not just stand in other people's way.Still, he's a reasonable man, and in the end I think we'll make a deal."

  "Not with him you won't," Paul said.

  "Oh, and why is that?" Max asked, looking bemused.

  "He's dead."

  And for the first time since they had been there the look of smug superiority vanished from the developer's face. Surprise mingled with a touch of sorrow twisted his features. "Dr.Tanner is dead?"

  "Yes, he is."

  "I'm very sorry to hear that. What happened?"

  "He was killed."

  Max looked uncertain for just a moment, like he didn't know how to respond, and then the mask descended again. "That's unfortunate, but hopefully his replacement on the board will be easier to work with. I wish you luck in catching his killer."

  As they left the hotel, Mark couldn't help but marvel at what a piece of work the developer was. Once in the car he turned to Paul. "Do you have to work hard to become that much of a jerk or is it a gift?"

  Paul smiled briefly. "You know what they say. Some are born with it; the rest aspire to it."

  "You think he killed Kelly?"

  "Personally, no, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he hired somebody to do it."

  "If we can prove that, it's good enough for me," Mark said."How about the doctor?"

  "He actually seemed surprised by that one."

  "I agree. So, two different killers?"

  "Maybe, I don't like it, though. It's too much of a coincidence," Paul said.

  "The murders have to be connected. We just have to figure out how."

  Marie popped her head into Jeremiah's office. "You have a visitor," she said. "It's one of the Gentiles from next door."

  "You mean Cindy?" he asked.

  "No, this one's a guy. Said his name was Joseph."

  What could Joseph possibly be doing here? Jeremiah wondered.

  "Go ahead and send him in."

  He rose and shook the other man's hand when he entered and then they both took their seats.

  "Joseph, it's been a while," Jeremiah acknowledged.

  "Yes, it has."

  "What can I do for you?"

  "I'm here to invite you to serve on the Green Pastures board."

  "Excuse me?" Jeremiah said, blinking in surprise.

  "With the death of Dr. Tanner I've been elected the acting chairman and I want you to fill the vacant position."

  "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested."

  "Hear me out. I'm not so much asking you as begging you.As rabbi you're a community leader with a vested interest in the future of Green Pastures. I need someone like you right now while the decision is being made whether to continue the camp as it is or to sell it to Max Diamond in exchange for a lease on the land and more than enough cash to fix the infrastructure of the immediate camp area."

  "I'm not a businessman, Joseph."

  "Exactly. We've got too many businessmen on the board, myself included. What we need is a religious leader to help us examine the pros and cons and decide the future of Green Pastures."

  "I still don't—"

  Joseph held up a hand to interrupt him. "Please don't give me an answer right now. Just think about it. If you could serve for three months until we get this matter settled then I'd happily accept your resignation and we could both move on. But right now I have to replace Dr. Tanner and I would much prefer someone like you sitting at that table with me. Your community needs you."

  "I'll think about it."

  "That's all I need for the moment. Thank you," Joseph said, rising and extending his hand once more.

  "You ever planning to go into politics?"

  Joseph laughed. "No, why?"

  "No reason," Jeremiah said, shaking his hand.

  As soon as Joseph had left, Jeremiah sank back down in his chair. Of course he had to refuse the offer. Serving on a board like that was far too public and politically charged. He didn't need the scrutiny. He couldn't help but wonder why Joseph had come to him instead of one of the pastors of his own church, though.

  There was definitely a certain irony to the whole situation.Dr. Tanner, why did you have to hit my car? He sighed and turned back to his work.

  Cindy could barely keep her eyes open Monday afternoon as she stared at her computer monitor at work. She had been up half the night doing some research online, trying to figure out if there was a poison that could cause someone to have a heart attack. As it turned out there were several, although most of them would have killed Dr. Tanner before he even got in his car.

  She had discovered that a few, like cyanide, could have caused the delayed heart attack. Most of them, though, would be nearly impossible to obtain.

  Unless you were wealthy and connected.

  "Earth to Cindy!"

  Cindy jumped and turned to look at Geanie.

  "Helloooo, are you with us?" Geanie asked.

  "Sorry. What?" Cindy asked.

  "Camp. Wildman. Questions."

  Cindy just stared back at her, allowing her confusion to show on her face.

  "Wow, you really were spacing out," Geanie said.

  "Sorry. What's going on?"

  "Marie just confirmed that we're holding space for sixteen people on our bus up to Green Pastures. I was wanting to know if you had a final head count from Pastor Dave and a driver for the bus? I'm also supposed to remind you that depending on how many he needs seats for we might need to send up the van as well."

  "Okay, I'll get on it," Cindy said.

  She reached for t
he phone, yawned, and thought better of it. Instead she got up and left the office, heading for the youth room and Wildman's office. The youth pastor beamed when he saw her.

  "Any chance you got a bus driver?" he asked hopefully.

  "I've got calls out. I'll do some follow-up this afternoon."

  "Oh," he said, clearly disappointed. "So, what brings you here?"

  "Do you have a final head count for students and counselors attending? The synagogue is sending sixteen people up and I want to make sure we have seats for everyone."

  "I just finalized the list," he said, standing to grab a piece of paper from his printer and hand it to her.

  "Thanks," she said, scanning the list quickly. "Oh, good, Brenda is going to be able to go," she said. Cindy had gotten to know a little bit about the girl during the Thanksgiving food drive. Brenda's family was very poor and she attended church by herself.

  "Yes, she was thrilled when I told her we'd found a scholarship for her."

  "She deserves a little happiness," Cindy said.

  "Well, hopefully this will be the best camp experience ever!"

  "I'm sure it will be," Cindy said. Especially since I think this will be her only camp experience.

  She left the youth room and headed back to the main office.When she stepped inside, though, every thought of nailing down a bus driver vanished as Mark stood up from where he had been sitting next to her desk.

  She rushed over to him, dropping the camp list next to her phone. "What is it?" she asked.

  "It turns out you were right to call us last week," he said."Dr. Tanner was murdered."

  "I knew it!" she said, far more exuberantly than she should have, given what it was that she knew. "Sorry," she said, wincing.

  It didn't seem to faze him. "I just wanted to ask you some more questions."

  "Are you sure Paul is going to be okay with that?" she asked before she could stop herself.

  Mark rolled his eyes. "Paul has issues with civilians being in the line of fire. And rightly so. Unfortunately, I have to be a little more flexible sometimes."

  "Geanie, can you cover for me?" Cindy asked.

  The other girl nodded, a bemused expression on her face.

  A minute later Cindy led Mark into one of the Sunday school rooms, the very one they had had a similar meeting in nearly a year before.

  Mark took one look at the miniature chairs and groaned."Seriously? There aren't any rooms with adult-sized furniture in this place?"

  "None that aren't in use or about to be in the next half hour.There's always some kind of meeting going on around here."

  "Fine," he said, sinking down onto a tiny plastic orange chair. "You should know I'm going to talk to the rabbi next."

  "Of course," she said, secretly thrilled that he had come to speak with her first. She leaned forward eagerly on her own tiny plastic chair.

  "Like I said in the office," Mark began. "Dr. Tanner was definitely murdered."

  "Was he poisoned? Was it a poison-induced heart attack?" Cindy asked, somewhat breathlessly.

  "You know, with imagination like that you should become a policeman or a mystery writer. Personally, I'd recommend writer. It's usually safer."

  "Usually?" she asked, staring intently at him.

  He cracked a smile and she found herself laughing.

  "You're in a really good mood considering we're here to discuss murder," he observed.

  "It's just such a relief," she admitted. "Everyone was treating me like I was crazy."

  "Crazy like a fox." He took a deep breath. "Yes, it was poison and it induced the heart attack."

  She resisted the urge to throw her arms up in the air and make the touchdown gesture. She mentally shook herself. Get a grip, we're talking about the brutal murder of someone you knew, a good, decent man. This isn't a game. You don't get points for outguessing the police or being clever. A man is dead and that is a great tragedy, not a reason to party like you just won the Super Bowl.

  "How was he poisoned? By whom?" she asked after she had forced herself to take several deep breaths to clear her head.

  "We don't know yet. The coroner thinks, though, that he was poisoned within an hour of dying."

  "Would he have known he was poisoned?" she asked. "I mean, would there have been any symptoms?"

  "Probably not."

  She could tell from his facial expression that Mark was saying that to make her feel better. The truth was he really didn't know, but he didn't want to say that and risk making her feel worse.

  "And you don't know if the poison was swallowed or injected?" she asked.

  Mark shook his head. "In case you missed it, I'm the one here to ask you questions, not vice versa. But, for your information, it looks like he swallowed it."

  "Which would mean that all you'd have to do is figure out where he had breakfast that morning," she said.

  "The accident happened at ten in the morning. Yes, it could have been breakfast, or brunch, or it could have been a cup of coffee he grabbed somewhere."

  "True."

  "Almost all murders committed are done so by friends or family. So, tell me what you know about his family. Any of them up for something like this? Did anyone here at the church hate him for any reason in particular?"

  "Like what?" she asked, startled by the question.

  "Like anything. Grudges? Any hints of adultery?"

  "No, nothing like that."

  "And yet he changed churches after years of attending this one. Usually people don't do that without a good reason."

  "I think I told you last week that he moved and started attending a church closer to him."

  "Paul's checking with the minister there," Mark said. "If he was going to church regularly elsewhere then why was he in front of First Shepherd when he had his heart attack?"

  "I don't know."

  "You say there's meetings going on here all the time. Any on Thursday he would have likely been trying to attend?"

  "I—I don't think so," she said, startled at the thought. She had assumed his driving in front of the church had been random, unrelated. Maybe it wasn't.

  "What meetings were happening here Thursday morning?" Mark asked.

  "There was a women's luncheon that started at eleven," she recalled. "There was also a prayer meeting scheduled." She closed her eyes and visualized the calendar, hoping to remember so she wouldn't have to go get it.

  "Anything else?"

  Her eyes flew open as she remembered. "There was a scout leaders' meeting."

  "Who was there?"

  "Representatives from the area for all the different scouting groups. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Campfire Girls, Brownies, Sea Scouts, too, I believe."

  Mark leaned in close, his eyes blazing at her. "Would any of those people have had any reason to know Dr. Tanner?"

  "Larson Beck. He's a Cub Scout leader for the area. He and Dr. Tanner were both on the board—"

  "For Green Pastures," Mark finished with her.

  "Oh! Do you think Dr. Tanner was coming to see Larson?" Cindy asked.

  "I'd be willing to bet on it," Mark said. "And I'm not a betting man."

  With that terrible poker face, you shouldn't be, she thought.

  "Joseph told Paul yesterday that Dr. Tanner was supposed to meet with someone Wednesday night or Thursday morning to help shed light on the sale of the camp."

  "It's possible he was talking about Larson."

  "But Larson would have been able to voice his opinions directly in the board meeting."

  "Unless he was afraid of something or someone," Mark said.

  Cindy shook her head. "Larson Beck isn't afraid of anything."

  "Everyone's afraid of something," Mark said.

  And some of us are afraid of everything, like me.

  Cindy felt like she was grasping at a thought that kept just barely eluding her. It was important; she could feel it. "What if . . ."

  She stopped, feeling the pieces slowly falling into place.

&
nbsp; "What?" Mark pushed.

  "What if whoever he met with killed him?"

  Mark was nodding. "Maybe. I'm guessing that whatever that meeting was about certainly was connected to his murder."

  A flash of understanding crossed Mark's face.

  "What is it? You figured it out, didn't you? Tell me," Cindy pleaded.

  "It's just speculation at this point," he said, talking more to himself than to her.

  "I don't care. This whole thing has been speculation. Let me know what you're thinking. I can help. I know I can."

  "What if Dr. Tanner and the person he met with were both killed?" Mark asked.

  "I don't understand—" she started to say and then stopped."You mean the environmentalist?"

  "Exactly. He was planning on causing a huge uproar over the proposed land sale. Turns out some rare birds use that area as their nesting ground. What if—"

  "What if he was the person Dr. Tanner was meeting with when he told Joseph there was someone who could shed light on the whole situation?" Cindy finished.

  "Yes."

  "And somebody else linked the two of them together and killed them both?"

  "That's about the size of it," Mark said.

  "But who would do that?"

  "Someone who wanted to make sure Max Diamond bought Green Pastures, no matter the cost."

  "No matter the cost," she echoed, her blood turning to ice in her veins. She thought of what she had read on the internet about the rancher's wife. She thought about telling Mark, but so far it was an isolated incident. Another thought occurred to her, though. "There are other board members who are against the sale," she whispered. She stood abruptly to her feet.

  "Where are you going?"

  "I have to warn Joseph."

  6

  SETTLE DOWN," MARK TOLD CINDY, PUSHING HER BACK DOWN INTO THE chair. "If the murders are linked and the killer is going after people opposing the sale, we don't want to tip our hand too early."

  "But Joseph—"

  "Is both a potential victim and a potential suspect at this point," Mark said.

  Cindy blinked. "Suspect? How could he possibly be a suspect?"

  "At this point anyone connected with Green Pastures is a suspect as far as I'm concerned," Mark said. "I don't think Joseph had anything to do with these murders, but I don't want to accidentally tip offwhoever did by telling Joseph too much."