On the Rebound 2

by Brenda Barrett

  "Didn't you hear that?" Ashley asked. She was in her track clothes, ready to go running.

  "I heard it," Jorja said, and then she mumbled, "Excuse me," and ran into the house to find the nearest bathroom.

  Ruel could hear her retching from the veranda. He was determined that today was the day that Jorja would ‘fess up and tell him about the father of her baby.

  He looked at Ashley, a small smile on his mouth; she had her hair in two fat plaits and a headband around it.

  "What?"

  "That," Ashley said when another scream permeated the air.

  Ruel jumped up. "I wonder who it could be?"

  "It sounds serious," Ashley said fearfully. "Maybe I shouldn't go jogging this morning."

  "I'll go put on some clothes and check it out." Ruel went into the house.

  Ashley sat down on the steps and waited for him to come back. He came back dressed in a blue track bottom with a white runner thing at the side and in a sleeveless muscle shirt, which showcased his biceps. He didn't do a lick of exercise and he still looked fit.

  "Unfair," she said out loud when Ruel opened the gate for her. "Grossly unfair how I have to be working out like crazy to maintain my body."

  Ruel chuckled.

  "What were you doing up so early anyway?" Ashley asked. "You never get up earlier than I do."

  "I couldn't sleep well." Ruel sighed, "Have a lot on my mind. I am going to have to confront Conroy and Owen about this pregnancy thing. It has been on my mind. I almost did it yesterday, too, but I guess I was so shell-shocked by everything else."

  "Suppose one of them did it, or both of them slept with her?" Ashley stretched her neck. "What would you do?"

  "I am trying not to think about that." Ruel shook his head.

  They heard loud sobbing and a wailing "nooo." When they turned the bend in front of the Skinners’ house, Lyn was sobbing in the front driveway, her arm over her head. "Nooo…"

  Other people were just arriving at the house. One or two of them were trying to get her to talk.

  "Maybe Regina robbed the place," Ashley said jokingly to Ruel.

  "She's dead!" Lyn inhaled a shuddering breath and started crying again. "Dead!"

  Ashley froze, her head echoing the nooo of Lyn’s. It couldn't be Regina she was talking about. Regina was too tough and sneaky to die. Too evil, too calculating. She had friends high up in the police force. She should be in Kingston now, calling one of her police friends and telling them tall tales of Primrose Hill and out of courtesy to her father, someone would stir the local police to come look into it.

  They would be harassed for a while and then, when the police found no evidence to support Regina's wild accusations, they would apologize and not return. After that Regina would leave her in peace for another five or so years, when she could expect another upset in her life.

  Regina was definitely not dead.

  Ashley watched as Ruel went over to Lyn Skinner and she got up from the ground, and she watched as she said the words almost in slow motion, "It’s Regina."

  Ashley drifted closer, torn between a curious sense of relief and grief, each feeling battling for dominance in her heart. Relief was winning. She was fascinated enough to go closer.

  "How did she die?" Her voice was even when she asked Lyn.

  Lyn wiped her eyes. "I don't really know. She was just out cold on the settee. Her face was swollen."

  Ruel took out his cell phone. "We have to call the police. I am figuring this is now a crime scene. We shouldn't go in there."

  He moved away from Lyn and called Inspector Campbell. Primrose Hill didn’t have a police station but the neighboring town of Chapelton had one. It was a good twenty minutes’ drive from Primrose Hill but the police showed up nearly forty minutes later. By that time most of the residents of Primrose Hill were at the scene.

  Ashley felt cold. The news set in about ten minutes later and she realized that it really happened. Josiah found her around the same time and squeezed her shoulders.

  "Sad, huh?"

  Ashley shrugged. "I am not sure."

  "I wonder how she died," Josiah mused.

  Ashley shook her head. "I guess after the police do their work we'll know more."

  "I heard that she ruffled a few people up at your church," an old man said beside them.

  Ashley looked over at him. "Really?"

  "Yup," the old man nodded, "I don't think it is a matter of what killed her, but who."

  ****

  Kingsley Hartley got the call on Monday morning from a distraught Lawyer Tharwick.

  "Find out who killed my baby. I have a team of police standing by just waiting for your call." The old man's voice was shaking. "Leave no stone unturned, King. No stone. No expense spared. I want a full report and I want a name. There is a police detective up there named Clarke. He was told to work with you. He is waiting at the house for you to come by. I told him not to do anything until you get there."

  "Okay sir." King was speaking confidently but inside he felt deflated. He felt like a prophet. He had told Regina to be careful. He had warned her. He knew messing around with people's pasts could be dangerous.

  "Her body is at the university hospital. I ordered an autopsy. The results will be in today. Listen for my call."

  "Okay sir," King said again, feeling like a broken record. He held the phone long after the lawyer hung up. It shouldn't be hard to pinpoint who killed Regina. He would just have to find out who from the list of names that he had investigated had the most pressing motive to have her killed.

  Before that he would have to walk through Regina's stay at Primrose Hill and her last days. It shouldn't take him long to find out what he wanted to know.

  His wife stirred beside him and whispered. "What's wrong?"

  "Go back to sleep," King murmured.

  She sighed softly. "Be like that."

  King kissed her hard on the cheek. "I am going to Primrose Hill for three days."

  "Okay," she mumbled. "Call me."

  "Yep." King got up and headed to the shower. He felt older than his fifty-five years and a great deal sadder than when he had gotten the call from Lawyer Tharwick. He could barely believe it.

  The sense of incredulity continued with him when he entered the Primrose Hill community and when he walked into the house, which he had visited just a few short weeks ago, armed with a report on the church board.

  "Where was the body?" he asked Clarke, a short young man who couldn't have possibly met the height or weight requirement of the police force. He was short and fat. He had deferred to King from the moment that he walked through the house on mid-Monday. King was OK with the idea of working with him, so long as he didn't interfere much.

  "Right here." Clarke pointed at the long sofa. "She was slumped over the settee. There were no bruises on her neck or any evidence of foul play. Her face was swollen but no trauma to indicate a blow. Nothing was taken from her belongings. She had a suitcase left here that the landlady said she was coming to get. The chief said I should show you the pictures."

  He handed King the pictures and he pored over them.

  "Interesting."

  "What?" Clarke tried to see over his shoulders but King was just too tall for that.

  "This." King pointed at the glass on the table. "She was drinking something and her face is swollen, her nose and mouth. See?"

  "Yes," Clarke nodded, "the medical examiner did remark that her tongue was also swollen. It seemed like she was drinking something milky too."

  "Milky?" King sat down in the same chair that he had sat in before and looked at Regina and told her to be careful.

  He shook his head. "Why would Regina, who is allergic to milk, be drinking something milky?"

  "I have no idea." Clarke shrugged and sat across from him. "Maybe it is one of those imitation milks, like almond milk or something."

  King got up swiftly and Clarke scrambled out of the settee to join him.

  "I am going to check her room."
>
  "It was basically clean," Clarke said. "The caretaker lady, Lyn, said that she had been in here and cleaned out the place some days prior to Regina returning. She said that all Regina needed to do was collect her bags. There was nothing in the fridge; the place was pristine when we came through here yesterday."

  "Hmmmph," King murmured and looked around the clean room. "Not even a wrinkle on the duvet."

  He spotted a drawer on the side table with two keys hanging from it. He opened it. It was empty and clean except for a pen that had the Tharwick law firm’s logo.

  So Regina had used the drawer, probably to store her papers. The papers that he had given her. A shaft of guilt hit him when he thought about that. He could have made himself unavailable when he heard her request. Maybe then she wouldn't have been up here in Primrose Hill. And she wouldn't have died.

  "What time was she found?" King turned to Clarke who was leaning on the door jamb and looking bored.

  "The housekeeper said she came in at 6:30 on Sunday morning to retrieve the key and check that everything was okay. The medical examiner estimated death at about seven pm. She also suggested that she was strangled except there were no marks on her. Her luggage was near the door so she had intended to leave."

  "Where is it?" King headed to the hall area again.

  "Right there." Clarke pointed to it in the corner. "It is locked. We left it for the family… er, you to claim."

  King nodded and pulled out the stylish black suitcase from the corner it was in. The lock was an ordinary light padlock.

  He opened it in ten seconds using his master key.

  "Cool." Detective Clarke looked at the key.

  "Interested in a life of crime, Detective?" King grunted as he opened the suitcase.

  "No," Clarke said sheepishly.

  King looked through Regina's clothing and toiletries and then he found the report he had done for her at the very bottom of the bag. It was in a black zipped-up folder.

  He opened the folder. "Who last saw her alive?"

  "Apparently, she went to church the day before and she made a scene," Clarke said, "accusing people of a couple of whoppers. That is currently the hot topic in the district."

  "Mmmm," King said, pulling out the files. He scanned through them. Only the files on Ruel Dennison and Honey Allen were in there. Everybody else's was missing. He frowned at that. He was suspicious about that. Why would these two be the only ones remaining?"

  He found a piece of paper with her unmistakable scribbling. She had made a list.

  He scanned through the list: Norma Kincaid, Owen Kincaid, Ruel Dennison, Honey Allen, Conroy Coke, Josiah Coke, Nolan Ramsey. The seven saints, she had scribbled under that and then all over, she had written ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

  Seven ha's.

  His seven suspects, King thought, looking over the names again. One of them had done something to Regina; he was only waiting for the autopsy to find out how.

  "What do we do now?" Clarke asked. He was getting restless. As far as he was concerned this was an open and shut case.

  "Wait on the autopsy results." King sighed. "I am almost certain that somebody knew of her medical history. Somebody was biding their time. Somebody gave her something to drink and watched as she suffocated and died. That somebody is going to prison if it's the last thing I do."

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was the most somber board meeting that Ruel could recall chairing. He had called them to an emergency Monday evening session after yesterday's tragic event. He looked from one face to another, and most of them tried to avoid his gaze. Only Nolan Ramsay and Josiah Coke were looking at him with confidence. Honey Allen had barely glanced up from the floor since she walked into the room.

  "Let me just say," Ruel's voice was as strident as he could make it, "I did not kill my first wife. Let’s get that out of the way. I may be guilty of some things but not murder. We need to address what happened on the doorsteps at our own church the other morning. The accusations. The innuendos. We cannot serve this church with all of these rumors hanging over our heads. We need to clear the air and be truthful with each other, at least."

  He sighed. He needed to take this advice himself. He cleared his throat.

  "Resign if you have to, but we cannot bring this church into disrepute."

  After his speech there was silence.

  And then Honey Allen spoke. "She was right about me. I am not hiding that. I am guilty as charged, so I might as well resign."

  After she spoke Conroy glanced at her, his gaze veiled. "That's really big of you to admit something like that, Honey. It's a pity you couldn't tell me this years ago. I wanted to marry you."

  "And I didn't want my son to think badly of me," Honey said simply. "So I stuck to my story. But surely my situation is not worse than yours. You slept with the pastor's kid. Now how is that for the pot calling the kettle black?"

  "I did not!" Conroy said, his eyes flashing. "I am not attracted to her and as much as Jorja looks like an adult, she is still a child. I am shocked and downright dismayed and mystified that this Regina person could come up with these things about me."

  Ruel cleared his throat. "Actually, Jorja was the one who mentioned your name first."

  Conroy looked puzzled. "I can't imagine why she would say that. I have only ever been nice and supportive to that girl."

  "Maybe because you accommodated her little touchy-feely moments," Honey said. "I saw you and her. She was all but draped over you and purring in your ears."

  "I don't know what you are talking about," Conroy said, flushed. "I don't know what it is that you think you saw but I was not thinking in that manner. Not about her." Conroy looked at Ruel. "Listen Pastor, I have never had sex with your daughter. Never. I think having to defend myself like this is a very cruel and unusual punishment."

  Ruel nodded. He believed him.

  Conroy looked as if he was fit to chew nails. "That Regina girl was trying to destroy my reputation and she couldn't have chosen a worse venue."

  "Okay Dad, we get it," Josiah said softly. He looked around at the others. "He has been like this since it happened. Regina shocked him with her, er, revelations."

  Conroy was still agitated too. "The nerve of that woman."

  "She is dead, though," Norma said softly, "so that is something."

  Ruel looked at Norma and then Owen.

  "I don't have to defend myself," Owen said, blustering when he felt their eyes on him. "This is crazy. I don't have porn on my computer. One time I was looking at some pageant pictures of a girl who wanted our agency to sponsor her. Norma and I decided not to. Those must be the naked pictures Regina was talking about, and I am pretty sure she got that info from Lyn Skinner. I caught her on my computer more than once, looking for what only God knows.

  "As for Jorja, I don't know what to say. Like Conroy, I am pretty taken aback by the accusations. I didn't have sex with her; I've only been nice to her. I don't understand!"

  Ruel sighed. "So you are totally innocent of the charges levied at you."

  Owen eyed him sharply. "Yes, I am!"

  "So when you carried Jorja to music class, did you see anything untoward between her and the music teacher, Greg?"

  "No." Owen shook his head. "Greg is paralyzed from the waist down; what is there to observe?"

  Ruel started drumming his fingers on the table. "Then this is quite the dilemma we are in. My daughter says you both are candidates for her child's paternity."

  "I can submit to a DNA test," Owen said without pause. "I am not hiding a thing."

  "Me too," Conroy said, "but to imagine that I am going to have to be defending myself for the next couple of months really puts a bad taste in my mouth."

  "And mine too," Owen said quickly. "But what can we do?"

  Norma had been silent until now. "I just want to say that this is really your fault, Ruel. You should be a proper father to that girl. She is obviously a troublemaker and an awful liar, just like that girl Regina. She needs to be c
areful. Troublemakers tend to end up dead."

  Silence greeted that statement.

  "What are you trying to say, Norma?" Ruel asked tensely.

  "I said it," Norma hissed. "Rein in your wild child!"

  "So are you really a human trafficker Sister Norma?" Nolan asked, looking at Norma innocently.

  "I won't even dignify that with a response," Norma said scornfully. "I told Owen already and I am going to tell you all publicly. I find this whole situation to be beneath me. After all the things I have done in this church…for this whole community, you would all listen to the likes of that girl Regina...then all I have to say is y’all are a bunch of ungrateful leeches."

  "Sister Norma," Ruel said softly, "we are all just talking here, no need for insults."

  "Oh, there is need," Norma said with heat. "I have done many things for this community, this church, each of you here. You all eat at my house; you call me a friend and now this...unbelievable!

  "If your wife didn't have a connection to Regina, she wouldn't have been up here poking around in our business and if your promiscuous child did not see it fit to mention my husband on her list of candidates, then my family would not be involved in this madness.

  "As I see it, Ruel, the problem begins with you. You! You should resign. Your presence in our community, our church has caused quite the upheaval, wouldn't you say?

  "Anyway, if you don't have the balls to resign I will."

  She stood up bristling. "I resign from all posts effective immediately. I don't care what you lot want to think, only God is my judge."

  She stormed out of the meeting, her head held a notch higher than usual.

  Silence greeted her exit.

  Owen cleared his throat. "Well, I guess I should go too. I, er, resign effective immediately."

  He got up and left quietly.

  "That leaves me," Conroy said, "the other person in this, er, paternity question."

  He looked at each person seated at the table. “For the next couple of months, I won't be able to hold my head up in this community."

  He looked at Honey regretfully. "Life, huh?"

  Honey shrugged and picked up her bag. "Life." She paused before she walked out. "Pastor Ruel and Nolan, I wish you all the best in the ministry and I apologize for my lies and any repercussions that my actions may cause this board."