Missed You In Church: A Hunter Jones Mystery

by Charlotte Moore

  “I have work to do,” Mallory said firmly. “I’ve got a Board of Education meeting right after lunch. I really can’t. Why do you have to go to Macon today, anyway?”

  “Well, Caren called and she was worried to death about her cake server. You know she brought her own to serve the cake with, but of course I had that beautiful sterling silver one we used for my wedding and your mother’s, so hers never got put out with the cake, and it turns out that her girls packed everything up except the cake server when they left.”

  Mallory smiled a little and said, “Well, shouldn’t she send one of her girls back down here to get it, then?”

  “Oh, I know,” Clarissa said with a little shrug and a smile, “And if it were anybody else, I’d just have told her to send them right back down here, but it never hurts to do somebody a special favor if you want their help. I just drove right out there and found it, and I called and told her I’d bring it to her. I really need to have a little friendly chat with her and give her some of my cards. She’s in such a good position to recommend me to other brides and wedding planners.”

  “I’ll get the room cleared out for you,” Mallory said firmly, “But I really can’t get off work to go to Macon with you. I took two full days off last week.”

  Clarissa gave a martyred sigh and said, “Well, I suppose I’m off to Macon on my own then. I’ve done it before and I can do it again.”

  She got to the door and turned back.

  “You do have your key, don’t you?” she asked. “I mean in case I’m not back by the time you get there? And you do know the code?”

  “Got the key,” Mallory said, holding up her key ring. “Know the code. No way am I going to set off that alarm.”

  “And put it back on if I’m not back before you leave,” Clarissa said.

  “I will,” Mallory said.

  “I don’t mind cleaning up the room at all,” Mallory said to Hunter when Clarissa had gone, “We left it in a mess. But honestly that woman wants somebody to ride with her every time she goes out of town. She was always dragging Miranda along, and I’m not going to start doing that.”

  She smiled and said, “Just think. Miranda’s getting a tan on the beach in Honolulu, and I’m picking up after her.”

  “Let’s both leave early and I’ll help you,” Hunter said. “There are lots of boxes back in the press room and we can both go and just toss everything into them. I just need to pick Bethie up at her grandmother’s at 5.”

  “That would be great,” Mallory said. “I’ll just take the boxes home and sort it all out there.”

  “Let’s do the whole thing,” Sam said to Billy Marshall at 2 p.m.. “From when your wife picked you up here until when you got to the interstate. We’re going to go through the drive-through at the Chicken Coop and then stop at Benson’s Shell for gas. You stop at the Bremmer’s and pretend the dog’s out, and do what you did. Then you start again. Skeet’s going to be riding with you, so tell him about where you saw that Buick, and keep right on going.

  Billy grinned.

  “You guarantee I’m not going to get a speeding ticket?”

  “I’m going to be in front of you,” Sam said. “Siren going.”

  CHAPTER 33

  IT WAS A LITTLE PAST FOUR when Mallory pulled into the long side driveway by her aunt’s home.

  “Miranda and I both have always had keys to the back door,” she told Hunter. “You know our grandparents lived here when we were little, and then after they died, it was empty for a while. It was left to our mom and Aunt Clarissa together, and they were going to sell it, but luckily they didn’t. Uncle Mack, Aunt Clarissa’s husband, got killed in a car accident, and she came back here to live.”

  “It’s a nice big house,” Hunter said as they got the boxes nested and headed for the back stairs. “Will it be yours someday?”

  “Oh, I hope not!” Mallory said as she unlocked the door and quickly punched in the security code. “I’d never want this much house to deal with. We’ve tried to talk Aunt Clarissa into selling it and getting a smaller place, but she’s sentimental about it, and she’d never have room for all her stuff in an apartment.”

  Inside, everything seemed far too neat and clean to provide much work for the cleaning crew, but the upstairs bedroom that the girls had used looked as if a bomb had hit it. They both laughed as they began to toss things in boxes.

  “I can sort it all out at home,” Mallory said. “Let’s just get it out of here.”

  “Do you see the shoe that matches this one?” Hunter asked a minute later, holding up one dark rose high heeled sandal.

  Mallory looked all around, and then got down to look under one of the twin beds.

  “I see it,” she said, reaching out and then tossing it backward.

  Then she was quiet.

  “What’s that doing here?” she murmured, lying flatter and stretching her arm out.

  When she sat back up by the side of the bed, she was holding a small wooden chest.

  “My mother had one of these,” she said. “It’s a miniature cedar chest. The old furniture store used to give them to all the girls when they graduated from high school. Mom’s is still at our house.”

  “This must be Aunt Clarissa’s,” she said as she opened it to look inside. “I’ll leave it out for her. I don’t know why it would be…”

  Suddenly, she put her fist into her mouth and bit it.

  Hunter stared. Mallory’s back was shaking. Was she laughing or crying over what was in the box.

  “What is it?” Hunter said.

  “No,” Mallory said in a small voice. “I can’t stand this. I just cannot stand this.”

  Puzzled, Hunter came around the bed, and knelt down beside Mallory, and saw a blue and queen floral quilted wallet.

  “It’s Noreen’s,” Mallory said. “It’s the one that was taken from the house.”

  “Put it down,” Mallory said softly. “Leave it just like it is, and put it back exactly where you found it. I need to call Sam.”

  Mallory didn’t seem to be listening. She picked up the wallet, opened it and unzipped the inside pocket. Something glittered.

  “Here’s Noreen’s ring,” she said in a flat voice. “Oh, and there’s Aunt Clarissa’s old garter.”

  They both heard a car door shut.

  “That’s her,” Mallory said. standing up with box firmly in her grip.

  Hunter made a quick call.

  “Magnolia County 9-1-1,” the dispatcher’s voice said over Hunter’s phone.”Do you have an emergency?”

  “Yes,” Hunter said, “I’m at Clarissa Scarbrough’s house.”

  “Is this you, Hunter?” the dispatcher asked. “Taneesha’s heading over there already. She’s on her way over to talk with Mrs. Scarbrough about something.”

  “Send Sam,” Hunter said. “Hurry.”

  The kitchen door shut with slam.

  “Mallory, I’m home!” It was Clarissa.

  Mallory didn’t answer.

  Hunter called out, “We’re almost through. We’ll be down in a minute.”

  “Put that chest under the bed,” she whispered again to Mallory as she heard steps on the staircase.

  But it was too late for that. All at once Clarissa was standing in the open doorway staring at Mallory, who was clutching the box.

  There was a forced smile on her face.

  “Mallory, what on earth are you doing with that old chest. Here, let me have it and I’ll put it away.”

  Hunter heard a car door slam outside. That would be Taneesha, she thought. Neither Clarissa nor Mallory seemed to notice. They were locked in their own struggle of wills.

  Hunter heard a siren in the distance, then a second one. A car door shut outside. That, she thought, must be Taneesha.

  She intervened and said, “I think Mallory’s kind of upset today. All these things were reminding her of Miranda and her Mom.”

  The doorbell rang. Clarissa didn’t seem to notice.

  “I don’t know
what you’re doing here anyway,” Clarissa snapped at Hunter. “I don’t remember inviting you into my home.”

  The first siren was closer, and Hunter could hear a second at a distance. The doorbell rang.

  “I came to help Mallory,” Hunter said.

  “And I’m not just missing Mom and Miranda,” Mallory suddenly burst out. “I’m missing Noreen, too, and what I want to know is…”

  “Hush, Mallory,” Hunter said.

  Clarissa was slipping her hand into her shoulder bag.

  “What I want to know is what you’re doing with her wallet and her ring,” Mallory said, glaring at her aunt.

  The first siren was blaring now. Hunter glanced out the window and saw the cruiser pulling into the driveway. She caught a glitter of silver in the sunlight as she glanced back and saw Clarissa holding a small gun.

  Hunter felt unnaturally calm. It was a matter of timing, she told herself. Help was already here.

  “You need to put the gun away,” she said to Clarissa. “The whole sheriff’s office is outside. If you shoot either of us you’ll go to jail.”

  “Don’t you dare point that gun at her,” Mallory screamed at her aunt. “What are you doing with a gun anyway? Are you crazy? And why do you have Noreen’s things?”

  There was banging on the front door as a second siren grew louder.

  Clarissa had a trapped look. She pointed the gun at Hunter at the same time she looked toward Mallory.

  “Mallory, sweetie,” she said in a plaintive voice, “Give me the chest.”

  There was banging on the doors downstairs. Keep talking, Hunter thought. Keep talking. Anything but shooting.

  “You shot her, didn’t you?” Mallory asked. “You shot her with that gun you’re holding right now. You took her things!”

  Hunter heard glass breaking downstairs, and Taneesha’s voice shouting, “Sheriff’s Office. Hunter, Mallory, where are you?”

  “Upstairs,” Hunter yelled.

  Mallory and her aunt seemed to be in a bubble of their own, only hearing each other.

  “You don’t understand, Mallory,” Clarissa said.

  “You need to put that gun down,” Hunter said. “Please, Mrs. Scarbrough. Just put it down.”

  Hunter could see Taneesha slipping up quietly behind Clarissa.

  Hunter heard Sam downstairs shouting her name and Taneesha’s. Clarissa whirled around to look, and Mallory hurled the cedar chest as hard as she could striking her aunt on the side of the face. Hunter dove onto Mallory, knocking her over the bed and tumbling on top of her. Taneesha had Clarissa on the floor, disarmed and handcuffed before Sam reached the room.

  Hunter peeked up from the side of the bed, looked across the cluttered bedroom at Sam and said, “There’s evidence in here. Noreen’s wallet was in that chest. There it is over there on the floor.”

  “She did it!” Mallory said angrily. “She killed Noreen. She’s got the ring, too. Don’t let her talk her way out of it.”

  Hunter stood up and felt a little dizzy.

  She made it halfway down the stairs. Sam caught her as she fainted.

  CHAPTER 34

  IN HAWAII, IT HAD TAKEN CHAD Montgomery the first two days of their honeymoon to find out what was bothering Miranda, and then he was deeply troubled. It was such a weird story, so unlikely that he didn’t know whether Miranda was confused or something was terribly wrong with Clarissa.

  He had made her go over the story three times already, and he was relieved when the Sheriff of Magnolia County called his cell phone wanting to know if Miranda knew anything about a chest that was under a bed.

  It began to make sense as he talked with Sam Bailey, and he took charge.

  “Miranda has been telling me about that,” he said. “I was going to call you.”

  “Your Aunt Clarissa is under arrest,” he said to Miranda. “Mallory found the box you hid under the bed, and they think she had something to do with Noreen’s death. You need to tell Sheriff Bailey exactly what you told me. Every word of it.”

  “I was already at Aunt Clarissa’s house,’ Miranda said to Sam in a shaky voice, “And I couldn’t find my garter, so I called Mallory and told her I thought I had left it by my bed, but she found Merlin chewing on it. She can tell you about that.”

  “And then?” Sam asked patiently.

  “Mallory said that Hunter had a garter and she’d get it and not to worry, but I was worried that maybe Hunter wouldn’t know where hers was or something. Aunt Clarissa was over at Hilliard House fussing about the flowers, and I remembered her saying something about hers being up in the attic.”

  She became quiet.

  “So you went up to the attic,” Chad prompted.

  “Yes, it was so hot up there, I could hardly stand it, but I saw this little cedar chest right near the top step, and I remembered that the garter was in there with some other fancy stuff, because we used to play up there sometimes and get into things. I didn’t think Aunt Clarissa would mind. I wasn’t spying on her or anything, just trying to find the garter. So I just grabbed the chest and it was sort of stuck shut, so I took it downstairs.”

  She stopped and cried. Chad got her calmed down and she continued talking to Sam.

  “And then when I got to our bedroom, I got a nail file and pried it open. I think it was just stuck from the heat, and I opened it and there was Noreen’s flowered wallet that was missing when she got killed. It’s a blue and green flowered one that Mallory gave her that matches her purse, and besides, I knew it was hers because it had her driver’s license in it and I unzipped the zipper part, and there was her ring with that big diamond and I thought to myself all of a sudden that Aunt Clarissa must have pulled it off her finger.”

  She began to cry, and Sam waited while Chad talked to her in a gentle voice. Finally she was back on the phone.

  “And the garter was in there too, but it was all old and yellow and I wouldn’t have ever wanted to use it.”

  “So what did you do with the chest?” Sam asked.

  “I was hot and it made me feel sick all over because I knew Aunt Clarissa wasn’t supposed to have those things and she wouldn’t want me to see them because she must have shot Noreen or maybe gotten somebody to do it,” she said. “She didn’t really like Noreen at all. I’ve always known that, from way back. So I put the chest under my bed because I didn’t want to go back in the hot attic and I knew she wouldn’t see it under there, because of her back. I just wanted to get married and get away from there.”

  Sam asked her to put Chad back on the phone and told him that there’d be no need for them to cut their honeymoon short.

  “We can probably have the Mobile police take a deposition from her later,” he said. “We’ve got more evidence than her testimony, but this helps enormously.”

  “Mrs. Scarbrough, you don’t have to answer any questions,” Molly Bloomfield was saying as he returned to the conference room. “And if you can afford an attorney, I advise you to call one…”

  “Of course I can afford an attorney,” Clarissa snapped. “But I don’t need anybody else in my family’s private business. There’s been far too much of that already.

  “Has a doctor seen that bruise on the side of her face,” Molly asked. “I understand that she fell to the floor.”

  “Sonny Raburn has checked it out,” Sam said. “He said it’s just a bruise. Mallory Bremmer threw a wooden chest at her, but that wasn’t what knocked her down. Taneesha took her down and got her gun away.

  Clarissa sighed impatiently and said, “I’ll be fine. I just want to get this nonsense over with and go home. Mallory got absolutely hysterical about nothing. I think she’s exhausted from the wedding and all her father’s problems.”

  She seemed not to be grasping how much trouble she was in. Sam had called Molly at the Public Defender’s Office to try to talk some sense into her while he was talking to Miranda and then to Mallory.

  “I advise you not to say anything then,” Molly said. “Let me remind you a
gain, Mrs. Scarbrough, you are being held on very serious charges.”

  “You know,” Clarissa said, “I certainly have not committed any crime so I would prefer to address my remarks to Sheriff Bailey and just get this all cleared up so that I can go home. If I needed a lawyer, I would obtain one and it certainly wouldn’t be a woman. Please don’t take offense, but I think that men are just better at certain kinds of jobs.”

  She turned and included Taneesha in her scornful gaze.

  “Very well,” Molly said with patient courtesy. “Then let me advise you one more time not to answer any more questions, and let me assure you that any male attorney you get will prefer that you not have answered questions.”

  “Good heavens,” Clarissa said straightening up in her chair. “Will you stop being so persistent, and go away. You know, you remind me of Noreen, all business like and thinking you’re the boss just because you’re wearing a suit and heels.”

  Her voice was hostile.

  “I’m going. Just remember that you don’t have to answer anything,” Molly said.

  Clarissa ignored her and turned to Sam, who had just come in.

  “Let’s save some time,” he said, turning on a recorder. “Mrs. Scarbrough, the chest that your niece Mallory Bremmer found in your house contains Noreen Bremmer’s wallet with her identification in it, and a ring that could only have come from Mrs. Bremmer’s finger, undoubtedly after she was dead. Can you explain why those items were in your possession?”

  “Well, they were hardly in my possession. It was Mallory who had the chest in her hands when I got home. I told you everything I knew after Noreen’s death,” she said.

  Sam gave her a steady gaze.

  “Yes,” he said, “and we know now that you were still within three miles of the Bremmer home when their dog was outside running in the road. That’s why I was sending Sgt. Martin over to bring you in so we could see if you could clear things up. Then we got a 911 call from my wife. Also, we know now that you have a gun, although you told us earlier that you didn’t own one, and we are in possession of the items that were taken from the Bremmer home when she was. Why did you take them?”