Shepherd by the Sea: A Pastor Clarissa Abbot Mystery

by Glen Ebisch

  Jonathan stared somberly across the room. “I’ve seen a lot of death. Held a lot of young guys as they breathed their last. I don’t know how much confidence I have in your beliefs, but I hope, for their sakes, that they’re true.”

  Clarissa nodded. “All we can do is live in hope.”

  As they left the restaurant a half hour later, they walked across the pedestrian mall and stopped under a tree at the cross-street where Jonathan would have to turn left and Clarissa right.

  “Would you do one more thing for me before you go?” Jonathan asked.

  “What’s that?”

  “Would you remove your mask one more time?”

  Without questioning, Clarissa took off her mask. He looked deeply into her eyes, and suddenly, she felt rather exposed. More naked than if she’d been without clothing. Then he reached out and gently touched the side of her face for a moment.

  “Thank you,” he said solemnly. Without saying another word, he turned and walked away up the tree-shaded street.

  Clarissa returned to the pedestrian mall and began walking back in the direction of the church. Even though she was lost in thought, going over in her mind the lunch with Jonathan, she spotted Ashley walking toward her, holding hands with a man. Ashley saw her and gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head, warning Clarissa not to let on that she knew her. As they passed each other, Clarissa couldn’t resist taking a sideways glance at him. She was surprised to see that he appeared considerably older than Ashley. Perhaps that’s why she’s been keeping him a secret, Clarissa thought.

  Clarissa walked the rest of the way back to the church office. The phone was ringing when she opened the door. She rushed to Ashley’s desk and picked it up just in time.

  “Hi, Clarissa,” said Rudinski.

  “Hello,” Clarissa said, feeling like she’d been cheating on him with her mind if not her body.

  “I wanted to give you the news. We’ve found George Evanston.”

  “Was he picked up by the police at his home?”

  “No, right here in Shore Side.”

  “Were they able to find out anything from him about where Karla went that night after she left him at the bar?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Rudinski paused. “He’s dead. He’s been murdered.”

  Chapter 19

  Clarissa was standing in the center of the room when Ashley walked in a few moments later. She took one look at Clarissa’s face and turned even paler than usual.

  “I’m sorry I’m late, and I know I should have told you what I’ve been up to lately. But I just couldn’t find a good time to mention it.”

  Clarissa waved a dismissive hand and slumped back against the desk.

  “What I’ve done can’t be all that bad, Boss,” Ashley said in a worried voice. “You look like you’re about to faint.”

  “George Evanston has been murdered.”

  “What? Where?”

  “They found his body behind a dumpster over on Jefferson Street. He’d been stabbed to death just like Karla.”

  “Do the police have any idea who did it?”

  “No, aside from the assumption that it was the same person who killed Karla. They’re speculating that George followed Karla from the bar that night and saw the man she met. He must have followed them back to her condo and been outside when the murder took place. He may even have been the first to find the body.”

  “Why didn’t he go to the police with the information?” asked Ashley.

  “Baker thinks that maybe he followed the guy back home, so he knew where he lived.”

  “You mean he was going to take the law into his own hands and kill the guy?” asked Ashley. “But instead the guy killed him?”

  Clarissa shrugged. “This is all just speculation. It’s more important now than ever that we find the man she met up with after leaving George at the bar.”

  “The same man she was emailing on the dating website?”

  “Possibly.”

  “What are the police going to do?”

  “They’re searching for anyone who was in the area of the dumpster last night. They’re still looking for someone who knows where George was staying in case he had any contact there with his killer.”

  Ashley frowned. “Well, all this certainly makes my news seem anticlimactic.”

  Clarissa pulled her mind back to her friend. “The fact that you’ve got a boyfriend? That’s very important news.”

  “Hardly a boy; he’s forty years old. He’s even been married.”

  “Is he married now?”

  “Divorced. But he’s fourteen years older than I am. My aunt will have a cow if I bring him home. And don’t tell me age is just a number; it’s more than that.”

  “You’re right, it is. He’s lived through a lot of things that are just history to you. You’re almost of different generations.”

  “You’re not making me feel any better.”

  “But even people of the same age have been through very different experiences. The real issue is whether you get along and enjoy being together. Given all the long lunches you’ve been taking recently, I’d say that is certainly the case.”

  Ashley reddened. “We’ve been meeting at lunch time because I can’t go anywhere at night without telling my aunt.”

  “So what you’re saying is that I’m easier to fool.”

  “The KGB is easier to fool than my aunt.”

  “That means you’re going to have confess to her eventually. Probably sooner if you want to have a normal dating relationship with . . . what’s his name?”

  “Kevin Bristol.”

  “So you and Kevin have a lot in common?”

  “Yeah, we met at an IT conference a few years back when he was still married. We were both interested, but there was no way I was getting involved with a married guy. They all say they’ll leave their wives for you, but they never do. I’ve seen enough television to know that. He got in touch with me a couple of months ago, and said he’d been divorced for a year and wanted to know what I was doing. He lives about a half-hour north of here, so we got together a few times.”

  “And nature took its course, or would have, except for you aunt’s presence.”

  “She’s not going to be happy that he’d older, and she’s definitely not going to be crazy about the fact that he’s divorced,” said Ashley, looking mournful.

  “You’ll have to break it to her eventually.”

  “Well, actually I was kind of hoping that you could do it.”

  Clarissa gave her a hard look. “I think there are some things a woman has to do for herself.”

  “Oh, I’ll talk to her about it, but I thought maybe you could sort of pave the way. If you tell her that you’ve only just learned about Kevin yourself, she can’t blame you for hiding anything from her. The two of you could just complain about how irresponsible I am for a while, so when I do talk to her some of her anger will have been defused.”

  “Actually that might be a very enjoyable conversation. Your aunt and I would have a lot to share.”

  “Just don’t get her any angrier than she’ll already be,” said Ashley, licking her lips nervously.

  “If you want my help, you’ll have to face the consequences,” Clarissa said, putting on a stern expression.

  “All right, all right. I know you’re kidding, but remember this is my life we’re talking about here.”

  Clarissa grinned. “I’ll try to keep that in mind. Now I’m going in my office to make a couple of phone calls. First, I’m going to call your aunt and set up a meeting with her for tomorrow morning, if possible.”

  “What reason are you going to give her for the meeting?”

  “I’ll say something bland, like I want to give her a progress report on your job performance. I’m sure she’d like to hear about that.”

  Ashley rolled her eyes. “She’ll never believe you.”

  “You’re aunt is a very polite person. She might not believe me, but she won’t say so. Then I’m g
oing to call Rhonda and Cheryl. Rudinski has already told them about George’s murder. In fact, he was going to ask them to come down to the station to answer some questions.”

  “He thinks one of them killed George?”

  “There was certainly no love lost between the sisters and George, and Rhonda seems capable of just about anything. But I doubt that he really suspects them. I think the police just want to show due diligence. I want to talk to them to see if they want to continue with the search for the mystery man. They might change their minds, now that they know an active killer is still out there.”

  “Maybe you should change your mind about accompanying them.”

  Clarissa shrugged.

  “I mean I’d hate to have to find a replacement clergyperson to officiate at my wedding.”

  “Well, thank you, now that you ask, I’d be honored. But I always thought you’d find a Wiccan priestess to do that.”

  “That’s a point of contention between Kevin and me.”

  “I see. Well, every relationship has its small hiccups,” Clarissa said, just managing to keep a straight face as she went into her office to make the calls.

  Chapter 20

  “They treated us like criminals,” Rhonda said that night as she drove to the first bar they were planning to check out. She hit her hand on the steering wheel. “It was embarrassing.”

  “It wasn’t that bad, Sister,” Cheryl chided her. “The Lieutenant was actually very polite. They just had to find out where we were last night. After all, we weren’t exactly George’s biggest fans.”

  “Where else would we be at midnight other than alone in our room? Shacked up with some gigolo?”

  “You could have been using George as a pincushion behind a dumpster,” Clarissa said, making Cheryl laugh.

  “I might have been tempted, if I knew where he was,” Rhonda admitted.

  “But we didn’t,” said Cheryl, “and it’s a mystery to me how he could have gotten murdered in a town where he didn’t know anyone.”

  “He may have known one person, the person who killed Karla. He could have followed her from the bar and seen the killer,” said Clarissa.

  “Then why not tell the police? After all, he claimed to still love Karla,” said Cheryl.

  “Not as much as he loved himself,” Rhonda said. “He probably figured he could blackmail the killer into giving him a ton of money.”

  Cheryl frowned. “Oh, I don’t know. George wasn’t much, but . . . ”

  “He was a sleazy operator,” Rhonda went on. “However, he was essentially a coward. I just can’t imagine him blackmailing some tough guy. He’d be too frightened to do that.”

  An idea crossed Clarissa’s mind, but disappeared before she could bring it fully to her attention.

  They spent the next two hours going to the bars and restaurants on their list. Showing Karla’s picture and hoping she’d be recognized. Although she and Cheryl avoiding drinking, Rhonda had something at almost every place they went, and was becoming increasingly more pugnacious, getting in the face of every bartender who professed ignorance of her sister.

  “Rhonda is married, right?” Clarissa whispered to Cheryl after they almost dragged Rhonda out of the last bar, before she got in a fight with someone she insisted was looking at her funny.

  “Oh, yes. She’s been married to the same man for ten years. Walter is a biologist who loves all living things. He’s very sweet. He excuses her temper because he knows about her background.”

  “What about her background?’ Clarissa asked, as she watched Rhonda weave up the street in front of them glaring at everything around her as if hoping for a fight, even with inanimate objects.

  “Our parents always loved Karla the most because she was the youngest and cutest, and they tolerated me because I was rather harmless. But Rhonda’s more assertive personality frequently got her into trouble. Believe it or not, she controls her temper better now than when she was younger.”

  “Hard to believe.”

  Cheryl nodded. “In her high school yearbook she was named as the most likely to do hard time.”

  “Hearing that must have been pretty hurtful.”

  “Rhonda claimed to be proud of it, but I found that difficult to believe. At any rate, she was always jealous of Karla. I think she’s so dogged about finding her killer because she can’t admit to herself that a part of her is happy that Karla’s dead.”

  The next bar they came to was named Beach Nirvana. It was on a dark corner and rather rundown. Clarissa knew nothing about it. It was close to empty when they went in, and most of the patrons were men. It looked nothing like nirvana. The female bartender gave them a long look as they walked in, as if about to warn them that they were in the wrong kind of place.

  Clarissa went up the woman who was in her mid-thirties and showed her the photo of Karla, launching into what by now was her canned speech.

  “Give me a gin martini,” Rhonda said loudly.

  “You’ve had enough,” Cheryl whispered.

  “I said,” Rhonda repeated with exaggerated enunciation, “that I want a gin martini.”

  “I’m not going to serve her,” the bartender, who had just told Clarissa her name was Lisa, said firmly. “She’s already had too much.”

  “You think you’re too good to serve me,” Rhonda said, leaning across the bar.

  “We don’t serve drunks.”

  Looking around the dark, somewhat dingy bar, Clarissa very much doubted the truth of that assertion.

  Rhonda opened her mouth again, but Cheryl pulled her off the bar and with surprising force, shoved her in the direction of the door.

  “If you don’t want her to come back, you should take a look at this picture and tell me if you saw this woman in here last weekend,” said Clarissa.

  Lisa sighed and picked up the photo. “Yeah, she was in here Saturday night. The only reason I remember it is that she was sitting at a table with Chris. He’s a regular.”

  “His name is Chris, not Dan?”

  “It’s funny you should say that. When Chris came up to the bar to get a couple more drinks, he gave me a funny smile and said that the woman he was with said she was looking for a Dan but thought he’d do. He said that sounded like the story of his life. Chris has a way of putting himself down although he really shouldn’t,” Lisa said with a dreamy smile, as if she though Chris could do better, maybe with her.

  “Sounds as if you like Chris.”

  Lisa shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “Yeah, well, he’s not stuck on himself like most of the guys who come in here.”

  “So they were talking, what happened next?” asked Clarissa.

  “They had a few drinks, then they left together around eleven-thirty. I didn’t really think it would happen.”

  “Chris doesn’t get lucky very often?”

  “Chris does all right,” she said defensively. “But this woman kept surveying the room like she was searching for a better prospect.”

  “But they did leave together?”

  “Yeah,” she said sadly.

  “And you didn’t see them again?”

  “Nope. In fact Chris hasn’t been in since.”

  “What’s Chris’ last name?”

  Her face closed up. “We’re not into last names around here. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s a bar, not an employment agency.”

  “I see that, but I’ve got a pretty good idea that you know his last name, Lisa. And before you deny it, you should know that the woman who left with Chris was murdered about an hour later. So the police are going to be just as interested in Chris’ last name as we are, and they won’t ask as nicely. In fact, they’ll question everyone who works here and lots of the patrons. So if you know his last name, it would be smart to share it with us and save yourself some grief.”

  “His name is Grant, Chris Grant,” she replied after a moment’s thought. “I didn’t know about any murder. I don’t follow the news.”

  “Do you know where he lives?”r />
  She shook her head.

  “Didn’t you ever go out together?”

  “I guess I wasn’t his type.”

  “But he came in here all the time, so he probably lives in the area.”

  “I suppose.”

  Clarissa thanked her and went over to the door where Cheryl was standing, holding firmly onto the arm of her sister, who was staring hostilely at a man sitting alone at a table. He caught her eye and quickly looked down.

  “What’s Rhonda’s problem with that guy?” Clarissa whispered.

  “He reminds her of an old boyfriend who dumped her.”

  “Okay, let’s get her out of here before she tries to settle imagined past scores.”

  Cheryl drove them back to the realtor’s parking lot. Along the way, Clarissa told her what she’d learned.

  “Good work,” Cheryl said. “You may have discovered the name of Karla’s killer.”

  “We’ll have to see. I’ll let Sergeant Rudinski know first thing in the morning. The police will probably be able to track him down quickly.”

  “Good. Rhonda and I can only take off another day or two before we have to get back home. We’d like to feel that we’re leaving with the job done.”

  “Let’s hope that turns out to be the case.”

  Chapter 21

  As soon as Clarissa woke up the next morning, she picked up her cell phone and called Rudinski. She knew he was working days this week, so he’d probably already be up and about. When he answered, she told him Chris Grant’s name.

  “I’ll have him picked up,” Rudinski said. “So you and the sisters were out bar hopping again last night, putting your lives at risk. Well, at least you came up with a solid lead.”

  “I hope it pans out.”

  “I don’t know if he’ll do it, but I’ll try to get Baker to let you watch as we question this guy. Just you, not the sisters.”

  “I’d appreciate that. I’d like to get a sense of what he’s like, and get some idea of what motivated him to kill her. The bartender seems to think that he’s a pretty nice guy.”

  “Most guys are until they’re not. I’ll send you a text as soon as we’ve brought him in for questioning.”