Marked for Murder

by Donna Raider

  “I thought it was an accident.” Mika frowned.

  “So far, it looks like that.” Carlie nodded. “Mika, I have an incredible track record for being right about these things. It’s like a sixth sense. I believe Janet was murdered.”

  “What makes you think so?” Mika asked.

  “Right now, nothing but instinct.” Carlie grimaced.

  “For Bishop Cantrell’s sake, I hope you are wrong.” The priest bowed her head. “It seems that if it weren’t for the Catholic Church, the news media would have nothing to discuss.”

  “You know the saying,” Carlie said, frowning, “bad things happen in threes. Hopefully this will be the end of The Catholic Murders.”

  “The what?” Mika growled.

  “I’m sorry,” Carlie apologized. “I didn’t mean to let that slip. That is just what we call the three incidents we have had in your parish over the past few months.”

  “I suppose I can’t blame you.” Mika nodded.

  “I saw you steal away my wonderful wife.” Leah entered the room and kissed Mika lightly. “What’s wrong, darling?”

  “Let Detective Carlyle fill you in,” Mika said softly. “I have to go to the church. Father Darius needs me.” She kissed Leah then left. “Tonight.” Mika smiled as she closed the door.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Father Darius was waiting in her office when Mika walked in. “Mika, thank God you’re back.” Darius exhaled loudly. “I must talk to you.”

  Mika looked closely at the young priest. He looked haggard and drawn. His eyes were sunken with dark circles around them. “You look awful,” Mika noted.

  “I know I can’t discuss this with anyone else, but I can discuss it with another priest,” Darius said quickly. “It’s about a confession I received. I have to talk about it with someone.”

  Mika sat in stunned silence as Father Darius repeated Janet Cantrell’s confession. She buried her face in her hands as Darius ended his story. Carlie was probably right in her assumption that Janet was murdered, but by whom? Mika thought.

  “You know you can’t repeat this to anyone. You took her confession. You can’t break the sacrament of penance.” Mika shook her head. “Even though she is dead.”

  “I know.” Darius sighed. “But if the detective were aware that she had two lovers, she might look at the case differently.”

  “She already does,” Mika informed him. “She believes Janet was murdered.”

  “As do I.” Father Darius nodded. “What about Father Clinton?”

  Mika bowed her head, thinking. How has the priesthood managed to draw so many deviates? I desperately need to discuss all this with my wife and my God.

  “I don’t know,” Mika huffed. “We really need to pray about this.”

  ##

  Mika and Leah sat at the dining table with their children. It was nice to be participating in normal family activities. They laughed, watching their children interact with one another. The younger children sang a song Nana had taught them and the older children explained about their science project that had exploded and caused a fire in the science lab. “The principal wants to see both of you in his office tomorrow morning,” Regina and Matt informed their parents.

  “We even heard about it in intermediate school.” Hannah’s and Mark’s brown eyes danced, casting sparkling reflections when the light hit them. “My best friend’s mother teaches high school and she told him about it.” Mark laughed.

  “She said the science teacher deserved what happened. Regina and Matt did exactly what he required,” Hannah added to her brother’s story. “He didn’t think any student would be smart enough to build a bomb.”

  “Build a bomb?” Leah gasped. “They teach you to build a bomb in high school and then activate it in the classroom? I don’t think so!”

  “We will be at school first thing in the morning.” Mika smiled. “Judging by your mother’s reaction, I don’t think it will be the meeting the principal expects.”

  Laughter broke out around the table. They had all either witnessed or been the subject of their mother’s displeasure. It was something one didn’t forget quickly.

  “So, what do you want to do tonight?” Mika grinned at her offspring. “Basketball, family movie…”

  “Family movie,” the older children responded, “and horsey, Mika,” the younger ones added.

  “Yes, horsey, Mika.” Leah raised perfect eyebrows as she smiled at her wife, moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue.

  ##

  They notified their respective workplaces they would be late and were waiting outside the principal’s office when he arrived. They stood when introduced and followed the man into his office.

  Principal Brown was a big man, a former linebacker for some pro football team. He had a doctorate in school administration and prided himself on running the most outstanding high school in the five-borough area. Although they were exemplary students, he had been toying with the idea of expelling the Cross twins for a week, just to use them as an example. The thought of how they raised the school’s standings on the achievement tests made him drop that idea.

  Brown was not a man easily daunted, but the Cross couple was the most intimidating he had ever met. Not that they were aggressive. Quite the contrary, they were relaxed and friendly, very amiable. Mika was a priest and the other mother was excruciatingly beautiful. He found he was at a loss for words in their presence.

  “My son and daughter tell me you wanted to discuss their science project with us.” Leah smiled disarmingly. “I just have one question.” She leaned toward him, holding his eyes with hers. “Why is bomb building being taught in public school?”

  While she was civil, Brown could tell there was anger simmering just beneath the surface of the woman’s smiling demeanor. Instinctively, he knew he did not want to incur her wrath. He made a hundred-and-eighty-degree decision.

  “Yes, that is what I wanted to discuss with you.” Brown smiled. “I wanted to apologize that such a project was undertaken in our classroom. I believe the teacher thought no one could do it. He was astounded when he set it off and it actually exploded.”

  “The point is,” Leah said, sitting up straight, on the edge of her chair, “children could have been badly injured trying to do what was asked of them by a teacher. We were aware our children were doing the project and supervised it every step of the way. We had no idea someone would be stupid enough to set it off.”

  Brown turned his gaze to the priest, begging silently for help. Mika simply shrugged her shoulders. “I believe my wife has a point.” God, she is hot when she is angry. I had almost forgotten how exciting she can be when she is like this, Mika thought. She is magnificent. I hope he really infuriates her. I’ll be the one taking her home.

  Brown was no fool. “I just wanted to tell you that the teacher has been relieved of his duties in our school district. I will personally approve any science projects undertaken at the school in the future.” He watched her dark eyes to see if he had pacified her. The smile that warmed her eyes told him he had ducked a machete.

  “We need children like yours,” Brown continued. “They blew the top off the achievement tests. Of course, that helps our ranking nationwide.”

  Leah smiled. “We appreciate your kind words.”

  Both rose and thanked the principal for meeting with them.

  “Aren’t you—” Brown stopped as the woman interrupted him.

  “Whoever you think I am,” she said, smiling coyly, “I can assure you I am not.”

  Brown was still wondering what had happened when the couple left. He shredded the invoice he had planned to give the Crosses for the damage to the classroom. He asked his secretary to bring the science teacher to his office and began going over the words he would use to fire his brother-in-law.

  Mika took her wife’s hand, stepped outside the school, looked both ways, then transported them to their bedroom.

  She looked around, confused. “What are—” Mika stopped he
r question with her lips.

  “You’re so hot,” she breathed into Leah’s ear. “I hope you don’t mind…”

  It was Leah’s turn to hush the talking. “I would only mind if you hadn’t reacted this way.” She kissed Mika eagerly. “I was so angry that a public school is basically teaching terrorism.”

  “Feel free to take out your anger on me.” Mika pulled Leah down on top of her. “I’m a big girl. I can take it.”

  ##

  Dinner that evening was filled with tales of how Leah had handled the meeting with Principal Brown. The news had gotten to their children before school was out. “He fired our teacher,” Regina informed everyone.

  “His own brother-in-law,” Matt added.

  “His brother-in-law!” Leah gasped. “The science teacher was his brother-in-law?”

  ##

  After dinner, they played a basketball game of boys against girls. Boys always lost. Mika teased it was because her wife cheated.

  “It is because I’m the superior player.” Leah laughed.

  After showers, everyone gathered in the family room to watch Marked for Murder. The show ended with a shot of Leah’s beautiful face, darkened with concern that the priest had been kidnapped.

  “Horsey, Mika.” Athena and Luke crawled on Mika and Jacob.

  “Matt wants to be your horsey tonight.” Mika placed Athena on her brother’s back. “He’s faster. I’ve already been ridden hard and put away wet today.”

  “Your meetings are getting more difficult, aren’t they, Mom?” Rachel’s dark eyes showed concern for Mika.

  “The meetings can sometimes exhaust one.” Mika nodded as her wife poked her in the ribs.

  After all the children were tucked in, they sat on the sofa, in front of the fireplace. Mika poured two glasses of wine, handed Leah hers, and then pulled Leah back against her shoulder.

  “Did Carlie tell you of her suspicions concerning Janet’s death?” Mika asked her wife.

  “Yes. She is just going on intuition, but that is what makes her a great detective.” Leah sipped her wine.

  “She may be right.” Mika nodded. “You know of the sacrament of penance. Priests cannot repeat things told to them during confession.”

  “Of course,” she said softly. “We have discussed this many times. You know I never repeat anything you tell me. I’m your confidante.”

  “What I am about to tell you is one of those situations.” She exhaled slowly and related the confession Father Darius had taken from Janet.

  “Oh, my.” Leah took a deep breath and held it several moments before slowly releasing it. She chewed at her bottom lip. “This will kill the bishop. What are you going to do?”

  “Tell Carlie I agree with her,” Mika answered. “She will know what that means. I can’t tell her the men’s names or help her in any other way.”

  “She won’t like it, but she will understand your position.” Leah snuggled deeper into her wife’s side. “We are so blessed to have one another,” she said, smiling sweetly.

  “I know.” Mika leaned down and kissed her. “Um, wine,” she mumbled against Leah’s lips.

  “Careful now,” Leah said, smiling, “aren’t you the poor horsey that was ridden hard and put away wet earlier today?”

  “I’m pretty certain I’ve completely recovered.” Mika laughed as Leah wiggled onto her lap.

  ##

  Detective Carlyle pitched the autopsy report back onto her desk for the third time. Sometimes she hated it when she was right. She was tired. She was hungry. It was past two in the afternoon. Her total nourishment for the day had been one cup of coffee. This case was killing her.

  She dialed Mika Cross’s cell phone. The priest had encouraged her to follow her instincts. She wanted to discuss her findings with Mika. She wanted to handle the matter as delicately as possible regarding the church. She wondered how many scumbags were being sheltered by the Catholic Church in the guise of priests. Leah answered.

  “Hi, Carlie,” Leah said breathlessly. “I answered Mika’s phone when I saw the call was from you. Hold on a minute. I will get Mika.”

  The detective listened as the two whispered and giggled. “Let me catch my breath,” Mika whispered to her wife.

  Carlie thought about dead bodies and autopsies—anything to take her mind off what she had obviously interrupted. Finally, Mika answered the phone.

  “Hey, Carlie, what’s going on?” she said hoarsely.

  “I have some information I want to go over with you,” Carlie said. “I thought maybe we could meet for a late lunch. Bring Leah, of course.”

  “Um, how about an early dinner? Say, five at Vincent’s,” Mika countered, not yet ready to let go of her wife.

  “Bring Jennifer,” Leah called into the phone.

  “My wife wants to talk to you.” Mika laughed as she handed the phone to Leah.

  “Bring Jennifer,” Leah said again. “Let’s make a nice evening of it.” Evening of it went up an octave for each word. Carlie didn’t even want to think about what had caused that.

  “Sounds great.” She sighed. “I’ll call her now. See you two at five.”

  “Hey, Boss.” Holly hung up from the call she was handling. “That old pedophile priest committed suicide. I had them lock down the scene.”

  “Let’s get to the hospital, now.” Carlie holstered her gun and grabbed her cell phone. She pushed the button for Jennifer as she went out the door. “You drive,” she told Holly.

  “Hi, babe. I just got off the phone with the Crosses,” she told Jennifer. “They invited us to dinner tonight at five. Can we make that? You’re a doll. I’ll pick you up at four fifteen. Love you too.”

  She sat in silence, feeling guilty. Jennifer had sounded so happy when she suggested they go out for a nice evening. She had to get her act together. Dr. Jennifer Jordon was a great catch by anyone’s book. They had been together almost ten years. One didn’t just throw away ten great years on a whim. Of course, Leah Cross was much more than a whim.

  ##

  Carlie surveyed the priest’s room. Everything was neat and sparse. “When did this happen?” she asked the nurse.

  “Nurse Ames checked his vitals at two. The monitors went off at two forty-five,” the nurse informed her. “We found him like this. Apparently, he managed to get a scalpel and slashed his wrists.”

  “Where would he get a scalpel?” the detective pushed for answers. “Did anyone entering his room have a scalpel?”

  The nurse simply shrugged. “Not that I know of.”

  “Did any of you see anyone enter his room?” Carlie queried.

  “We didn’t see anyone.” All the nurses looked from one to the other to see if their cohorts had seen anyone.

  “Are the halls monitored by video?” Carlie barked, getting increasingly agitated that no one seemed to know anything.

  “Normally, they are,” the head nurse answered. “But they are being repaired right now. A technician showed up this morning with a work order to fix them. We didn’t even know they were out.”

  “May I see the work order?” Carlie followed the nurse to the nurses’ station.

  Carlie bagged the work order, hoping against hope that she would find fingerprints on it.

  “Boss,” Holly said, pulling her aside, “this looks like a simple suicide. One of the nurses told me the respiratory technician was antagonizing the priest, telling him he was going back into jail for the next dance party. Evidently, he couldn’t face that again. Why all the fuss?”

  “He perfectly slashed his left radial artery with his right hand,” the detective said softly. “He’s left-handed. Get the crime lab folks in here. Go over this place with a fine-tooth comb. I need a hair, a fingerprint, DNA, something. It’s not suicide.”

  “Yeah.” Holly scowled. “It must be murder.”

  ##

  Mika and Leah arrived early at the restaurant and decided to sit in the lounge until their friends arrived. They had finished a glass of wine when someone
played a song on the jukebox. It was an older, but still extremely popular, song titled “For Leah.” The couple often slow danced to it. Joe had noticed long ago that it had been written by M&L Cross. Something told him the couple had written it for each other.

  They danced as closely together as possible. Leah had both her arms around Mika’s neck and Mika had her hands spread across the small of Leah’s back and on her hips. They moved as one.

  Jennifer and Carlie stood motionless in the entryway, watching the couple, until the song ended. “You used to hold me that way.” Jennifer looked at her partner.

  “Ladies.” Mika and Leah walked toward them. “Please, sit. We were having a glass of wine before dinner.” Leah motioned for Joe to bring two more glasses and refill their own.

  “You two dance beautifully.” Jennifer smiled at Leah.

  “You should see them tango.” Joe kissed the tips of his fingers and then released them as if setting a butterfly free.

  “You tango?” Jennifer grinned. “We love to tango.”

  “Maybe after dinner.” Carlie smiled. “I haven’t eaten all day. I am not even sure I should drink this wine before eating.”

  “Joe, please move our ticket to the restaurant.” Leah smiled. “We’ll eat then dance.”

  Halfway through dinner, talk turned to the Catholic Murders. “Are you sure this won’t bother you?” Carlie asked Leah.

  “I’m fine.” The actress shrugged. “What about you, Jennifer?”

  “Oh, I am used to dining with the macabre.” Jennifer grinned.

  “You told me to pursue my hunch,” Carlie directed her statement to Mika. “I called for a more in-depth autopsy on Janet. She was pregnant. Just barely, a month.”

  “Oh, no!” Leah bowed her head. “The bishop is going to be even more distraught. They wanted a baby so badly.”

  “This one wasn’t his,” Carlie stated abruptly. She knew no other way to put it. “We ran a comparison on his DNA, and they don’t match.”

  “I am so sorry to hear that.” Mika frowned.

  “This afternoon, Williams’s wrist was slit. He bled out.” Carlie didn’t pull any punches. She wanted the priest to understand what she was up against in her church.