by Maisy Morgan
Because of all this stuff that she now had on her mind, Mary did not get much done that morning at all while Tripp was at the library. She was merely seated at one of the shop’s tables she and Tripp had put together, rummaging through flagged pages on her laptop. The one thing she had managed to do was get the shops Wi-Fi working, but that was the extent of her accomplishments that morning by the time Officer Preston came knocking on the door.
Mary opened the shop door inviting him in. He looked a bit nervous to be there, probably unsure on what she wanted to say about her nerve-wracking day she’d had the day before. “Preston, good to see you,” she said, doing her best to sound perky as he joined her at the table.
“I really just wanted to check in on you after the way that creep acted yesterday,” he said, his nerves relaxed a bit after her somewhat warm greeting.
“I’m glad we both agree that he is a creep. We are both talking about Lenny, right?” Mary asked to make sure before she said the wrong thing.
He laughed. “Yeah, we’re both talking about Lenny. I’m so sorry I had to be the one to come barging in yesterday, but the chief thought it would be a good idea if I was the one who showed up after I told him I knew you and that you were new to the area.”
“Honestly, I’m glad it was you,” Mary said. “If it had been anyone else who had showed up at my house telling me about those ridiculous charges, I might have overreacted a bit. It really took me off guard. I probably shouldn’t have grabbed at his shirt when I made the threat. That’s probably what set him off and made him decide to call the police.”
“In hindsight, you probably shouldn’t have made the threat period,” Preston said with a slight smirk.
“No, probably not,” Mary said with a grunt. “But you should have heard him calling Tripp an orphan and telling him he had been looking in on him like he was some big, macho guy who actually cared about who has been hanging around his daughter. Tripp was, in his own way, right to point about the fact that he only had pictures of Hannah before the accident decorating his clinic. It’s just so… creepy, honestly, the way he is pretending like nothing is wrong with her.”
“I’ve been in there before with my dog,” Preston said. “I switched vet clinics after the last time I was there. He ticked me off after I heard him talking about his daughter’s athleticism to one of his clients like she was still playing soccer. He was ashamed. I could tell he was faking it like she wasn’t in a wheelchair. It was just so strange, so I quit going there.”
Mary nodded. “I got the sense that was probably what he does. But wait, you have a dog?”
“Yeah, Boomer,” he said, “he’s a golden retriever mix.”
“Aww, how sweet,” Mary said.
“Not sure what he’s mixed with though. He’s really a runt,” Preston said, sighing. “He always hated Lenny. I just figured it was because he didn’t like going to the vet, but looking back, I think Boomer could sense it. Lenny is a messed-up guy. I just can’t imagine walking out on my kid like he did. He couldn’t handle being a full-time dad to a crippled kid. It’s no secret why he left. It was pretty obvious to everyone around here.”
Mary shook her head and closed her laptop no longer wanting to think about Lenny or the upcoming court case she now had to face. “So,” she said, rapidly changing the subject. “Any news on the case?”
“That’s actually why I came by,” Preston said. “I got a warrant to search Josiah and Jenna’s home. I don’t think she would have opposed, but it’s always a good idea to have one.”
“You want me to go with you?” Mary asked hopefully.
“Definitely,” Preston said with a grin.
Since Cindy was watching Tripp, Mary texted her to let her know she wouldn’t be back at the shop for a bit. She rode with Preston back to her own neighborhood and pulled up into Jenna’s driveway. Her car was there, so they presumed her to be home as they headed up to the front door. Preston knocked, and sure enough, Jenna was home. She looked rather tired, her hair was a bit messy, and she was wearing what looked to have been her husband’s robe. “Oh,” she said, a bit startled by Preston. “Officer Preston and Mary, what can I do for you?”
Preston cleared his throat. “We’re here to search the premises, Jenna. I have a search warrant here…”
“A search warrant?” Jenna questioned. “There is no need for that. Come in.” She stepped aside, and the next thing Mary knew, the woman was offering them freshly made tea.
Mary gladly accepted, and she was nearly knocked off her feet in surprise at the sugary drink she received. “Whoa,” she said, and both Preston and Jenna had a slight laugh about her being so thrown off by what Georgians called tea.
“You two feel free to look around wherever you please,” Jenna said. “If it’ll help with your investigation, I’m happy to cooperate.”
“Thank you, Jenna,” Preston replied.
“However, I must ask, why is Mary here?” Jenna asked.
“If it’s all right with you Jenna, Mary is helping me out with your husband’s case,” Preston said. “She has a background in investigative journalism, and I feel she might be able to offer some insight.”
“Oh, of course,” Jenna said, eventually slouching down in her couch.
Looking around, Mary felt like she truly had stumbled into something straight out of Gone with the Wind. The house was very old fashioned with enormous floral curtains, floral furniture, and an abundance of crosses and Bible quotes all over the house. Mary was a believer herself, but she had never thought that every wall in her house needed either a cross or Biblical quote. Then again, she was standing in the midst of the home of a retired pastor.
“I know what people are saying,” Jenna said as Preston began a sort or preliminary search in the living area looking through some various books and drawers.
“What would that be, Jenna?” Preston asked.
“That I killed my husband after what happened that day at the Brooks Day event,” Jenna said, cozying up tighter in her husband’s robe.
“Jenna, I don’t believe you killed your husband,” Preston said confidently. “I already followed up with your alibi, and frankly Jenna, I don’t think you had the… the strength… to do what was done to Josiah.”
Jenna wiped some tears from her eyes. “I didn’t have the heart to look at the body. They told me it was… that it was pretty bad.”
Preston nodded. “I’m sorry, Jenna. I hope you know I didn’t come here to upset you.”
“Oh, I know Preston,” Jenna said. “It’s such a confusing time for me. After Kristin showed her little video, I was so angry and upset. Josiah followed me to the hospital of course. He loved me, I don’t doubt that, but he wanted to talk to me. I hollered at him to leave my hospital room, and then I went to stay with my niece. I just wish that our last interaction hadn’t been so unnerving and harsh and well, we’ve just been married so long…” Jenna seemed to decide that she had nothing else to say. She just stared out the window while Preston and Mary continued their search.
Mary found in the kitchen a few empty liquor bottles hidden on top of high shelves. They were far too high for Jenna to have noticed. Mary herself had to use a stepladder to find most of them after locating the first one. Preston also located one hidden in a light fixture and a half empty one in an old shoebox in his bedroom closet. They gathered up the empty liquor bottles that were scattered in quite clever hiding places throughout the house and sat them all out on the kitchen table. As the stack of half empty bottles grew, Jenna started to look pale and ghostly.
“Did you know he was drinking, Jenna?” Preston asked after finding a fourth bottle of gin, completely empty, inside his gun cabinet.
“I had no idea,” Jenna sobbed, unable to stand up from her seat. “I know he used to have problems with alcohol but that was nearly twenty years ago. It wasn’t a secret that my husband used to drink, at least not for those who have been attending the church for more than a decade. He used to talk about it quite regular
ly in his sermons.”
“Really?” Preston asked. “So, his alcoholism wasn’t a secret?”
“Well, not really,” she said. “He hadn’t spoken much on it in years though. It certainly wasn’t something he was proud of, but in his earlier years as head pastor, he would talk about it openly with the church. He was redeemed, and he had turned away from the bottle, or at least, I thought he had. Oh, I’m so dumb! How could I not have known he had all of this hidden throughout the house?”
“This isn’t your fault, Jenna,” Preston assured her although Jenna did not sound even remotely convinced.
Chapter Nineteen
Mary continued searching the house while Preston questioned Jenna a bit about all of the alcohol they had found lying around. She wound up coming across Pastor Josiah’s home office. It was a quaint little room that included a fireplace. It was warm and inviting, and it seemed as though Jenna had not been in there since Josiah’s murder because there was still paperwork lying out on his desk – mostly Biblical readings he had printed out and read through.
She felt herself a bit drawn towards the bookshelves behind the desk which were all full of various books about religious studies and different Bible translations. There were also a number of opened Bibles on the man’s desk, and Mary found herself slipping down into his seat to examine what all he had last been looking at. There were bookmarks and sticky notes in the various Bibles sitting out, and upon opening them up, she found several verses about drunkenness highlighted and underlined.
As she sat in his desk, she ran her fingers across the edge of the desk and felt a slight bump near her right hand. Glancing down, she saw that he had scratched Ephesians 5:18 into the nice wood rather deeply. Mary opened up one of the Bibles, flipping to Ephesians 5:18 as it was not a verse she had memorized herself. “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” Mary read out loud to herself the verse scratched into his desk.
Mary let out a loud sigh as a harsh reality hit her. Josiah had been struggling, but he had been trying. He had truly been trying to escape his alcoholism. Opening his desk, she came across a black, leather-bound journal. She opened it up and realized very quickly that it was various prayers he had written down. “He really was the most stereotypical pastor out there,” Mary said amusingly, but it put a slight smile on her face as she began reading through the prayers. The man had written out prayers for himself, prayers for his wife, and various prayers for people in his church. Strangers, friends, family, and anyone who came to his mind during his morning prayer time with God had a prayer. It was actually thoughtful and painted the man in a much finer light than what Mary had started to think of him. “Life is really quite gray,” she told herself, “and people are too. We’re not black and white at all, are we?” she questioned out loud though she wasn’t entirely sure whom she was talking to. A part of her felt like she was unconsciously saying this to God. The room was clearly Josiah’s safe haven for personal reflection with the Lord, and it was also making her want to get back in touch with her spiritual side.
As she continued going through his desk, she found some older journals much like the more recent one he had been scribbling in. Flipping through one of the older ones, she spotted Kristin’s name. Looking at the date, she realized it was certainly from around the time of the affair they had been having. “Lord help me! I’ve sinned greatly time and time again against my darling Jenna,” the prayer began. “My lingering eyes for Kristin are truly shameful. Lord, you know my heart. Please, mend my soul. Weigh heavy on my conscience next time she knocks.” Mary cringed as she continued through the older journal that was filled with guilt-riddled prayers on his drinking and his affair, all of them cursing himself and questioning why he continued in the way of darkness.
“You poor soul,” Mary finally said aloud as she closed the prayer journal. She was really starting to feel sorry for the man, and she had been quite ready to write him off after learning about the affair. At least there had been some guilt there.
At the very bottom of the large drawer that had been filled with Josiah’s prayer journals was what looked to be a sort of scrapbook. She opened it, setting it on top of the desk. It was at this point that Jenna and Preston entered the office to see where she had disappeared to. “What are you doing?” Jenna asked, not sounding annoyed but merely curious.
“I was looking through your husband’s desk. I came across these prayer journals and this scrapbook here,” Mary said.
“Yes, the scrapbook is full of local tragedies,” Jenna explained. “He called it his prayer list. I had almost forgotten about it. He hadn’t been keeping up with it much lately. He still did his prayer journals though.”
“Would you mind if I took some of these home to look through?” Mary asked. “I’m not sure if anything will come of it, but you never know.”
“By all means,” Jenna said. “It’s not like I don’t know where to find you. Do be careful with them please. My niece and I had been talking about publishing some of his writings. It was her idea. She’s a writer, you see, and bless her. She’s so furious with Josiah about his affair but knows better than to say anything bad about him in front of me. She’s offered to help me put together a sort of biography of him.”
“That’s very kind of her,” Preston said.
“Yes,” Jenna said. “My heart isn’t in it just yet. Still struggling with balancing my emotions between grief and anger towards him. For now, I’ll let you take them. But do return them all soon in case I get an inkling to start going through them.”
“I should probably give you a heads up, Jenna,” Mary said softly. “I did come across some where he wrote about his affair with Kristin.”
Jenna took a deep breath. “Good,” she said after a moment. “At least he was talking to God about it if not to me.”
“You’re an incredible human being, Ms. Jenna,” Mary said, and a slight smile appeared on Jenna’s face.
“Thank you, dear,” she said. “It’s the Lord. He’s my strength. Just like he was Josiah’s.”
Preston and Mary left, Mary’s arms loaded down with journals and the scrapbook. “I’m surprised she let you take all of those,” Preston said. Jenna had even found a large box for Mary to carry them in.
“Well, I was polite, and she knows we’re only trying to help,” Mary said.
“I’m not sure if you’ll find anything useful in his old prayer journals,” Preston said. “But, you never know.” Preston glanced over his shoulder to see that Jenna had closed herself back up in the house. “She didn’t kill Josiah.”
“I don’t think so either,” Mary said. “What do you think about Kristin?”
“No,” Preston said. “I don’t think so. Plus, her alibi is even tighter than Jenna’s. I don’t think either of those ladies could have possibly done what we saw at that crime scene. I hate to say it, but I do think we need to follow up with Pastor Michael.”
“Really?” Mary questioned.
“I didn’t tell Jenna. I didn’t want to say anything in front of her either, but I found this,” Preston pulled out an envelope as they climbed back into his car.
Mary, after setting down the heavy box in the back, took the envelope from him and pulled out the letter inside. It was from Pastor Michael.
Your sins are far greater than I could have ever imagined old friend. You refuse time and time again to repent – your repeated fall from grace makes my heart ache. What more needs to happen, Josiah, before you stop living this way? You will continue down this road straight into the enemy’s stronghold, and you will be taken in by him! Please, make a change, old friend, or I am going to have to act. Know that you are always in my prayers,
-Michael
“It’s not really a threat,” Mary said. “But… it doesn’t sound too friendly either.”
“No, definitely not,” Preston said. “And I want to see what Michael has to say about it.”
Chapter Twenty
Mary
and Preston headed back onto the main road where Mary’s shop and the church were both located. They had to park all the way at the ballpark because there were cars all over the place. Mary assumed it had something to do with the youth event that the library was hosting that day. However, as they arrived at the church, they realized the church had an event planned on the same day as well.
Inside the church, the pews had all been removed, and there were various games set up. Kids were running about with balls, laughing and chasing one another while the youth pastor egged them all on. “Ah,” Preston said, amused. “Vacation Bible School must have started,” he went on to explain that it was similar to a short summer camp for youth that was usually held at the church.
“Gotcha,” Mary said as they searched the crowd for Pastor Michael whom they had heard was present at the church.
They eventually found him standing with some of the older kids who looked to be volunteers. He was having a pleasant chat with them about their upcoming summer vacation plans. He spotted Preston and Mary and smiled. “Officer Preston and Ms. Mary, how are you both?” he asked.
“We need a word,” Preston said.
“Is this about Josiah?” Michael asked nodding towards the kids.
“Yes, so I believe a private conversation would be best,” Preston said.
“Of course,” he said, waving to the youth pastor and signaling him that he would be stepping out for a moment.
