The Book of Judges

by Traci Tyne Hilton

  A timid knock on the door let me know that Gina had arrived. “Come in!”

  I set down my phone, but it wasn’t Gina at the door.

  “I am so sorry to bother you.” Elif, the stunning young woman from the Muslim Community Center stood before me. “I’m terribly worried about Jerrod. I can pay you for your help.”

  This was not what I needed right now. “I have an appointment who is supposed to be here any minute. Let’s find a time when you and I can talk.”

  “But Jerrod’s been missing all night. No one has seen him since yesterday. He didn’t come to the party. I don’t know what has happened to him. No one does. And with his friend Adam, and now the lady, Linda? With them dying, I’m so afraid.”

  Elif hadn’t closed the door behind her, so I saw Gina as she paused in the hallway.

  “I’m sorry.” Gina made to turn away.

  “No! Come in, please. I was just making an appointment for later.”

  Elif looked Gina up and down, then dismissed her. “Please, I need your help right now. Can’t this girl wait?”

  “No, she cannot wait. If you will come back tomorrow morning, I’d be happy to help you.”

  “But tomorrow morning may be too late! Jerrod could be dead.”

  “If that’s what you’re worried about, he could be dead right now, too. What’s one more day going to change?”

  “Maura, he followed me here.” Gina’s voice had that rasp to it that made her sound like a party girl.

  “Both of you sit down and let me make a cup of tea.” I adjusted my tone. Elif was truly scared and my suggestion that Jerrod was dead already had drained the color from her face. “As it turns out, you might be here for the same reason. Gina, who is following you? What did you see?”

  “I went to school this morning—I was texting my boyfriend, he’s doing good—so I didn’t notice at first, but I stopped in the parking lot to say hi to my friend Taylor, and Taylor asked me who the weird guy was. I turned around and saw a guy, I don’t know, about your height and kind of skinny. He was at the road, texting I think. I took a picture.” She showed me her phone. It wasn’t a good picture, but she was right, it was a guy about five nine. He was slender and wearing a ski jacket and a knit cap. His face was down.

  “I went into class, like normal, but I glanced out the window and saw him watching me. It freaked me out.”

  “Did you tell anyone?”

  “No.”

  “You should have gone straight to the school security guard.” I was flabbergasted by this girl’s lack of common sense.

  “Walt? He’s Taylor’s grandpa and he doesn’t get to carry a gun. No way I’d put him in danger.” Her tone was one of disgust. “My second class is in a portable outside, and when I walked to it, I saw him follow me. I walked around to the door, and he stayed on the other side. I have this class with my friend Bella, so I asked her to go in, look out the window, and see if she saw him. She did. He was watching, but the blinds were drawn so he couldn’t see in. Ella traded me coats, and Dirk gave me his hat. I left my backpack in the classroom and ran. I had to bike back home. He must have seen me eventually, because when I was putting my bike in the shed I saw him in the woods at the side of our property. Dad and Jenny are both at work, so I got in my car and just took Eighty-four downtown. I thought I could lose him if I drove fast, but I didn’t. He hung on. He even followed me here.”

  Elif was unmoved by this story, as evidenced by her crossed arms and stormy brows.

  I was very moved. “What does his car look like?”

  She held her phone out again. Her stalker drove a silver Prius. Nice and quiet. A good car to follow someone in.

  “I’m going to call the police now.” I went to my desk and looked out my window. The Prius was not in the lot on that side.

  “He parked in front,” Gina said. “He’s in the building now.”

  My heart thudded against my ribs. Gina’s leg was shaking.

  “This is insane. I have a serious problem to deal with.” Elif raised her voice, demanding attention.

  The 911 operator answered immediately. I laid out the situation and she promised to send a car over our way.

  “While we are waiting, can we please discuss Jerrod?”

  “Yes, of course.” The water in my electric kettle was hot, so I poured three cups and passed around my box of herbal teas. None of us needed any caffeine. Our nerves were strained enough as it was.

  Heavy footsteps on the stairs came as a relief. The cops must have had someone in the area. I popped the door open, but it was Everly Brown, my landlord, storming up the stairs ready for war.

  “You!” She shouted at me, her perfectly molded face contorted in anger. “Get that insurance lady and meet me downstairs, now.”

  “I’m so sorry, I’m with a client.”

  “You’re in the hallway, and if you don’t want to be evicted this minute you will get downstairs.”

  “Honestly, I have two women in my office and it is integral to an important murder case I am working.”

  “Coming downstairs right now is integral to an important murder I will do if you do not!”

  She roared to Becky’s door and threw it open. “You! Downstairs. Now.”

  The door to my office opened and Gina looked out, her eyes like saucers.

  I went to her. “I’m not leaving you girls, don’t worry.”

  “We’ll be fine.” Gina tilted her chin up. “We’ve got each other.”

  Elif curled her lip. “I came here to get help, not to babysit.”

  “Give me five minutes. As soon as the police arrive I’ll come back up.” I patted my pocket to make sure I had my keys. “Lock yourselves in. I have a key.”

  Gina obeyed.

  I followed Everly into Becky’s office. “What’s going on?”

  “That is what I’d like to know.” Everly’s face was white with rage. “Would you like to explain this?” With excruciatingly slow movements she laid a piece of paper on Becky’s desk.

  Becky caught my eye. She flushed purple. “No.”

  “I thought you wanted us downstairs.” I didn’t care about the paper Everly had or why it had embarrassed Becky. I just wanted to get downstairs to hunt for Gina’s stalker.

  “This is a letter from Metro about seeking historic status for my building.”

  “Ah.” Becky nodded, ignoring the letter.

  “They say that they are beginning the process of determining if the building will be protected. Do you know what that achieved for me?”

  We were both silent.

  “My buyer has used his escape clause and backed out.” She pounded the letter with her fist. “The piece of land is worth one hundred times what the building is worth. Literally one hundred times more. If they can’t demo this place, I can’t sell it.”

  “That’s a shame.” Becky tilted her head in a show of sympathy. “What are you going to do?”

  “Fight it, tooth and nail.”

  Someone was coming up the stairs, I sidled over to the door and watched, but it was just Ethan. He stopped at each door, and glanced in the windows, though surely, he could tell where the action was at. Everly’s voice carried well when she yelled.

  When he got to us, he opened the door. “Hey Maura, you have some company.”

  “Oh! Thanks.” I assumed he was politely telling me the cops were here.

  “You can’t leave yet.” Everly’s angry voice was every bit as imperious as her normal bossy voice. “You two were responsible for this, per the information I have gathered, and you will be held responsible for this.”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about and have to get back to my own work.” I followed Ethan out, to find myself face to face with Brit.

  “Oh!” I shook my confused head. She was not the police. “What do you need?”

  “Can we talk, in private?” She was staring at her fingernails.

  “No, as a matter of fact we can’t. I’m with a client right now.”
<
br />   “I really need to talk.”

  “Doesn’t everyone? In fact,” I unlocked the door to my own office, “why don’t we make a party of it?”

  Elif stood to the side, staring at the intricate photo of the agate that hid my bulletin board. Gina was refilling her cup with hot water. “Brit, meet Gina and Elif. Can I get you some tea? It’s caffeine free.”

  Brit shook her head and stood in the corner.

  “Now, Gina had an appointment, but has already had her say. Elif, you showed up and have presented your situation to me, at least in brief. Let’s give Brit a chance to talk. After all, you are all here, at least in part, because of Adam Demarcus.”

  Brit pulled her head up and stared at the other two girls.

  “Don’t worry, they weren’t his lovers.”

  Brit shrunk further against the wall. “I don’t know why I came.”

  “You’re scared. What happened?”

  She shook her head.

  Gina jumped to her feet. “He’s out there!” She pointed at the window with a shaking hand. I turned and saw him. He seemed familiar but was too far for me to place him. He was planted in the verge, under a tree staring up at us. I could barely see his face, much less if he was carrying a weapon. But my gun was in my desk drawer and I was very interested in meeting him.

  “Will you excuse me?” I pulled open the drawer and grabbed my piece. It was small, but it would serve.

  “No, don’t go.” Brit struggled to catch her breath.

  “Do you know him?” I peered at her closely. She still wouldn’t make eye contact. “Is he what you are scared of?”

  She did nothing. Frozen.

  “It’s okay. The cops are on the way.” I held the gun by my side. “You’ve got to tell me what is going on. Neither Elif nor I are here to babysit.”

  The door swung open, trapping Brit behind it. Everly stood there, staring from me to my clients.

  “As I said before, I am in the middle of something important.”

  “Please.” Everly’s voice was loaded with sarcasm. “We’re talking about millions of dollars.” She frowned at my young clients, judging them not to be worth millions of dollars. “I’ve had it out with Becky and she has agreed to my requests. I need you to sign this letter I am having my lawyer send to the historical committee.”

  “Did Becky implicate me in this? I literally had nothing to do with it.”

  Everly stepped into my office and looked around. “This building is not worth saving.”

  “I won’t argue with you. I might not want to move, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “You’d have been evicted months ago in any other city. This is the worst town in the world to own rental buildings.” She wasn’t moving, wasn’t going to stop. She flapped the paper in my face for the last time.

  “I’ll sign it. Whatever it is.”

  “Don’t.” Ethan’s voice came from the hall, quickly followed by him. “Take the copy of the letter home, read it over. Talk to a lawyer. Whatever you need to do. Never sign something without reading it.” He smiled, calmly, like he was just giving good advice.

  “Fine. Leave a copy on my desk.”

  Brit hadn’t attempted to get out from behind the door but had slowly crouched so only the top of her head was showing in the door’s window. If she smooshed herself any further, she’d disappear completely.

  “Now, can I have my office back?”

  Everly laid the paper on my desk. “I want that back tomorrow morning. If I don’t get it, I will start eviction proceedings. You are three months behind on rent.”

  “Only three?” I forced a laugh.

  “Everly, let’s go down to your office and make some calls. I’m sure we can stop this quickly if we get on it.” He successfully maneuvered his boss to the hall, and I shut my door.

  “Brit, sit down, please.” I led her to the sofa. “Gina, make her a cup of tea.”

  “What we have here is a friend of a friend of Adam’s concerned about a mutual friend being missing.” I pointed to Elif. “We also have an eye witness to Adam’s murder who is being followed, and a girl who Adam was pursuing, scared of her own shadow. Maybe it’s all connected. I don’t know. But I should be able to find out if you would please tell me what is going on.”

  Brit chewed on her bottom lip, but eventually answered. “It’s the discipline. I don’t want to accept it.” Her eyes moved from me to the window. She gasped and shrunk into the little love seat.

  “Aren’t they just kicking you out?”

  She shook her head.

  “What kind of discipline can some old Bible study group inflict?” I spoke in my best jolly no-problems-here voice. If this group was the kind of malicious little cult I expected, they could demand all sorts of humiliating acts from their followers. “Drink your tea, Brit, and sit up. You need to find your internal reserves. The strength in you that made you think you could take a serious two-year discipleship journey. That strength was all you. Summon it and tell me the rest of your story.”

  A knock on the door prevented her saying more. This time, it was the police I had been waiting for.

  “Maura Garrison?” A small, wary looking cop stepped into my office.

  “Yes, that’s me. I’m so glad you could come. Do you see that guy out there?” I pointed to Gina’s stalker.

  “Sure.” The wary officer took note of him. His partner, a slightly taller version of the same was eyeing up my room full of people.

  “He followed this underage girl all the way from Corbett. She doesn’t recognize him and is scared.”

  “Gotcha. We’ll go handle it.”

  “Oh, and she has some pictures if you need them. Him, on her high school campus, and his car.”

  “Great. Stay put. We’ll be back up.” They left, fast.

  Gina joined me at the window and watched for them to meet her stalker.

  When they came around the corner to where he was, he bolted.

  They gave chase.

  I was transfixed.

  He sprinted around the side of the building, and they followed, out of our view.

  I exhaled. “Don’t worry.” I wanted to say more, but I was too worried. I turned back to Brit and Elif, but Brit was gone.

  It took less than half a second for me to launch myself out of the room. I had to catch her, that much was clear, and she couldn’t have gone far. I found her leaning against the wall at the bottom of the stairs, hands pressed against it like she was hiding. She glanced into the lobby, then pressed her head against the wall again.

  “Brit!”

  Her eyes flew open, she stepped forward as though to run, but stopped, frozen, nowhere to go.

  I walked past her to see what she was hiding from.

  The two cops had their man. They stood in the lobby of my office building talking to Quint. He sat in the lobby chair twisting his knit cap in his hands. His ski jacket unzipped.

  He looked up and saw me.

  I stepped backwards, grabbed Brit by the hand, and ran up the stairs. I locked us in and called Rick. It was an instinct, I think. When he answered, I didn’t know what to say.

  “Maura? Are you there?”

  I stared at my phone. Why had I dialed that number?

  “Are you at the office?”

  “Never mind. Wrong number.” My voice cracked, and my breath was heavy from the sprint up the stairs.

  “What’s wrong? You’re not okay. Are you at the office? Can you tell me where you are? If you say nothing, I am coming to the office. Do you hear me? If you want me, say nothing.”

  I couldn’t think of anything to say. I turned off my phone and sat down.

  Instincts suck.

  I pulled myself together fast. Rick was on his way, but I’d deal with that when faced with it. “Brit, why are you afraid of Quint? Why is Quint following Gina? Did Quint kill Adam?” The words poured out.

  Quint saw himself as the protector and preserver of that little group. The one who took it the most
seriously. The one most offended by Brit’s failure. A young man who knew very well that Bruce was a Bible scholar who would lead us to the answer and knew the Bible well enough himself to use it to plan a meaningful murder.

  He might have been able to get the info about my meeting with Gina, too, if Bruce really trusted him.

  Unless it had been Brit. Bruce seemed very fond of her. He would have told her anything she asked. And…she knew the Bible.

  Which was it?

  “Were you with him when he killed Linda?” I turned to Brit and locked eyes with her. She had to have been there. That’s why she was scared. She knew all of this because she had been there for both murders. “Brit, you have to talk. The police are coming back up any second. Was Quint following Gina so he could try to kill her again? How did he know I was going to meet her that day? What do you know? What has he threatened you with?” I had to slow down. She was a shell of a woman right now and my attack wasn’t helping. “Okay. I’m sorry. We’ll both take a deep breath. You’ll sit up, and drink your tea, and we’ll talk. Let’s give each other ten seconds to calm down.”

  She sat up, just a little, and sipped her tea. “Vivian said the board said I didn’t need to come to Canada because they are strict on policy. But Quint promised…”

  “Did he promise if you helped him he’d get you reinstated in the program?”

  “I don’t have anywhere else to go. I told you about my parents. If I come home…they won’t let me live there. They’ll be mad.”

  “Can you move in with your brother?”

  She was staring at the wall. “Quint said he’d take care of it for me. When I saw him take Bruce’s car, I followed him. He said we were making it right. Repairing my mistakes.”

  “Did you see him go to the high school?”

  She nodded.

  “Did he see you see him?”

  “Yes.”

  “What kind of threats had he made?”

  “He promised I could go to Canada and I would not get in any trouble. But when Vivian said I couldn’t, I realized Quint hadn’t talked to anyone. He doesn’t know anyone up North, on the board.”