Missed You In Church: A Hunter Jones Mystery

by Charlotte Moore

  “You think he’s our guy?” Sam asked.

  “Could be,” T.J. said. “I talked to a couple of sheriff’s deputies who know him. I asked them if they’d figure him for a guy who wanted his ex-wife’s forgiveness for beating her up in the past. They both said it was more likely he’d want to see if he could get any money out of her. The woman living with him has her arm in a cast, by the way.”

  Sam was quiet, thinking.

  T.J. had apparently already done some thinking and he loved to speculate.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You think it’s never this easy. But maybe it is. The way I see it is maybe he cleaned up real good on Saturday and drove over to Merchantsville. He thought he’d talk her out of some money, and it all went down wrong. She told him to get out and he went crazy. She tried to run out of the house and he shot her. Then he grabbed what he could and left.”

  “I’m wondering why she’d let him in if he had hit her before and she was there alone,” Taneesha said.

  “So maybe she knew he was coming,” T.J. said. “Maybe she was willing to talk to him for old times’ sake, but only with her husband gone, and then she realized he was just after her money and told him to leave. Maybe she still had a thing for him even if he did beat her up before. I know you know your community, Sam, but when it comes to things like sex and money, there’s no telling what people are up to.”

  Skeet Borders nodded in agreement.

  “True,” Sam said wearily, “I don’t think it’s likely, though. If you can get a warrant, let’s go ahead and search his place today – I mean the store, his home and whatever vehicles he has. Noreen Bremmer’s son’s coming up from Savannah this evening, and even if it turns out to be a wild goose chase, I’d like to be able to tell him we’ve followed through.”

  Taneesha was more than ready to go with Sam and encounter the wife-beating Rocker Barstow, but he had other things he needed for her to do.

  “We need a good description of that missing diamond ring,” he said, “and it needs to go out to all the pawn shops and jewelry shops. Jack says he bought it from Winston Bolton. Also, I need for you stay in touch with the cleaning crew out at the Bremmer’s home, and let Jack and his daughters know when they can go back out there.”

  She was almost out the door, when Sam said, “And could you get a written statement from Clarissa Scarbrough? She rambles a bit, but she can help us figure out the time frame.”

  Taneesha sighed, but straightened her shoulders and headed for Bolton’s Jewelry & Gift Shoppe.

  CHAPTER 8

  THE OLD-TIME SHOP, LIKE THE MAGNOLIA County Messenger and R&J’s Cafe, was one of the mainstays of the downtown business area, and a quick walk from the courthouse.

  Bolton’s specialized in fine jewelry, china, silver, and crystal, and was a first stop for most brides-to-be. While she waited for the aging sales clerk to get Winston Bolton, Taneesha looked at the display that was set up with a handwritten card for Miranda Jane Bremmer and Chad Montgomery. There was an elegant china place setting in a floral design with a crystal goblet and matching wine glass. It was pretty, she thought, but she’d rather have a more modern design—something that would look sophisticated but go into the dishwasher.

  There were necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings in a locked glass case. Taneesha wondered if Jeremy Hayes would ever buy her a ring.

  Her Uncle James had asked her just that question a week earlier over Sunday dinner.

  “When’s that young man going to put a ring on your finger?” he had asked bluntly, and she had brushed it off by saying, “Who says I want a ring?”

  Mama Rene had made it more complicated by saying, “Sometimes a young man has to save up a bit, James. All in due time.”

  “He had enough to buy that fancy new car,” Uncle James said. “He’s got a good job.”

  And then her Aunt Ramona had made it much worse in private.

  “Jeremy’s a fine young man,” she said, “but don’t let him be wasting your time if he’s not serious about the future. He’s got his education now, and a good job. I can tell he’s crazy about you, but you two have been courting for nearly two years. Remember Andretta.”

  Taneesha had winced, not wanting to remember how her first cousin had built her whole life around her college boyfriend. Then six months after they both graduated from Georgia Southern he had gotten engaged to a girl from his hometown in Florida.

  Her brooding was put on hold when Winston Bolton, a soft-spoken man old enough to be Taneesha’s grandfather, came out and invited her back to his crowded office.

  “I wanted us to talk privately,” he said when they were both seated. “I know what you’re here for. I sold Jack that ring and I can give you all the details and the value, but I should tell you something first.”

  “What’s that?” Taneesha asked.

  “Well, I sold Jack a very fine diamond ring, but it might not have been a diamond she was actually wearing. It might have been a cubic zirconia.”

  “That’s a fake diamond isn’t it?” Taneesha asked, surprised.

  “Yes, and depending on the price, some of them would fool anybody who was just glancing at it. They just couldn’t fool somebody who knows diamonds. Anyway, she came in here not long after she and Jack got married and asked me if I could replace the 2.5 carat diamond in that ring with a zirconia the same size and cut. She said it made her nervous to be wearing something that valuable. She was afraid the stone might fall out, or that she might be mugged and have it stolen. She said she wanted to keep the diamond in her safe deposit box.”

  “And did you do it?” Taneesha asked.

  “No,” Bolton said, “I don’t deal with that sort of thing, but besides that, I had sold Jack the diamond ring. I could tell she just didn’t realize what a small town this is. I hate to say this, but if one of my sales people had gotten wind of it, it could have been all over town. I tried to assure her that the diamond wasn’t going to fall out of its setting and that we never have muggings in Merchantsville. I just got the feeling that she wasn’t going to give up, though, and there are plenty of places that would do that kind of work.”

  “Did you ever mention this to Jack Bremmer?” Taneesha asked.

  “She asked me not to,” he said, “but besides that, I thought she might well go to somebody else and get it done, or even that she might be planning to sell the diamond, and I didn’t want to wind up in the middle of anything later. I don’t mean for this to get around now, either. I’m just saying that if you’re going to put out a bulletin to the pawnshops or places that buy second hand, you might want to mention that it could be a cubic zirconia. I’m not saying it is, but it could be.”

  “Thank you,” Taneesha said, “That’s very helpful. Let’s get a description of the ring Jack bought from you, the one with the real diamond. Also, can you give me its value?”

  When he told her how much Jack had paid for the ring, she was stunned.

  “I guess something’s missing in my education,” she said to Bolton. “I had no idea an engagement ring would cost that much.”

  “There are many very elegant ones that don’t cost that much,” he said with a fatherly smile.

  She left with the description, wondering if Jeremy thought she would want something expensive like that. She didn’t, really. She just wanted the ring for what it meant, and – besides – she could see Noreen Bremmer’s point. What if she were playing tennis or swimming, with something that valuable just held by prongs like that fell out. What if it went down the sink when she was washing dishes?

  Then she remembered she had a job to do, and decided to see what Jack Bremmer knew about the ring, and also if there really was a diamond in Noreen’s safe deposit box.

  She called the hospital and he had been discharged.

  Mallory was with her whole family at Clarissa’s home, talking to her father gently about making funeral plans, when the doorbell rang. She went to answer it, fully expecting another visitor with a cas
serole dish.

  Instead, she met Taneesha Martin, who gave her a quick hug.

  “I just checked, and the cleaning team is about to leave your house. You can go back out there whenever you like,” Taneesha said. “And my Aunt Ramona said to tell you she’s going to send dinner out to your house this evening. She said she knows your father likes cornbread and collard greens. And I brought his keys and Mrs. Bremmer’s key ring back. I hate to interrupt anything, but I really need to talk to him – in private if I could.”

  A few minutes later Taneesha and Jack were sitting in the living room together. It was a beautifully proportioned room, Taneesha thought, with a bay window and crown molding, but she had never seen a room so over-decorated and filled with bric-a-brac.

  She took a deep breath. She had a touchy subject to bring up with a bereaved husband.

  “We needed to get a description of your wife’s ring and send it out in case someone tries to sell it,” she said, “So Sam asked me to go to Bolton Jewelers for a description.”

  Jack nodded.

  “It’s a pretty valuable ring,” he said.

  “Well,” Taneesha said, “I understand that your late wife was a little nervous about wearing something so valuable.”

  Jack look surprised but smiled a little, and said, “Yes, she was at first. She thought the stone might come out while she was doing dishes, but how did you know that?”

  “There seems to be some chance that she might have had the diamond swapped for a cubic zirconia,” Taneesha said, cautiously. “Mr. Bolton said she asked him to do that for her, so she could put the real diamond in her safe deposit box, but he wouldn’t.”

  ‘Noreen asked Winston Bolton to put a fake diamond in her ring?” Jack asked, looking astonished.

  “That’s what he told me,” Taneesha said gently. “He said that he didn’t do that kind of work and he didn’t change it. The only reason I’m bringing it up at all is that we need to know if she did make the change because we’re putting out notices to pawnbrokers and used jewelry, merchants…”

  “You know,” Jack said. “Right at first she really was worried about losing the stone. She did tell me later on that she had stopped by some jewelry store in Macon and had gotten the prongs tightened, or something like that. I remember that because I told her Winston would have done that for her.”

  Taneesha could tell that even as he argued, he was absorbing the fact that his wife had done something secretive.

  “Mr. Bremmer” she said, “Maybe she didn’t change it at all, but it was a very valuable diamond, and if she did change it, and she put the diamond in her safe deposit box, that’s good news. We just need to go and see if it’s in there, so we’re sure that we’re sending out the right information. This is the key, I believe.”

  She held up Noreen Bremmer’s key ring by the smallest key.

  He nodded.

  “It’s at Old South Bank. Let’s go get it over with. Let me tell the kids. I think they want to go back out to our house. Is it – is it okay out there?”

  “It’s ready,” Taneesha said, understanding his meaning, “If you like, I can just drive you back out there when we’re done at the bank.”

  The bank president was all sympathy and asked only that nothing be removed from the safe deposit box until the bank had received a death certificate. It was in Noreen’s name only.

  Five minutes later seated at the table in the big vault at Old Southern Bank of Merchantsville, Jack and Taneesha were looking at a diamond – no ring – in a velvet box that had been placed in a manila envelope with two documents.

  On a piece of Bremmer Agency stationary, Noreen Bremmer had typed, “To whom it may concern: This is the diamond from the engagement ring given to me by Jack Bremmer and belongs to him if anything should happen to me. The stone in the ring I am now wearing is a cubic zirconia. See attached receipt.”

  There was also a receipt from a Macon jewelry store for the cost of the replacement stone and the work involved. It was much higher than Taneesha would have thought.

  “Well at least we know what we’re looking for,” she said.

  Jack shook his head sadly.

  As Taneesha drove Jack Bremmer out to his home, he was subdued.

  When he was about to get out of the car, he said, “I don’t think I’ll tell the girls about the diamond, and I’d just as soon that wasn’t public information.”

  “I don’t see any reason it should be public,” Taneesha said sympathetically, as she pulled the car up into his long driveway, noticing that Mallory’s car was already there. “We just need to send the right information out to the pawn shops and other places where somebody might try to get some money for the ring.”

  “Funny thing is,” Jack said. “She was right. If she’d been wearing the real diamond, it would have been stolen. It’s just hard to get my head around the idea of her keeping a secret like that from me.”

  As she drove back into town, Taneesha tried to think it over from Noreen’s point of view. Maybe she really was afraid of losing that valuable stone, or maybe she was afraid that someday her violent ex-husband – the one Sam was on his way to see—would show up again. She might have wanted to make sure that he didn’t get it.

  That would fit, she thought, with her saying she had forgiven him, and placating him with money once he turned up again. Maybe she had never gotten past being afraid of him.

  She made a call on her cell phone and arranged to meet Clarissa Scarbrough at her home.

  Sam in the meantime was about to meet Rocker Barstow.

  CHAPTER 9

  IT HAD BEEN A 30-MILE DRIVE for Sam alone, and 15 more accompanied by T.J. and three deputies from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

  They got out of their air-conditioned cars to a blast of July heat. The “Round the Clock” convenience store didn’t look like much of a business. It was an old country store with a rusted tin roof and two ancient gas pumps out front. A hand-lettered sign on each pump said, “Pay inside before pumping.”

  Three mixed breed dogs behind a chain link fence set up an uproar when the cars arrived. A beat-up blue Ford truck was parked near the mobile home under the shade of a chinaberry tree. Sam walked over, turned and took a picture of the tag with his cell phone. He was beginning to find that camera handier than writing down descriptions.

  Rocker Barstow looked up when they came in. He was tall and lean with a little gray in his dark hair. Sam’s first thought was that he looked like Elvis Presley might have, if Elvis had stayed poor and thin. He was dressed in camouflage cargo pants and a tee shirt. He seemed to size up the situation quickly and managed to look edgy and cocky at the same time.

  “Darla, go on back to the house,” he told the thin dark-haired woman standing at the cash register. She looked about 30, younger than Barstow, but worn out. Her left hand and wrist were in a cast.

  “Ma’am, we need for you to stay right where you are,” T.J. said. “Mr. Barstow, we have a warrant to search your store, your house, and your vehicle.”

  “Be my guest,” Rocker Barstow said sarcastically. “Ain’t nothin’ locked. Sorry, we didn’t know company was coming and Darla doesn’t always get her housework done like she oughta.”

  The others went off to search the house, setting off more barking from the dogs. Sam and T.J. stayed in the store.

  “Can you tell us where you were Saturday, let’s say from noon until nightfall?” T.J. asked.

  Barstow took his time answering.

  “Of course I could,” he finally said, lighting a cigarette with his hand shaking slightly, “But I ain’t gonna tell you nothin’ without a lawyer. Why should I? What are y’all thinkin’ I was doin’?”

  “You know a lady named Noreen Bremmer?” Sam asked, snapping his picture.

  For the first time, Barstow looked caught off guard.

  “Man, you can’t just come in here and take my picture like that,” he said. “What about Noreen?”

  “Sure I can,” Sam said. “You k
now Noreen?”

  Barstow seemed to relax and tried a cocky smile that didn’t work.

  “I was married to a Noreen once,” he said, “I heard she got married again. I forgot the last name, but Bremmer could be it. Why?”

  “She was shot dead Saturday in her home,” T.J. said, “and she was robbed.”

  Darla gasped. Rocker Barstow, unless he was a very good actor, seemed shocked, and gave up the smart-aleck stance.”

  “I’m real sorry to hear that,” he said earnestly. “I really am. That’s awful . Have y’all called my son? Does he know?”

  “I talked to him last night,” Sam said, watching Barstow’s reactions carefully.

  T.J. was watching Darla. She looked scared.

  “We know you beat her up a few times,” Sam said, “She was in the hospital twice, and she had to get restraining orders to keep you away after she got a divorce.”

  “That was a long time ago,” Rocker said, folding his arms across his chest, “And it ain’t none of your business, because I can tell you she has forgiven me. I have never shot anybody in my life, and if I had it wouldn’t have been Noreen. She was a good woman.”

  “So how recently have you been in touch with Noreen Bremmer?” T.J. asked.

  “Maybe six months ago,” Rocker said after some thought. “It was on the phone at her office.”

  “So you did know her last name?”

  “Yeah, if y’all had just tol’ me she got killed, I woulda said so straight out I want y’all to catch whoever did it, and it sure wasn’t me. Lemme go tell those dogs to shut up.”

  They walked out together and Rocker yelled at the dogs, who settled down.

  Back in the store, he insisted that he wasn’t going to talk anymore without a lawyer, but that he hadn’t been anywhere near Merchantsville, and had people who could be witness to that.

  It was 15 minutes before the others came back from the mobile home. One deputy was carrying a heavy-looking handgun in an evidence bag. The others were empty handed.