“I didn’t,” she said stubbornly. “Mallory must have found those things and put them in her mother’s cedar chest. I can’t imagine why she would do that, but she was standing there holding the chest when I arrived at home and she was behaving in a very irrational way. Maybe she’s been jealous of all the attention I’ve been giving Miranda, but then Miranda was the bride and naturally..”
“Those items were already noted as missing when Mallory and Miranda were still in Atlanta that Sunday,” Sam interrupted “Please don’t waste my time by making things up. I’ve spoken with Miranda on the phone and she says that she found the box in the attic while she was looking for a garter the morning of her wedding. She hid it under the bed, because she knew the items were her stepmother’s and she was frightened of the reaction you might have if you saw it. She understood what you had done and she was afraid of you. Mallory just found the chest while she and my wife were cleaning the room up.”
“Miranda would never be afraid of me,” Clarissa said. “I don’t even believe you. You’re trying to trick me.”
“No,” Sam said. “I’m trying to get you to tell the truth. You have tried to trick us from the outset. You told me all about your visit to the Bremmer home in case someone had seen you there or you had left some evidence of your presence. You even made phone calls to her cell phone knowing she wouldn’t answer because she was dead.”
Clarissa seemed to be considering her options. Sam watched, thinking that she must have rehearsed some kind of story in case she was caught.
“Well, I told you the truth as much as I thought I could,” she said. “I didn’t mean to cause a problem, and I just assumed that you would think it was some vagrant who broke into the house. I never knew anything about Noreen’s former husband.”
“So, did you shoot her, “ Sam asked.
She didn’t answer.
“Can you tell me how long you’ve owned the gun we took from you today,” he asked, changing the subject.
“Oh, for years,” she said. “Oh, I know I told a little white lie when I said I didn’t own one but the thing is that I never have had a permit for it and I didn’t want to get in trouble. Mack, my late husband, bought it for me and showed me how to use it. He had a half dozen guns himself and I sold them all to one of his friends later, but Mack was one of those men who just doesn’t believe the government has any business making people sign their guns up.”
“Most of the time,” she said, “I keep it in a box under my front car seat, because I’ve got a security system for the house, but I usually move it to my purse when I go out of town. I just hate driving in cities by myself, with all those strangers around, and neighborhoods I don’t know. Mallory can tell you. I tried to get her to go to Macon with me today. It was pure happenstance that I had it in my purse today when I came into the house today. Normally, I’d put it back in the box very carefully, but I was distracted by seeing that there were two cars in back. I had only expected Mallory to stop by.”
“I see,” Sam said. “Now, Sgt. Martin and Mallory Bremmer can both testify that you pointed the gun at my wife, Hunter Jones, today, and we know it was loaded when you did that, despite the fact that my wife was in no way threatening you and was in your home with your niece to help her clean up a bedroom. And we’ve got ballistics people already testing the gun to see if it was the one used to kill Noreen Bremmer.”
She let out a little cry, and Sam reached over and patted her hand.
“I just want to know what happened,” he said, with surprising gentleness. “We need to get all this settled.”
Clarissa was silent for a while, staring upward at the ceiling fan. Sam watched her, knowing she was aware that she was trapped, and thinking that she must have given some thought to excuses if she were accused.
Finally, she spoke in a shaky voice.
“She gave me no choice. It was self-defense. We got into a silly argument about Miranda’s wedding, and she just went wild with no warning. She threw her purse across the table at me and a knife fell out of it, and she grabbed the knife. It was a terrible looking hunting knife. She grabbed it and came at me with it, screaming, and I backed away. I tried to reason with her, but she was out of her mind with anger, saying that I had spent too much money on Miranda’s wedding, and she was going to take it over herself, and… and, I was terrified. I was afraid for my life. I remembered I had the gun in my purse, and I took it out and shot her.
“Now, Mrs. Scarbrough, her back was to you when you shot her,” Sam said calmly. She wasn’t coming after you with a knife when you shot her. She was going toward the kitchen door. And we didn’t find any knife out in the kitchen. If she was the one who had a knife, where would it have gone?”
They were all silent until she broke the silence herself.
“I took it with me,” she said. “I threw it in the creek after I drove away. I never wanted the girls to know that she would even own such a thing. I was protecting the family…”
“Now that we’ve established that you shot her,” Sam said. “Do you also admit that you took her wallet and her ring and that you have been keeping them in your home since the day of her death.”
“Well, I hardly see why that matters so much,” Clarissa said, regaining a little composure. “I knew that my actions could be misunderstood. You know, Noreen had everybody thinking she was so religious and such a wonderful church member, and who would even believe she’d come at me with a knife? So I took those things to make it look like a robbery. But nothing has been stolen. You’ll find all of the cash she had still in the wallet. My only idea about the ring was that I might sell it if there really wasn’t enough money for Miranda to have the lovely wedding we planned. Noreen said a lot of wild things about Jack having used up his credit card limits, and that the agency wasn’t doing well, and that Jack wanted the wedding kept simpler, but that was all a lie. There’s been plenty of money for everything. Ask Jack.”
“You wouldn’t have gotten much money for the ring,” Taneesha said angrily. “It was a fake.”
Sam frowned at Taneesha. Clarissa looked startled and then managed a superior smile.
“Oh, no, my dear,” she said, “I know quality when I see it, and that was a very valuable diamond. But in any case, I never planned to use it for myself in any way, and now that all this is out in the open, it can be returned to Jack. I’m sure he will be glad it was never really stolen. I just had it here for safekeeping.”
They all sat silently for a few moments. Clarissa resumed her poise, looking around the room with a slight smile as if somehow she had prevailed against her accusers.
“Just one more question, then,” Sam said. “Do you think she was still alive when you pulled the ring off her finger?”
Clarissa flinched as if he had hit her. He watched as her lower lip began to tremble.
She twisted her hands together.
“I don’t have to answer that,” she said.
CHAPTER 35
AN HOUR LATER SAM WAS IN Jack Bremmer’s office and had told him everything.
“That part about the knife is a crazy lie,” Jack said, looking ashen. “Noreen didn’t have a hunting knife, and I don’t have one either. She was the last person who would scream and wave a knife at somebody.”
“But,” he went on, “Noreen and I really had agreed that she was going to talk to Clarissa about the wedding costs and about shopping locally for the flowers and cake. Noreen was really worried about money and thought we should just have the bridesmaid’s brunch and the reception in the church Fellowship Hall. She was going to thank Clarissa for all her work and compliment her, you know, but explain that we just didn’t have the money for the kind of thing she wanted. And I was going to back her up if Clarissa came to me. Neither one of us wanted to hurt Clarissa’s feelings and, of course, we wanted Miranda to have a nice wedding, but it was just getting out of hand.”
“I wish you had told me this at the beginning,” Sam said.
Jack sighed and shoo
k his head.
“I just never connected it,” he said. “Clarissa came straight over to see me at the hospital that morning and told me about dropping by to get the RSVPs and how Noreen was working on her Sunday School lesson. She didn’t say a word about their talking about the wedding, and it never occurred to me that she had anything to do with…”
He stopped and put his hands over his face. “And after that, the money situation got better…”
He stopped and put his hands over his face. The fact hung in the air between them that Noreen’s murder had made Miranda’s expensive wedding possible.
“Did Clarissa know anything about your insurance policies,” Sam asked.
“No,” Jack said. “Absolutely not. I never mentioned it at all, and I know Noreen wouldn’t have. For heaven’s sake, Noreen didn’t even tell me that she changed hers so that half of it would go to Ben. She didn’t even tell me that Rocker Barstow beat her up, or that he had come and borrowed money from her. She didn’t tell me about switching that diamond for a fake. One of the hardest things about all of this has been realizing that she kept secrets from me.”
Sam didn’t respond.
“Where’s Mallory?” Jack finally asked.
“She’s over at my house with Hunter, and my mother is there with them,” Sam said, “Hunter fainted, after that whole mess at Clarissa’s house was over, and she says she’s okay, but I didn’t want her to be alone, or Mallory either, for that matter. I’ve still got to get statements from both of them, but I’ll probably wait until morning. I think Mallory’s planning to spend the night at our house.”
“And Chad says Miranda knew?” Jack asked after a pause.
“Yes,” Sam said, “I talked to her myself. She found the little chest in the attic on the day of her wedding, and when she saw what it was, she understood what it meant. Chad says that’s why she was so upset during the wedding.”
“Was Miranda upset at her wedding?” Jack asked. “I know she got one of her bad headaches at the reception, but I didn’t notice that she was upset before then. She looked just beautiful.”
Sam had no comment.
“Sam,” Jack said, “I really loved Noreen. I know you know about that little fling with Amber, but that didn’t mean a thing. It really has worried me that she kept secrets from me, but I suppose she had her reasons. Maybe she was afraid of becoming poor again, or worried that her ex would come back and hurt her. I don’t know. I just know that Noreen was a wonderful wife and. I really didn’t deserve her.”
Sam stood to leave quickly before he agreed with Jack Bremmer.
Faced with the reality of a jail cell at Magnolia County Detention Center, Clarissa Scarbrough escaped into unreality. She began to rock back and forth and then to bang her head repeatedly on the metal frame of her cot, and when the guard came, she seemed not to hear him or acknowledge that he was there. She was put on suicide watch. Her minister, Thomas Hale, came to pray with her, and she backed away from him as if she were a feral cat.
The next morning at the arraignment, she was disheveled and mute. Buck Roland came to represent her in court and asked that she be placed in a mental hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and the request was granted.
AFTERWORD
Sam and Hunter provided a second home and retreat for Mallory while she waited for Taneesha to move out of the upstairs apartment at Miss Rose’s house.
Her father insisted that it was a total waste of money for her to pay rent when she could live with him, or even in her Aunt Clarissa’s home, which, having been half-owned by her mother, was partly hers anyway.
She wasn’t comfortable in either house though, and after a week she realized that she was mainly making the ten mile round trip over and over because somebody had to see that Merlin had food and fresh water and a daily walk.
She wasn’t sure she could rely on her father to do that.
She called Miranda in Mobile and asked her if she could take Merlin. Miranda was thrilled. Chad arrived two days later, and Mallory met him at the landing strip with the old cocker spaniel who was about to have his first experience throwing up in a Cessna.
Two weekends after Miranda’s wedding Ben Barstow drove up from Savannah and Mallory rode with him to Eudora to get Rocker Barstow’s ashes. They made the first part of the trip talking about their jobs. On the way back, on an impulse, Ben stopped at a bridge over a wandering creek. It was a surprisingly beautiful view with trees branches shading the red clay banks, and the late afternoon sun shining through. He removed the lid of the urn, tilted it and emptied his father’s ashes.
“Now, come on,” Mallory said gently. “You can think of something good to say about him,”
Ben didn’t smile, but he didn’t look angry either.
“I can think of two good things,” he said. “He taught me how to ride a bike, and he didn’t kill my mother.”
When they parted, he kissed her on the cheek, and she promised to call him if she came to Savannah any time.
Sue-Ellen Larsen waited six weeks after Noreen Bremmer’s death before inviting Jack Bremmer to dinner. There – among other things – they talked about how much Jack needed someone like Sue-Ellen to be the office manager at the agency. Janelle, he said, was good with the computer, and a good bookkeeper, but she didn’t really have the people skills and contacts he needed he needed to build the business back up.
Sue-Ellen laughingly confessed that she wouldn’t mind ever seeing another Snapdragon and that her daughter was more than ready to take over the flower and gift shop.
On a bright, clear Sunday in October, Hunter slipped into an elegant pale blue bridesmaid’s dress and got Sam to zip it up in the back.
He kissed her neck and said, “In another month you won’t be able to get into this dress.”
She looked down and said, “I’m definitely showing. I’d better hold the bouquet right at my waist.”
Once Hunter had realized what all her queasy feelings and her fainting at Clarissa Scarbrough’s house could be about, a simple drugstore test confirmed her guess.
They had hoped to keep it within the family for a while. Bethie, however, was so excited that she hadn’t been able to resist telling Mallory, and then Sam’s mother, and her other grandmother, all in the first two days. Novena, of course, had figured it out on her own when she saw Hunter having a breakfast of pretzels and ginger ale, and hinted at it to Taneesha, who promptly asked Hunter “Are you pregnant?”
Then Hunter couldn’t resist telling Miss Rose Tyndale, who told Colin and Robin, and Tyler Bankston’s wife, Ellie, who told Tyler, who said, “Well, thank heavens, we’ve got Mallory to hold down the fort.”
Taneesha told Shellie, who told Skeet and Bub. In another week Hunter noticed that people were looking at her waist more often than they were looking at her face, even though the baby wasn’t due until April.
Taneesha’s Mama Rene had flung herself with joy into wedding preparations and rounded her many friends up to help. The end of every pew in the sanctuary of St. James A.M.E. Church in Cathay was decorated with yellow roses, baby’s breath, and ribbons. Taneesha wore a crown of white roses with a lace veil. Her perfectly fitted satin gown had a flared skirt that gave her just enough room to be graceful when she followed the old custom of jumping the broom with her new husband.
Nikki Daniello drove down from Atlanta to take the pictures, with Bethie Bailey holding her camera bag and learning from every move.
Clarissa Scarbrough was aware of none of this. She spent her days at the mental hospital refusing to respond to anyone and flipping repeatedly through the bridal magazines that had been in Miranda’s old bedroom. Mallory had gathered them up after Clarissa’s psychiatrist had inquired about her aunt’s interests.
From time to time, especially when waking in the morning, Clarissa had a vivid memory of Noreen, like a bad dream, but realler.
Noreen being so self-assured, so calm, telling her that the wedding plans had to be cut back, actually telling her, Clari
ssa Scarbrough, to calm down and lower her voice, actually saying, “Well, if you can’t go by our budget, I’m afraid you just need to be a guest at the wedding.”
“I’ll be talking to Jack about this as soon as he comes back,” Clarissa said over and over in her memory, her face hot with anger, and Noreen said over and over, “Clarissa, you’re not listening. I told you that this is something Jack and I have already discussed. It’s not your money you’re spending.”
And then she always remembered reaching the front door, with the RSVPs clutched in her hand and thinking, “This will not do,” and reaching for the gun and turning back.
Noreen didn’t even heard her come back through the house. She was talking baby talk to that tiresome old dog, getting ready to take him out for a walk. She never even looked around.
The End
Table of Contents
MISSED YOU IN CHURCH
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
AFTERWORD
Missed You In Church: A Hunter Jones Mystery Page 19
