The Plain Jane Mystery Box Set 2

by Traci Tyne Hilton

  What had Theo gotten himself mixed up in?

  He was safe with Robert…protection was Robert’s thing. He wouldn’t let Theo get hurt.

  Except they had been fighting. What about? And how had the decorative-rock thrower been able to overpower both of them?

  Jane cleaned her plate and helped herself to seconds. No point trying to solve the problem on an empty stomach.

  Shortly after Jane finished her second plateful, Jake let himself in. He dropped a bakery box on the breakfast bar and grabbed a piece of the garlic bread. “Eat something, Nick. You look awful.” He tossed the bread to his friend and grabbed another for himself. “Glad to see you had a bite, Jane. Now, who is waiting for us and where?”

  “Francine, at Mom’s house. Let’s go.” Nick jumped to his feet, not noticing the piece of garlic bread that fell to the floor. His body practically quivered with nervous energy.

  Jane followed the boys out to the car so she could watch Nick and Jake interact. He seemed more confident with Jake around, which, while not flattering, meant waiting had been a good idea. But he was so physically moved by his missing brother that Jane had some new idea of how horrifying the unexplained loss of their sister had been.

  And poor Theo, who never had gotten an explanation from his parents.

  Chapter 21

  Francine paced the living room of the rental house while Christiana reclined on the sofa with a cold rag over her head. They were alone, and spoke in lowered tones. Jane didn’t want to announce her arrival. She wanted to watch them interact. There was a distance between them, but not the coldness or the hatred she had expected after listening to Francine describe things.

  Christiana lifted her hand and waved it, as though dismissing a subject.

  Francine’s mouth turned down at the corners, and her eyes were deeply shadowed.

  However, Jake pushed his way through the door and broke the quiet picture of worry. “Ladies, I’m Jake, Jane’s boyfriend and Nick’s old camp friend. A happy coincidence, I know. You say Theo and Robert went missing yesterday afternoon?”

  Christiana sat up and held out a hand to Nick, ignoring the loud voice of the stranger who had come in with her son. “I’m so glad you came back, sweetheart.”

  Nick took her hand and squeezed it. He pushed aside a velvet pillow and sat next to his mom. “No word yet?”

  Jane let them talk and went into the kitchen. The glass had been swept, and there was a piece of cardboard over the broken window. Nothing on the counters had been disturbed. She wanted to find a piece of paper, some kind of note that may have been attached to the rock and fallen off, but she saw nothing.

  Ebenezer.

  The only note was a part of the rock.

  Thus far the Lord has helped us.

  Was that a message for the Malachis? A message that the killers would strike again?

  She tried to think through the story of the Ebenezer stone. What had been the point of it? Samuel had lifted up the rock to remind the Israelites that God had defeated the Philistines, that their days of battle were over, that with God’s help they were victorious.

  If the decorative Ebenezer stone was a message to the Malachis concerning Josiah’s murder…it wasn’t a good one.

  “When you cleaned up the broken window, did you find anything else?” Jane stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the sitting room. “Any notes, papers, anything at all?”

  “No.” Francine turned to Jane. “I looked, too. But there was nothing. I was inclined to think that it was nothing. Just vandalism.” She shot a glance at Nick. “I know that’s foolish, but we don’t know this town well. And with murder, the wackos tend to come out of the woodwork. I called the police about an hour ago and apologized for cleaning it up before they could see it, but they didn’t think it was a big deal either.”

  Jane still had the rock, so she set it on the coffee table in front of Christiana. “How many of these did you sell at the event where Josiah died?”

  Christiana shrugged. “You’d have to contact the vendor. We hired a local bookstore to handle the sales for us.”

  “Francine? Can we contact them?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you have any idea what Theo and Robert were fighting about?” Jake thumbed through a Malachi Ministries product catalogue that was sitting on the coffee table next to the rock.

  “Theo was very angry about the ministry,” Christiana said.

  Jane noted her use of past tense and shivered.

  “Anytime someone from the task force comes around, he starts a fight. And not just since the murder either. It’s really been since he came back from his father’s last time.” Christiana rubbed her ear rhythmically, and as though she wasn’t thinking about it.

  “Do you think he wanted to stay there?” Jane asked. The chemistry between Nick and his mom was fascinating to watch. Nick was stiff and distant, despite sitting next to her. And at first it looked like his coming had made her feel a little better. She had sat up, anyway, but she seemed to wilt and go colorless sitting next to her son, as though his presence exhausted her.

  “No.” Nick answered for his mom. “He didn’t want to. Dad is never around. He’s always alone there. He knows I’m going back to uni in the fall, and then I won’t be at Dad’s again for who knows how long.”

  “How many times have you tried calling?” Jane wished she could check over all their phones. She had a feeling more than one of them had revealing text messages.

  “Every fifteen minutes. I’ve been calling Robert, and Christiana has been calling Theo.” Francine paused in front of the fireplace, almost regal in her bearing. Her shoulders squared and her head held high. Still trying to prove to Christiana that she was trustworthy.

  “I have too,” Nick said.

  “What kind of phone do they use? iPhones?” Jake asked.

  “Yeah, Theo has one, anyway.”

  “Have you tried tracking it online?” Jake pulled out his own phone. “We need to log into his account and see if we can track it down.”

  “Right, yes.” Nick stood up. “I bet we can do that from his computer.” He walked off towards the stairs, so Jake followed him.

  “That’s a step in the right direction.” Jane joined Francine in front of the fireplace. “I don’t suppose you’d know how to log into Robert’s account to hunt down his phone.”

  Francine shook her head.

  “A phone is easy to throw away.” Christiana pressed her hand to her forehead. “How long did the police say we needed to wait until we reported him missing?”

  Francine shook her head. “He’s an adult, legally, so it’s going to be a while before they start looking for him.”

  Christiana sighed. “Maybe that’s for the best. Theo needs his privacy right now.”

  Jane wasn’t satisfied with giving Theo “privacy.” Not with a killer on the loose.

  Jake and Nick found his phone located at a donut shop in Sandy. If Theo was just trying to get away for a breather, he had certainly found an out-of-the-way spot, unless you counted the hundreds of skiers who loved stopping there on their way back from the mountain. Nick and Wendy decided to follow up on the donut shop lead, and Jane couldn’t argue to include herself in the trip. She was the last person Theo would willingly come back to the family nest with.

  Chapter 22

  The day before the revival at the Holiness Camp, Francine called Jane to join the task force for event prep. They met at the house, in the driveway.

  “Hey, gang,” Francine said. “I know there are a lot of questions still about how tomorrow night will go, but there are certain things that have to be done no matter who is preaching.”

  Lucas crossed his arms and nodded. “Sure, of course.”

  Jane counted heads; it looked like several of the local task force members were no-shows. Stacy was there, but not Reggie, and she was shooting arrows at Francine with her eyes.

  Francine, for her part, had greeted Stacy with a warm side hug and a
smile, but her warmth had dissipated and she was all business again.

  Jane could see why Stacy had been put off by Francine’s seeming lack of emotional investment. Today she was pale, with dark shadows under her eyes. She didn’t have the same spark of life, of love, that she had had when trying to lead Stacy to the truth. But then, how could she have, while Robert and Theo were still missing?

  Tiffany was dressed to work, in leg braces and crutches. Jane tried not to stare, but Tiffany’s legs looked so strong, so…even. She wasn’t an expert, and couldn’t tell you what range of damage polio could cause, but Tiffany didn’t look, or move, like someone who really needed a lot of help.

  Which was good, of course.

  But troubling nonetheless, especially when partnered with the little run Jane had caught a glimpse of the other day.

  “Jane, Stacy, Dawn, and Ramona”—Francine indicated each girl—“you four can open the partial cartons of merchandise and compare the inventory to the lists. Please remove anything that looks like it has been damaged in storage, and make a note of it. It’s all in the garage.”

  “Sure thing, come on.” Dawn, a girl about Jane’s age with a pixie cut and a cat sweater, led the way to the storage.

  Francine had arranged this setup, so it must be where she wanted Jane’s eyes and ears, but she was disappointed. She would have much rather been partnered with the key players.

  Then again…Jane sat back and watched Dawn take leadership, pulling out the big cardboard boxes and flipping open their lids. Just maybe, she had put Jane with Stacy in a more…spiritual capacity. More missionary and less detective. If so, she’d do her best, but it was hard going, reaching out to someone who thought they were the minister, and who also had known you during adolescence.

  “Here, Jane, right?” Dawn passed Jane a clipboard. “Why don’t you keep the notes for us?”

  “Sure thing.” Jane pulled a pencil out of her bun.

  “I’m a little surprised that they still want to sell stuff,” the other girl, the one Francine had called Ramona, said. “I mean, isn’t this supposed to be more of a memorial or something?”

  Stacy shrugged. “But people will want these. You know? Something to bring home from Josiah’s celebration.”

  “This carton is supposed to have thirteen Ebenezer stones in it.” Dawn started pulling stones out of the box.

  Jane smiled. Not that she wouldn’t try to reach out to these girls, but now she knew why Francine had put her on the job.

  “They’re all here.” Dawn began to put them back in the box.

  Ramona opened the next one. “This carton is supposed to have twenty Ebenezer stones and one hundred fifty printed handkerchiefs.”

  “Phew.” Dawn rolled her eyes. “We have to count all of them?”

  “They’re bundled in stacks of twenty-five; it shouldn’t be too hard.” Ramona pulled rocks out of the carton. “Would you count these again? I only got nineteen.”

  Dawn counted the rocks out loud as she put them back into the carton. “No, you’re right. Just nineteen.”

  “Got it,” Jane said. “If we find a stray rock in one of the other cartons, we can put it with those.” But she knew they wouldn’t, because the missing stone was in the living room, and someone who was intimate with both the ministry and the house had thrown it through the kitchen window.

  It only took twenty minutes to confirm that the only missing item from the open cartons was one Ebenezer rock.

  The girls found Francine as soon as they were done, and passed the clipboard back to her.

  “All in order?” Francine asked.

  “Just missing one of those rock decorations.” Dawn ruffled her short hair with her long fingers. “I thought we’d find it in another box, but it wasn’t anywhere.”

  “No problem.” Francine caught Jane’s eye. “And all the other cartons were still closed?”

  “Yup.”

  “Okay, go join the guys at the U-Haul and see about helping them fill it. Jane, could you help me with a project inside?”

  Stacy narrowed her eyes, but Jane ignored her. “Sure. Of course.”

  “Okay, it won’t be a big job, but since you’ve been working here the last two weeks, I think I want your help.”

  Stacy sniffed, and followed Dawn to the truck parked in front of the house.

  Francine led Jane to the office at the back of the house. “Nick and Jake found Theo’s phone at the donut shop, but the owner had no idea who had left it there. And he didn’t recognize the picture of Theo.”

  Jane chewed her bottom lip. “He was sure he was there when the phone was left behind?”

  “Yeah, he was. He was there, and out front, the whole time, to the best of his memory.”

  “So it looks like someone dropped Theo’s phone off at the donut shop on his behalf.”

  “Exactly.” Francine’s face was drawn in worry, a deep crease etched between her eyebrows. “I just want to ask you to pray for him. You and I both know the danger he must be in.”

  “Yes, of course.” Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Has anyone reported it to the police yet?”

  “Christiana was going to…”

  “But?”

  “I don’t know what to make of it, exactly, but Evelyn talked her out of it.”

  Jane tilted her head. “Evelyn did? That’s…unexpected.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Francine leaned back on the desk and steadied herself with her hand. “If it had been…I don’t know…Lucas…” Francine gave Jane a penetrating look, one eyebrow lifted.

  Jane nodded. “If it had been Lucas, I would have added it to a short list of things that have been popping up that make him look suspicious.”

  “But Evelyn wouldn’t have killed her brother, or kidnapped Theo.”

  “What did Lucas have to say about it?”

  “He led us in prayer, and then suggested we call the police right away.”

  “And Evelyn persuaded them not to?”

  “Exactly. Christiana had her phone out, ready to go. You could see how scared she was for her son. But Evelyn piped up right away.”

  “What was her reasoning?” Jane began to pace the room. Lucas had slowly risen on her suspect list. He was young, had his future to think about, wanted to be the head preacher at the event…the only things that had been keeping her from targeting him entirely were his apparent devotion and his wife, who really did sell the package, and now she was questioning that as well.

  But Evelyn? The doting older sister? The one who was the most crushed by her brother’s death, and the one who relied on the fame of her brother’s preaching to make a living?

  “She said that Theo was an adult, legally, and if he wanted to leave, he could.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Sure, it sounds ridiculous to us, but in a way, she’s right. He’s eighteen. He’s not under contract to stay here with us.”

  “But he’s been gone long enough to report it now. I know he has. What did Evelyn say about that?” Jane paused in front of the office window and watched the task force fill the truck with equipment.

  “She said if we made an issue of this, Theo would never forgive us. He would never come back to us, and he would walk away from God entirely.”

  “That’s a little heavy handed, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and it hit his mother’s biggest fear.”

  “Never forgiving her?”

  Francine shook her head. “No, of course not. She is terrified the boys will walk away from God.”

  Jane sighed. “Really? After all of this…show?” Jane waved her hand to the scene outside. “She really expects her sons to have a sincere faith in God?”

  Francine shrugged. “If you knew that you would be directly accountable to God for thousands of souls and that you were purposefully doing it wrong, wouldn’t your dearest hope be you could fool everyone?”

  Jane exhaled through tight lips. “You’ve got a point.”

  “
If her family holds tight to Jesus, then she can fool herself forever about the nature of her ministry. If Theo walks away from it all, the whole world will have to acknowledge she’s a fraud.”

  Jane closed her eyes. “I think I’m going to be ill.”

  “Hang in there just a little longer. I need you at the camp revival tomorrow. I’ll be stuck in the back somewhere, directing traffic. I need you to be my eyes and ears. Come. Participate. Report.”

  “Do you think Christiana is in danger if she preaches?”

  “Yes. The killer took out Josiah to end the ministry. He won’t want to let Christiana keep it going.”

  Jane pressed her lips together. “Francine, what about Robert? Is he still missing, too?”

  “Yes.” She shaded her eyes with her hand. “I will never forgive myself if something has happened to him.”

  “Francine…what is going on between you and Robert?”

  Francine wiped her eyes. “Robert is just my bodyguard. He…” She stalled to compose herself. “He isn’t saved, Jane, and all he knows about church is this train wreck. If something has happened to him, and he never got to see the real, life-changing gospel in action…if he dies hating God and the church, it will be all my fault.”

  Jane didn’t hesitate—she crossed the room and wrapped Francine in her arms. She didn’t have words to take away Francine’s fear, so she prayed silently that God give Robert more time.

  Chapter 23

  The day of the camp revival came, but they had still had no word from Robert or Theo. Jane didn’t know how Christiana was holding up. She hadn’t seen her, not even the day before as she helped pack up for the event.

  The Holiness Camp parking lot was completely full. Jane circled twice before she gave up and parked on the street. She clicked her alarm button and said a quick prayer. It wasn’t the safest street, but there was no point in hoping a spot would open up.

  Since Theo’s disappearance had hit the news, tonight’s revival had been on every TV station and all over the radio.