Walk Through the Valley

by Debbie Viguié

  She had pulled Cindy aside for a minute when she got there, muttering under her breath about how people were going to start calling First Shepherd the “Murder Church”. Cindy had told her briefly what had happened before Sylvia went off to talk with Liam.

  Night had fallen but Sylvia had turned on some extra lights other than the handful that normally came on at dusk. Cindy pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. Mark and Traci should be on their flight. Half a dozen times she had been tempted to call him, but she wasn’t going to be the one to potentially spoil a vacation the two of them desperately needed. Besides, Liam was doing just fine. There wasn’t anything more Mark could have done.

  She wondered how much longer it would be until Liam was finished. She knew from experience that when officers took your statement they asked you dozens of questions several different ways, trying to jog loose extra details or things you might not have thought to bring up before. It made the process incredibly thorough but also agonizingly slow.

  Christopher wandered over and crouched down next to them. “I don’t think we’ll be here much longer,” he said. “The detective said he was done with me. I’ll stay, of course, until everyone’s free to go...or, whatever.”

  He flushed and she gathered that he was wondering if his boss was about to be arrested. Given the state in which he had been found, she was sure that his status was the only thing that had kept him from being arrested immediately.

  “What a mess,” Christopher muttered, rubbing his eyes with his hand.

  He looked tired and strained. Cindy was feeling better than she could have expected. She had a sneaking suspicion that was because dealing with a murder was less stressful than the thought of resuming her conversation with Jeremiah.

  Sad, but true, she thought to herself.

  She heard a step and glanced up just as a camera light flashed in her face. She shouted and Christopher jumped to his feet. The officer who had been standing nearby facing the other direction whirled around.

  Cindy blinked furiously, but all she could see were bright spots.

  “This is a crime scene, get back!” she heard the officer shout.

  There was another flash of light and another followed by excited voices yelling all at the same time.

  “How did they find out?” Henry asked.

  “Who? What’s going on?” Cindy asked.

  “The vultures have arrived,” he said, voice miserable.

  “Who?”

  “The press,” Christopher said.

  Cindy scrambled to her feet, her vision clearing as she watched some officers pushing back half a dozen people.

  “That’s just the first wave. The rest will be arriving soon,” Christopher said, anger flaring in his voice. “We need to get out of here.”

  A hand descended on Cindy’s shoulder and she spun around with a gasp. Jeremiah was standing behind her, features tense. She had no idea where he’d come from. “Come with me,” he said, voice low.

  She nodded and let him guide her deeper into the church grounds away from the reporters.

  “The last thing we need is our picture with that guy on the front of every paper and news site come morning,” he said grimly.

  His avoidance of publicity finally made perfect sense to her. He might have a different name than he used to, but he would still look the same. Maybe he was afraid of being recognized.

  “We can wait in here,” she said, fishing her keys out of her purse and unlocking one of the Sunday School rooms.

  They walked inside, closed the door and then sat down at one of the tables. Jeremiah took a deep breath. “Okay, start at the beginning.”

  She noticed that he sounded more like himself, the accent having faded into the background again. She wondered if that meant he was calmer, or at least more in control of himself than he had been earlier.

  His request irritated her. If he’d been paying attention he would have heard her explain it to Liam half a dozen times already. Still, he had been agitated. Besides, it was good to go over it again, make sure there wasn’t a shred of information she had forgotten to share earlier.

  “Well, I finally decided to come look for you instead of waiting at your house any longer,” she started.

  A grimace crossed his face for a moment and then was gone. The sudden urge to tell him this was all his fault was great, but she managed not to.

  “I figured I’d see if you were at the synagogue. By the time I made it over here with all the traffic from the rally letting out I decided to use the restroom and wash my face so it wasn’t immediately obvious that I had been crying.”

  She paused and was rewarded when he flinched slightly.

  “So, I headed to the women’s room that’s there close to the gate. I opened the door and I saw the dead woman with Henry crouched over her. I backed out, shouting for help. I heard someone running toward me and, to be honest, I really thought it was you.”

  A new expression passed over his face very briefly and was gone. She wasn’t sure what it was he was feeling, but the look she had just seen was chilling.

  “It wasn’t, though. It was Christopher. He asked me what was wrong. I told him to call 911 because a woman was dead in the bathroom and there was a man in there with her. He did. Then he opened the door, recognized Henry and called to him. Henry didn’t move though. We kept the door open, watching him to make sure he didn’t try to destroy evidence or anything.”

  “That was incredibly foolish,” Jeremiah said. “What if he’d tried to attack you?”

  “I realized that if he was going to try, he would have done it when he first saw me. The guy was in shock, really out of it. And with Christopher there I felt safe.”

  Again that expression flashed across Jeremiah’s face. Was it anger? That didn’t feel quite right. It couldn’t be jealousy, could it? That just seemed ridiculous.

  “Anyway, a patrol car arrived first and an officer had to practically carry Henry out of there. Then Liam arrived and you were there for the rest.”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t think Henry did it.”

  “All evidence to the contrary,” Jeremiah said.

  “I know how it looks. I mean, goodness, I’m the one who found him that way. He was in shock, though.”

  “Could be the reality of what he’d done finally hit him.”

  “I don’t think so. He doesn’t seem like a killer to me.”

  Jeremiah raised an eyebrow. “Not everyone who is seems like it.”

  She stared at him for a long minute and she saw him finally begin to squirm. A thousand retorts rushed through her mind. In the end, though, he was right. She couldn’t always spot a killer. Life the last couple years would have been so much easier if she could.

  “I just don’t see it,” she finally said.

  “He is a politician. Lying comes naturally to them.”

  “Yeah, but I would have thought that by that same logic he would have been a lot smarter if he did want to kill her. I mean, he could have hired someone or at least planned it where he wouldn’t be found with the body.”

  “Maybe it was an accident or a heat of the moment thing.”

  Cindy crossed her arms over her chest. “The woman looked like she had been stabbed. I’m pretty sure the police didn’t find any weapons in that bathroom.”

  Cindy’s phone rang and she reached into her purse to grab it.

  “Hello?”

  “Cindy, Liam.”

  “Oh, hi, Liam,” she said so Jeremiah would know who she was talking to.

  “Where are you?”

  “Jeremiah and I retreated to one of the Sunday school rooms when the press showed up.”

  “Sensible. We’re working on clearing them out of here now.”

  “Do you have more questions for me?” she asked.

  “Not at the moment, but then again, I know how to get hold of you.”

  “Are you arresting Henry?” she asked.

  There was a pause. Finally Liam sai
d, “We’re taking him to the precinct to ask him more questions. That’s all I can say.”

  She rolled her eyes. Mark would have given her more information. Maybe she would drop by the precinct later to see Liam and make sure he had everything he needed from her. Then she could try to get more information from him.

  “Let me know when it’s safe to leave,” she said.

  “It should be in a few minutes. If you are accosted by any members of the press, I’d greatly appreciate it if you didn’t tell them anything.”

  “I won’t,” she promised.

  “Jeremiah either.”

  “I can guarantee you that Jeremiah won’t say anything to the press,” she said.

  Jeremiah nodded agreement.

  “Thank you. I have to go.”

  He hung up and she returned the phone to her purse.

  “He wasn’t very helpful.”

  “You know, Cindy, you don’t have to get involved. It’s not up to you to solve this mystery.”

  “But I want to,” she said. It was true. She wasn’t sure when the need to solve mysteries had taken over. She was sure, though, that solving this one would give her something to think about other than the conversation she and Jeremiah had had earlier.

  He sighed. “Fine, but be smart about it and careful. Liam might like you, but he’s not Mark and with Mark away we don’t know exactly what he’ll do or how much of a hard line he’ll take about interference.”

  “I know, but with Mark gone, he’s definitely going to need an extra set of eyes trying to figure things out.”

  “How can you be so sure Henry is innocent?”

  “I can’t explain it other than I felt like I could relate to him,” Cindy said.

  “You know setting himself up like that, almost like someone was framing him, would be the smart move for a politician to make,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah, but as far as I can tell there hasn’t been a hint of scandal around him at all. Why create some?”

  “Publicity?” he suggested.

  She shook her head. “I hate politics and even I know who he is thanks to his Walk Campaign.”

  Jeremiah pulled his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with it for a minute. He nodded, apparently having found what it was he was looking for.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “The Walk campaign came about because Henry said that the problem with politicians was twofold. First, that they had never walked a mile in their constituents’ shoes and second, that they only seemed to know or care about the needs of a few parts of the state while ignoring the vast majority of it. He asked how anyone could hope to govern the state without understanding it and the problems faced by all its inhabitants. When a rival challenged him to prove that he was any different, he declared that he was going to walk down the length of the entire state so that he could meet people from different areas and hear their concerns firsthand.”

  “He started up north, so he’s come a long ways already,” she said.

  “Ambitious. And you’re right, it has gotten him a lot of publicity and notoriety. He’s speaking about the troubles in the state and how they’re going to get worse if we don’t take a stand and face them head on. The farther he walks the more the polls seem to be swinging in his favor.”

  “Which could explain why someone would be interested in framing him for murder,” Cindy said.

  Jeremiah shook his head. “If he was being framed, don’t you think the real killer would have left the murder weapon somewhere nice and conspicuous?”

  It was a good point, but she didn’t want to admit it.

  Jeremiah returned his eyes to his screen, clearly reading up more on the politician while she studied her hands. She just couldn’t believe that the stricken man she had seen had killed that poor woman.

  The question was, who could have? The man was sure to have enemies, political ones at the very least.

  Her phone rang again and she wondered if it was Liam telling them that the coast was clear. She pulled her phone out of her purse and glanced at the screen.

  “It’s my father. He never calls,” she said. Warning bells began to go off in her head and her stomach lurched.

  Jeremiah looked up sharply as she answered the phone.

  “Hey, Dad,” she said, the breath catching in her throat. “What’s going on?”

  “Honey, you better sit down,” he said.

  “Why? What’s happened?” she asked.

  There was a long pause before he finally answered. “It’s Kyle.”

  4

  The phone slipped from Cindy’s hand and clattered to the ground. She was white as a ghost as she swayed for a moment on her feet and then sat down on a chair.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  She didn’t say anything.

  He scooped up her phone and pressed it to his ear. “Hello?”

  “Who is this?” her father asked.

  “Jeremiah. I’m a friend of Cindy’s. She just dropped her phone. She’s sitting down now. What’s going on?”

  “There’s been an accident. Her brother Kyle is hurt pretty badly. We don’t know more than that yet, but...it’s not looking good,” he said, his voice cracking.

  “Where’s he at?”

  “St. Mary’s Hospital in Las Vegas.”

  “Okay. I’ll see that Cindy gets there,” Jeremiah said.

  “Thank you. Kyle told us you were a good man. We are just getting on a plane...” he drifted off.

  “We’ll all be praying for him,” Jeremiah said.

  “Thank you.”

  Cindy’s father hung up and Jeremiah placed the phone down on the table next to her. “He’s in the hospital in Vegas,” he said softly.

  She nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  “If we leave now we can drive there in five hours,” he said.

  “It will be faster if I fly,” she said, seemingly snapping out of it as she grabbed her phone. “They should have a flight leaving soon.”

  “You should grab some stuff from home.”

  She shook her head. “No time.”

  “Do you want me to go with you?” he asked.

  “No. My parents can get weird when things are stressful. I don’t need that right now. We don’t need that.”

  He didn’t like the answer, but he understood. Cindy’s relationship with her parents was a bit strained, at least from her point of view. If having him there with them was going to stress her out more then he could stay away.

  “Can I drive you to the airport? I don’t think you should drive yourself.”

  “Yes, please.”

  Cautiously they left the Sunday school room, Cindy locking the door behind them. They walked slowly back toward the crime scene and Jeremiah listened intently to see how many people might still be around.

  It was fairly quiet, though, and a few seconds later they discovered why. Only a couple of police officers seemed to be left. The witnesses, the suspect, Liam, and the press all appeared to be gone.

  Jeremiah felt momentary relief and they continued quickly on to Cindy’s car. She wordlessly handed him the keys and climbed into the passenger’s side.

  A minute later they were on the road and there was silence as Cindy searched for and bought her ticket. When she was finished she leaned her head back against the seat for a moment, eyes closed. A couple minutes passed before she straightened back up and called the business manager at the church to let her know what was happening. The call took less than a minute but her voice was cracking with emotion by the end of it.

  They drove on for a few more minutes in silence. Finally Jeremiah couldn’t take it anymore. “Do you know what Kyle was doing in Vegas?”

  Cindy’s brother was the host of a television travel show for the adventurous and was always doing things that seemed incredibly dangerous. He was Cindy’s opposite in so many ways and their parents’ favorite. He knew all that added to her frustrations with him and her friction with her parents. A lot of healing had tak
en place a few months back, though, between Cindy and Kyle on an adventure trip that he had roped them into taking.

  “I honestly don’t know. Mom usually tells me when he’s out shooting a new episode but she never said anything about Vegas.”

  “I see.”

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back again. He figured that was the end of conversation for the drive. A moment later he realized he was wrong.

  “How did you come to work for the Mossad?” she asked.

  He cleared his throat. “As you know, everyone in Israel spends a couple of years in the military doing service. During my training period I caught the attention of the right person who thought that my time and skills were better put to other uses.”

  “They recruited you.”

  “Yes, you can say that. My zeal for both G-d and country made it imperative that I say yes. To serve one’s country in that way is a high calling.”

  “And yet you’re no longer with them.”

  “That is correct.”

  “Why?”

  That was a question he was most certainly not answering. It went straight to the heart of all the things that he wouldn’t, couldn’t tell her. He didn’t want to lie to her, but there was no way he could tell her the truth.

  “They decided that it was time for me to retire.”

  She opened her eyes and turned to look at him.

  “I thought spies didn’t retire.”

  “What do you think, they kill you when you’ve outlived your usefulness?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’ve seen too many movies,” he said with a shake of his head.

  “So, what happens when you retire?” she asked.

  “Well, in my case, change of name, change of country, change of job.”

  “So what, they just made you a rabbi and dropped you in California, waved and said ‘good luck’?”

  “It’s a bit more complex than that.”

  “Explain it to me.”

  “I started training when I was young to someday be a rabbi. The day I entered the army I was intending to resume my studies when I got out. When I...retired...I was sent to America to a state back east. I lived with what you might think of as a foster family who helped me to acclimate to my new life while I studied. They didn’t know my name or anything about me, but they helped me adjust and fit in. Then one day a man arrived with a package for me. My new identity. I moved out west the next morning and was able to obtain the rabbi position at the synagogue in Pine Springs.”