Beverly Barton - Silent Killer

Missy slammed on the brakes so quickly that if he hadn’t been wearing a seat belt, Seth would have gone sailing through the windshield.

“What the heck?”

“Oh, Seth, it could be Mrs. Long or…No, no, I won’t believe it’s her.”

“Who? Mrs. Long?” Seth asked, but Missy shook her head. “Why did you stop in the middle of the street? If another car comes along, we could get hit from behind.”

Missy nodded, took her foot off the brake, gave the car enough gas to propel it forward and then she glanced at Seth. If I tell you a secret, will you swear to me that you won’t tell another living soul?”

“Yeah, sure. What is it?” Seth watched the play of odd emotions crossing Missy’s face. Whatever she was going to tell him must be pretty horrific.

“Swear to me. Say the words.”

“I swear I’ll never tell.”

“Ruth Ann’s father did to her what my father did to me. He raped her from the time she was a little girl until the day he died. That’s why she took me in, why she’s been trying to help me.”

“Shit! That means Mrs. Harper must have hated her father and could hate all ministers.”

“It gives her a motive,” Missy agreed. “But it also gives Mrs. Long a motive. She must hate what her husband did and probably hates herself for not being able to stop him.”

“So you think she’s stopping other ministers from doing bad things?” Seth asked. “But my dad was one of the good guys. Why would anyone kill him?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that someone in the Harper house could be the Fire and Brimstone Killer. I just don’t know who. It could be Felicity or Ruth Ann or-”

“Turn off here and hit the alley behind the street,” Seth told her. “Treasures has a parking area in back.”

Missy turned off North Main and quickly made a right into the alley. She pulled her car into an empty slot at the back of the Treasures building, and she and Seth got out and hurried to the back door. Finding the door locked, Seth banged on it with his fist. Finally, Lorie opened the door and stared at them, obviously startled by their unexpected appearance.

“What’s going on?” Lorie asked.

“I need to speak to my mother right away,” Seth said.

“She’s not here,” Lorie told him.

“Where is she?”

“She got a call from John Earl’s secretary. Something about a problem with you and Felicity, some trouble y’all had gotten into,” Lorie said. “She left a few minutes ago to go over to the Baptist church and talk to him.”

Seth’s gaze met Missy’s and he knew she was thinking what he was-that something was wrong, bad wrong.

“Somebody lied to Mom,” Seth said. “Felicity and I haven’t gotten into any trouble. There’s no reason Reverend Harper would need to talk to my mother about me. And his secretary isn’t at the church. She went home for the afternoon.”

“You two come on in.” Lorie held open the back door. “Tell me what’s going on. I can see that you’re both scared spitless.”

Seth allowed Missy to enter first, and then he followed her and waited for Lorie to close and lock the back door. Standing in the narrow hallway that separated the bathroom and the storeroom, Seth gave Lorie a condensed version of his and Missy’s theory.

“Do you think we’re wrong to be worried?” Missy asked.

“No, you’re not wrong,” Lorie said.

“What should we do?” Missy looked at her pleadingly.

“Call Jack,” Lorie said. “I have no idea what’s going on, who called Cathy and why, but I don’t like it. If you two are right about-”

“I’m going to the church now,” Seth told her. “Mom could be in trouble. You call Jack and tell him to meet me there, and I’ll call Mom’s cell phone and warn her. He looked at Missy. “Can I borrow your car?”

“I’m going with you,” Missy said.

“No, Seth, wait,” Lorie called to them as they pushed her out of the way and headed for the door.

When she parked her car in the church lot, she didn’t pay any attention to the other vehicles. People used the lot for various reasons, not all of them associated with the church. It had been years since she’d been inside the Dunmore Baptist Church, and she didn’t know her way around inside, so she entered through the unlocked front doors. Just inside the vestibule, she found a directory listing and discovered that the minister’s office was in the basement. The carpeted staircase leading down to it was well lit. Once she reached the lower level, she found a bright, cheerful hallway with pale cream walls and numerous rooms, most of them Sunday school rooms with gaily decorated doors.

When her cell phone rang, she opened her purse, reached in and removed the phone. Seeing that the caller was Seth, she answered immediately, but the phone suddenly went dead. She tried returning the call, but discovered that the reception here in the church basement was terrible. That was probably the reason her phone wouldn’t work properly. As soon as she talked to John Earl, she’d call Seth.

The door to the office marked REVEREND JOHN EARL HARPER stood wide open, enough so that Cathy was able to see inside to his secretary’s desk. But she saw no sign of Erin McKinley or anyone else for that matter.

Odd.

Maybe John Earl had sent her on an errand, or perhaps she was in the nearby restroom.

“Hello,” Cathy called as she walked into the outer office.

Silence.

“John Earl, it’s Catherine Cantrell.”

A strange noise came from inside his private office. She walked over to the partially open door and peered inside. No one sat behind the desk.

“John Earl?”

Then she heard that funny noise again. It sounded like shuffling and…and what? Moaning?

Her heartbeat accelerated.

What’s the matter with you? You’re acting as if you have something to be afraid of, and you know good and well you don’t. You’re in a church, in the minister’s private office. Where else could you be as safe as you are here?

Cathy entered the room and followed the peculiar sounds until she reached the side of the large oak desk. She saw what appeared to be a man’s feet clad in leather loafers.

Was John Earl lying on the floor? Doing push-ups? Or had he passed out?

She took several quick yet tentative steps and stopped dead still when she got a full view of the man on the floor. John Earl had been bound and gagged. Blood trickled down the side of his head, from his hairline to his chin. He stared up at her, his eyes wild with fear. He kept moaning and shaking his head.

“My God, who did this to you?” Cathy rushed over to him, knelt down beside him and yanked the gag from his mouth.

“Watch out!” John Earl yelled.

Too late. His dire warning was the last thing Cathy heard before someone conked her on the head and knocked her out cold.

Missy zipped into the parking lot, came to a screeching halt and stopped her car in front of the church.

“Mom’s here,” Seth said. “There’s her car.”

Missy jerked the keys out of the ignition. Then she and Seth jumped out of the car and ran up the porch steps. They went inside, leaving the front doors wide open. He followed Missy straight to the stairs that led down to the basement. She stopped abruptly on the first step and glanced over her shoulder at Seth.

“Why’d you stop?” he asked softly.

“What if whoever called your mom has a weapon of some sort, a gun or a knife or…we don’t have anything to defend ourselves with or to defend your mom.”

Seth absorbed the reality of what Missy had just said. “We need to be quiet and not let anyone know we’re here. Understand? Our best chance of getting the upper hand is if we can take them by surprise.”