The Path of the Crooked (Hope Street Church Mysteries Book 1) (25 page)

“Actually, Hazel is okay,” Nathan said somewhat guiltily and then went on to explain how he and Cooper drove to Hazel’s house and discovered that she was out of harm’s way in Danville.

“Well, thank goodness she’s safe.” Trish exhaled in relief. “And despite Investigator McNamara’s warning, I haven’t been able to stop mulling things over in my mind. Personally, I think Lynda Newcombe is a very angry woman and seems perfectly capable of pushing her husband off a bridge.”

“She may have harmed Reed, but why would she kill Brooke?” Bryant argued. “I think our villain is Cindi. Reed broke up with her at the game. You all saw how upset she was!”

“But Brooke’s murder was about money, remember?” Quinton said. “I think Reed was involved in something illegal at Capital City. Brooke found out and he had to silence her.”

Jake threw out his arms. “Then who shoved him into the river?”

“What about Vance Maynard?” Cooper piped up. “There was a moment at the game where he looked pretty peeved with Reed.”

“Yeah, that guy has the cat-who’s-caught-a-canary look about him,” Jake grumbled. “Too slick for his own good.”

Savannah had listened to these tangents patiently, but she finally grew exasperated. “Friends!” she spoke firmly. “We’re doing a fair amount of finger-pointing with no evidence.” She tapped her Bible. “It’s not our job to decide someone’s guilt based on how they look or act. Can we see inside their hearts?” Savannah drew in a breath. “Let’s get back to the lesson, please.”

Looking abashed, the friends took turns sharing their workbook answers. Before they knew it, their time was up.

“Nice work, folks.” Savannah stood and held out a clipboard for Bryant to take. “Before we head to worship, I asked the church secretary to make us a sign-up sheet. Perhaps we could all take turns visiting Wesley, Eliza, and Lynda Newcombe. I’m sure she could use a few meals, with a husband in the hospital and four kids to feed.”

Cooper spoke up quickly, before Bryant had a chance to sign the sheet. “Could I add someone to this list?”

“Of course,” Savannah said.

“Her name is Rose.” Cooper told the Sunrise members about Hazel’s next-door neighbor. “She could use baby gear for her granddaughter and some company. When Hazel comes home, Rose is going to put her up. She’s a giving person and could do with a little taking for a change. I’d also like to ask that my coworker Ben be added to our group prayer list. I think his wife has an alcohol problem, and he seems pretty lost. I don’t know how to help either of them.”

“I have a brochure you can give him,” Savannah said, passing Cooper her bag. “It’s for the loved ones of alcoholics. There’s a hotline number on the back. It might do him good to talk about things with someone.”

“Thanks.” Cooper removed the brochure from Savannah’s leather tote.

Bryant added Rose’s name to the chart and everyone filled in spaces until there were no blanks left. Then they clasped one another’s hands and prayed for all of the people on the list.

• • •

Cooper signed up to visit Eliza Weeks on Wednesday afternoon and Savannah asked to join her. Cooper was slightly disappointed that she and Nathan wouldn’t be heading to the Weekses’ together, but Jake was markedly dejected as he eyed the list and noted that Savannah would be accompanying Cooper one day and Bryant the next, leaving him no opportunity to spend time alone with her.

“Why don’t you just ask her to dinner?” Cooper felt like asking Jake, but kept her mouth shut. After all, she’d learned that Savannah’s husband had passed away a long time ago, but perhaps that man had been the love of her life. And what did Cooper know about romance? Though Nathan had smiled warmly at her and had sat beside her during church service, he hadn’t mentioned a second date. As a result, Cooper spent the first three days of the workweek obsessing over her date with Nathan. Was she a bad kisser? Had he found someone online that he wanted to meet in person?

“You’re kind of quiet today,” Savannah said on Wednesday. They’d been in the car together for ten minutes and had barely spoken a word.

“Sorry. I’m gathering wool.” Cooper sniffed the air. “What did you cook? It smells delicious.”

“Pearl, the woman who helps me with household chores, is an excellent cook. She whipped up this Greek spaghetti in no time flat.” Savannah smiled sadly. “It’s one of my few regrets about not being able to see clearly. Cooking takes a certain amount of finesse that my blurred vision can’t manage.”

“Well, you make up for it with your paintings,” Cooper assured her friend.

Savannah nodded at the compliment. “How about you? Did you bake something? I smell cinnamon.”

“I made an iced cinnamon-raisin loaf and picked up a basket of strawberries from a farm stand near my house. I thought it might make a nice afternoon snack for Eliza and her sister.”

Savannah closed her eyes and allowed the sun streaming through the windshield to wash over her lovely face. She stayed in this position of repose until Cooper exited off I-95 and headed for the country roads of Hanover County. Traffic dwindled and the foliage bordering the roads grew thick and verdant.

“Eliza says there’s been no word of Jed at all.” Savannah finally broke the silence. “Poor thing. I hope she’s doing all right. She must have imagined all kinds of awful scenarios by this point. And the police have had no luck tracking Jed down.”

“It must be taking every ounce of strength she’s got to hold herself together,” Cooper replied. As she pulled in front of the Weekses’ house, she immediately noticed that someone had tidied the property.

“The grass has been trimmed,” she informed Savannah. “And those planters have been repotted and filled with daylilies and purple verbena.” She parked the car and turned off the engine. “The walk’s been swept and it looks like the windows have been washed. Eliza’s sister has certainly been busy.”

Placing Savannah’s hand on her forearm, Cooper led her friend up the walk. A woman with liberal curves, the same pale hair as Eliza, and a generous smile opened the front door.

“I’m Ellie, Eliza’s sister.” She hugged them both. “It is so nice of you all to visit,” she said with the accent of one who has lived her entire life in the Deep South. “Eliza’s in a real tizzy today, so I’m hopin’ you can distract her. She keeps declarin’ that someone’s been sneakin’ things out of the house, and this Alabama gal can’t talk her out of these wild notions.”

Eliza was ensconced on her favorite sofa, the television turned to HGTV. A home makeover show played on the screen while Eliza flipped listlessly through a
Good Housekeeping
magazine.

“I heard that, Ellie.” Eliza pouted and turned to her visitors in appeal. “Some of Jed’s clothes are missing from his closet. And there’s food gone from the pantry and a whole package of toilet paper from the hall bathroom!”

“I keep tellin’ her that they must’ve been taken . . . before,” Ellie argued gently. “We’ve had so much goin’ on lately, what with gettin’ the house and the yard in order. And we’ve been cookin’ like two tornadoes in the kitchen, so it’s no wonder she’s mixed up.”

Eliza gave her sister a fond look. “It’s Ellie that’s been workin’ like a slave. I just point to where the ingredients are and she comes up with dishes that are near divine.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “But I know what I know. Things are disappearing.”

Cooper led Savannah to a chair and seated herself opposite Eliza. “Have you both been out of the house recently?”

Eliza flushed. “Ellie, bless her heart and her powerful arms, has driven me to Wal-Mart twice over the last week. Got me right up to the front door and into one of those automatic carts, just like Jed used to do.” Her lip trembled and she began to weep soundlessly.

“Hush, now.” Ellie stroked her sister’s hair and Cooper’s heart swelled at the sight of such tenderness. She thought of Ashley and was ashamed that she couldn’t remember the last time she had made an attempt to spend time alone with her sister. Ashley was constantly trying to help her, albeit her aid was often in the form of beauty advice. Perhaps it was the only way she knew how to reach out. Cooper resolved to call Ashley and plan a girls’ night as soon as she got back home. Until then, she was determined to discover the answer to Eliza’s riddle.

“Does your property border on other houses?” she asked Eliza.

Eliza nodded. “We’ve got ten acres, and the closest house is miles away back in the woods. It’s a big farm. They’ll be startin’ up their strawberry pickin’ days before long.”

“There are no buildings around here?” Cooper thought of all the dilapidated barns and old outbuildings that were scattered throughout every part of the Virginia countryside. She’d seen several such structures on the roads that led them to Eliza’s house. “Not even a tree house?” she partially joked.

Ellie sat down next to her sister and took Eliza’s hand.

“You thinkin’ there’s someone out there?” Her eyes grew wide.

Eliza jerked and leaned toward Cooper. “There’s a tobacco-drying shed on the far side of our property. It used to belong to the farm, back when their family owned all the land round here. Lord, I’ve never set eyes on the thing, but Jed told me about it. Said it’s right near the blind curve in the road you take to get to the farm. Jed said you could see it clear as day from the road in wintertime. He always thought it made a pretty picture with the snow on its roof and the icicles drippin’ off it.”

Cooper grew excited. “Do you have any binoculars? Maybe I can spot it from the road.”

Eliza pointed to a cabinet across the room. “Ellie? Would you, dear?”

Ellie jumped up and sifted through all three drawers. “There’s nothin’ here.”

“Then that’s another thing gone.” Eliza shivered. “Do you think someone’s watching us? Using the binoculars?” Her voice was tiny and frightened.

“I’m going to check out that shed,” Cooper said, standing. “If there’s no one there, then it’s less likely someone’s been spying on you.”

Savannah frowned. “By yourself? Is that a good idea?”

“I’ll go with her,” Ellie offered. “I’ll carry my cell phone and if she doesn’t come out of the woods in fifteen minutes, I’ll holler for Johnny Law quick as you can blink.”

Eliza twisted her hands with worry. “Oh, be careful, you two.”

• • •

Cooper turned right from the end of the Weekses’ gravel drive. Her Jeep bounced so roughly on the uneven dirt road as they headed west on Happy Hanover Farm Road that Cooper felt like her teeth were in danger of becoming separated from her gums.

“Have you been to the farm before?” Cooper asked Ellie as they rounded a particularly jarring bend.

Ellie grinned and steadied herself against the dashboard. “If you’re worried ’bout missin’ that blind curve, don’t be. You practically have to come to a full stop to get around it.”

After a few more minutes of jostling, they followed a gentle curve, and immediately afterward the road turned so sharply to the left that all Cooper could see were tree trunks. She slowed down dramatically and whistled. “Wow. You could really get clobbered here.”

Ellie shrugged. “They bus schoolkids out here all the time for pumpkin and strawberry pickin’ and hay rides. I don’t know how a bus driver could finagle one of those big school buses over this road, but they do. Jed says the kids love being bounced about like pinballs. The ride to the farm is practically like bein’ on a roller coaster to them.” She grasped her generous bosom. “But it makes me wish I was wearin’ two bras!”

Laughing, Cooper looked for a break in the woods once she maneuvered around the curve and pulled her Jeep to the side. She left the engine running and glanced at her watch. “Fifteen minutes?” she confirmed with Ellie, swallowing hard. Trying to appear as brave as possible, she waved and then turned toward the woods.

She walked straight for a few moments and then looked back over her shoulder. She could see the red glint of her Jeep through a break in the trees. Casting her eyes left and right, Cooper kept walking.

Only a minute or two passed by the time she spied the old tobacco-drying shed. She hesitated, bending her fingers one by one and wondering if there really was someone inside. If there was a person inside, were they a killer? She imagined a dark shape huddled within the shed, holding a gleaming chopping knife and waiting very patiently for her to become the next victim.

Shoving such thoughts aside, Cooper pushed forward through a thick blanket of leaves. She stepped on sticks and pinecones as she progressed, and if someone was indeed hiding within the shed, that person was now certainly aware that an intruder was approaching.

Pausing once more, Cooper stooped to retrieve a heavy stick. She snapped off the end so that it formed a point and held her makeshift spear in her right hand, poised to strike, and pressed her body against the back of the shed. Her heart was thundering, making it difficult to listen for sounds coming from inside the building.

Cooper took her time examining the condition of the old structure from the outside, noting that new pieces of plywood had been nailed over the larger holes in the weathered brown boards. Steeling herself, she eased back the crooked door and peered inside. Without entering, she was able to see a sleeping bag, a Coleman camping stove, two kerosene lanterns, and a group of Hefty bags stuffed with what appeared to be clothes, unopened food packages, and garbage. Next to the sleeping bag, a milk crate, which served as a nightstand, held a stack of paperbacks. Cooper thought that the book titles might reveal something about the shed’s occupant, but she was too afraid to set foot inside the lair of the person who had blatantly pilfered items from Eliza’s house.

Behind her, a twig snapped and Cooper drew in a sharp breath. She raised her pointed stick and prepared to swivel around and meet her attacker face-on, but before she had a chance to flex a single muscle, the metal mouth of a gun barrel was pressed harshly into the small of her back.

“Don’t move,” a man’s voice growled.

Wincing, Cooper began to pray that her fifteen minutes were up.

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