Banana Split (27 page)

Her eyes were immediately drawn to the dark-haired boy in a light blue shirt and khaki shorts walking purposefully down the aisle. The chapel was mostly white as well, but with dark red upholstery on the cushions and black trim on the top of the pews. Simple and striking at the same time. At the front of the room was a large black cross set against the wall—the only adornment in the room. Sadie used her fingertips to allow the door to close gently behind her and noted the sound of the air conditioner that created a good amount of white noise.

At the front of the chapel was a raised platform the width of the room and about twenty feet deep with a pulpit pushed to the right. Sadie imagined the stage area would fit a Christian band or choir quite nicely; that kind of thing was popular in some churches, or so Shawn had told her after attending one with a roommate.

Charlie climbed the stairs to the stage, intent on reaching the cross on the back wall. The bottom of the cross came to his waist, and Sadie noticed a paper or envelope in his hand. As she watched, he lifted the paper, held it with both hands for a moment, then folded it in half and seemed to feed it into the bottom of the cross. A moment later, he stepped back, his hands empty.

Sadie felt her eyebrows raise. What had just happened? She’d no sooner thought it, however, than Charlie turned around. In the moment before he realized she was there, she saw peace and confidence in his expression. Whatever he’d just done had brought him some kind of comfort.

“Hi, Charlie,” Sadie said, quietly. It felt appropriate to speak softly in this room.

Charlie froze and stared at her, looking scared and ready to run, except that she was blocking the only exit. Actually, there was a door set into the other side of the room, near the stage, but it was closed, and she wasn’t sure Charlie had noticed it since it seemed to be designed to blend into the wall.

Rather than confront him about what he was doing here and why he wasn’t in school, Sadie walked about a third of the way down the aisle and sat on the end of one of the pews. She shifted her gaze from him to the cross and said a little prayer for help to know what to do with this sad little boy.

She didn’t say anything else to Charlie, but could feel him waiting for her to. After almost a minute, Charlie walked off the stage and headed down the aisle. Sadie purposely kept her eyes on the cross but could see him getting closer and closer, edging to the far side as though she might jump out and grab him. He passed her, but she still didn’t speak, though she questioned her judgment. Should she stop him? If she wanted him to trust her, she couldn’t take a position of offense. He needed to come to her and that would only happen if she presented herself as trustworthy.

She waited for the sound of the doors being opened, but didn’t hear anything. The air conditioner kept up a steady hum, though she thought she’d hear the door over the white noise since she was listening so intently. Almost another full minute passed in utter silence before she heard him slide into the pew behind her. She contained the smile that pulled at the edges of her mouth, but just barely.

“It’s sure peaceful here,” Sadie said, when she couldn’t stand the silence anymore.

Charlie didn’t answer.

“Do you come here a lot?” she asked after several seconds passed.

“Every day,” a man answered, causing Sadie to startle and turn quickly in her seat.

Pastor Darryl grinned at her with his bright white teeth.

She looked past him, her face hot with embarrassment, but Charlie wasn’t there. She looked back at Pastor Darryl and cleared her throat. “I, uh . . . thought you were someone else,” she said, feeling ridiculous.

“Who, I wonder?” Pastor Darryl said, still teasing her.

“Never mind,” Sadie said. She glanced at the door again. How had Charlie left so quietly?

“My next appointment isn’t for thirty minutes, so your timing is exceptional. Why don’t we take this into my office?”

Sadie followed him down the aisle, casting one last look around the chapel, before going through the hidden door by the stage area. The door led into a small office decorated in neutral shades of browns. Nice, but simple. Fitting for his position. There was another door on an adjacent wall that she assumed led to the hallway. Probably so he didn’t have to go through the chapel to get to his office. Instead of sitting behind his desk, Pastor Darryl sat in one of the upholstered chairs across from it and indicated for her to do the same in the other chair. When she sat, their knees were nearly touching.

“So,” he said. “Where would you like to start?”

Sadie didn’t even know. What was it she’d wanted to learn from him? Why was she here? Thoughts about her locked motel room and Charlie’s surprising appearance followed by his even more surprising disappearance twisted up in her mind until she couldn’t find a way to fit Pastor Darryl into her thoughts. She needed to call Pete, and she needed to leave a message for Gayle. Should she tell Pastor Darryl his wife was meeting with Jim Bartley behind closed doors?

“I want to understand Noelani,” Sadie said as though from rote memory. “Can you just tell me about her?”

He smiled, kind and understanding, before launching into what he knew of Noelani’s past. Sadie’s notes were in her room, so she tried to concentrate on what he said. Most of it she’d heard before from her own searches or from Mr. Olie, though she liked Pastor Darryl’s compassionate version. It was difficult to think of him having an affair with Noelani, but Jim’s inference and Bets’s insecurity were hard to ignore. She didn’t have a clue how to bring it up, however, so she listened and nodded and tried to think of what she needed from Pastor Darryl that no one else could give her.

“I understand she was having a difficult time the last few weeks,” Sadie said, remembering that Jim had said Darryl had been following Noelani around the motel. “You were counseling with her?”

Pastor Darryl inclined his head. “It’s common for recovering addicts to confront what sent them to their addiction in the first place once they find themselves in a safe place. She’d had a lot of feelings coming up and was struggling to cope with them appropriately.”

“Appropriately?”

“She was used to turning to drugs or alcohol to numb those feelings, and now she was trying to sort them out, to deal with the pain, forgive, and learn from past mistakes and traumas she hadn’t faced before.”

“You sound like a psychiatrist,” Sadie said.

“Just a spokesperson of God’s love who believes in Christ’s promise to bear our burdens, if we ask.”

Sadie nodded. “Did it help? Talking to you?”

“I think so. Or at least I thought so. One day she’d seem fine, and the next day she was sullen. As reuniting with Charlie drew closer, she seemed to be more and more connected to everything that had happened that took him from her in the first place. It’s a difficult process.”

“You last saw her at the social Thursday night, right? How was she?”

He pondered and let out a breath. “She was upset.”

“About what?”

“She was working toward getting Charlie back, but the state’s requirements were difficult for her to meet. She’d been looking for an apartment but couldn’t find anything she could afford. The state wouldn’t let her have a roommate, and she had to avoid certain areas that had a bad reputation. She felt as though she wouldn’t be able to do it.” Pastor Darryl looked at the floor. “The last thing she said to me that night was that she didn’t know if it was worth it. She felt like she was working so hard only to have to keep working even harder. She’d need two jobs to pay for her own place, which meant she’d never see Charlie anyway.”

“She said it wasn’t worth it?” Sadie’s heart sank. It was getting harder and harder to be optimistic that something else had happened other than the former junkie using again.

“She said maybe he was better off where he was.”

It broke Sadie’s heart to hear that, and she hoped Charlie would never know his mother had said it. “What did you say?”

“I assured her that God had chosen her to be Charlie’s mother for a reason and that she owed it to both of them to fight for that role. I told her God would help her if she did everything she could do first. She needed to have faith.”

“And then she was gone.”

Pastor Darryl nodded. “Don’t misunderstand me when I say that I believe what I said to her, Sister Sadie. I believe God creates a way for us, but He is not a God of force. He couldn’t make Noelani have faith in Him or herself. She had to have that, and sadly she was struggling to believe it. When we parted that night, I made her promise to call me if she needed to talk, any time. I never spoke to her again.” He looked over Sadie’s head. “After she was found and the police began investigating her death, they told me she’d called my phone, but I wasn’t available, and she didn’t leave a message.”

“But she tried to call you,” Sadie said. That felt like hope.

“She tried,” he repeated. “I admit I feel guilty for not being there for her. I wonder what I could have changed if I’d been there to answer her call.” He looked at a clock mounted above the door. “I’m afraid I’m about out of time, Sister Sadie.”

“Me too,” she said automatically, trying to process everything he’d said. “Thank you for talking with me.”

“Sure thing,” Pastor Darryl said as they stood. He placed his hand on the small of her back as they walked toward the door that led to the hall instead of the chapel. She tried to walk faster, so that his hand would fall away, but he kept pace with her. He really did seem like a kind man, but his constant physicality, if not conscious, still seemed to be inviting something—some kind of connection that Sadie wasn’t sure was right. That thought reminded her of something else.

He pulled open his office door, and Sadie turned toward him, stepping away so he couldn’t put his hand on her shoulder or arm. “Was Noelani seeing anyone?”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “She was cautious with men. I think that made it hard for her to open up to me right away. When we spoke about such things, she said she didn’t plan on being in a relationship for a long time—the only men she had room for in her life right then were God and Charlie.”

Sadie smiled. She liked that thought very much. “What can you tell me about Jim Bartley?”

Pastor Darryl’s smile fell. “Have you spoken to him already?”

Sadie nodded.

“What did he tell you that has you asking me about him?”

“He doesn’t seem to think very highly of you,” she said, then cringed because she hadn’t planned on saying something so negative.

Pastor Darryl’s jaw tightened. “Believe it or not, we were friends once. We worked together with the same outreach program Noelani came through. The Sand and Sea employed some of the people who chose to attend my congregation; we had a very symbiotic relationship.”

“That
is
hard to believe,” Sadie said carefully. “What happened?”

“His wife left him and took her boys from her previous marriage with her when she went,” Pastor Darryl said, pushing his hands into his pockets. “Jim hasn’t been the same since. He quit the outreach, cut all ties to us, and stopped hiring members of the congregation.”

“But he hired Noelani,” Sadie said.

“Yes,” Pastor Darryl agreed. “He did. I’d hoped that perhaps that meant there would be some healing between us, maybe the start of working together again, but it hasn’t come to that.”

“What about Bets?” Sadie asked. “Has she maintained a . . . friendship with Jim?”

“Bets is friends with everyone,” Pastor Darryl said, but Sadie didn’t think his smile was entirely sincere. “I’m afraid I’m out of time, Sister Sadie. Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Sadie hurried to assure him, hating the change of mood. “Thank you for your time.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “I hope you find some peace about Noelani. Though her death is tragic, I’ve no doubt she is in a place of comfort and love now.”

Sadie nodded. “I believe that too.”

Pastor Darryl smiled. “Thank you for your faith, Sister Sadie,” he said.
“Metetaloko.”

He shut the office door, him on the inside, her on the outside. Sadie shook her head, questioning the wisdom of having confronted him like that. She walked down the hallway until she reached the foyer she’d been in last night when she’d come in with Bets. The phone on the wall reminded her that she’d come to the church in order to call Pete. And Gayle, who would be here soon. Should she also call Mr. Olie and tell him about having seen Charlie?

Thinking of Charlie made her remember the strange action she’d seen at the cross—the disappearing note. Rather than picking up the phone, she followed the curving hallway until she reached the chapel doors on the other side. Surely it would only take a minute to figure it out.

Chapter 30