Cut Off His Tale: A Hollis Grant Mystery (22 page)

Hollis joined her in the kitchen, where Elsie had just given MacTee a biscuit. “Isn't it a beautiful morning, dear? There's going to be a big crowd at the funeral. They'll require extra chairs. Maybe even a speaker outside. Paul was popular and that was some nice write-up he got in the
Citizen
. Have you read it?”

“I only buy the
Citizen
on Saturday. I wonder why no one mentioned it last night at the visitation.”

“They couldn't have. It's in today's paper. Roger bought it when he went jogging this morning.” Elsie puffed out her ample chest like a pigeon preening in the sun. “I cut it out. I thought you wouldn't have it, and I
knew
you'd want it.” She rummaged around in the flowery pink carpetbag that did triple duty as purse, knitting and shopping bag, until she located the article and flourished it with such gusto, Hollis almost heard the trumpets. “Here it is, dear. Keep it. We'll pick up another copy.” She extended her arm and viewed her sensible watch, a relic from her nursing days. “I'd better get busy.”

“Elsie, thanks for bringing it and for everything you've done. You've been wonderful. I couldn't have coped without you.” Hollis waved at the stacks of cookie tins ranged along
the kitchen counter. “Help yourself to anything you fancy—there's enough for the army. If you have a spare moment, I thought we'd freeze packages for the church coffee hour.”

MacTee, whose longing gaze alternated between them, rose as Hollis prepared to leave the kitchen. However, the possibility of treats won out over his devotion to Hollis. He settled down to contemplate the possibility that Elsie might drop or give him a tasty morsel.

Upstairs, she unfolded and read the clipping detailing Paul's contributions to the community. How sad that his demons had changed him into a Jekyll and Hyde. Whatever his sins, she and Marguerite had planned a baroque spectacle to send him off in style.

The service would open with a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace”. After introductory remarks, a trumpet would accompany “Rock of Ages” sung by a massed choir. Eulogies and prayers would be interspersed with the best and most rousing hymns. The opera society's leading soprano, backed by the choir would break everyone's heart with the twenty-third psalm. The King James version resonated in her head, and tears threatened. Remembering her earlier advice to herself, she took a deep, steadying breath and willed herself to cry. Once again, the tactic worked. The service would conclude with a trumpet rendition of “Lord of the Dance”.

Shortly after ten, Hollis walked to St. Mark's, where she established herself in the narthex, the entrance hall of the church. Black and white photographs of past leaders dominated the dark-panelled hall, lit by tall stained glass windows and a single hanging lamp. The dark maroon-patterned carpet muffled the soft organ music and the voices of the scores of mourners whose numbers stretched out the door and down the steps to the street.

Simpson, accompanied by the same constable who'd been with her the night before, joined the line. Her chocolate brown pantsuit suited her, but Hollis wondered if there was any occasion on which she'd forego her cowboy boots.

Moments before the service began, Hollis left the narthex and moved to the front pew. On her walk up the aisle, she saw that mourners had filled the church to overflowing.

The service proceeded. At the more difficult moments, she maintained her composure by sliding butterscotch mints surreptitiously into her mouth.

The last silent prayer. The church hummed with the silence of several hundred people concentrating on quiet.

Silence shattered by shock waves.

Even with her back to the congregation, Hollis sensed something had happened. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw others swivelling in their seats. When the suspense became too much, she too turned.

Sally Staynor stood in the centre aisle.

Without saying anything, Sally tacked toward the front.

Sally had tried to dress appropriately, but the combination of black strappy sandals, a long black skirt with a side slit, a clinging black sweater and an oversize black patent shoulder bag gave entirely the opposite impression.

With her purse clutched in one hand and her other hand propelling her from the end of one pew to the next, Sally forged up the aisle and lurched to a stop at Paul's closed coffin. She placed one hand on the coffin and pivoted to face the congregation.

There was a sense of the crowd holding its collective breath.

Sally hugged her purse to her chest and surveyed the churchgoers. Finally, after an audible intake of breath, her
voice, rich with venom, resounded through the church.

“It's wrong,” she shouted, pointing to Hollis, sitting alone in the front row. “
She's
sitting there. Ms
Smugness
. You notice she's not crying.” Her lips quivered. “Of course,
she's
not crying.” Her finger jabbed at Hollis. “Of course not. Why would
she
cry? She killed him.”

Like a Spanish priest during the inquisition, she rang the changes of bitter accusation. When she finished reciting her charges, she straightened and, like a woman in a trance, moved away from the coffin and toward Hollis.

At the rear of the church, where they'd stationed themselves to survey the crowd, Constable Featherstone and Simpson had been mesmerized by Sally's attack.

“Shouldn't we do something?” the constable whispered.

Rhona was wondering the same thing. Although Sally had not threatened Hollis, she was clearly out of control. Rhona pictured her chief's face as he said, “you sat there and did nothing while a mad woman attacked the victim's widow”. She stood. Followed by Featherstone, she moved up the centre aisle.

Sally stopped, hung heavily on Hollis's pew, waved her free arm at her audience and demanded, “What
are
the police doing?”

No one answered.

Her voice dropped, and she leaned forward, jerkily rotating her head. “She's fooled them like she fooled you.
She's
hypnotized the police.” She pointed at Hollis and a half-smile curled her lip. “
She's
so nice.” Her finger thumped her breast and she repeatedly shook her head. “Not—like—me. No one ever said I was nice, but
I
was the one Paul loved.” Her chin rose, and her tone became belligerent. “He was going to leave
her
and marry me.”

Her head and eyes lifted, and she peered upward, as if
reading an invisible teleprompter. “You people who think he was
good
were wrong. I know all about him and
all
his secrets.” Again the half-smile. “Just—you—wait. One of these days, I'll spill the beans about some of you who pretend you're holy and better than me.” Her eyes roamed the church, lingering here and there on particular faces.

Dropping the belligerent tone, she spoke conversationally. “Paul and I aren't the same as you ordinary people. We're special. But you wouldn't understand. Hollis did. And Hollis Grant couldn't tolerate the fact he'd found someone like himself, someone to match him, to challenge him.”

She stopped, raised her chin to expose her white throat and thrust one arm heavenward. “I call on all of you to be my witnesses.
She
did it. Justice must be done.” She seemed to be imploring God to instantly deliver a lightning bolt of retribution from heaven.

Charged silence filled the church.

Sally swung back to the coffin. “Jesus, why have you done this?” She took three steps, wobbled on her high heels, lost her balance and reached out. Her shiny purse flew from her hand, bounced off the side of the coffin and ricocheted to the floor where it snapped open and emptied. A crash followed by the tinkling of glass and the smell of alcohol.

The two police officers hurried to the front of the church, where Rhona murmured, “Sally, we're going to give you a hand. You can't stay here.” The two women positioned themselves on either side, prepared to frog-march her out. Sally shrugged off their hands and supported herself on the front pew.

Hollis straightened, pulled her arms close to her sides, curled her hands into fists and concentrated on the pain of her nails pressing into her palms. This would
not
be the last straw; she would
not
allow Sally's behaviour to send her over the
edge. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax to watch the scene as if it was happening in a movie, happening to someone else.

Featherstone, ignoring the shards of glass and pools of alcohol, scooped up the purse's scattered contents.

“It would be better if you left,” Rhona said in a low voice, tucking her elbow through Sally's and propelling her to the back of the church.

“No. I have to see it through. Watch her. Watch them. I know things about them. This isn't the end,” Sally said in a loud voice.

The two officers stayed with her at the rear of the church until the service finished. When the coffin was wheeled down the aisle, Sally struggled to free herself from their grip, but was no match for two determined police officers.

“You can't detain me, or I'll charge you.” Her voice rose. As they passed, the parishioners leaving the church goggled at her.

“Oppressors. Fascist pigs. It's against the law. I haven't done anything.”

“Be quiet. You're creating a disturbance and we can charge you if we have to,” Rhona whispered and gripped Sally's arm.

Finally, the church was empty. “Look at me,” Rhona commanded.

Sally glared at Rhona.

“You have to stop throwing these threats around. It's dangerous.”

“You think she's going to kill me too?”

Rhona resisted the urge to slap Sally, but she didn't need a citation for unlawfully attacking a civilian. “No. But talking about how much you know is going to make trouble if you don't stop.”

“Good. I want to make trouble. Lots and lots of trouble.
Let me go. I'm off to the reception.”

“That's not a good idea.”

“I think it is. And you can't stop me.”

Rhona released Sally's arm. It was true. Sally was breaking no laws. They'd accompany her and try to head off any confrontations.

Outside the church, Sally, her high heels sinking in the sod, traced a zigzag path across the lawn, tearing out chunks of the soft spring grass in her advance on the hall.

With her head high, Hollis concentrated on her breathing while the pallbearers removed Paul's casket. He was to be cremated after the service and his ashes interred later.

Accompanied by quiet organ music, she marched down the long aisle. Sally, her arms pinioned by the two police officers, hissed at her as she passed. In the church hall, Marguerite hurried to her side. Together they wove their way through the throng who'd followed them.

Sally, along with the two officers, followed them into the hall. When Sally arrived, the crowd drew away from Marguerite and Hollis and, almost as if two circles had been drawn on the floor, left them isolated in their little circle and Sally in hers. Like spectators at a tennis match, the crowd waited for the first serve and volley.

Time to maintain rigid control. Their handlers always instructed politicians to keep their hands quiet. Clamped behind like Prince Phillip's or locked in front? Hollis opted for the latter. “Wasn't that a scene?” she whispered to Marguerite.

“When we planned a baroque spectacle, we obviously should have consulted Sally. What a finale!”

“And, if she has her way, it may not be over. I'm not staying here waiting for her to move—I'm going over to speak to the
UCW
women.” Conscious of the many eyes watching her, Hollis forced her raised rigid shoulders to relax and strolled across the room to a long table, where serried ranks of cups
and saucers almost covered the white cloth. Two women presided over the service of tea and coffee.

“Thank you for everything you've done,” she said and followed up with inconsequential small talk.

Once the crowd saw her carrying on as if nothing untoward had happened, they approached in ones and twos. She accepted a flowing stream of condolences. Sally, flanked by Detective Simpson's sidekick, hunkered on the far side of the room, glowering at everyone.

The crowd ebbed and flowed around the three long tables laden with egg, ham and tuna sandwiches, cut-up vegetables, pickles and a variety of cookies and squares. Instead of the irrelevancies usually heard at funerals (the opening of bass season, the number of papers a colleague had marked, the problems of talking to teenagers), Hollis overheard snatches of whispered conversations about “that woman” and “what the police have found”.

Eventually, having lunched on the
UCW
's sandwiches and cakes, the numbers thinned. Sally, who hadn't moved from her chair, lurched to her feet.

“Hey, Ms Detective,” she shouted, “you'll be happy to hear I'm getting the hell out of here. And you, Mrs. Smugface, you haven't heard the end of me. You're not going to get away with murder even if you do have the cops in your pocket.” A lascivious grin curled the corners of her lips but didn't reach her eyes, “A dyke, you're a fucking dyke. No wonder your marriage was dead.”

She careened out of the hall.

Thank God she'd gone. Hollis's feet hurt. The necessity of maintaining a brave front had ended. It was time to go home.

What an awful day. Sally had really crossed the line—she'd been totally out of control. Hollis should hate her; instead, she
pitied her. And Sally was right. Paul had been as over-the-top as she was.

They'd wanted a memorable funeral. After Sally's performance, no one would forget it any time soon. She'd made it “an affair to remember”. Great choice of phrase. The way Sally told it, that's exactly what they'd had—an affair to remember.

Hollis took a final sip of tea and headed for one of the ladies carrying a tray and collecting cups and saucers. Before she reached her, Elsie, a mainstay of the
UCW
, cut her off and removed the cup from her hand. “I'll take that, dear.” She held Hollis's free hand for a moment. “You go home. I'll be over in a bit to make sure you're okay.”