CHURCH LADY P.I. Part # 8
(MORE MISSING)
I told the police all that I knew, but to be completely honest, at that point I wasn't sure what I did know. I had impressions and instincts about what was important, but I just didn't understand how they all fit together. It felt like I was trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without the box's cover picture. I may have had all the pieces, but since I didn't know what the picture was supposed to look like, I couldn't get very far very fast. As I spoke about disappearing and reappearing stuffed bunnies I'm sure I sounded very much like a raving lunatic. After a few minutes of being questioned by the Chief of police he handed me off to a junior officer who was to take my official statement. However, I actually gleaned more from him than he did from me.
Apparently Sarah had been very upset because the Velveteen bunny I had returned to her had gone missing, but this time it had been more than the little girl could handle. She had been crying for quite some time before her mother had decided to phone me to see if I would come over and try to calm her daughter down.
No sooner had Ginnette hung up the phone in the kitchen after talking with me when she was hit on the head from behind. She blacked out for only a few minutes but she woke on the kitchen floor to discover Sarah was gone. Ginnette did a quick and frantic search and then phoned the police. They had made it to her house in record time and by the time Marc and I showed up, which was by no means a lengthy time either, the police had searched the area and were already starting to question neighbors and arrange a search party.
Marc stood by my side now as I spoke to the young officer and when he was through taking my statement (which didn't take very long), Marc asked me if I wanted to take a look around for myself. I looked at him quizzically. He responded by saying in a low voice, "You are an investigator. If you wish to have a look around on your own I could run interference with the police. Perhaps distract them in some way."
I had been so caught off guard by discovering that Sarah was missing and caught up in the emotions of the situation, I had momentarily forgotten that I was a professional investigator. I was glancing around the living room from my place on the sofa where I had plunked myself and was trying to focus on what to do next when the good Reverend Wright walked in.
On the surface it seemed perfectly natural that he would come to console someone from his congregation in a time of hardship, but I felt myself cringe inside at his presence. As I looked at a clock on the wall with some amazement that he had gotten there just on the heels of the arrival of the police, I saw him walk directly up to the Chief of police, pat him on the back and call him by his first name.
"Hey Chuck," he said to the chief.
"It's good to see you again. I'm just sorry it's under such bad circumstances."
The pat was such an intimate gesture that it freshly reminded me what it meant to live in such a small town where everybody knew each other. I was about to dismiss this occurrence in my mind, but when I looked at Marc I saw he wore a large frown as he watched this overt exchange between preacher and policeman. It was an expression I did not see on his face often, even after all our years together.
Suddenly the eyes of the minister met mine and I was looking at another frowning face. But only for the briefest of moments. He quickly replaced it with a countenance of sympathetic concern, gave a nod of acknowledgement to me, then walked over and sat in the empty chair next to Ginnette at the kitchen table. He placed a fatherly arm of concern across her shoulders and started talking to her in such a hushed voice that I couldn't make out what he was saying.
Suddenly a sparkle caught my eye and I saw the lady with the rings on her fingers I had first seen in church go towards them, carrying a box of Kleenex tissues which she gently deposited on the kitchen table right in front of Ginnette.
I wondered out loud, "What is she doing here?" without even realizing I had said it, until Marc answered me. He was following my gaze and said simply,
"That's the minister's wife and he has his arm around a pretty, young parishioner. Where else would she be?"
I said to Marc directly, "Have you even seen so much cubic zirconia in one place at one time?", referring to all the rings on her fingers.
Again Marc answered, "Don't let her hear you say that. She would be offended just to hear anyone suggest that she would let anything but real diamonds near her, let alone physically touching her."
I looked at Marc who was watching Mrs. Wright with a certain amount of disgust, which was another expression I rarely saw on his kind and understanding face.
"How do you know so much about her?" I questioned.
"We dated for a while in high school." which he uttered in a throw away manner, as if it was of no consequence.
I guess my surprise at this revelation registered on my face because Marc continued, "We actually were quite serious about each other for a while. At least I was. I even mentioned marriage to her."
My surprise expression turned to one of amazement. "And she didn't jump at the chance to marry you?"
"It's not like you are exactly jumping at the chance either."
I looked deep into Marc's dark brown eyes and for the first time realized the amount of hurt I was causing him by holding off my decision to marry him and I felt a horrible pang inside my chest.
I said simply, "Let's get out of here. I don't think there's anything more I can learn from staying."
But before I left I went over to Ginnette and told her that I was leaving and to let me know if there was anything I could do for her. She got up from her chair, disengaged herself from Reverend Wright's grasp and pulled me by my wrist into her bedroom. Marc followed along behind us as if he was physically tethered to me, like the caboose on the tail end of a train.
Once alone in the bedroom with Ginnette and Marc, Sarah's mother began with the simple statement, "I believe you're right."
"You do?" I responded. "Right about what?"
"All this has something to do with Sarah's toy rabbit. But the police don't want to hear about that. They are already disregarding a lot of what I say. I don't know if I'm being dismissed because they are viewing me as 'the distraught mother' or because they are holding to the belief that I may be involved somehow, but I know Velveteen going missing is somewhere at the heart of why my baby was taken. And right now you are the only other person who is holding that same belief. I don't care how much it costs, please find Sarah." she added with her concern and desperation coming through loud and clear.
At that moment I knew there would be no backing out or 'palming' this case off onto the police. The Lord had placed this directly in the middle of my plate and there it would stay until the Almighty said otherwise.
LINK to Next Part # 9 "House of Prayer"
Laura-Lee Was Here Blog "FINALLY FINISHED: Church Lady P.I.
CHURCH LADY P.I.: Introduction
Copyright 2015 "The characters and events in this story are not meant to represent any persons living or dead and are entirely a product of the imagination of the writer." LR
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