Page 51 of Vows of Murder

“I was just trying to fill my day by visiting the beach. I can’t help it if people interrupt my relaxing.” I rubbed his arm. “Thank you for saving Bill.”

“I’m sorry I had to have him on the list to begin with. Do you know how many calls I got telling me what a good guy he is and conversely what a butt I was for even questioning him?” He held out a bag he’d been hiding behind his back. “Fish and chips, stuffed meatloaf, and a mini cake from Tiny. He called me just before I left the station and asked if we’d eaten. I said no. I hope Iwasn’t wrong.”

“I hadn’t planned anything, so this is amazing. And we can do ten more wedding gifts and thank you cards.” I reached for the bag and stood. “Go get out of your uniform and meet me in the kitchen. I’ll be the newlywed standing by the home-cooked meal she slavedover all day.”

“You’ve been reading too much fiction. It’s starting to seep into your everyday world.” He laughed as I threw a couch pillow at him. He reached down and threw it back. “You know playing with them gets Emma interested again. She hasn’t eaten a pillow in what, six weeks?”

It was more like three, but she had been better. I grabbed the pillow before she could and tucked it on the couch. I shook my finger at her. “No pillows. Come in the kitchen with me.”

When Greg came back into the kitchen, I had dinner all set up, with the food on our fancy china plates. “What do you want to drink? Soda? Tea? Coffee?”

“I’ll just have a glass of water.” He let Emma outside as he walked past the back door. “I called Bill to let him know that Molly came in on her own, and he broke down and cried. I feltlike a bully.”

“You’re doing your job. Good or bad, you have to go where the evidence leads. I’m just glad I took a beach moment. You know, when I first moved here, I promised myself I wouldn’t let my workaholic habits follow me. I don’t think I’ve been very good at fixing that tendency. I was all anxious because I didn’t have school or the wedding planning to keep me busy. I need to take a breath on a daily basis.” I filled a water glass for him and put the kettle on forhot tea for me.

“Well, one other good thing happened today. Vince’s alibi went away with Molly’s confession. I guess she didn’t know he used her as his alibi for Sunday morning. I get to chat with him tomorrow morning. He’s coming in with an attorney.” Greg let Emma inside before sitting down to eat. “And he asked if Mom wasstill in town.”

“What did you say?” I worried that tomorrow’s interview might not be very cordial.

Greg shrugged. “I told him we weren’t talking about her. But that I did have some questions about how Molly got a black eye.”

“He probably won’t show up.” I sat down to eat. I didn’t want the food to get cold.

Greg took a bite of his meatloaf. “If he doesn’t, I might just throw a warrant out there.”

“Do you think he killed Kane?”

He focused on his meal, pausing to respond. “No. I wish I could charge him for that. But I’d love to get him to admit on the record that he hit Mom or Molly. It might keep him from doing itagain, knowing he confessed to doing it once. Sometimes a little fear goes a long way.”

“Speaking of your mom, did they get home yet?” I thought changing the subject might be a smart idea.

“Jim called on my way home. They’d just landed.” He finished off his meatloaf. “It was a good visit with them.”

“It was.” We ate in silence until the teakettle started shrieking, causing Emma to run for her bed. I wasn’t sure why we were so quiet with each other, but maybe he was just trying to keep from talking about the case. I stood and poured the water for my tea. “So you interview Vince tomorrow. Is anything else planned? I’ve got lunch with Amy. ShouldI make dinner?”

He nodded. “Until I get ahold of another suspect and motive, I’ll probably be home early. I’m still waiting for the lawyers to release the full financial records of the church and the Matthewses. They’re being a little less than forthcoming.”

“I think New Hope is going to lose a few parishioners with Kane gone. He was very charismatic.” I thought about the clip they had shownat the funeral.

“You’re saying Roger isn’t?” Greg’s gaze landed on me.

“Not even close. They showed a collage of Kane’s sermons at the funeral before Roger spoke. It was night and day. I watched Maryanne watching the group and making notes.” I realized I still had Beth’s thesis to read. “After lunch tomorrow, I’ll scan what Beth sent me and see if there’s anything youneed to know.”

“Send it to me if there is.” He stood and rinsed his plate. “I’ll go sign those cards and get us another load of gifts to open. Might as well get something done today.”

* * * *

Greg was gone the next morning when I got up for work. Emma and I went to the beach and ran, then I got ready to open the store. My thoughts were on Kane and his effect on the world. Maybe it was something easy. He’d angered the wrong parent or spouse of one of his followers and that had gotten him killed. But why now?From reading the Facebook posts, they’d been angering people since they opened New Hope. There had to be a different reason.

There was a lull after all my commuters left. I opened the laptop we kept at the shop and opened Beth’s thesis. It had chapters, so I went right to the one on New Hope and the Matthews brothers.

Beth had a lot of information about their early lives. For years, their parents had dragged them from town to town setting up tent revivals, until they found the abandoned church in Oregon. When their parents died, they were fostered by a member of the church. Then the church provided scholarships to the missionary college. Kane had never married. Roger and Maryanne married as soon as they graduated. Beth had found the same article about the wedding that I’d found online.

Then, Beth wrote, the rumors started. Kane was a popular minister, but the three kept moving from town to town. Money, women, power. It seemed to be a pattern. But as the three moved, so did many of their parishioners. Finally, when they left Oregon to start over in South Cove, they had over a hundred full-time disciples. And what appeared to be a big war chest. Beth had searched the property records and found the land had been donated to New Hope by the former owner, a widow in her eighties. The church was also named in several will-probate cases.

A whole lot of smoke, but no fire I could pin Kane’s murder to. Had someone gotten tired of Kane’s money-making process? I went back to Facebook to see what Maryanne’s page looked like, but she didn’t have one. New Hope had a Facebook page, but none of the women’s faces were shown in the posts—until last week, when Roger and Maryanne made a joint post. Arms around each other, they smiled into the camera. It was tagged, “A new day at New Hope in honor of our fallen brother.”

Change was afoot. Had thatbeen the plan?

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