Faithless

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Yes, ma’am,” Jeffrey said into the telephone, rolling his eyes at Lena. She could tell that Barbara, Paul Ward’s secretary, was giving him everything but her social security number. The woman’s ti

“That’s good,” he said . “Yes, ma’am.” He leaned his head against his hand. “Oh, excuse me- excuse-” he tried, then, “I’ve got another call. Thank you.” He hung up, Barbara’s cackling coming out of the earpiece even as he dropped the receiver back on the hook.

“Jesus Christ,” he said, rubbing his ear. “Literally.”

“She try to save your soul?”

“Let’s just say she’s really happy to be involved with the church.”

“So, she’d say anything she could to cover for Paul?”

“Probably,” he agreed, sitting back in his chair. He looked down at his notes, which consisted of three words. “She confirms what Paul said about being in Sava

Lena knew that pinpointing time of death wasn’t an exact science. “All night?”

“That’s a point,” he allowed. “She also said Abby came by with some papers a couple of days before she went missing.”

“Did she seem okay?”

“Said she was a little ray of sunshine, as usual. Paul signed some papers, they went to lunch and he took her back to the bus station.”

“They could’ve had some kind of altercation during lunch.”

“True,” he agreed. “But why would he kill his niece?”

“It could be his baby she was carrying,” Lena suggested. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Jeffrey rubbed his jaw. “Yeah,” he admitted, and she could tell the thought left a bad taste in his mouth. “But Cole Co

“Are you sure Cole didn’t poison her?

“As close to sure as I can be,” he told her. “Maybe we need to separate out the two, forget worrying about who killed Abby. Who killed Cole? Who would want him dead?”

Lena wasn’t entirely convinced of Co

She suggested, “Maybe somebody who knew Cole had poisoned Abby decided to get revenge, wanted him to suffer the same way Abby had.”

“I didn’t tell anyone in the family that she was poisoned until after Cole was dead,” he reminded her. “On the other hand, whoever did it knew he drank coffee every morning. He told me the sisters were always on him, trying to get him to quit.”

Lena took it a step further. “Rebecca might know, too.”

Jeffrey nodded. “There’s a reason she’s staying away.” He added, “At least I hope she’s choosing to stay away.”

Lena had been thinking this same thing. “You’re sure Cole didn’t put her somewhere? To punish her for something?”

“I know you think I shouldn’t take him at his word,” Jeffrey began, “but I don’t think he took her. People like Cole know who to choose.” He leaned across his desk, hands clasped in front of him, as if he was saying something vital to the case. “They pick the ones they know won’t talk. It’s the same way with Dale picking Terri. These guys know who they can push around- who will shut up and take it and who won’t.”

Lena felt her cheeks burning. “Rebecca seemed pretty defiant. We only saw her that once, but I got the feeling she didn’t let anybody push her around.” She shrugged. “The thing is, you never know, do you?”

“No,” he said, giving her a careful look. “For all we know, Rebecca’s the one behind all of this.”

Frank stood in the doorway with a stack of papers in his hand. He said something neither one of them had considered. “Poisoning is a woman’s crime.”

“Rebecca was scared when she talked to us,” Lena said. “She didn’t want her family to know. Then again, maybe she didn’t want them to know because she was playing us.”

Jeffrey asked, “Did she seem like the type?”

“No,” she admitted. “Lev and Paul, maybe. Rachel’s pretty sturdy, too.”

Frank said, “What’s the brother doing living in Sava

“It’s a port city,” Jeffrey reminded him. “Lots of trade still goes on down there.” He indicated the papers in Frank’s hand. “What’ve you got?”

“The rest of the credit reports,” he said, handing them over.

“Anything jump out at you?”

Frank shook his head as Marla’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Chief, Sara’s on line three.”

Jeffrey picked up the phone. “Hey.”

Lena made to leave in order to give him some privacy, but Jeffrey waved her back down in her chair. He took out his pen, saying into the phone, “Spell that,” as he wrote. Then, “Okay. Next.”

Lena read upside down as he wrote a series of names, all men.

“This is good,” Jeffrey told Sara. “I’ll call you later.” He hung up the telephone, not even pausing for a breath before saying, “Sara’s at Brock’s. She says that nine people have died on the farm in the last two years.”

“Nine?” Lena was sure she’d heard wrong.

“Brock got four of the bodies. Richard Cable got the rest.”

Lena knew Cable ran one of the funeral homes in Catoogah County. She asked, “What was the cause of death?”

Jeffrey ripped the sheet of paper off his pad. “Alcohol poisoning, drug overdoses. One had a heart attack. Jim Ellers over in Catoogah did the autopsies. He ruled them all natural causes.”

Lena was skeptical, not of what Jeffrey was saying, but of Ellers’s competence. “He said nine people in two years, living on the same place, died from natural causes?”

Jeffrey said, “Cole Co

“You think he helped them along?” Frank asked.

“That’s what he did with Chip,” Jeffrey said. “Cole told me that himself. Said he was tempting him with the apple, something like that.”

“So,” Lena surmised, “Cole was picking out the ‘weak’ ones, dangling drugs or whatever in front of their faces, seeing if they would take them and prove him right.”

“And the ones who took them ended up going to their maker,” Jeffrey said, but she could tell from his crocodile smile he had more.

She asked, “What?”

He told her, “The Church for the Greater Good paid for all the cremations.”

“Cremations,” Frank repeated. “So, we can’t exhume the bodies.”

Lena knew there was more to it than that. She asked, “What am I missing?”

Jeffrey told them, “Paul Ward got all their death certificates.”

Stupidly, Lena began, “Why would he need-” but answered her own question before she finished. “Life insurance.”

“Bingo,” Jeffrey said, handing Frank the paper with the names. “Get Hemming and go through the phone book. Do we have one for Sava

Lena asked, “Will they give out that information over the phone?”

“They will if they think they’ve been cheated out of some dough,” Frank said. “I’ll get right on it.”

As Frank left the room, Jeffrey pointed his finger at Lena. “I knew this had to be about money. It had to be about something concrete.”

She had to admit, “You were right.”

“We found our general,” he told her. “Cole said he was just an old soldier, but he needed a general to tell him what to do.”

“Abby was in Sava

“How?” Jeffrey asked.

“Her mother said she worked in the office for a while. That she was good with numbers.”

“Lev saw her in the office once at the photocopier. Maybe she saw something she wasn’t meant to.” He paused, mulling over the possibilities. “Rachel said Abby went to Sava