Secret Sins: Murder in the Church (4 page)

Tray
laughs hysterically, “You dumb bitch. You need to check the deed. Ray had
Uncle Perry change it to a Deed of Survivorship, and as of last night, this house became
Jean’s!”

The Sirens are deafening, the police bang on the front door. Lashonda runs down the
stairs in tears, and for points to Mother Beulah,
"Aunt Jean is dead!”
Nichelle, Beulah and Tray responsed in perfect harmony, “WHAT?”
The police burst through the door with their weapons drawn and "Freeze!"
Tray, Nichelle, and Lashonda raise their hands. I continue holding my bloody arm,

UP!” I dropped the
bloody handkerchief onto the floor.
Nichelle says, "I'm the wife of Pastor Shawn Graves, and this is my mother!"
Lashonda shouts, “Nobody cares whose wife you are!”
The Officer looks at the blood on the front of Nichelle purple and white blouse and

Lashonda torn out hair on the kitchen floor, Lashonda cries and points directly at Mother
Beulah and Nichelle, “They
broke
in
and
killed
Aunt
Jean!”
Only a brilliant liar can
collapses in fits of blubbing and anguish onto the floor.

Mother Beulah should have listened to Nichelle and allowed her to contact her lawyer,
but now it is
too late. Virginia Breeze enters the house and looks at everything and
everyone around he and in a stern voice, “Cuff them.”

One Officer escorted Mother Beulah and Nichelle outside while another officer walked
out c a r r y i ng Mother Beulah's purse in his hand. He poured the contents on the hood of his
car and a gun fell out along with several credit cards with

the name of Jean Newton on them. People are on the sidewalks in front of their
homes watching.
Mother Beulah cries out as she looks at the gun
and
credit cards, "What's
going
on?" "I've never owned any guns."
The Officer starts reading Mother Beulah and Nichelle their rights as people from
the neighborhood gathered. One of the men yells, "Why are you arresting Mother Beulah
Murdock and Nichelle Graves?"
Lashonda came outside, "She broke into my house."
A man yelled to the police, "I know you don't believe that little tramp!"
Tray puts his arm around Lashonda, and walks her to the Cadillac and unlocks the
door and helps Lashonda into the car. A man yells, "Where do think you’re going in Mother
Beulah's car?"
A crowd gathers around and refuses to allow Tray to back out of the driveway. An
officer walks over to the car and asks, "Whose car is this?"
Tray reaches over, opens the glove compartment, pulls out some papers, and hands
them to the Officer. It is the title and registration and lists the name of Lashonda Newton
on it. Tray goes on to explain that, “Mr. Ray Murdock sold the car to Lashonda because
Aunt Jean never learned to drive, and Beulah Murdock was too old and feeble minded to
drive.”
The Officer looks over the papers, then hands them back to Tray and orders the
crowd, “Back away from the car!”
A van pulls up in front of the Murdock Mansion, and in the middle of the street, and
Police in full riot gear begin jumping out, and a strong male voice announced on a loud
speaker, “Return to your homes!”
Tray backs out of the driveway, and as he drives off the crowd shout profanities at
Lashonda and Tray as they slowly drive past the crowd. One of the men, Stephen Emerson
looks at his thirteen-year-old son,
Mike and
tells
him, "Go into
the
house
and
call
Reverend Graves at the church and let him know what's going on.

His appearance is everything to
him
and being of Middle
Eastern
decent,
many
people think h e i s a foreigner even though he was born in the United States. His name
was Dr. Benjamin Hussein. H e
w a s
less than happy with this black pin stripped suit
with a white shirt with a light blue fat tie, the jacket of the suit sleeves was long at the cuff
and the pants too long at for long for his stature. I will be speaking to my tailor because this
is not my suit.

Dr. Ahmed Bhat is completing his final year residency, and he will be a full Medical
Examiner. Ahmed walks in carrying a stack of printed reports and lays them down on Dr.
Hussein’s desk, “These are the toxicology results for Raymond Murdock,” says Ahmed.

He looked quickly at the results, “This is interesting,” responds Dr. Hussein.
Ahmed, “Macy said you could call her if you had any questions.”
Flipping through the pages, “Ah...I don’t think it’s Macy I need to consult.”
“She told me she contacted Doctor Dana Khan.”
She tried to keep my composure, but without any thought, she snapped at Ahmed,

“She should have consulted me first!”
“That’s my fault. I authorized a
s a m p l e
sent to Dr. Khan’s lab for further analysis.”
Yelling
at Ahmed, “Did
you
even
consider the cost of consulting a Nobel Prize
Winning Botanist?”
Ahmed eyes widened, but he said nothing. I demanded to know, “Well did you!”
“Cost was the last thought on my mind, but rather…” I interrupted Ahmed.
“I don’t want to hear your lame excuses!”
Ahmed puzzled, “Should I prepare the body
for a complete autopsy?”
Dr. Hussein continued to look over the
toxicology reports, “Prepare for an external
autopsy,” says Dr. Hussein as he looked over a release form for Friendly Spirit Mortuary.
“We should open him up just for procedural purposes?” asks Ahmed.
“No need to. I t ’ s obvious the cause of death was drowning, but it seems he was
doomed to die even had he not drowned!”
“But we still should do an autopsy and cover
all our bases,” presses Ahmed.
Dr. Hussein, “I need to contact Detective Breeze!”
“Due to toxicology results, I think there should be a full autopsy completed on the
body,” asserts Ahmed.
In a sarcastic tone, Dr. Hussein stood up and straightened
his
tie and signed the
release forms, “That’s why I’m the Chief Medical Examiner and you’re not!”
Ahmed walks out of Dr. Hussein’s office mumbling, “This is not right.”
Virginia has arrives fully rested and juiced up on caffeine. Ahmed escorts Virginia to
the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.
He could her tapping of her boots before she arrived at his door. He hated female law
enforcement
officers. Ahmed
knocks
before
opening
the
door
and
he and Detective
Breeze entered.
Virginia hates being kept waiting, but I could care less, so I hesitate before looking
up at Detective Breeze, and opening a file labeled Raymond Murdock.,“The
preliminary
results indicate
that
cause
of
death
is
drowning,
but
he was going to die eventually
anyway.”
“What do you mean?” asked Virginia.
“The
general
consensus
is
drowning,
but
he still
would have died from
being
poisoned.”
Virginia asks, “What kind of poison?”
Doctor Hussein s a i d , “I’m still trying to figure that out.”
Virginia interjected, “I would’ve thought the Federal Database would list all known
poisons?”
Gathering his words, “Ordinarily, but this poison is not common or known, but I’m
going to consult Doctor Dana Khan.”
“The name does not sound familiar,” says Virginia as she took a small notepad and pen
from her
pocket, and wrote down the name, Doctor Dana
Khan.
“Doctor Khan is a Botanist at the Saad research facility in in Los Angeles.”
“So you think the poison is organic?”
Dr. Hussein smiles at Virginia’s intelligence, “The plant is of unknown origin?”
“Let me get this straight, I’m looking for a plant of some kind?” inquires Virginia.
“I felt it necessary to get an expert involved, so I contacted Doctor Khan.”
Ahmed glares at Doctor Hussein with complete contempt, and walks out without saying a
word.
I could tell Virginia detected a problem between Ahmed and me, and she said, “What’s
wrong with the good doctor?”
I attempt to laugh it off with a snigger, “He’s not yet a doctor, but he’s well on his way.” I
could tell the way she looked back in Ahmed’s direction that she didn’t believe one word of it.
Virginia asks, “Is this all you know about the plant.”
I thought for a moment before answering her, “It has some abnormal properties and
characteristics. She asked, “The plant would not be native to North
America, and it
would require
special conditions to grow?”
She continued took short-hand notes of my every word, so I handed her a copy of the file
and tell her, “Absolutely, when I know more I will let you know.”
When will the body be released?” asked Virginia.
I stood up to show Detective Breeze to the door, “This afternoon.”
Ahmed heard the sound and her boots as she walked down the hall. Ahmed was about to
follow Virginia, but I called out to him, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Ahmed and Virginia both stopped and looked back
at
me,
and
Ahmed
replies, “To
escort Detective Breeze out.”
I continue watching as Ahmed and Virginia walk to the end of the corridor, then
disappear around the corner.

Dr. Ahmed Bhat and Virginia walk down another long corridor, and she notices, “If I
didn’t know any better, I’d swear we were taking a different way out?”
I answer her, “Sort of?”
“What was that all about in Doctor Hussein office?
As
pleasantly
as
possible, “We
had
a difference
of
opinion
procedure”
“It got a little tense for a moment.”
“I’m sure you’re heard a lot of stories about this place and how things work.”
In her typical straight to the point style, “What are you getting at?”
“I felt that a complete external autopsy should have been completed, but he didn’t.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, and looked dead at me, “What?”
He knew a t onc e tha t he just opened a can of
trouble but, “Normally, with a straight drowning an
external autopsy would not be needed, but
this involved a lethal dose of an
unknown substance an external autopsy
will be done.”
“I can’t believe this,” exclaimed Virginia.
“I contacted Doctor Khan yesterday without Dr. Hussein knowledge and I sent her
a sample yesterday.”
regarding
a
certain
They continue walking down the hall until they come to a large set of double doors,
and Ahmed passes his security card over the square grey pad and the doors open.
Virginia finished my sentence, “When he found out he got angry?”
She looked
botanist,
but she
removed Doctor Khan’s card from my pocket and give it to Detective Breeze. “If you get
her out here, she can do a complete autopsy, but she will have to do it before Ray Murdock
is embalmed.”
I shook her hand, “Good luck Detective Breeze.”
“Thank you Doctor Bhat, and I’ll be in touch.”
She watched through the glass doors as she got
into her car and left. She felt a sense of relief as she walked down the long corridor
passed the close door,
but
the
last
door
I
came
to
was
standing open, and a man
standing there. I looked at the odd- looking man. He seemed a little overdressed for this
type of office, and I knew instantly, “You shouldn’t be in here.”
Nervously, “I’m sorry…I was looking for the office of Doctor Hussein.”
I pointed him in the
direction of Doctor Hussein
office,
and
he
walked
in
the
direction of the Doctor Hussein’s office as I reached to close the door, someone in a skimask grabbed me from behind and shoved me into the office and slammed the door shut.
around
at
all
the
closed
office doors, “Doctor
Khan
is
not
just
a
is
also
in Forensic Pathology.” I reach into my
lab coat pocket and
He reached into his pocket and pulled a gun from the inside of his jacket, and while
he pointed the weapon at me, “Don’t move.” He reaches into his left pocket and pulled a
round circular object out, and begins locking it onto the end of the gun. I ran to the door,
but the door was locked from the outside. I looked around the cold room, and realized
where I was, the locker room where the bodies are kept before pickup, “Who are you?”
The man pulls out one of the drawers and order him to, “Get in.”
“You’re not going to get with this,” I told him as I climbed into the locker.
His only reply, “I already have.”
I demanded, “What do you want?”
I squeeze my eyes close as hard as I can as he
Pointed the gun at my skull, “Your death!”
The mask man squeezes the trigger and Ahmed collapses and dies.
He slammed the door close with Ahmed inside and leaves.

Detective, Virginia Breeze is at her desk looking through the crime scene photos from
Spirit Temple Pentecostal Christian Church. She sits in a closed office cubicle flipping from
one photograph to the next. First is the shot of Ray Murdock floating face down in the
baptismal pool followed another snapshot of Shawn’s office with the door
to
the
safe
hanging by a single hinge. Virginia thought to herself, “
There is something more going on.
”

A hefty man in his mid-fifties with sandy grey hair enters Virginia’s cubicle without
as much as a polite knock at the door, Captain Cornelius West is his name. Each strand of
hair he had left on top of
his head remained fiercely loyal unto the end and stands at
attention awaiting orders from the commander on top of his balding head. He slams the
door behind himself and sits down in the computer chair with wheels on the side of
Virginia’s desk, “What do you think?”