The Last Clinic (27 page)

“You think I can’t get it out of her when the time comes?”

He’s impossible
, thought Darla. “She doesn’t appear to be intimidated by you, Detective.”

“You’re saying I should just let her go?”

“You could easily be 0 for 2 Tommy. What I’m saying is, you don’t need to go on television with this one yet.”

“So what am I supposed to tell Josh Klein? Have a Coke and a smile?”

“Better him than Shelby.”

“Fine. So much for my credibility with the media.”

“Another thing. If I go home and discover you’ve ransacked my house, I’ll file a departmental complaint against you, sue you in civil court, and bitch slap you senseless in front of your fellow officers.”

“It was in the line of duty. I was going to have a couple of the boys go back and straighten up anyway.”

“Be a real good idea if you did. And they can go down to Home Depot and get me a new front door while they’re at it and have it installed before I get home tonight. Tell the boys there’s some lemonade in the refrigerator if they get thirsty.”

Kendall stood leaning against the tree stand, her arms crossed.

“Any more questions, Officer Elvis, now that you’ve run off all the wildlife?”

“I think it’s wise if we postpone this little group therapy session until we get back to civilization,” said Darla. “Kendall, you’re going to be bunking down at the people’s motel out in Raymond tonight. I suggest you call a lawyer on the way back.”

“Fine. Only I’m driving back in my own vehicle. I’m not riding in the damned Caddy of his.”

“That’s an official vehicle, and you’ll do as you’re told,” said Tommy.

“Now that I think about it, it’s not a great idea for the two of you to be in the same car for any length of time. You can ride with me. I’ll bring you back for your car when you’re released.”

“That would suit me just fine. He had that ridiculous car back in high school. It was a piece of shit then too.”

Tommy was seated inside the mule, looking at his hair in the rear view mirror. He took a comb out of his vest pocket, re-slicked his pompadour, and pulled a greasy curl so that it fell over his forehead. Darla and Kendall sat in the back seat.

“I just need to get one thing straight,” Tommy said, as he was about to drive off. “If I’m the fox, and Kendall’s the hen, that would make you the farmer. So what’s the grain got to do with any of this?”

“See what I mean?” said Kendall.

26

Who’s Who in Jackson.

Darla sat in her office mulling it over.

Kendall swore she didn’t shoot Reverend Aldridge. Darla believed her. During her interrogation, Kendall had remembered the names of two joggers she’d seen out at the reservoir at the time of the murder. If her story checked out, and Darla figured it would, Kendall would be released by the end of the day.

Kendall was sure it was Bobby. Payback for cuckolding him. Darla didn’t think so, but not because Bobby was a stand-up guy. He wasn’t. It was that Bobby knew he would lose the affection of his children if they found out he was responsible for putting their mother in prison. The price was too high for a revenge scenario. Bobby would never take that chance. Add to that, like all lobbyists, Bobby’s business success was contingent upon his staying under the radar. It was bad business to do anything that would call public attention to himself. What kind of a client or legislator would trust a man who’d send the mother of his children to prison for life?

According to Kendall, Bobby had never said anything to her about the DVD. The only one who mentioned the DVD was Reverend Aldridge. Once Kendall had conceded on the custody issue, Bobby’s lawyer had eased up on her. Darla was thinking maybe she’d rule out Bobby for the moment.

Riding back to Jackson, she asked Kendall, “When you were there, in Reverend Aldridge’s office, talking about your affair, and he told you about the camera, do you remember looking up at the ceiling?”

“I didn’t see it at first. I thought Jimmy was bluffing. But when I looked hard I could make out the lens, just barely.”

“Did you see it move?”

“Well, no. Wait. You think someone was up there, operating the camera?”

Darla didn’t answer her, but it was a possibility. Of course, Reverend Aldridge could have set up the camera himself, turned it on and turned it off after Kendall left. Either way someone other than Reverend Aldridge either participated in the recording, knew about the recording, or discovered the DVD.

Darla’s first thought was Lenore Aldridge. Maybe Lenore had found the DVD going through Reverend Aldridge’s things. But then why didn’t she just hand it over to Tommy in person and be up front about it?

The timing of the turnover was another issue. Was it just a coincidence that the DVD didn’t surface until after Dr. Nicoletti had been cleared? It was as though whoever had the DVD in their possession had waited for the proper time to release it. Like maybe they weren’t going to use it if they didn’t have to.

And finally, was this the only DVD, or were there others?”

Darla called the DA and asked for another warrant.

On her way to pick up the warrant, she ran into Shelby.

“Where you off to?”

“Got an errand to run. Then, I’m going to church.”

“It’s good for the soul.”

“That’s what I hear.”

“Pray for me when you’re there will you? It’s going to take some divine intervention if my political future is going to have a future.”

“Sheriff Mitchell, I pray for you every day.”

A half-hour later, she was in Ralph Higgenstone’s office with a second search warrant, this one allowing her full access to church property. He didn’t have a smile for her this time.

 “Very well. I will serve as your guide,” he said. He pulled a ring of keys out of his desk.

“No Cecil? No keeper of the keys?”

“Cecil has taken a few days off, a vacation with his daughter,” he said without further explanation.

She’d get to Cecil later.

“I’d like to take another look at Reverend Aldridge’s office.”

“This had better not take that long. I’m hosting our Wednesday night catfish dinner. We have over two hundred coming.”

“You and I may have to order in.” As they were leaving the office, she added, “We’ll need a ladder.”

He led her to the janitor’s closet, picked up the ladder, and carried it to Reverend Aldridge’s office. She cut the police tape. Higgenstone had to try three different keys before he found the correct one. He didn’t seem to be faking.        

“Put the ladder over there.” She pointed to the corner of Reverend Aldridge’s office.

She stepped out of her shoes and climbed the ladder until she was close enough to look through the small hole in the far corner of the ceiling. She removed a tiny flashlight from her pocket, shined it into the hole, and peered in.

“Bingo.”

“What do you see, Detective?”

“Skeletons is my guess.”

“Skeletons?”

“A lot of them.”

Ten minutes later, they were back in Higgenstone’s office, both of them behind his desk, staring at the monitor of his PC.

“Usually I’d look at this alone, but I may need your help in identifying some of the people.

Higgenstone looked at her, still confused.

She put in the first of over fifty DVDs she’d found in the room above Reverend Aldridge’s office. The room had also housed a small camera and a mattress on the floor near the tiny opening in the corner.

The room and the camera angle were identical to the DVD of Kendall, and like the Kendall DVD, this DVD had been edited down to a few snippets. It showed a conversation between Reverend Aldridge and a prominent state senator, a married man, choking back tears as he confessed to having sexual relations with a male colleague.

“Okay, I know who that is,” said Darla.

“My, God,” said Higgenstone. “This is horrible. I mean that he was recorded, of course, not that he was a homosexual. But then we don’t approve of that either.”

“I think you’re going to see a lot of things this afternoon you don’t approve of.”

The next DVD featured a middle-aged socialite, who admitted to seducing her daughter’s husband. This was followed by a local bank president, who talked about making illegal payments to a college football player’s parents. Then came a local heart surgeon who was an alcoholic, had performed surgery drunk, and lost his patient.

Most of the people Darla knew. The ones she didn’t, Higgenstone identified for her.

The scenario was basically the same in all fifty-three DVDs. All of them held confessions, not to crimes punishable by imprisonment, but to moral or ethical failings. These transgressions could ruin careers, marriages, and lives if the information became public.

“Just so I’m clear, these are all members of the church?”

“They were part of Reverend Jimmy’s flock.”

“Looks like the shepherd was getting ready to fleece the flock.”

“I had no idea. I swear to God.”

Higgenstone hung his head.

“There were a lot of things going on with your pastor that you didn’t have any idea about, but this isn’t the right time to go into that. For now, you can tell me where I can find Cecil, and don’t give me this crap that he’s on vacation.”

“Neither Cecil nor his daughter Wanda have been at work for the last three days. Cecil hasn’t answered his phone. I stopped by his house this morning, but no one was home. We’re all very worried about them. You believe Cecil had something to do with these…I don’t know…whatever you call them?”

“I’m pretty sure he was the cameraman. Somebody sent a DVD, very much like one of these, to our office trying to implicate a certain person in Reverend Aldridge’s killing. If you weren’t the person who sent it, and I don’t believe you were, then it was probably Cecil. Even if he wasn’t the cameraman, he was the only other person who had access to the room where we found the tapes.”

“You think Cecil was involved in Reverend Jimmy’s death? But why? He adored Reverend Jimmy.”

“What I’m saying is we need to talk to him. If he gets in touch with you, tell him he needs to come down to the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department. Let him know we’re looking for him.”

“And those DVDs. I don’t understand.”

“I’m thinking they’re IOUs—people Reverend Aldridge could turn to if he needed money or a favor. This was his stock portfolio. Reverend Aldridge was a blackmailer.”

“How horrid. I suppose any one of these people would have had motive to kill Reverend Jimmy.”

“I doubt if any of them knew he had recorded them. I’m afraid this is part of something I can’t really speak to you about right now.”

Darla had most of it put together. Unlike with Kendall, these DVDs didn’t show Reverend Aldridge confronting the people he’d taped. With Kendall, he told her about the taping to get a reaction. He had already concluded the blackmail with Kendall and extracted payment, just as he had with Conway, except with Kendall he wasn’t looking for money. It was a favor for an old friend and a political ally. He was planning on using the other DVDs to cash in at some later date. No wonder he told DelNegro at the Hemings Mansion that getting the money wouldn’t be a problem. All Reverend Aldridge had to do when the time came was play a DVD for a church member or two and squeeze the money out of them. This was a wealthy congregation. Every person he taped had plenty.

“Detective, I’ll help you in any way I can,” said Higgenstone. “But the DVDs, what are you going to do with them?”

“Right now they’re part of a criminal investigation. They may be needed as evidence, but I’ll make sure they’re not made public unless absolutely necessary. I’m going to review each one with Sheriff Mitchell and the district attorney to make sure that none of the activities warrant criminal prosecution or might be part of another ongoing investigation. If these are what I think they are—just your standard issue smut—I’ll put the DVDs in a sealed envelope, and when Reverend Jimmy’s case is closed, you and I can roast some marshmallows in the fireplace over there.”

The muscle on Higgenstone’s face relaxed into a smile, but this one looked a lot more heartfelt. He took her hand in both of his and shook it as if he really meant it.

“Forgive me for prying, Detective, but are you saved?”

“I haven’t checked recently, but I kind of doubt it.”

“What I mean is, you have a very good heart, and we would love to have you as part of our congregation. You do believe in Christ?”

“Among others, yes.”

“Others?’

“Buddha, Moses, Muhammad, Krishna. That crowd. My boyfriend and I are, I guess you could call us failed Catholics.”

The comment stopped him. After a few seconds, he said, “Well, you’re always welcome to the Wednesday Catfish Dinner. Detective Tommy sings for us sometimes.”

Not exactly a selling point
, thought Darla.

“Thanks for the invitation. You never know.”

“I guess this just goes to prove we’re all sinners in the eyes of the Lord. That’s what the Bible says.”

“The Hinds County Sheriff’s Department Manual says more or less the same thing.”

She felt her cell vibrating and looked at the screen. It was a text from Uther.

“Found the pattern.”

27

Uther Pendragon Johnson Presents.

The interrogation room felt more like a classroom. Darla, Tommy, and Shelby were seated behind the table, pens and notepads ready. Uther stood across the table from them with a laptop in front of him and a pointer in his hand. He looked at the three of them from left to right, then off into space, and then adjusted his glasses.

“As I am about to show you,” Uther said, sounding a little nervous, “as you will see in this PowerPoint. As I will show you, as my findings will show, the pattern that I had hoped to find, I found it, and it’s well, it’s really quite obvious. The only thing I don’t understand is why did it take me so long to unearth it. This I don’t understand—why it took so long.”