White Cloud Retreat (7 page)

DEIDRE

“Roxie, I need to get those mini ham
and egg muffins prepared and in the oven. The Bible study group will be here in
about forty-five minutes and they requested that I make that particular recipe
for them. They told me it’s their favorite. That’s the least I can do when they
come here every week. Keep the large table by the window open. That’s where
they like to sit.”

“Will do. By the way, just
an FYI. You know I take a photography class on Thursday nights.”

“Yes, I remember you
telling me about it. I love the photos you’ve given me of the plants and
flowers that are native to this area and the ocean shots. They’re beautiful. I
know you made them into postcards for me, but I’ve actually framed a couple
instead and have them in my office at home.”

“What a compliment! What I
was going to tell you is there’s a woman in my class who’s pretty weird, but I
have to say she’s a real beauty. Her name is Deidre Nelson. I’ve never seen a
natural hair color like hers. It’s the most beautiful shade of deep red and she
has just a smattering of freckles. Anyway, she spends most of her free time out
at the Center and at every class she always talked about Scott and how
wonderful he was and how spiritual he was and even how attractive he was.
Actually, she looks young enough to have been his daughter, but what I wanted
to tell you is that she’s here at the coffee shop right now. Looks like she’s
been crying for days. That beautiful face doesn’t look so beautiful now, she’s
so red and splotchy. I know you’re interested in what’s going on out at the
Center, so I thought you might want to know.”

“Thanks, Roxie. If she was
that attached to Scott I don’t think it’s unusual at all that she’d be grieving
and by the way, you never said why you think she’s weird.”

“Before she became so
involved in the Center, she was thinking of becoming a professional
photographer. Last I heard she’s still debating whether to do that or go live
at the Center and get involved in their residential program, but what threw me
one day was when she told me she spent hours photographing her feet. I think
that’s pretty weird, although the last few months she hasn’t mentioned anything
about her feet, she just talked about Scott. And the way she talked about him
wasn’t in a very spiritual manner, if you get the drift of what I’m saying.
Let’s face it, Scott was an attractive man and she was well aware of it. From
what she said, I guess she thought Scott had a crush on her.”

“Well, that’s interesting,
but I think she misread Scott and I think you’ve gotten the wrong impression as
well. Scott claimed he was celibate and from everything I know about him, he
held to that.”

“Just sayin’, Kelly, just
sayin’. Just because someone says they’re doin’ or not doin’ something doesn’t
necessarily make it so.”

Roxie’s got to be wrong
and that young woman was probably misinterpreting Scott’s interest in her,
Kelly thought as
she prepared the savory muffins.
I’ll put them in the oven when the church
group arrives. I’ve got a little time before they get here. Think I’ll go out
and talk to that young woman.

She walked out of the
kitchen and couldn’t miss the young woman with the mass of red hair seated in
the corner who was dressed in a green sweater, black leggings, and black boots.
A dark green wool coat that matched her eyes was lying in the booth beside her.

She walked over to the young
woman and said, “Hi, I’m Kelly, the owner. I don’t think I’ve seen you in here
before and I wanted to personally welcome you.”

“Thanks. My name’s Deidre
Nelson. I heard you were the one who discovered Zen Master Scott after he was
murdered. Is that true?”

“Yes. Mind if I sit down?
I take it you know him. Did you study with him?”

“Sure, have a seat. Yes,
I’ve been taking classes from him since he opened the Center. I don’t know
what…” She started sobbing, trying to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Kelly
went behind the counter and got a box of tissues for her. “I’m sorry. I just
don’t know what I’m going to do without him.”

“It’s very hard when we
lose a beloved teacher. I remember years ago when a priest in our church passed
away. The congregants were devastated.”

Deidre shook her head from
side to side. “You don’t understand. Scott was so much more to me than a
teacher.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Nothing. I’m
just going to miss my teacher. No one can take his place.”

“I’m sure it feels like
that now, but in time, another teacher will take his place. It sounds so trite,
but time does heal things. My husband died when he was very young and I was
left alone to raise two small children. At the time, I didn’t want to live.
Funny, but this coffee shop saved me and gave me a reason to get up in the
morning. And believe me, with time it got easier.”

“I’m having a very hard
time realizing he really is dead. In a minute, my world changed. I had to work
later than usual that day and didn’t get to the yoga class on time. Actually, I
was very late, but I wanted to do the walking meditation that Scott had
mentioned the week before. I got to the Center just as the class was walking
into the forest. I’d done walking meditations before, so I followed them. I
often lose track of time, space, and events when I’m meditating, so I set a
buzzer on my watch to go off in fifteen minutes. When it rang I went back to
the Center expecting to see Scott and the rest of the class. Several of the
others said Scott had been murdered. I ran to the path he always uses when he
does a walking meditation and saw him on the ground. The sheriff interviewed
all of us and was very kind and friendly to me. I still can’t believe it. Maybe
it wouldn’t have happened if Scott hadn’t gone into the forest.”

“Well, that’s something
we’ll never know. I was also participating in the walking meditation when he
was killed and I remember seeing a woman with red hair pass by me. It must have
been you. I’d like to stay and talk to you, but a group just came in that made
a special order request and I need to make sure it gets in the oven.”

“Thanks, Kelly. I have to
get back to work anyway. I work at the photography shop here in town and help
Phil with developing customer’s photos and all that stuff. Oh, one other
thing,” she said, looking down as she picked up her coat. “Someone told me you
and the sheriff were engaged. Is that true?”

“Yes. We’re getting
married in a couple of weeks. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. Just curious.
He’s a very handsome older man and you’re quite lucky to have him. Well,
anyway, congratulations.” She stood up, stuffing a couple of the tissues in the
pocket of her coat. She walked over to the cash register to pay for lunch and
left.

A few minutes later Roxie
said, “Kelly, Deidre left her wallet on the counter next to the cash register
after she paid for lunch. What do you want me to do with it? I’d return it to
her, but I won’t see her until Thursday and she may need it before then. Plus,
she probably won’t even be in class Thursday since Scott’s service is that
afternoon. I suppose I could drop it by her apartment after work. I just looked
and her address is in her wallet.”

“Where does she live?”

“She’s in that apartment
building near city hall, the one with the brick front and white shutters.”

“I know the one. I’ll drop
it by later this afternoon when I’m running some errands. I need to stock up at
the bakery and the market. It’s been so busy today that I’ve run out of a
number of things. Do you know her apartment number?”

“Yes. Here, I’ll write it
down for you. That way you won’t have to rifle through her wallet. I told you
she was weird and she may not like you doing that.”

“You’re absolutely right,
thanks. I’ll put her wallet in the storeroom for now.”

“Hello, ladies, it’s good to see all
of you again. I’ve made the savory muffins you asked for. They’re in the oven
and they’ll be ready in about five minutes. What else can I get for you today?”
Kelly asked the six ladies who had come from their weekly Bible study class at
the church a block away, just as they did every Tuesday. She took their orders
and went into the kitchen to get the muffins.

“Well, I don’t care what
you think,” she overheard Ellie, a large lady with tightly permed blue-grey
curls and wearing a black dress, say as she brought the orders over to their
table. “It’s a good thing he’s dead. We lost a lot of the young people from our
church to that smooth-talking non-believer. It may be okay to be a Buddhist in
Japan or somewhere over in Asia, but it’s not right for our residents here in
Cedar Bay. We’re Christians and we don’t need the likes of him around these
parts. Me and a lot of others have hated him for a long time for what he’s done
to our church.”

Kelly purposefully took
her time as she served the muffins and main entrees to each of them, listening
to the conversation taking place at the table.

“Ellie, I met him and I
thought he was a good man. Not everyone believes in what we believe in and who
are we to say what’s right and what’s wrong? He provided a place for people to
go who would never come to our church.”

“My husband and I know
it’s wrong. Jim had to go out there one time to fix some problem they were
having with their electrical power. He said it was an unholy sight, people
sitting in a room with incense burning, and a statue of Buddha placed at the
front of the room. He told me it sounded like they were chanting something, but
he couldn’t understand what they were saying. Jim said it sounded like
gibberish in some kind of a strange language. He told me he wished God would
take Scott Monroe and if he didn’t, someone else should. Looks like Jim’s wish
came true.”

She put her head down,
picked up her fork in her plump little hand, and began shoving mashed potatoes
and gravy into her mouth. She didn’t see two of the other women at the table
raise their eyebrows and exchange knowing glances.

“You can’t be serious,
Ellie. Are you really saying you’re glad someone was murdered?” one of the
other women asked.

“I sure am. We Christians
should make sure that weird religions aren’t allowed in our city or anywhere
else around these parts. There’s only one true religion, Christianity, and
anyone who believes anything else shouldn’t be allowed to come into our
community. I’m glad he was murdered. I’d like to shake the hand of the man or
woman who did it and thank them.”

Kelly couldn’t help
herself. “Scott Monroe was a good friend of mine and one of the finest men I’ve
ever known. I know of many people he counseled and helped. No, it’s not a
Christian center, but that doesn’t mean anything. After all, most of the world
isn’t Christian. He provided an alternate place for people to go who wanted to
pursue their own spirituality. I think our community is going to genuinely miss
him.”

“Well, you’re entitled to
your opinion, dearie, but mark my words, we true Christians are glad he’s gone.
Take my husband, Jim, for instance. He’s one of the purest men of God I know
and he told me after he’d gone out to that Center, he’d like to see Scott
Monroe dead sooner rather than later.”

“I guess each of us is
entitled to our opinion, but let me change the subject. I’ve got ricotta cake
or peanut butter cookies for dessert. May I interest anyone in either of them?”

Mae, who acted as the
treasurer of the group, said, “Kelly, why don’t you bring us a large plate of
the cookies and a piece of cake for each of us?”

That woman and her husband
have got to be certifiable nut cases. I can’t believe anyone who calls themself
a Christian would be happy that someone was murdered. It’s unbelievable. I’d
hate to think she or her husband was responsible for Scott’s death, but
differences in religion over time have accounted for an awful lot of wars in
the world. Wow. This is something else I better tell Mike.

Darn. I haven’t been to the bank in
two days,
Kelly
thought
. They don’t close until 5:00 today, so I still have time to make a
deposit. I remember when that drifter came in here a couple of years ago and
robbed me. Don’t want that to happen again. Fortunately he didn’t get much, but
with all the customers we’ve had in here the last two days, if it happened now
it would cause some real financial damage to me.

She filled out a deposit
slip and put it in a cloth bank deposit bag. Five minutes later she opened the
door of the First Federal Bank and walked over to the teller, her friend Patti.
“Hi, Patti. How was your vacation?” Every time she saw Patti she wanted to tell
her that wearing her hair in the Farrah Fawcett long blond curled locks look
had gone out of style over twenty years ago. Patti looked like she was in a
time warp and not a very attractive time warp. The style may have been popular
at one time, but now it looked ridiculous on her.

“Great. Over the kids’
school break, I took them to San Francisco, and we toured the town. I’d
forgotten how many things there are to do in that city and I think we did them
all – Chinatown, cable car rides, the street performers, seafood on the pier.
It was really fun, but when I came back I was shocked to hear that Scott Monroe
had been murdered. He was one of my favorite people. I took a lot of classes
from him, including a meditation class for stress relief. I’ll probably think
of him every time I sit down to meditate.”

“I couldn’t agree more. I
can’t figure out why anyone would kill him. Scott was a genuinely fine man.”

“He was in here several
times in the last couple of weeks. One time he was making a deposit and a
beautiful young redhead woman ran into the bank and rushed over to him. I seem
to remember her from some of the classes I took out at the White Cloud Retreat
Center. Anyway, he shushed her and told her he’d talk to her later. I remember
him saying something like, ‘This has got to stop. Please don’t follow me or
take any more pictures. You can come to my classes, but that’s it.’ I thought
that was kind of strange. I almost had the feeling she’d been waiting for him,
you know, kind of like she might be a stalker. I’ve seen a couple of movies
lately about women who stalk men and for some reason, that’s the first thought
that came to my mind. Something else that occurred to me when I heard about
Scott’s death was wondering if this woman would find some other man to stalk. I
know that sounds farfetched, but she was really intense. Obviously, she made
quite an impression on me.”

“I think I know the woman
you’re talking about,” Kelly said. “If it’s the one I’m thinking of, she was in
the coffee shop today and she was really broken up about Scott’s death. Did
Scott come in here a lot to do his banking? I would have thought someone at the
Center would take care of the business end of things so Scott would have more
time to teach and pursue his spiritual interests. I know he wasn’t particularly
interested in the day-to-day operations of the business.”

“It struck me as kind of
funny, too. Usually all the banking is done by the business operations director
of the Center, John Williams. He’s been coming here a couple of times a week
ever since the Center opened and still does. No, when Scott was here recently
it seemed like it was different. He was concerned about some checks that had
been drawn on the Center’s bank account by his brother, Luke. When Luke started
working at the Center, Scott brought him in one day and put him on the account.
It was almost as if Scott thought Luke was paying for things that Scott didn’t
know anything about. I could be wrong, but that was certainly my impression.”

“Interesting. Well, I
suppose since Scott didn’t like being involved in the business operations of
the Center, he probably didn’t know everything that was being paid for out of
the Center’s bank account. Well, I’ve got a few more errands to do before I can
call it a day. Glad your vacation was such a success. See you later, Patti.”

Lady jumped in the back
seat as soon as she saw Kelly walking up to the minivan. Kelly stopped at the
market and then the bakery, both of which were far busier than usual. Because
she was running late, she knew Mike would begin to worry about her. She took
her phone out of her purse after she’d parked in front of Deidre’s apartment
building and called him.

“Mike, I know I’m running
a little late, but I have one more stop to make and then I’ll be home. I should
be there within thirty minutes or so. Loves,” she said in a voicemail message
she left on his phone, thinking that he must be running late as well.

When she finished leaving
the message, she took the slip of paper with Deidre’s address and apartment
number on it as well as her wallet from her purse and walked up the steps of
the old brick building across from city hall that had recently been converted
into an apartment building. There were three floors in it and Deidre lived on
the top floor in unit 305.

Kelly walked down the long
hall to her apartment. Even though the door was slightly ajar, she didn’t feel
comfortable walking in. She knocked on the door. When Deidre didn’t answer the
knock after a minute or so, she pressed the buzzer located on the wall next to
the door and said, “Deidre” in a loud clear voice. A few minutes later when
Deidre still hadn’t come to the door, Kelly stepped into the living room and
stood there in total shock. She looked around in disbelief. Every inch of wall
space in the small apartment was covered with pictures of Scott and some were
even full life-size blow-ups of him. Strangely, there were also pictures of
feet, presumably Deidre’s, but some looked like men’s feet. She remembered what
Roxie had told her about Deidre photographing her feet.

This has to be the
weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. I think Patti was right. Deidre must have been
stalking Scott, but why? And who takes photos of feet and hangs them up on the
wall?

She smelled incense and
noticed what appeared to be a small improvised altar set up in the corner of
the room.

How could I have missed
that? I must have been so preoccupied with the photographs I never even saw the
altar. Good grief. Deidre must have just stepped out for a moment, because the
incense is burning and so are the candles. There must be twenty-five photos of
Scott on that altar along with fruit, flowers, and candles. From what I’ve read
about Buddhism, I guess this is an altar to honor his death. How totally and
completely strange all of this is.

She took her phone out of
her purse and snapped several pictures, knowing Mike would never believe what
she had seen in Deidre’s apartment unless she showed him some photos. She put
the phone back in her purse and rummaged around until she found a business
card. She wrote a note to Deidre telling her she’d stopped by to return the
wallet that Deidre had left at the coffee shop. As she turned to leave, she
looked around the room one more time, still not believing what she was seeing.

Deidre has got to have
some kind of a major psychological problem. This is definitely not normal.
Scott was old enough to be her father and this obsession with him doesn’t look
like it’s a very healthy obsession. And why pictures of feet? Maybe I can find
something out about her on the Internet, although I doubt it would explain her
fascination with feet. I better get out of here before she comes back. I really
don’t want to be in this room alone with her.

She returned to her
minivan and locked the doors as soon as she got in. “Lady, time to go home. I
need to take a long hot shower. I want to get rid of the smell of incense and
the memory of that room. It creeps me out to even think about it.”