Song of Praise Page 5

  “This is not your fault, RaShawn and I’m going to help you prove it.”

  RaShawn didn’t respond, he just kept staring at Linden.

  Britney moved him over to the sofa and nudged him to sit down. “You wait here for the police, I’m going to go around back to see if there’s a trail or something back there.” If someone had been in the house, Britney doubted that they left through the front door. If she could find a footprint or something the killer left behind, that might be enough to get the investigation headed in the right direction.

  He grabbed her arm. “Be careful. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.”

  “I’m an investigator, RaShawn. I know how to handle myself. I’ll be right back.”

  She walked off and RaShawn was so afraid for her that he started to get up and go after her.

  “Bishop, are you in here?”

  RaShawn heard Detective Harris calling out to him. He hollered back, “I’m in here.” It was still daylight outside, so he figured Britney would be safe out back for a few minutes.

  Jarod Harris stepped into the room, took one look at the body on the floor and called for the coroner. He then he chided RaShawn about entering another crime scene.

  “I know, I know.” RaShawn waved the detective’s comments off. “But I wouldn’t even be here if the police detail you promised was still here.”

  The moment he said that another police officer stormed into the room. He took one look at Linden’s lifeless body and shook his head. “I knew I shouldn’t have listened to that mean old goat.”

  “Are you the officer who was supposed to be watching out for Linden?” RaShawn demanded.

  “Look, Bishop, I know you’re upset. But you can save the righteous indignation, because the fact is, Linden told me that he had proof that you’re the one killing these preachers. And wonder of all wonders, you show up at another crime scene.”

  “Okay, Carter, that’s enough,” Detective Harris said.

  Carter swung around to face off with Harris. “No, it’s not enough.” Pointing toward RaShawn he said, “Our victim as much as implicated this man in his murder and within an hour he’s dead. Now if you don’t haul the bishop down to the station house, I’ll call the chief and get the clearance to do it myself.”

  “You want to haul me in because you didn’t do your job in the first place. That’s ludicrous.” RaShawn couldn’t believe what he was hearing. But he was beginning to realize that he wouldn’t be able to count on the police to solve this case, not if they were going to use him as a scapegoat.

  “You know as well as I do that killers like coming back to the scene of the crime… they even get some sick thrill out of inserting themselves into the investigation. So, are you going to hook him up or should I?” Carter asked while holding his handcuffs.

  Rolling his eyes heavenward, Harris turned to RaShawn with an apologetic look on his face. “I think you do need to come down to the station, Bishop.” Harris then turned to his fellow officer. “The coroner and another investigation team are on the way, stay here until they arrive. Do you think you can do that?” The sarcasm was evident in Harris’ voice.

  “I got this covered. You just take your friend to the station, before we let our only suspect get away.”

  The tension between the two officers was palpable. RaShawn felt as though he was caught in the middle of whatever these two had against each other. Neither man was thinking logically at the moment, so RaShawn said, “Not a problem. I’ll meet you at the station.”

  “No dice, Bishop,” Carter said, still holding the handcuffs. “We wouldn’t trust any other suspect that we found hovering over a dead body to meet us at the station, so you’re either going in the back of my car or Harris’… take your pick.”

  “He’s right, Bishop. I need to ask you to ride with me.”

  “Am I under arrest?”

  Detective Harris shook his head. “Not as of now. But you will need to clear some things up before we can rule you out as a suspect.”

  RaShawn wished he had taken Detective Harris’ advice and stayed away from the crime scenes, but he had been drawn to them like a moth to a flame. “Do you have to cuff me?”

  “No. That won’t be necessary. Let’s just go.” Harris took hold of RaShawn’s arm and walked him out of the house towards his car.

  When RaShawn saw Britney coming back around to the front of the house, he hurriedly told the detective, “She came here with me. She was checking out back to see if there were any tracks.”

  “Great, now I’ve got another person meddling in my crime scene. Do I need to round up all your friends too?”

  “No, you’re right. I shouldn’t have brought her with me.”

  Harris stared at Britney a moment and then said, “Don’t I know you? Weren’t you just in my office asking questions about Pastor Hartman?”

  Britney nodded. “Tony was my uncle.”

  RaShawn handed her his keys. “Take my SUV and give Raven a call. Tell her to alert the family that they might hear some craziness on the news, but not to worry.”

  “Wait, I don’t understand. Where are you taking him?” Britney asked the detective.

  “We’re going to the precinct and unless you want to go too, I suggest you do just as the bishop suggested.”

  Britney backed up, but as she made her way to RaShawn’s car she promised him, “I’ll take care of this. You will be out of there soon.” She jumped in the Range Rover and headed to the one and only place she could turn.

  Chapter Eight

  “What do you mean, RaShawn has been arrested?” Ramsey yelled into the phone.

  “Calm down, Daddy,” Raven said. “He hasn’t actually been arrested, more like detained. But Marcus and I are on our way to Washington to find out what’s going on. I’ll let you know more once we get there.”

  “I guess you forgot that we’re retired. You don’t have to tell me nothing but where to meet up, because Carmella and I will be on the road in a matter of minutes.”

  “Okay, Dad, I’ll call back and let you know if we were able to get RaShawn out of the police station.”

  “You do that,” Ramsey said before hanging up. He then went into the back yard where his wife was working with the landscapers on making their back yard like one of those Yard Chaser yards. He hated taking her away from something that she was enjoying so much, but they didn’t have time to waste.

  “Hey, honey, I’m glad you came out here. We’re trying to decide whether or not to cut down the trees on the left side of the yard.”

  Ramsey shook the landscaper’s hand and said, “I’m sorry to have to do this, but something has come up and we need to reschedule.”

  The landscaper suggested, “We’re making progress, if you can give us just a few more minutes, I’ll be out of your way and then I can get started that much sooner.”

  Carmella didn’t even entertain the thought of asking her husband to wait. She knew Ramsey well enough to know that he wouldn’t just throw a monkey wrench in the middle of her plans unless something was very wrong. “We’ll get back to you. I’ll give you a call and schedule another time that’s more convenient.” She then walked back into the house with Ramsey. She squeezed his hand while asking, “What was that about?”

  “Thanks for trusting my judgment, babe.”

  “Of course, now tell me what’s going on.” Carmella searched his eyes as if trying to read his mind.

  “It’s RaShawn. The police have detained him. They think he has something to do with those murders.”

  “Oh, it’s time to go to war,” Carmella declared.

  “Exactly what I was thinking. Let’s grab a few things and head on to Washington so we can figure this thing out.”

  “Just wait one minute, mister. I don’t know what kind of battle you think you’re going to fight without praying first, but I can guarantee it’ll be a losing one. So, I’m not leaving this house until we take this matter to God.”

  Ramsey bent
down and kissed his wife. “I thank God every day for sending you to me, Mrs. Carmella Marshall-Thomas.”

  They held hands and went to war.

  ***

  Britney had not been inside her mother’s house in over five years. There were too many bad memories… too many unresolved issues. But she couldn’t think about that now. RaShawn needed the kind of pull her mother could provide, and Britney was going to make sure that her mother put the full weight of her judgeship behind RaShawn.

  “Well, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” Judge Hartman asked as her daughter walked into her library.

  “I don’t want to be in this house any longer than necessary so I’m not going to beat around the bush. Bishop Thomas is in police custody and I need you to help those dunderheads see reason and release him.”

  “Has he been arrested? On what charge?” Judge Hartman seemed intrigued as she gleefully rubbed her hands together.

  Plopping down on the recliner in front of the massive bookshelves, Britney sighed heavily. “I don’t know why you hate Bishop Thomas so much. The man saved my life. I would think you’d thank him for that.”

  “Don’t give me this Bishop Thomas stuff. You’re in love with him. Lord only knows what the two of you do on these so-called appreciation dinners you come to town every month for.”

  “You know about that?” How she ever thought she could keep anything from her mother was… “How long have you known?”

  “Calm down. I’m not going to tell anyone about your little affair with our hypocritical bishop.”

  “I’m not having an affair with RaShawn. And he is far from a hypocrite. I realize that you’ve spent your life with one horrible man after the next, but that doesn't mean that every man has evil intentions.”

  Judge Hartman visibly jerked as though being slapped by the insult. Quickly recovering she said, “Say what you want of me, but we both know who’s responsible for your uncle’s death.”

  Sighing deeply, Britney said, “You’re awfully unforgiving for a woman who claims to love God.”

  “I’m a judge, Britney, I don’t deal in forgiveness. I’ve been trained to interpret situations lawfully.”

  Why had she come here? Her mother was the meanest so-called Christian she’d ever known. To think that she would help RaShawn simply because her only child asked her to, was just not going to happen. But Britney knew how to make her mother do what she wanted. She’d never lowered herself to blackmail before, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Leaning back in the recliner, Britney began speaking in an offhanded way, like what she was saying was of no consequence. “You know what I’ve been thinking about lately?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” Judge Hartman rolled her eyes, already bored with the conversation.

  “I’ve been thinking about bearing my soul to this reporter who keeps calling asking for my story. He told me that he knows that I was pregnant by the senator and wants me to corroborate the story before he prints it.”

  The judge sat up, her hands clenched the edge of the desk.

  “But I don’t think the reporter should only write half of my story. So I was thinking about telling him about this house of horrors. Maybe unburden my soul by telling him how you let your perv of a husband rape me until Uncle Tony put a stop to it.” Putting the recliner back in the upright position, Britney turned to her mother and asked, “I think that’s a story that should be told, don’t you?”

  “I am sick to death of hearing about your precious Uncle Tony.” When she said the word “uncle” her fingers made quotation marks in the air.

  “Why do you do that whenever you get mad?” Britney imitated the quotation marks that her mother had just made concerning her uncle.

  “Are we done with this conversation?” Judge Hartman asked.

  “I guess we are. I have to catch up with that reporter anyway.”

  Shooting daggers at her daughter, Judge Hartman picked up the phone and dialed the chief of police. When he got on the phone, her voice didn’t display any of the venom she was sending Britney’s way. “Gilbert, how are you? I hear that congratulations are in order on that new grandbaby… You’ll be receiving a big pink teddy bear for that precious baby girl… Look, I don’t want to keep you. But for some reason your detectives have detained Bishop RaShawn Thomas and I’ve got to tell you, they have the wrong man. When the press gets wind of how your cops are wasting time on a dead end while a lunatic roams the streets free to kill again, I don’t think this is going to look good for you… I think you’re making the right decision. I would have released him too. Well, talk to you soon.”

  Britney stood as her mother hung up the phone. Judge Hartman told her, “Don’t just stand there. You can at least thank me.”

  Instead of doing as her mother suggested, Britney strolled to the door. But just before leaving the room, she turned and said, “Oh, and just so you know… I won’t be helping with anymore campaigns. I don’t even want you to mention my name. Or like I said before, I just may get the itch to bear my soul.”

  ***

  “You and I have been sitting in this room for hours and lives are at stake. Tell me what you want so that I can get out of here and figure out a way to keep Marson and Williams alive.”

  “I don’t think they want you anywhere near them,” Detective Harris said.

  “So what do you think happened here… what was my motive for killing these men?”

  “Maybe you detest sin…”

  “I do.”

  Harris continued, “…so much that you can’t stand the fact that preachers would be wretched sinners themselves.”

  “My Bible tells me that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Detective.”

  Harris stood up and walked around the small room with his arms folded around his chest. “I read the Good Book too, Bishop. And do you know what has bothered me about you during this investigation?”

  RaShawn looked up, following the detective’s movements as he waited for him to continue. “In the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, verse 3 says: The Lord has appeared of old to me saying, ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt.’”

  “The thing is,” Harris added as he sat back down with RaShawn, “I didn’t see much love, kindness or rebuilding in what you did to those pastors. It seems as if you became bishop one day and then threw those pastors out of ministries they spent years building the next. So, if you could be that heartless, why do you find it so hard to believe that some of the officers in this building have pegged you for a killer?”

  Had he been heartless? RaShawn hadn’t seen it that way. He had been called to be God’s battle axe. With that kind of calling, didn’t it stand to reason that heads would roll? But never in a million years had RaShawn ever thought that following such a mandate from God would lead to this kind of destruction.

  With death and destruction all around him, RaShawn had no defense for himself. Maybe he had been over zealous… maybe being God’s battle axe didn’t require him to chop down the tree just to get to the fruit. It was now clear to him that he owed Marson and Williams an apology for the way he’d handled things. So, yeah, he might be guilty of not dealing with the preachers in his fellowship with grace and loving kindness, but that was it. He looked Detective Harris in the eye and said, “I did not kill those men.”

  Getting comfortable in his seat, Harris told him, “I’m not your problem, Bishop. You see, I kind of believe that you’re innocent of murder. But you’ve got to give me something to convince my boss that we’re all wrong about this.”

  ***

  Governor Marcus and Raven Allen were seated in Captain McCoy’s office reading him the riot act. “Has everyone in this godforsaken city gone mad? My brother-in-law is the most upstanding, honorable man I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. If it weren’t for him, you all wouldn’t have half the information about these murders.
”

  “That’s our problem, Governor. Bishop Thomas is too close to the situation. We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t thoroughly check him out.”

  “Don’t you get it?” Raven was practically screaming. “You’re not doing your job at all. You are wasting time, while putting lives in jeopardy because the real killer is still out there.”

  “I want my brother-in-law out of that interrogation room this instant. I’m not playing games with you, McCoy. I may be the governor of Virginia, but you’ll soon discover just how much power I have in D.C. if you allow this travesty to continue.”

  Chapter Nine

  “You must have friends in high places, Bishop. The chief says we have to let you go.”

  He did indeed have one very special friend in the highest place. His name was Jesus and RaShawn trusted Him with his life. And now he was putting his faith in the Lord to help him make things right with the two pastors who were still alive.

  Standing up, RaShawn asked, “Do you have someone watching out for Marson and Williams?”

  “I sure do. So I suggest you keep your distance, because if you show up at another murder scene, even the chief of police won’t be able to keep me from putting the cuffs on you.”

  “Something you said has convicted my spirit, Detective. I can guarantee you that I won’t be at another murder scene, but I do need to speak with Daniel Marson and Marvel Williams.”

  “I just told you to stay away from them. Are you just itching to see what the inside of a prison cell looks like or what?”

  “No, I’m not. But I need to make amends. There’s no one that truly believes that I killed those men.”

  Detective Harris’ left brow lifted. He opened his mouth to say something, but

  RaShawn held up a hand. “All I’m asking is that you let me in to see these men. Either you or the officer guarding them can be present, but I have to see them.”

  Folding his arms around his chest, Jarod Harris asked, “Why is this so important to you?”