Soul of Cole Read online

  Kelly ran the spatula around the edge of the big glass bowl and turned the potato salad one last time. “This looks like it’s ready to go. Can you get the fruit bowl out of the fridge? I think we’re ready. I wonder how much longer Cole will take with the meat. You take this,” Kelly handed her a tray with the plates, utensils and drinks.

  “What’s this?” Brooke pointed at a bowl covered with plastic wrap.

  “That? Another new recipe, Mango Ginger Chutney.”

  “What do you do with it?” Brooke looked down into the bowl filled with chunks of yellow mango in a shiny brown sauce.

  “I’m thinking the place for it is on the pork chops, maybe even the chicken. I can’t wait for you to try it.” Kelly smiled at the thought of chutney being completely foreign to Brooke.

  “I’m game.” Brooke headed out to the patio with the tray. “Why do you two look so guilty?”

  “Because we are.” Cole shook the barbecue fork at her.

  Kelly stuck her head out the door. “How much longer?”

  “Just a couple of minutes.”

  “Okay, we’ll bring everything out to the table. I’ve sautéed some vegetables; I think they need another minute or two.”

  “These are looking like they’re done.” Cole announced with pride.

  “Good, I’m starving.” Randy moved to where Brooke was setting the table and kissed her on the cheek. He picked up a stack of napkins off the table and placed one at each setting.

  The four gathered and were seated at the table. With the table set, the food ready and waiting, Cole asked Kelly to say grace.

  After everyone was served, Randy suddenly stood and cleared his throat. “There’s something we’ve been wanting to talk to you guys about. Well, umm… I think that since I, or we have been, that is…”

  “Oh, let me do it, silly!” Brooke was smiling from ear to ear. “We’re going to have a baby!”

  “Oh, Brooke!” Kelly’s eyes filled with tears. She jumped up from her chair and gave the startled girl a hug. Randy looked at Cole and they gave each other a high five.

  Kelly took her seat, wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “Oh, my. How long have you known?”

  “Umm, well, actually for a couple of months. But, the doctor said he was a bit concerned with, oh I don’t know, so we didn’t want to say anything in case something happened.”

  “Here’s the thing.” Randy looked down at the table and his voice cracked. “I don’t have any parents, and you know the story with Brooke. What would you guys think of being the honorary grandparents?”

  “That’s the most wonderful thing anyone has ever asked me.” Kelly teared up again. “We would love it.”

  “How about you, Cole? You haven’t said anything.” Brooke looked at Cole with a bit of concern.

  “I’m still kind of in shock.” Cole smiled. “I don’t know what to say other than, I would be honored.”

  “We have this idea. We kind of want to run it passed you.” Randy turned slightly and looked directly at Cole.

  Kelly leaned forward in anticipation.

  “What would you think if we were to name the baby Hanna? If it’s a girl, I mean.”

  “Wow.” Cole was taken completely off guard. “I think that would be amazing. She would be so proud if she knew.”

  “We know she meant a lot to you, Cole, and you know how much she meant to Randy. We thought it would be a nice way to honor her memory.” Brooke reached over and took Randy by the arm. “If both of you loved her she must really have been something.”

  “I think that is very thoughtful. Just wonderful.” Kelly looked around the table with a warm smile. “I just love you all so much.”

  “Okay, Okay. Don’t start me crying. Can we eat now?” Randy poked a bratwurst with his fork.

  The two couples laughed merrily.

  CHAPTER 5

  The large, glass sliding doors slid open onto the sidewalk at Will Rogers International Airport. Rebecca Poore came through the door dressed in a colorful, native Guatemala skirt that reached nearly to her ankles. On her feet she wore handmade leather sandals. She wore a heavy, green sweater over a white peasant blouse. Over her shoulder was slung a large, khaki green duffle bag. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a single braid, reaching the middle of her back.

  She stood for a long moment scanning the area when she heard the blast of a horn. In front of her on the curb was her sister, Cassie, in a silver Dodge Durango. The passenger side window rolled down and Cassie called out, “Hop in!”

  Rebecca opened the back door and tossed her duffle bag inside with the small purse she draped around her neck.

  “Have you been waiting long?” Cassie asked.

  “I just walked out the door.” Rebecca looked thin and tired. “How are you, sis?”

  “Not good.” Cassie responded. Rebecca buckled her seatbelt as Cassie pulled away from the curb. Neither sister spoke as the car moved through the crowded lanes leading out of the airport and back to the highway. “How was your flight?”

  “Well between the motion sickness and crying, not the best. I’m so sorry, Cassie. This is the worst thing that has ever happened.” Cassie didn’t respond.

  She just stared forward and drove. Several miles went by before Cassie spoke. “How long are you here for?”

  “As long as I need to be.” Rebecca tried to be reassuring. “I imagine there are things to do and affairs to be settled, not to speak of the house and all the stuff in it. Do you want to live there?” Rebecca asked softly.

  “I don’t want anything to do with Orvin, now, in the future, or ever. I hate that place and I always have.”

  Rebecca was shocked by her sister’s hurtful response. She showed no signs of grief or mourning. Her open hostility toward their hometown was a side of her Rebecca had never seen.

  “I’m sure you don’t mean that. This is a terrible shock and a terrible thing to have to go through. We mustn’t rush into any decisions that you might come to regret.” Rebecca sighed and continued. “What in the world is going to happen to the Children’s Center?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care. I hate that place, I hate those kids and I hate working there.”

  “Cassandra, how can you say such a terrible thing?”

  “Easy. I didn’t want to work there. I never wanted to work there.”

  “Then why did you?”

  “Because, I didn’t want to be the only one in the family who wasn’t serving people in some way. You might say I was shamed into it. This whole ministry thing might be your thing and daddy’s thing, but it was never mine. I just wanted to go to school and have a career and get out of Oklahoma.” Cassie’s voice broke with emotion. “Forgive me. You’re right. Too much has happened. Feelings I have suppressed are bursting out of me. I feel like a snake must feel shedding its skin.”

  Rebecca sat staring straight out the window, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her emotions were so raw and her heart so broken she couldn’t respond. She leaned over and rested her head on the window. As the car gently moved along the highway the vibration and humming of the road rocked her to sleep.

  A hard bump jostled Rebecca awake as they pulled into a self-serve gas station. “You want something to eat or drink?” Cassie asked as she opened the door.

  “Yes, some water would be really nice.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Rebecca decided to get out and stretch her legs. The wind blew hard into her face, dry and warm. It was good to be home, she thought. But, what is home? Her thoughts drifted to what she would face when she got to Orvin. The dread of a funeral, and all the planning without her parents there to help and guide, was unthinkable. Her mother sang at a thousand funerals since she was young. Her father gave funeral services, both grandiose and simple, graveyard prayers. I don’t think I can do it, Rebecca thought. She paced next to the car until Cassie returned.

  “Here.” Cassie said with no feeling, handing her a bottled water.

  “Th
ank you.”

  Cassie got back into the car after pumping the gas. Rebecca joined her a moment later. “Cassie, please don’t be upset with me. I didn’t mean to upset you and I certainly didn’t understand how you felt. This is hard enough with us together; I couldn’t bear it if I had to face it all alone.”

  “I’m not mad at you. And I’m sorry if I just blurted out my feelings, but I’ve had it bottled up for so long it just came out. I’m sorry.”

  “I love you, Cassie.”

  “I love you too, Becca.”

  As they pulled back into traffic on the highway, Rebecca asked, “If you went back to school what would you study?”

  “I think I would like to study accounting. Work on being a CPA.”

  “Really? That’s an interesting field.”

  “No it isn’t, it’s boring as hell and you know it. But, I wouldn’t have to deal with people. The idea of having my own little space, even one of those cubicles in an office with my work to do, seems like Paradise to me.”

  “You always did seem to have a knack for math. I remember you helping me with mine in high school and you were still in Junior High.”

  “How long do you think you’re going to stay in Guatemala? You look like a native already.”

  “It’s funny, most of the clothes I took with me are either worn out or I gave them to somebody. So, in the villages I dress like this.” Rebecca pulled at her skirt and flopped it back and forth. “These things are cheap and they wear like iron. Not exactly a Kardashian look, is it?”

  “No, but nobody would ever say it makes your butt look big.” The sisters laughed which seemed to ease the tension and release some of their anxiety and sorrow.

  “We will be staying with Sharon and Russ. I couldn’t face going back to my apartment yet. They have been so kind and Sharon is taking care of a lot of the preparations for the service. Daddy’s friend, Roy Cunningham, will be doing the service. They will have closed coffins, of course. Daddy’s would have to be.” Cassie fell silent.

  They rode for a ways before Rebecca said, “I don’t think mom would want people staring down at her, either.”

  “Seth called yesterday.”

  “Booth?”

  “You know another? He wanted to know if you’d be coming home.”

  “Why would he call? I thought he was engaged to that Calhoun girl.”

  “I heard they broke up a long time ago. Something about her fooling around with one of the Epperson boys.”

  “Huh,” was Rebecca’s only response as she seemed to drift into her own thoughts.

  Cassie reached over and turned on the radio. The sound of country music blasting through the Durango seemed a bit much as she reached back down to lower the volume. She hummed softly along with the girl singer, occasionally singing a lyric or two as the landscape changed to the familiar, dry, rolling hills toward Orvin.

  “There it is.” She pointed to a green highway sign stating ‘Orvin next exit’, complete with a dozen bullet holes.

  “I haven’t gotten a letter from Molly Kopek in over a year. Is she still in town?”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, Becca. I forgot to tell you, Molly passed away last year. She had some kind of tumor or growth, or something on her spine, that by the time they found it, it had spread until she had only weeks to live. I’m so sorry.”

  Becca put both hands over her face and rocked back and forth in the seat.

  “I’m sorry,” Cassie said, “I shouldn’t have told you right now.”

  “How could you not tell me? She was my best friend. I intended to call her as soon as we got home. I have to go see Maryann.”

  Cassie flicked the turn signal, merging off the highway at the Orvin exit.

  “I suddenly don’t want to do this, Cass. I don’t know how much sorrow I can take.”

  Cassie reached over and patted her sister’s leg. “Don’t worry; we’ll get through this together. It’s just a few more days.”

  But it won’t be, Rebecca thought, looking out the window as they slowed for the turnoff. “Nothing has changed. Everything looks the same, but everything will be different.” Rebecca turned to look at Cassie for a long moment and then back out the window at her hometown.

  Russ Walker stood in his front window staring out at the street. The dull ache in his chest, since finding his best friend sprayed across the wall, had receded little. The sense of dread of seeing Warren’s daughter Rebecca, the funeral to come, and life without his best buddy seemed almost too much to bear.

  “They’re here!”

  Sharon entered the room drying her hands on her apron, scurried past Russ and out the front door across the lawn to the sidewalk. Cassie and Rebecca got out of the car. Cassie stood next to her closed door as Rebecca eagerly ran around the front of the car to embrace Sharon.

  “Oh Becca, I’m so sorry.” Sharon said as she began to sob. Rebecca couldn’t speak, just stood holding onto her mother’s dearest friend.

  “Thank you so much for taking care of things. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

  “Where are your bags?”

  “Oh, my bag is in the back.” Cassie moved to the back and popped the lid.

  “Russ, come get the bag.” Russ moved from the porch to where the three women stood. He almost made it to the girls before breaking down into heavy sobs.

  “Oh, Uncle Russ,” Rebecca called out as she ran across the lawn to meet him and gave him a warm embrace. They both stood crying and holding each other tightly. Finally Rebecca said, “I thought I was all cried out.”

  “I’m sorry Becca, my blubbering doesn’t help, I’m sure.” Rebecca placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled him down and gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead.

  Russ wiped his eyes looking down at the grass. “I’ll get your bag.”

  Sharon reached out and took Cassie’s hand and said, “Let’s go in.” As they passed Rebecca, she looped her arm through hers.

  As they entered the house Rebecca said, “Thank you so much for allowing us to stay with you. I couldn’t face going home just yet.”

  “You must be terribly tired from your trip. I put you in Matt’s old room. Cassie is in Jessica’s. I hope that will be alright.”

  “Its fine,” Rebecca said with a faint smile. “It’s so good to be home and to see you again.”

  “Are you hungry? Would you like a sandwich or coffee, anything?”

  “A cup of tea sounds wonderful, if you have any.”

  “Come on in the kitchen.” The two girls took a seat at the table as Sharon put a kettle on to boil. Cassie sat silently, still having not said a word since they arrived. This did not go unnoticed by Rebecca.

  “Cass, you’ve had a long drive. Do you want to go lie down?”

  “No, I’ve laid around too much.”

  “Is there any coffee left?” Russ asked entering the kitchen.

  “Coming right up, I’m making some more.”

  “Cassie, would you like something, hon?”

  “Coffee sounds good.”

  The three sat quietly, Russ drew circles on the kitchen table with his index finger. The kettle was working up its way to a whistle as Sharon took it off the heat. “I have some cookies here I made yesterday. Let’s see if we can’t finish those off.” She brought cups and teabags to the table and returned to get the coffee pot. “I spoke with Jeannie at the church and everything is arranged for the service and the social hall. Several ladies have volunteered to prepare a light lunch just after the service.”

  A knock on the door came as a shock as the four sat in silence drinking their coffee. “I’ll get that.” Russ quickly rose. To his surprise, when he opened the door there were two police detectives standing on his porch.

  “Mr. Walker, I’m not sure if you remember me. We met under pretty unpleasant circumstances. I’m Detective Bishop. This is my partner, Detective Finlay.”

  “Yes, I remember,” said Russ. “How can I help?”

  “I understand that Cass
ie Poore is staying with you.”

  “That’s right, and her sister just arrived today.”

  “Good,” Bishop said. “We have some information we need to share with the daughters. I understand you were very close to the Poore’s.”

  “Yes, lifetime friends,” answered Russ. “Please, come in.” Russ led the two detectives into the kitchen.

  “This is Detective Bishop and Detective Finlay. They have some information to share. I think you know Cassie already. This is her sister, Rebecca, who just got into town.” The two girls nodded toward the detectives. Rebecca stood and crossed the room to shake hands with the detectives.

  “Do you know who did this horrible thing? There is no way my father could have done it. No way on earth he would be capable.”

  “That’s kind of why we’re here. It’s our opinion, and that of the forensics team, that you are correct. This was not a murder suicide. We are formally declaring it a double murder.”

  Sharon threw her hand over her mouth, “Oh my! But, who?”

  Cassie stared at the two detectives and was speechless.

  “I just don’t understand.” Rebecca’s voice quaked with emotion. “If it wasn’t a robbery, and there was no break-in, what happened? How can this be?”

  “I know your father and mother were well loved in the community. Even my family has a connection with your dad. He officiated at my sister’s wedding and did the funeral for my uncle. Times like these, it’s hard to imagine someone doing such fine people harm. But, we have to try and think of things that, maybe on the surface, don’t seem so apparent.”

  Sharon stood and said, “Please, please sit down. Coffee?”

  “That would be nice. Thank you.” Both detectives took a seat at the table. “Do any of you know anyone who may have harbored bad feelings toward your father? Going back, can you think of anyone he may have had a run-in with at the Center, or maybe a counseling session that ended badly? Sometime there may have been a conflict? This was not a random act, and the person, whoever it was, was welcomed into the home. There was no sign of a fight and no indication of a struggle, which leads us to believe it was someone familiar to both the pastor and his wife.”