He kissed me and held on to me for a long while. It wasn’t like him to cling to me so much, but I wasn’t going to complain. I loved having his arms around me, no matter the reason.

  And, yes, I briefly considered that his behavior might’ve been a sign of a guilty mind, but that just wasn’t Mac. He wasn’t a devious guy. In fact, he was honest to a fault. Besides, he had told me all about his evening with Siobhán crying on his shoulder, along with the fight with Terence that ensued.

  I trusted him completely and considered that matter closed.

  Before I left for the church, he said he had a few phone calls to make, but as soon as he was finished, he would walk over and hang out with me.

  “I can’t stay away,” he said softly.

  My heart began to melt. “That’s so sweet.”

  He began to laugh. “I love you, Red. But what I really can’t stay away from is that creepy old church and that hair-raising tunnel underneath. It’s given me a million new ideas for some truly gruesome scenes.”

  I had to laugh, too, even as he was kissing me.

  He pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. “I don’t mean to be flippant about the murder of that woman.” He opened his eyes and gazed at me. “It’s a defense mechanism, you know. Because the thought of you being the one to find both of those victims? It seriously turns my blood cold.”

  “It’s been pretty awful,” I admitted. “You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but how do you ever get used to something like that? Well, unless you’re a cop. And I’m not.”

  “No. And I hope you never have to get used to anything like that again.” He thought about it for a moment. “But if I can be honest, those victims couldn’t be in better hands than yours.”

  I stared at him. “What in the world does that mean?”

  “You notice things, Red,” he said. “Maybe it’s because you’re creative and your job is to bring order and beauty to the projects you work on. So when something is wrong or off or broken or destroyed, you take notice. You look around and see what the problem is, and you seek solutions. You pay attention to the small things. Like the way the dust on the floor was swept up. Or like the, um, what’d you call it? That onlay? On the wood paneling? The way it was hanging just slightly wrong?” He grinned now. “And you found the keyhole. Pretty clever of you.”

  I waved away his compliment. “That’s just my job.”

  “And a hundred other people with that same job wouldn’t have noticed. But you did.” He kissed me again. “Because you pay attention. And that’s how you’ll find justice for those women.”

  * * *

  * * *

  I walked into the nave and was pleased to see everyone working their jobs as if nothing bad had happened the night before. Did they even know about Colleen? Had someone made the announcement?

  I found Wade midway among the pews along the main aisle. He was staring up at the stained glass windows.

  “What’re you looking at?” I asked.

  “Oh, hey, good morning, Shannon. I’m just watching how the light comes in at this time of day. Buck suggested that we track the natural light every hour so he can program the lighting accordingly.”

  “That’s smart. I’m glad we hired him.”

  He stared at me. “Something’s wrong. What is it?”

  I took a big deep breath and exhaled slowly. Wade had known me too long and could tell when something was off. So I told him exactly what had happened last night.

  “Are you kidding me?” he said, keeping his voice down so as not to alert everyone else. “This is insane. I noticed the crime scene tape, but I figured after everything that’s been going on these last few weeks, that was normal operating procedure.”

  I had to admit he had a point. “This time it means we really did find a body in the tunnel last night.”

  “Come on!” He gaped at me. “In the tunnel? For real? How? I mean, who? I mean, what happened? And who’s ‘we’?” He took a deep breath in and let it out to slow himself down. “Tell me.”

  “The ‘we’ is Mac and me. He got home from New York City, and I told him about the tunnel, and he wanted to see it. So we came over here, and we crawled through the panel in the sacristy and walked down the stairs and into the tunnel. He wanted to get the total experience, you know? He was psyched.”

  “Oh, I can believe that,” Wade said. “That scene would be right up his alley.”

  “Absolutely. So we were looking around, and he was examining the surface of the tunnel wall, and he practically tripped over the body.”

  “Whose body?” Wade demanded.

  “Didn’t I say? Sorry. It was Colleen Sayles, the church secretary.”

  “What?” He paced away from me, alternately shaking his head and staring up at the ceiling. Then he turned and walked back, still shaking his head. “I can’t believe it, Shannon. She was so nice. I mean, all those church ladies are nice. Why would someone kill her?”

  “I haven’t a clue. I’m only guessing, but I suppose she must’ve seen something. Or overheard something. Or walked in on someone doing something. The same thing we wondered about Sarah Spindler. And in both cases, it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Oh God. I’m really sorry. And I’m sorry that you had to be the one to find her. That’s got to suck.”

  “It does,” I admitted. “It truly sucks.”

  He was still frowning as he scanned the room to check out our crew. Everyone was doing their thing, working hard. “Nobody has said anything, so I don’t think word has gotten around yet.”

  “Good,” I said. “They’ll all hear about it soon enough, but maybe we can have an hour of normalcy before we all have to freak out again.”

  He watched me for a moment without saying anything.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He scowled. “You’ve really had a lot to deal with on this job, and it’s barely even started.”

  “I’m okay.” I shrugged. What else could I say?

  “Yeah, sure you are,” he said, rolling his eyes. He seemed to consider his words, then said, “Look, I don’t even want to ask, and I know it’s morbid, but how did she die?”

  I leaned in close and murmured, “She was strangled.” The sudden image of Colleen with that garish bow around her neck made my stomach clench. I wasn’t ready to share that fact with anyone else.

  “Oh, jeez. I’m sorry I asked.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. He put his arms around me and gave me a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thanks.” I was ready to cry now.

  “Hey, Shannon,” Buck called. He entered the nave from the north transept and jogged over to me, looking excited. “I wanted to show you one of our new lights. It’s so cool.”

  “Great,” I said, relieved that he had interrupted a sudden onslaught of tears. “Let’s see it.”

  He held the light in his hand and aimed it at the nearest wall and began to click buttons. We watched it narrow down to a pin spot, then slowly widen. “And you can set it to strobe, in case there’s an exhibit that calls for something wild. Watch.”

  The light began to flash and pulsate, and he turned it off quickly, knowing some people had a bad reaction to strobe lights.

  “I’ve actually seen things like that in a museum or two,” I said.

  “Yeah. It can be really effective in some exhibits.”

  “Get your stupid buckets out of here,” a woman said, her voice low and insistent.

  Wade, Buck, and I looked around, then stared at one another.

  “Did you say something?” I asked.

  “No,” Buck said. “I thought you did.”

  Wade glanced behind him. “What was that?”

  “I’m sick of cleaning up your mess,” the woman whispered harshly. She kept her voice low so she wouldn’t be overheard. But we could hear her.

  “If anyone is guilty of leaving a mess, it’s you.” It was a different woman. She whispered, too, but her tone was lighter.

  “You want to talk about guilt?” the first woman said.

  That’s when I realized the voices were coming from in front of the altar, under that beautiful dome. No wonder we could hear them! It made me think that Madeline might want to start calling it the “Whispering Dome.”

  I nudged the two guys, then pointed in that direction.

  “Oh hell,” Buck said, frowning as he observed the women near the altar. “That’s my aunt.”

  “And that’s Lavinia,” I said.

  “You can actually hear them,” Wade said. I remembered that he had been talking with Madeline under the dome when we all heard the conversation. So this was the first time he was hearing someone else’s voice project from under the dome.

  Lavinia whipped something out of her shoulder bag and waved it in Flora’s face. It was one of the black-and-white composition books I’d packed away last week. “Here’s proof of your guilt!”

  “Where did you get that?” Flora quietly demanded.

  “Where do you think?” Lavinia hissed. “I’ve been going through these for the last month. They were all left inside the sacristy. That was careless of you.”

  “I thought I had all of mine. Maybe you’re reading Colleen’s.”

  “Nope. This one is yours. And by the way, who is MSB?”

  My mouth fell open. Are they talking about Mr. Brindley?

  Flora reacted similarly and tried to grab the book. “Give that back to me right now.”

  They can’t possibly be talking about Mr. Brindley. Can they?

  “There’s too many people around here,” Lavinia hissed. “We’re taking this downstairs.”

  Lavinia grabbed hold of Flora’s arm and dragged her off the platform. It was really no contest. Lavinia was so much bigger and stronger than Flora, who was petite. The two disappeared behind the wall.

  Buck looked at Wade and me. “I’ve got to help my aunt!” he shouted, and took off after the two women.

  Wade ran after Buck, and I was about to follow when Mac strolled up. He knew in a flash that something was going on and took my hand. “What’s wrong?”

  “Come with me” was all I said, and we both ran after Wade.

  When we reached the stairs to the basement, I stopped and pulled out my phone. “I’ve got to call Eric.”

  “I just saw him,” Mac said. “He was on his way to the tunnel with Tommy.”

  “Good. He’s close by.” I pressed his number and he answered on the first ring.

  “Get to the church basement,” I said. “Lavinia and Flora are there. I think one of them is your killer.”

  I hung up the phone and stared at Mac, who grabbed my hand. “Let’s get down there.”

  We jogged down the stairs. When we got to the basement, I saw Buck holding Lavinia back from attacking Flora. Struggling to get loose, Lavinia screamed at Buck. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Language, Lavinia!” Flora cried. “What would Reverend Roy say?”

  “Oh, shut up, you prissy little thing,” Lavinia said. “And you keep his name out of your mouth!”

  “Whoa,” Mac said. “This is out of control.”

  “Who is MSB?” Lavinia demanded.

  Flora scowled. “None of your damn business!”

  “Language, Flora,” Lavinia said sarcastically.

  “You read my journals!” Flora cried.

  “That’s right,” Lavinia admitted. “I wanted to prove that you slept with my husband!”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  The other woman cut her off. “You did! I knew it! You harlot!”

  Flora glanced around and realized they had an audience. “Lavinia! You’re embarrassing yourself. Stop!”

  “How dare you scold me? You’re the one who slept with my husband!”

  Flora cast an uncomfortable glance at Buck. “This is crazy.”

  Lavinia huffed. “He would never have slept with you if you hadn’t thrown yourself at him.”

  “I didn’t!”

  “I suppose I can’t blame you,” Lavinia said, then smoothed her hands down her sweater in a preening move. “After all, the man is the closest thing to God on Earth.”

  I glanced at Mac, who looked as horrified as I was by the woman’s abrupt attitude switch. First she was livid, and now she was coy. It was weird.

  At that comment, Flora appeared to have lost her ability to speak. The rest of us were too shocked to say a word.

  Lavinia continued her diatribe. “He never would’ve betrayed his vows if not for you!” She broke away from Buck and grabbed Flora’s throat.

  In an instant, the basement door was flung open, and Eric and Tommy stormed in.

  Flora was trying to push Lavinia away, but Lavinia was stronger and still had her hands around Flora’s throat.

  Buck thought fast. He pulled the high-powered strobe light out of his pocket and aimed it at Lavinia. The room was suddenly filled with intensely pulsating light, and I had to shut my eyes.

  Lavinia screamed with rage and had to cover her eyes from the blinding strobe. Eric took advantage of the moment and snapped handcuffs onto her wrists.

  Flora threw herself into Buck’s arms, and he held her tightly. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Oh, Mickey,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry you had to hear all that. But thank you for saving my life.”

  “Mickey,” I repeated slowly.

  Buck looked at me with a sheepish smile. “I told you she’s the only one who ever calls me that.”

  “Mickey Buckner,” I murmured.

  “It’s Michael,” he said.

  “Michael Stephen Buckner,” Flora whispered.

  I imagine my eyes were as round as saucers. “MSB.”

  “Yes,” Flora whispered, as tears stung her eyes. “I used to be a big romance reader, so I pretended it stood for My Secret Baby.”

  Eric had pulled Lavinia halfway to the stairs when she turned and screamed, “Your baby!” She broke away from Eric and ran straight at Flora. Even handcuffed, she managed to plow into Flora and knock her over.

  Eric swore as he yanked Lavinia back again, but that still didn’t stop the woman from spewing her hateful words. “You whore!”

  I was frankly shocked and had to shake my head, remembering how I’d thought she was such a lovely woman. Clearly, I was wrong.

  Tommy rushed across the room to help Eric control Lavinia.

  “You shameless floozy!” she screamed at Flora. Then she looked at Buck. “And you! You bastard!”

  “How dare you!” Flora cried, finally fighting back as she moved in and slapped Lavinia. “Don’t you dare say one more word to him, or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

  Tommy quickly grabbed Flora and pulled her away from Lavinia. That didn’t stop Lavinia from continuing her tirade against the flower lady.

  Finally, Buck took his aunt’s hand in his. “Aunt Flora, is there something you want to tell me?”

  “Oh, sweetie,” Flora said, and the tears began to flow. “I was such a young, impressionable girl when I met Reverend Roy. I didn’t think I would ever fall in love with someone like him, but I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you the truth.”

  “He’s a man of God!” Lavinia intoned. “He would never love you!”

  Flora managed to ignore the woman and concentrated on Buck. “When I realized I was pregnant, I didn’t know the kind of danger I was in until a very good friend warned me.”

  “What was the warning?” Buck asked.

  “My friend told me to go somewhere far away and have the baby there and never come back. She said that you’d never be safe if she found out about you. So I went to my sister’s home in Fillmore, and we decided it would be the best place for you to live. I knew my sister and her husband would be wonderful parents to you.”

  “They were,” Buck said, then added, “They are.”

  “I know, and I’m so glad.” She was wiping away tears now. “All I wanted was for you to be safe and happy, and I knew they would provide all of that and would love you as much as I did. I wanted to get you away from that woman so she could never hurt you.”

  Buck nodded slowly, at a loss for words. I couldn’t blame him.

  “But you came back here,” I said.

  “I did. This is the only home I’ve ever known, and I always loved working for the church.” She looked at Buck. “And I wanted to give my sister and her husband and you a chance to be a family without me interfering.”

  Mac nodded. “That was thoughtful of you.”

  “Was your good friend also a member of the church?” Eric asked.

  “Yes, of course,” Flora said.

  “Colleen?” I guessed.

  “That’s right,” Flora said.

  “She was the one who warned you?” I asked.

  “Yes. She was much more aware of things than I was. She knew what Lavinia was like, and she also knew some of her secrets.” Flora stared at Lavinia and said, “She made you pay.”

  Lavinia fumed. “She betrayed me!”

  I glanced from Lavinia to Flora. “Are you saying Colleen blackmailed her?”

  Flora smiled. “I would never call it that. But remember those numbers you asked me to explain?”

  “Yes.”

  “Reverend Roy enjoyed having Colleen around. She was sophisticated and beautiful and smart. So whenever there was an event with donors and wealthy congregants in attendance, he insisted that Colleen be there to impress everyone with her knowledge of finances and history and, oh, everything else.”

  “Was Lavinia there, too?”

  “Oh, of course. And that’s how Colleen found out that Lavinia was cheating on her husband with a visiting bishop.”

  “What?” I might’ve shouted the word, but I wasn’t alone. Everyone in the room was staring at Lavinia in shock.