As Alexa and CC walked (or rather, he dragged her along) toward his office, CC was inwardly fuming. He always exhibited his anger in the same way… flared nostrils, fast-paced walking, and scrunched eyebrows. Alexa was almost as angry as he was, but he didn't know that because he was too caught up in the scene he had just witnessed.
Finally, after being dragged to the end of the hall where his office door stood, Alexa could no longer keep her temper in check, "Would you stop it???" she growled as she attempted to jerked her arm free from his grasp.
CC dropped her arm and calmly opened his office door. He bowed and gestured her inside, just like a gallant prince might do.
Once inside though, CC and Alexa angrily stared at each other before the fireworks display began.
Alexa made the first move, "What do you mean by dragging me out of that interview and down the hall like a bad little puppy on a leash?! I have the right to be there!!"
CC parried, "Do you know what kind of danger you are inviting by offering to help this man?! Not to mention that my people just arrested him for murder… what kind of message is that sending to my officers?"
"Well, I happen to believe that your officers have arrested the wrong person. I offered to help him because I believe him to be innocent," Alexa countered, emphasizing her point by measuredly tapping one finger on her other palm.
CC now clearly becoming frustrated with her adamancy, "My officers and detectives have carefully investigated this matter for weeks now, they believe – as do I – that they have the right person in custody. Why can you not just accept that?"
"You and your officers do not know Fred like I do. I have been friends with him for years now. He is not the type of person who could commit such a crime. He makes a very sound argument against the charges you allege. Why not just listen to his story yourself and decide?" she argued using hand gestures galore.
CC was now struggling to keep his composure, "I trust my officers to do their jobs. If the evidence were any less convincing, I might consider his arguments valid, but I cannot and WILL not go behind my officers' backs to investigate on my own. Let Fred hire his own investigative team to dispute the allegations."
"He already has, and I have accepted the position. Excuse me, I have a murder to solve," here Alexa pushed past CC and out the door of his office.
Men just don't listen! They think we can't figure out anything without their help.
CC stood there fuming and watched her leave. With his arms crossed, feet apart, and a scowl on his face, he looked like a person to be reckoned with, but it was all lost on Alexa since she had already turned the hall corner to exit the building.
Women never listen to reason! They're stuck in their own little romantic world of feelings.
After she calmed down enough to consider CC's points, Alexa began to feel guilty for over-reacting to his outburst. He was just trying to protect her, and he was right about trusting his officers – it would seem very undermining for him to follow up on everything they had investigated. But on certain issues, she would never agree with him. Fred was innocent. To believe otherwise was just insane. She would not abandon poor Fred in his hour of trouble, but she needed to think over what she already knew - and to get some help.
Alexa swung through the local coffee shop and picked up her favorite flavored coffee treat, then headed for the park. Communing with nature would help her mind to be quiet and dwell on the facts of the case. She would figure out this mystery if it were the last thing she ever did.
Sitting there in her car looking at the wonders of nature and the beauty of the flower displays, Alexa began to review the case – starting with the day she discovered Garret's body in the creek. Step by step she went over what she knew, what Fred had told her, and what she had learned from CC and his people. She made notes as she went to remind herself about what she needed to investigate.
In her mind, she pictured the murder in triptych form. On one side, there were the characters she knew and the scene from the creek bed where she had discovered the body; in the middle, was how the murder really took place; and on the other side, a lot of blank canvas because she had yet to fill in the real murderer's identity and his/her motives. Throughout the exercise of reviewing the case, she couldn't shake a very strong feeling of déjà vu. It was unsettling, and it kept hitting her in the face whenever she thought about the sequence of events.
She began to wrack her brain for missing pieces to the puzzle. There was something strange about the position of the body under the boat trailer; something there didn't make sense. She knew she was missing something, but couldn't put her finger on it.
Well, she had to get some help with the legwork of this investigation. There were too many unanswered questions.
I'll ask Phil to help me with Fred's alibi. We have got to prove that someone somewhere saw him during the hours in question.
A few days later, Alexa pulled up in front of Phil and Lisa's house. They had talked over the phone and Phil had agreed to help Alexa with the alibi. Alexa was here to get an update on what Phil had discovered.
Lisa came out on the porch to greet her. They met about half way to the door and hugged each other, "It's been a while since I've seen you," Lisa began.
"I know; it
has
been a long time. Sorry I haven't kept in touch more closely. You would think that in such a small town, we would see each other more often – just in passing."
Lisa chuckled, "Actually, we have hardly left the house since I arrived with the movers. Come on in, I want to show you the new patio out back. Phil put in a gold fish pond, but the water keeps leaking out."
Phil joined them as they were taking the tour of the home improvements. The kitchen was gorgeous, it had taken several weeks of hard work and headaches to get it just right, but the end result was fabulous. They were so proud. The patio and back yard were shaping up nicely. Lisa was planning a house warming party as soon as everything was ready.
When they had finished the tour, they went back inside and sat around in the living room. Phil began updating Alexa on all that he had learned from Fred's people. He handed her a report he had drawn up with the information from each source outlined.
"First of all let me say, the next time you want me to check out someone's alibi, please warn me if they don't speak English. I had to get Missy to interpret for me. I never heard the word
vato
so much in all my life. Missy told me later it was slang that meant something like our word dude. Interesting, but not really significant to the investigation."
"Ok, so what did you learn,
vato
?" Alexa couldn't help but use the word he loved so much.
Phil glowered at her, "Not good news. Apparently, there is about one hour that no one can account for during the day when Fred says he was walking to his friend's house to use the phone and then back to the crime scene."
"But Fred said that he talked to his friend at the door and he allowed him to use the phone. After that, the guy supposedly gave Fred a soda and sent him on his way."
"That may be true, and probably is, but Fred's friend is not here now."
This was very upsetting news to Alexa, "What do you mean?? Where is he?"
"Apparently, the guy's cousin wrote him a letter that his mother was extremely ill. The guy left three days ago for Mexico."
"But can't we call him or have one of his friends get in touch with him? There has to be a way, this is crucial to Fred's defense. If this guy disappears, Fred's case is history."
"Missy already thought of that, but when she asked the guy's roommates about how to contact him, they told her that there was only one daily bus carrying mail that went into that village, and that there was no phone. The only way to contact him would be to drive down there."
"Well, let's get going. No time to waste!"
"AIG, we can't."
"What do you mean? Why not?"
"The guy's roommate couldn't even remember the name of the village. All he had was the name of the state – Oaxaca."
Alexa groaned, "That's way down close to Guatemala. Even if we knew the name of the village, we have no way of telling whether he has arrived yet. That's a long way for him to hitch or ride the bus. A million things can happen between here and there."
"Is Fred sure that no one else saw him on the walk to and from his friend's house?"
"That's what he told me at the interview with his attorney the other day," Alexa put her head in her hands. "This is just wrong, it should be easy to defend someone who is innocent."
The music brought the little church to life. This was the third night of the revival at Alexa's church, and although historically this should be the night with the lowest attendance, there was a decent sized crowd. One of the things Alexa loved about being Pentecostal was that during the song service the congregation was able to let go of their inhibitions and worship God as only Pentecostals could. Not to imply that other denominations didn't worship God, they just didn't use the same style as the Pentecostal church did.
Nothing in the world lifted a person's spirits like singing with a whole heart before the creator of the universe. To be able to put aside everything around you and open your heart, and focus your mind and spirit on God was truly the most blissful state that Alexa had ever experienced. It was a union of the body, spirit, and mind that resulted in an all-encompassing state of blissful peace, humility, love, and gratitude.
This was the kind of closeness to God that she had been longing to feel again. Somehow over the years, she had become comfortable with God to the point that she felt she had taken advantage of their relationship – she had stopped working at it. She wanted that to change.
The closest she had ever felt to God was after her husband had died. She had been in deep mourning for about four months. Her pastor at that time had tried to counsel her with scripture and talking sessions as well as prayer. The only thing that had kept Alexa from giving up and sinking into a pit of despair had been the knowledge of how much Tara had needed her. Alexa had really tried to pull herself up, and snap herself out of the sadness that had seemed to overwhelm her, but she had not been able to do so. Until one day when a patient had said something unforgettable to her, Alexa had begun to wonder if she would ever get over Max's death.
Her patient, four-year-old Sara had been listening to Alexa hum the tune to a hymn. Since she never knew when something would remind her of her husband, Alexa had developed the habit of humming while she worked so that she wouldn't break down crying in front of her patients. The tunes she unconsciously picked out were old hymns and they usually had slow, sad melodies.
One day she had been stilled from humming when little Sara had placed her hand on Alexa's arm. Alexa had looked into Sara's eyes, taken off her breathing apparatus, and leaned close to hear what she was whispering.
Sara had said, "That song must be the one that God was humming when His son Jesus died on the cross for you and me." That was all she had said, simple and straightforward. It had been as if God Himself had stood beside Sara speaking the words in her little ear, and her words had gone straight to Alexa's heart.
Alexa had been moved to tears and had realized at that moment that not only was God listening to her, but also He had sent Sara to Alexa as His emissary. Alexa had known at that moment that God was beside her, grieving with her, loving her, and most importantly, trying to tell her so.
She had not immediately stopped grieving and become happy, but Sara's words had been the turning point in Alexa's "cycle of grief".
Alexa had thought at the time of her husband's accident that she would never find another to fill her life like her husband had done, but today as she looked beside her at CC, she understood just how wrong she had been. This was the man for her – the one she wanted to marry. This revelation not only shocked Alexa, but also brought her peace. She smiled to herself.
She was ready, but was he?
At that moment, CC looked over at her and smiled at her with a lopsided grin. Her heart leaped at that gorgeous smile. He had a look in his eyes that expressed everything she felt in her heart. It was as if he had read her mind and had turned toward her to reassure her of his love and devotion.
True, the past week had been very rocky since CC had found Alexa in an interview with Fred at the police station. Lots of fighting followed by awkward silence. Thankfully, each of them valued their relationship enough to try to see the other's point of view. CC had been especially hard on himself for dragging Alexa down the hall to his office where they had proceeded to yell at each other in front of the entire police force.
To make up for his insensitivity, CC had done the only thing for Alexa that would have pierced her anger and reached her heart. He had enlisted her cat, Neosho.
(The narrator must pause here mention that Alexa is the only person he knows that would name her cat after the town where she lives.)
CC had picked some of Alexa's favorite wild flowers, tied them into a bouquet, slipped a note of apology into the bunch, and strapped them to Neosho's back. Not an easy task, for which CC wore the scars. After the initial bout of the cat tearing around the living room, CC had been able to catch Neosho and quickly slip her into Alexa's bedroom.
CC had shamelessly listened at the door as Alexa cooed at Neosho. He knew she was trying to coax the cat over to the bed. Neosho was not known for her cooperative nature. Then followed a period of silence during which CC stood at the door with his ear pressed hard against it.
He did not notice the natural suction that formed between the door and his ear until seconds later Alexa jerked open the door and jumped into his arm. Wait… arm? Yes, well his other arm was busy holding his hand over the injured ear – the one missing the eardrum that had been sucked out when Alexa had thrown open the door.
Neosho had taken that opportunity to dash out of the bedroom and out the kitty door in the kitchen. Her kitty talents would not be misused for such gross mushiness ever again, if she had anything to say about it.
CC reached over and took Alexa's hand, squeezed it lightly, and held onto it. They were now seated and listening to the preacher – at least they were supposed to be listening to the preacher, Tara noted as she glanced their way.
Tara thought back over her life and how her mom had grown through the years. Not usually something a teenager thinks about her parent, but Tara was not the usual teenager.
Since her dad had passed away, Tara had grown more and more protective of her mom, to the point that she sometimes felt like the parent and not the child. Her mom still did all the mom-type stuff, but Tara felt responsible for her mom's well being. A responsibility that Alexa had often tried to reassure Tara was not her burden to bear.
Tara, even though she had been very young when her dad had passed away, quite often had flashes of memory from those days – memories of her mom crying. Tara was a very emotional person, but she kept her feelings to herself and very rarely expressed these feelings verbally. She preferred to write down her thoughts and feelings, and was actually very talented in this area.
Tara smiled secretly as she thought that her mom would probably marry CC one day, and she was happy for them. The way CC looked at his mom, the way they had both waited until they were sure they wanted a relationship before acting on their feelings, and the way that her mom rarely let an hour pass without mentioning CC, Tara was sure they were meant for each other. They both loved God and put Him first in their lives. God had brought them together at just the right moment – in His own perfect time.
Changing hearts is not an easy task, preparing two people to spend the rest of their lives together is even more challenging, but God knew exactly how to accomplish such mysterious things. Tara was rather relieved that she didn't have to do what God did.
After church, everyone was feeling rather energized, so Missy and Alexa decided that they all needed to go to Dan's Diner for ice cream and fellowship. They all crowded into one of those corner booths and ordered.
Everyone enjoyed the ice cream, some ordered coffee to finish out the evening, and everyone felt satisfied and full, but since Dan was ready to close up, they decided it was time to go home.
They all stood around in the parking lot with their last minute chatting, but suddenly Alexa sobered and took CC's hand. She looked around at this dear group of friends and sighed. One by one, her friends looked at her and began thinking the same thoughts. The mood of the group changed visibly as everyone began to contemplate what would happen the following day.
Fred's trial was scheduled to begin.
Alexa looked at CC and then at Missy, tears filled her eyes. Missy took charge of the situation, "Hey, everyone, we all know about Fred's trial starting tomorrow. I think we need to pray for him. He's a very dear friend to us all, not to mention a brother in Christ. He will need our prayers more than ever."
Everyone agreed that Missy was right, and so they all joined hands. There in the parking lot of Dan's Diner, the small group of friends held up in prayer one of their absent members. Tomorrow would difficult for everyone, but especially for Fred, since it was his life on the line. They prayed that God would stand beside Fred and give him strength, wisdom and patience to endure the upcoming hardship.
Meanwhile, Fred stood at the window of his cell in the jail downtown. He was looking through the bars at the night sky and praying to God for help. He heard a silent answer in his heart,
"If God be for you, who can be against you?"
At this, he felt a peace steal into his heart.
Only God knows what I will face tomorrow, but no matter what it is, He will be there with me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.