Dirty Little Murder (2 page)

At seven o’clock sharp
, after two hours of prayer and petition, a nap, and a hastily eaten sandwich, Jane found herself in the cozy living room of Paula Ehlers, head of the missions department at Columbia River Christian Church.

While her time in the Bible had been solid, the scene with Caramel that morning had shaken her. She sat on an overstuffed leather chair across from Pastor Ehlers, feeling out of place and lonely.

The other two would-be missionaries sat on the matching sofa. Jane shifted in her seat. Long fingers of the bright summer evening sun filtered through the half-shut curtains, blinding Jane. Plus, she was hot. A fan kept the air moving around the room, but she was glistening and damp.

Paula was a thin, tan woman with wise eyes that crinkled when she smiled, and soft, straight hair that fell to her chin. Paula had a slow, steady way about her that spoke of the many years she had spent overseas, and reflected a life of patient obedience to God. She was exactly who Jane hoped to be someday.

Jane held a stack of papers on her lap that had crumpled a bit in her hot hands. She tried to smooth them out. A combination personality-test/resume, Paula had given a set to all three women a couple of weeks ago when they first met each other.

Paula gathered each set of papers. “I’m glad to see you all had a chance to finish the packets. We’ve found that a little time spent learning about our missions’ candidates goes a long way toward helping them succeed on the field.” Paula squared off the stack of papers and then slid them into a messenger bag that sat on the floor. “After I’ve had a chance to read all of them, I want to get together with each of you alone and chat.” She folded her hands on her knees and leaned forward slightly, giving them the impression of rapt attention.

“I really enjoyed the opportunity to think and pray over the questions.” Kaitlyn, a petite blonde woman sat across the room from Jane. Kaitlyn had a fifty-watt smile, glossy blonde hair, and a prosthetic hand, something Jane hadn’t noticed last time they had met. “My fiancé is already overseas.” She dropped her gaze to the diamond engagement ring on her fake hand. “I’ve been taking my future ministry for granted. It was good to step back and consider what God has prepared me for, instead of what I expect I’ll be doing.”

“Were you surprised by any of the answers you got?” Paula relaxed back into her chair. She picked up her tea cup and sipped it.

“Nah.” Kaitlyn laughed softly. “It was really good to see how well my hopes and my talents align.”

“Remind me what Spencer does. I know he’s in the
Philippines
, but what’s he doing?” Valerie, sitting on the corner of the couch so she could face Kaitlyn while she spoke, was a plump, cheerful woman in her mid forties. Her eyes almost disappeared in crinkles when she smiled, and her curly hair bounced as she nodded her head.

“He runs a youth shelter in the
Philippines
. We’re going to get married when he comes back on furlough next year, then I’m going back with him.” Kaitlyn’s prosthetic hand rested on her knee. Jane did her best not to stare at it.

“Congratulations on the upcoming wedding.” Paula, herself a newlywed, glanced down at the simple gold band on her own left hand. “So what did the packet say you should do when you get to the
Philippines
?” Paula chuckled, and Kaitlyn and Valerie joined her.

Jane didn’t feel like chuckling. She wanted to, but the missing ring kept worrying at the back of her mind. If Caramel decided to say Jane had stolen the ring, she could lose everything she had worked for this far. Trying to fight such a claim was one thing… but an arrest record would look terrible on an application for overseas mission work. Jane swallowed. A criminal record would likely keep her out of the closed-off countries called the “10/40 window” as well.

“I’ll work with the women already there, leading Bible studies and Sunday school stuff,” Kaitlyn said. “He will keep his focus on the young men, and I’ll try and reach their mothers and younger siblings.”

“What would you do if there wasn’t a Spencer in the mix?” Valerie lifted an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s awesome that you have a built-in ministry waiting, but what if you didn’t?”

Kaitlyn lifted her hands, palms up. “Who can ever answer what might have been? I know that before I met Spencer I knew I had to go overseas. He was on furlough.” Kaitlyn blushed. “It was pretty whirlwind, but our hearts and minds on ministry were pretty identical, so it wasn’t hard to see how our lives could easily be joined.”

Jane looked down at her hands. She rubbed her thumbnail. It was cracked from spending so much time in hot water. She knew she could wear gloves to protect them, but she always felt gloves kept her from feeling if surfaces were truly clean. Kaitlyn and Spencer. Two perfect missionaries joining forces. She sighed.

“That’s fair,” Valerie said. “I was just wondering. It seems harder for us single gals, if you don’t mind my saying. I’ve wanted to go overseas for a long time, but found it hard to get the wheels in motion.”

“I think that can happen to anyone.” Paula gave her attention to Valerie. “And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Sometimes God plants a seed in us because he knows it needs to germinate for a long time before it comes to fruition.”

“Like you and Mark!” Kaitlyn’s already happy face broke into a smile so wide Jane thought she might need sunglasses to look in her direction.

Paula glanced up to a huge photo hanging over her fireplace. “Yup,” she said with a slight blush coming over her. “Just like me and Mark.” After an embarrassed pause she started again. “Turning in your packets was a good sign that your intentions for missions are serious. Let’s face it, dozens of students think they want to go overseas, but not all of them are willing to fill out fifty pages on the off chance their church will help support them.”

“I bet not,” Valerie said.

“We at Columbia River Christian Church get very excited about sending out missionaries. Kaitlyn, you probably already know this, since we support Spencer, but we feel it is our duty, as a sending church, to provide the bulk of your support.”

A thrill raced up Jane’s spine. The bulk of her support? That was unheard of, almost. She had taken a class called Perspectives during her days at Bible School and had heard that a few churches around the country had adopted the philosophy, but she hadn’t known Columbia River was one of them.

“We don’t make that public knowledge. For one thing, we get dozens of requests for support every month as it is. We prefer to get to know the missionary hopefuls in our congregation, invest in training them up and then support them in such a way that they don’t have to spend their whole furlough drumming up more money.”

“Furlough is much better spent resting and getting married,” Kaitlyn said with a giggle.

“I don’t know how much rest a wedding is,” Paula said. “But yes, we believe that your furlough should be spent being ministered to, not fundraising. That said, obviously we can’t fund everyone who applies.”

Jane’s mouth went dry.

“So far, you three are the ones we are most interested in, but to be honest, with the economy the way it is, we only have enough support available for one new missionary.”

Jane closed her eyes. The Lord
giveth
, the Lord
taketh
away.

“So our time together over the next year is really important. It will help us determine who we will be funding. We wish we could fund all three of you, really we do. But we can’t.”

“We totally understand.” Kaitlyn nodded her head, a bit overenthusiastically, in Jane’s opinion. Of course Kaitlyn understood. They’d almost have to pick her, since they already funded her future husband for the same mission.

“The one thing most field missionaries wish their new recruits had is solid experience in leading small groups. It’s such a simple thing to do, but sometimes sending churches forget to let their future missionaries lead in the church.”

“Oh, I know what you mean.” Kaitlyn flipped her blond hair over her shoulder with her prosthetic hand. “They almost sent Spencer home after his first month. They thought he was useless.”

Paula smiled.

Jane squirmed. It was wrong to dislike someone with a missing hand, but the way Kaitlyn said “Spencer” and was so completely sure of what she was going to do with her life irritated Jane. She popped a quick prayer up, for forgiveness and grace, and tried to remember that her work-stress was the problem, not Kaitlyn. It kind of helped.

“The other thing new recruits need is strong teamwork skills, so I’d like to ask the three of you to start up a new small group together.”

Jane looked at her new teammates out of the corner of her eye. If she had to guess, Valerie would plan everything, Kaitlyn would get all of the attention for it, and Jane would do all of the work.

Jane passed her hand over her forehead. Her heart was not in the right place, not even remotely. If her future were to be based on today’s attitude, she wouldn’t send herself to the foreign mission field, either.

“Why don’t we all grab some coffee and dessert, and you ladies can get to know each other and talk a little about the kind of small group you’d like to lead.

Desserts were spread across the breakfast bar in the kitchen behind Paula. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee wrapped Jane in a comforting embrace.

“Come on in and help yourself.”

Valerie got up first, with a little grunt. “I won’t be shy. I have to admit those desserts have been tormenting me since I got here.”

Paula laughed. “No need to be shy here. We’re family.”

From the relaxed smile on Paula’s face, Jane knew she meant it. She saw the three potential missionaries as family.

Jane stepped into the hall to compose herself. When she felt half-way normal again, she joined the others in the kitchen. She poured herself a cup of coffee, hoping it was decaf.

“So, Jane, I hear Isaac Daniels brought you to
Columbia River
, is that right?” Paula asked.

“Yes…” Jane took a sip of her coffee.

“How does he feel about missions?” Paula passed a strawberry topped cupcake to Jane.

Jane’s hand shook as she picked up the cupcake. That was the million dollar question.

Jane kept her eyes glued to her bright red berry set into the creamy pink frosting.

“Whoops! Excuse me.” Paula patted her pocket. “My phone.” She pulled out her cell phone and padded into the hall.

Jane’s second narrow escape of the day. She pealed the sliced strawberry from the frosted cupcake and bit it. She wasn’t sure which was scarier: finding out how Isaac truly felt about missions, or facing Caramel and the missing diamond in the morning.

Jane took her cupcake to the dining room table where Valerie and Kaitlyn were chatting.

Kaitlyn turned her one hundred watt smile to Jane. “So what kind of small groups do you like?”

“Bible studies are good.” Jane licked a dab of frosting from her thumb.

“We’re all single ladies—for now anyway,” Valerie said. “Maybe we could offer a Bible study for single career women.”

“Sure…” Kaitlyn said, her voice trailing off in an unconvinced tone. “That’s a possibility. But what about single moms, instead? That’s a really needy group.”

“We could do that.” Valerie sucked in her cheeks. “We’d have to get babysitters lined up, but it is a needy group.”

Jane set her cup down. Nothing wrong with single women—or single moms—as far as an outreach was concerned, but they were going about this backwards. “Do we have a list of small groups that
Columbia River
already offers?”

“Oh, I am pretty sure I know all of them already,” Kaitlyn said.

“Okay.” Jane nodded, but found the claim difficult to believe. “Why don’t we make a list of what we know is going on and see if we could identify an unmet need.”

Kaitlyn pulled her tablet from her purse. She stroked it and poked it. “All right, here’s the list from the website.”

Before Kaitlyn could start reading it, Paula came back into the room. Her face was paper white. She gripped the back of Valerie’s chair, her arms shaking.

“Ladies, I…” She choked on the word. “I need to ask you to leave. There’s been an accident.” Fat tears welled up from Paula’s eyes, and rolled down her cheeks.