“So?” said Mettner.
“So maybe when his book came out and started shooting to the top of every bestseller list in the world, he got worried that Eden might come forward and go public with what he did to her. It must have been her, not Amber. Amber just hated him for what he did to her little sister. Otherwise, why would he spend so much time in contact with Eden and only visit Amber this week?”
Josie looked around at her colleagues, each of them staring as if waiting for her to say more. When she didn’t, Noah said, “He establishes contact with Eden in an attempt to make sure that she plans to stay silent about what he did to her, but then what? She decides not to? Then why did she leave town without even telling her best friend the truth?”
Josie asked the Chief, “Do you have Amber’s phone records?”
“Yes,” he said. He turned and went back into his office, emerging seconds later with another stack of pages which he handed to Josie. “I already looked at them. Shortly after Toland started contacting Eden, Eden reached out to Amber by phone on three occasions. Amber deleted those calls from the call history on her physical phone, but the calls are still in the records that the phone company maintains.”
Gretchen said, “Toland’s book comes out. He’s now even more famous than ever. He decides to contact Eden to make sure she’s not going to tell on him. They start talking. Eden contacts Amber. They both start looking up real estate listings of houses their mother conned men out of, basically. Then what? What are we saying? Vivian somehow gets wind of the fact that Thatcher has contacted Eden, decides Eden is too big a threat to their church to leave hanging out there and that she’ll get Gabriel to kill her? Then what? Kill them all?”
“It doesn’t quite fit, does it?” Josie said. “It’s like we’re still missing something.”
Chitwood clapped his hands together. “Well let’s go over to Rectify and see if Vivian Toland can fill in some of the blanks for us. The service starts in ten minutes.”
Forty-Six
With almost five inches of snow on the ground and more falling steadily from the sky, it took their little caravan almost a half hour to get to Rectify Church. As they pulled down the long road to the building, cars streamed in the other direction, each person driving slowly and cautiously, hands at ten and two on their steering wheels, knuckles white.
“What’s going on here?” said Noah.
“I bet it’s the snow,” Josie replied. “We’re supposed to get a foot, maybe a foot and a half. Toland probably did the responsible thing and sent everyone home before the road conditions got any worse.”
“He’s pretty thoughtful for a pervert, isn’t he?” Noah said.
They parked their cars right out in front of the entrance. No one even noticed or cared. Everyone was too busy making their way to the parking lot. Josie, Noah, Gretchen, Mettner, and Chitwood fought their way through the crowds and into the building. They followed the booming sound of Thatcher’s voice from the inner sanctum of the former arena. Entering on the lower level just as they had when Josie and Noah met Vivian Toland, they struggled against even more people trying hurriedly to exit.
On stage, Thatcher Toland stood in a dark green suit, microphone in hand. “No need to rush,” he was saying. “Let’s all keep it orderly so everyone gets home safely. Vivian and I don’t want anyone to be harmed during this most holy holiday. There will be plenty of time in the future for all of us to be here together in the presence of God.”
The floor section near the stage had cleared out completely. The lower-level seats were nearly empty, but the second-and third-level seats were still full of people trying to find their way to the concourse. Josie looked around but didn’t see Paul anywhere. Vivian sat in a chair on the stage a few feet from Thatcher. She wore a bright red dress and bright red heels. Her hair had been teased and pulled away from her face by two bright red barrettes. She smiled primly as she kept her eyes on her husband.
The lower and floor sections of the church were deserted by the time Vivian spotted them all walking toward the stage. Thatcher didn’t see them at first. His eyes were fixed upward on the congregants still trying to make their way into the second-and third-floor concourses. “Mrs. Toland,” said Chief Chitwood. “Bob Chitwood, Chief of Police. May we have a word?”
Thatcher’s head swiveled in their direction. Vivian stood up and smoothed her skirt over her thighs. Her smile remained plastered across her face. Their group split when they came to the font, Josie, Noah, and Mettner on one side and Gretchen and the Chief on the other. Noah said, “Mrs. Toland, we’d like to speak with you, please.”
Thatcher looked from them to his wife. The microphone caught the end of his sentence. “…what’s this about?”
People on the second and third levels stopped to peer down at what was happening. Vivian, still smiling, took three strides toward her husband and then pushed hard against his chest with both hands. Thatcher went stumbling backward and fell into the large baptismal font. Josie heard several gasps from above them and a few shouts. Vivian slipped off her heels and began running.
Thatcher had landed closer to Chitwood and Gretchen. As they climbed over the wall and into the pool to get him, Chitwood looked at the rest of them and said, “Go, go! Find her!”
Josie, Noah, and Mettner took off, sprinting after Vivian. She had disappeared behind the stage. Mettner was looking under the stage when Josie caught sight of her slipping out of one of the lower-level doors and into the lobby concourse. “Over here!” she called. Noah followed.
Within moments, she was back in the lobby, dodging people in the crowd to get to Vivian. The red dress worked in Josie’s favor. Josie kept catching glances of it as she pushed past congregants emptying into the parking lot. Some of them stopped to watch as Josie sprinted after Vivian. Behind her, Josie heard the low buzz of murmurs as people wondered out loud what was happening.
“Is that Mrs. Toland running?” someone said.
“Is she… is she running from the police?” another person said.