The Bishop’s Wife (Linda Wallheim Mystery, #1)(29)

I had no idea why it was out in the shed or what Anna would make of it, but I thought to return it to her, if only to solve a mystery for her. No doubt she’d been looking for it for years, and had given up ever finding it again.

I closed the door to the shed behind me, then went back inside. Kurt was with Anna in the front room, and he quirked an eyebrow at the pink dress I had brought in.

“He has lucid moments, and that’s a good thing. He told me how much he loves you and his boys. He asked if they would be here. I told him we would all do our best to make that happen,” said Kurt to Anna.

“I’ve already called them. They’re going to try to make it in time to see him, but they both have work projects they have to finish first,” said Anna.

Work projects took precedence over their father’s dying? It made me wonder about their relationship with Anna and their father.

But Kurt nodded. “Good. Then you’re doing the things that need to be done. I know this is hard, but it will help to focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. All right?” He patted her on the shoulder.

I had had to get used to Kurt touching other women. It still felt a little strange. I wondered sometimes if it would ever feel normal.

I offered the dress to Anna. “I found this out in the shed. I thought I would bring it in, just in case it disappeared a long time ago and you never knew where it went.”

But she shook her head. “That’s not mine. You found it in the shed?”

I unfolded it and shook it out. “Maybe it’s something Tobias found discarded somewhere and forgot about?” I said.

Anna touched it again. “That style is so old. And the pattern. I wonder if it belonged to Tobias’s first wife.”

“Oh,” I said, and wished that I hadn’t brought the dress out. Clearly, Tobias had kept it in the shed after all those years because it reminded him of his first wife. He didn’t want Anna to know about his souvenir, and now I had shown it to her.

“I suppose that’s sweet of him, to keep it after all this time. Why he kept a dress, I don’t know, but—” She shrugged.

“Shall I put it back in the shed?” I asked.

“I can’t see what use that would be. You can just throw it in the garbage, I think. Tobias won’t be needing it anymore to remind him of her. He’ll be seeing her soon himself.” She said it without wincing, but I couldn’t help but think it must hurt her, on top of everything else she had to deal with, to realize that her husband had been so in love with his dead wife that during their whole marriage he had kept this secret token of his first love.

“I’ll take care of it,” I promised.

Kurt and I went home, and I put the pink dress in our garage. It was as I was folding it again that I realized there was a brown stain on the neckline. I stared at it and told myself that it was probably the reason that the first wife hadn’t worn it anymore. But why had Tobias kept a ruined dress? And what was the stain?

It looked like blood, I suppose, but there could be a lot of reasons she might get blood on the back of a dress. I turned out of the garage with a shudder, wondering what was wrong with me, that I became suspicious of every neighbor in the ward. I saw blood everywhere, it seemed, and thought of all men as potential murderers. Was the problem me or was it them?





CHAPTER 10




The police served a warrant on the Helms’ home Friday morning, after Kurt had gone to work. I got a panicked call from Jared and rushed over There were a dozen policemen in uniforms already moving through the house. Jared was in the kitchen, holding Kelly in his arms. He was weeping again, and she looked like a scared rabbit.

“You can both come to our house. There’s no reason you have to be here while the police search,” I said. I looked around and found a plainclothes policeman who looked like he might be in charge. “Can he leave? Does he have to watch this?”

“As long as we know where he is, in case there are questions,” was the answer.

I wondered if he meant in case they found evidence enough to arrest Jared on the spot.

“You take her,” said Jared, standing up and pushing Kelly toward me. “I’ll stay here.”

I hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“I need to be here,” he said. “This is our home. I’ll stay here to watch over it. But Kelly shouldn’t have to worry. Take good care of her?”

I nodded. “Of course I will. We’ll have fun together, right, Kelly?”

She nodded at me, then tucked her head into my pant leg.

I took her hand and it felt so good, that tiny, warm bit of flesh and fingers, that I thought there was something wrong with me. How could I feel so right with this other girl who wasn’t my daughter? But somehow I felt like she belonged with me, like she was my second chance.

As we walked back across and up the street, I noticed more than one curious neighbor poking a head out, taking in the police vehicles in the Helms’ driveway and along the sidewalk. I felt a pang for Jared Helm. No matter what he had done, he was still a scared young man trying to do what was right for his daughter.

When I turned back at the front door of my own house, I could see several white-gloved policemen in the Helms’ garage lifting the trunk of the family car.

Kelly caught a glimpse of this, too. “What are they doing? Are they going to take our car away?” she asked.