The Bishop’s Wife (Linda Wallheim Mystery, #1)(36)

The temple was supposed to be our most holy place, where no one was allowed to go if they were touched by sin. But of course, that was impossible. The final question of the temple recommend interview—and in some ways, the most difficult—was, “Do you consider yourself worthy in every way to enter the House of the Lord?”

How could anyone be worthy in every way?

But I didn’t know if Tobias’s sin was big or small. Was he overly worried about a peccadillo, or might I be right about his first wife’s death?


THURSDAY MORNING, I woke late, after Samuel and Kurt had both already left the house. I got dressed, ate breakfast, and then took a few quiet moments to prepare myself. Then I called the first number on the scrap of paper Anna had given me the night before. The elder son’s name was Liam. The younger son was Tomas, without the h, some tip of the hat to the Scandinavian heritage, I supposed.

Tomas answered immediately. I explained who I was, and then he told me he had just arrived at the airport in Washington, and would be staying at a nearby Salt Lake City hotel that night rather than bother Anna to try to prepare a room for him. So he would be here soon enough to see Tobias still alive, I hoped. Some of my anger dissipated, but I still wanted to ask about his mother.

I said, “Your father has been asking to see your mother’s grave. Anna wanted to know if you could go visit it for him, perhaps take a photo or a video, just to put his mind at rest. I know it seems silly, and you must have plenty to do already, but I thought I would ask, since you are in the area.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know where she is buried,” said Tomas. “Dad would never talk about her death or her gravesite.”

I said carefully, “So you don’t know how she died?”

“He told us she died suddenly of a heart condition, but we never saw her body at a funeral that I recall.” Tomas spoke evenly, no hint of fear or nervousness in his voice. “And when I had my own heart trouble, and wanted to see if there was a genetic link, Dad said there weren’t any records for her.”

“I didn’t know you had heart problems. I’m sorry,” I said.

“Oh, I’ve had surgery for it since to correct it. Just a little hole in the heart. But why there were no records of her heart condition, I never knew. It made me wonder if—” He cut himself off.

“If what?” I asked.

“If she hadn’t died of a heart condition, after all.” His tone was musing, not suspicious.

“You think he lied to you? But why?” I asked. I should have dropped this, but no one could blame me when Tomas Torstensen brought it up himself, could they?

“I don’t know. Maybe she had a drunken accident. Something he was embarrassed about,” said Tomas. “But to answer your question, I don’t know where the grave is. We never visited it as children and as far as I know, Dad never went to visit it on his own, either.”

“Then you don’t think Liam might know anything more?” I asked.

“No. He and I have talked about it. Numerous times.” He sounded annoyed now, and why shouldn’t he? I was asking him irrelevant details about the past when his father was dying. Finally, he added, “Liam says he thinks she was cremated. But I don’t know where her ashes would be.”

Cremation wasn’t forbidden by the church, but it seemed—odd. Especially for a young wife. “But then, why would your father be asking to see her grave if she wasn’t buried?” I asked. I wasn’t just being nosy. Anna had asked me to help her with this so Tobias could die in peace, knowing how his wife’s grave would be cared for when he was gone.

“Maybe his mind is going. Maybe he can’t remember what he did with her remains,” said Tomas. “I can ask him about it when I get there tomorrow afternoon, if you’d like.” Now he was ready to go. I had kept him too long.

“I wouldn’t want to upset him,” I said. But wasn’t it Tobias who said he wanted to see his wife’s grave? Why was he talking about it now after so many years of staying silent on the subject? It wasn’t until after we’d hung up that I thought to tell Tomas about the pink dress I still had in the garage, rescued that morning from the plastic garbage bag and placed neatly folded on a shelf with our garden gloves, which were woefully unused of late.

I tried to call Liam multiple times that day, and only got his answering machine. I left two urgent messages on it for him to return my call, and hoped that he was on an airplane even then. I wished I had thought to ask Tomas about his brother’s plans. It sounded as if the two of them talked to each other a great deal more than either of them talked to their parents.





CHAPTER 13




Breaking news Friday at noon on KSL was once more about Carrie Helm. A convenience store camera had footage of Jared Helm and Kelly stopping to get gas at 3:00 A.M., just hours before he had come to my house to tell Kurt that Carrie was missing. What was he doing outside at that time with his young daughter in the car? And why had he not told the police or me and Kurt anything about it?

I had told Kurt I wasn’t going to involve myself with the Helms anymore. But as soon as the news was over, I turned off the television and began to work on another pan of brownies. Kelly hadn’t gotten to eat the ones she had made before.

While I was waiting impatiently for the brownies to cook, Adam called me. “I heard about the new information in that case in your neighborhood,” he said. “Is Dad going to have to talk to the news people, too?”