The Bishop’s Wife (Linda Wallheim Mystery, #1)(76)

As soon as the renters called Kurt, he called me.

“I think all they know at this point is that the body is between twenty and forty years dead, and that it’s a woman who was in her twenties.”

“Has anyone called Tomas and Liam?” I asked. I wasn’t so sure about Anna. She had begun her cruise and this would only ruin it. And why should she have to come home to deal with this?

“Could you do that?” asked Kurt.

I still had their numbers from before. I had an emergency number for the cruise, too, but I didn’t want to use that and interrupt Anna’s first chance to get away from problems with Tobias and his first wife. If the police decided to call her to come home, they could do it themselves. Her sons could deal with the rest of the issues here, including the renters’ rights.

I tried to call Liam, but he didn’t pick up. Then I tried Tomas, and when he answered, I recited the facts as I knew them: the skeleton of a woman had been found in the garden of his father’s house.

Tomas was understandably upset. “Well, someone else must have put it there. Though I don’t know how Dad never found it, considering the time he spent in that dirt.”

I let him think that through himself. “I just wanted you to know what had happened. Do you want me to call Liam, as well?”

Tomas assured me that he would call Liam.

I felt rather morbid walking over to the house, but I did just that. There were nearly a dozen people in protective suits in the backyard, and yellow police tape had been wrapped around the perimeter. I craned my neck and caught a glimpse of soil samples being taken. The skeleton was already gone, and I was glad about that.

The new renter, Sister Brenda Geary, came out and hurried over to me. She was in her late thirties and her bleached blonde hair stood out all over her head. She looked a little lost.

“They’ve said we’re going to have to find a hotel for the next several nights while they work here. Until they’ve identified her and what happened, we can’t be here. But we spent all our money getting into this place. We thought it would be such a great change for the kids to come to a nice neighborhood.” She and her husband had moved from downtown Salt Lake City, trying to get their teenage son away from a gang. “Don’t worry about that,” I assured her. “The ward will pay for a condo for a few nights.” In fact, Kurt was likely to pay for it out of his own pocket, which meant out of my own pocket. When Kurt could not justify using church funds to help people, this was what we did.

I spent some time helping Brenda go through the house and pack a few days’ worth of clothes for each child and herself and her husband. Then the police asked her for the key and locked up the place.

I called Kurt and he asked me to arrange things, so I drove her to a condo complex where Kurt sometimes sent women who needed to be away from their husbands for a while before they decided on what their next step would be. It wasn’t far from the neighborhood, just down off the highest ridge of the mountain, and I spent most of the afternoon ferrying each child separately, since all three were at different schools and got out at different times.

Finally, I got home myself and found Samuel there, waiting for me in that quiet way of his.

“Mom, can I ask you some questions?”

I sat down next to him at the kitchen counter, staring at the bag of potato chips that he had nearly finished off. “Is this about the body in the Torstensen’s yard? I don’t think they have an identification on it yet.”

“It’s about Kenneth. And the church.”

“Oh,” I said. “When did you two talk?” I felt a pang that I hadn’t followed up with Kenneth since Carrie Helm’s funeral.

“A little bit last weekend, on the phone,” Samuel said. “But it’s not just that one phone call. It’s a lot of little comments he’s made.”

“Apparently Kenneth is struggling with the church,” I said. I didn’t want Samuel to think I was endorsing Kenneth’s complaints about the church, but I didn’t want to ignore them, either.

“Yeah, I got that already,” said Samuel. “But last week, Dad pulled me aside and told me to be careful not to get too wrapped up with Kenneth’s ideas, that it could be dangerous for me. He wants me to focus on preparing for a mission in August.”

Samuel would turn eighteen then, and while he didn’t have to go right away, the church encouraged young people to go as early as possible, and not to put off a mission for college or work. The church had even begun to encourage those who hadn’t saved enough for their own missions to go anyway, because there were always wealthy donors who would reimburse the church for the monthly $400 bill. Not that Kurt would let that happen with our son.

“Is there anything in particular that Kenneth said that’s bothering you?”

Samuel hesitated. “It was about temple marriage. He said that he wasn’t sure he wanted to marry someone for eternity. He made a joke about it, but he said that it was hard enough to commit to ‘till death do you part.’ ”

“He isn’t dating anyone seriously, is he?” I knew that sometimes the parents were the last to know, but I’d always hoped my sons would communicate better with me.

Samuel shrugged. “He dated a few girls a couple of years ago, but I think he’s serious about not wanting to get married. He says that there are almost no girls who are interested in dating someone who doesn’t want to get married. At least in Utah.”