Pastor Paul and the Not-So-Sweet Revenge Mystery
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“As the paramedics backed away and headed out the door, Pastor Paul stepped up to the right side of the bed and looked down on Evelyn lying very still in her flowered cotton nightgown. Her pillows and blankets had been pulled away to allow medical attention but now her bare feet and arms being exposed made her look cold. A surgical scar was just visible at her neckline. Almost as a reflex he pulled the covers up to her chest tucking her arms underneath. He looked up at Doc and the sheriff.
“I hope that it’s alright for me to do this,” he said as he adjusted the blankets. “It’s just that she was always so sensitive to drafts while she was going through chemotherapy and this looks much more comfortable for her. Plus the Ladies may want to come in for their final farewells.” He lifted her gently and slid a pillow under her head and brushed her hair to the side like she usually wore it.
“Well,” said the sheriff, “I guess it’s alright as long its okay with the coroner her. I don’t think this is a case of foul play. How about it, Doc?” Doctor Wimbley had a somewhat quizzical look on his face as he looked up from the bottles he held in his hand.
“Oh…yes, yes, I think everything is okay,” he said, “It’s just that there are a few more things that I have to do before I have all the answers. For instance, I have to add up all the pills in these bottles and compare them to the prescriptions. Everything has to be done right before I can go on the record. Don’t rush me, Ellis; I’ll let you know after the autopsy.”
“Autopsy?” asked Pastor Paul “is that really necessary? Didn’t she just die as a result of the cancer?”
“Well, there are some issues surrounding the conditions of her discovery,” Sheriff Richards broke in, “whenever there is an unattended death we have to investigate by law.”
“But the Ladies were always here, taking turns caring for Evelyn” Pastor Paul replied, “I don’t think she would ever have been unattended.”
“Well, you’re probably right but Mrs. Roth seemed pretty confused when I showed up. I came because she dialed 911 and we were close by. My deputy and I were coming back from transferring some prisoners over to Lawtonville County Jail and happened to be coming down Castle Valley Road just about a mile away. Mrs. Roth didn’t seem to give me a very clear story about whether she was here when Mrs. Arlington died or she came in and found her dead. In fact, I think it’s time to go back out and talk to her again and see if she has her story straight now.” The sheriff headed towards the door with his clipboard in hand and Pastor Paul started to follow when Doc asked him to stay for a minute. The sheriff pulled the door closed as he stepped back into the living room.
Doc Wimbley was a long-time member of Castle Community Church, served as an elder, and helped introduce Pastor McGill to the people in the surrounding community when he first came to Castle Valley about 14 years earlier. Pastor Paul felt that over the years they had grown to be good friends and now he could read Doc’s expressions pretty well.
“Is something wrong, Doc?” asked Pastor Paul as soon as the door was completely closed. Doctor Wimbley looked down at Evelyn then back at Pastor Paul
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“Yes…and no. I mean that I don’t think anything is wrong, but I do have some questions. Most things seem as they should be, but here and there they seem to be just a little out of place”, Doc answered.
“Well, what doesn’t seem right, Doc?” said Pastor Paul as feelings of concern rose in his heart.
“Sheriff Richards told me that when he got here Evelyn was lying naturally on the bed with all the pillows and covers in place and her hands were laying one over the other across her chest just like she was asleep”, Doc explained, “He just felt her neck for a pulse and didn’t disturb anything in the room. By the time I arrived the EMT’s had tore all the covers off to attempt CPR and soon realized that she had been dead for quite some time. I looked her over when I got here and found something I couldn’t explain right away.” Doc reached into his pocket and pulled out a little plastic evidence bag. He held it up so Pastor Paul could take a look. Inside were two small fibers that looked like little rose-colored threads.
“I found those inside her nose”, Doc said in the low voice, “and I also noticed this.” Doc reached down and leaned over Evelyn inviting Pastor Paul to join him on the other side of the bed. He spread her eyelid open with his gloved fingers so the pastor could see the white area of her eye. “There are little hemorrhages around the circumference of her eyes, but mostly on the two outside corners.”
“What does that mean”, asked Pastor Paul imagining that it probably wasn’t something good if Doc was so concerned.
“Well, sometimes it means that someone has been suffocated”, Doc answered. Pastor Paul stood straight up at hearing of that possibility as Doc continued; “Now I don’t think anybody that I know in all of Castle Valley would want poor Sister Evelyn to leave her earthly home any quicker than she should! And I realize that at her age and with all the chemicals that have been in her body because of the cancer treatments, there may be other explanations for the hemorrhaging around the eyes. But those fibers also bother me because they look suspiciously like the colors on her pillow case. When you put the two things together it’s hard to explain.” For a few moments Doc and Pastor Paul just looked at each other as their minds tried to come up with an answer to this situation.
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About the Book
Pastor Paul McGill, with his wife and daughter, contentedly settled down in a small, rural, Central New York community surrounded by wooded hillsides. They enjoy coming to know their friendly, sometimes quirky neighbors, until late one summer when the angry, vengeful attitudes of some residents begin to ferment to the surface.
Pastor Paul and the Not-So-Sweet Revenge Mystery invokes the feeling of the British Midsomers Murders transplanted to the rolling hills of New York’s Finger Lakes region. It is easy to get involved as Pastor Paul tries to uncover who is bringing sickness and death to his peaceful valley. With the help of his wife, who acts as his personal “Dr. Watson,” and his close friend Doc Wimbley, the local medical examiner, he unsnarls the tangle of clues and suspects to find the person set on revenge.
Pastor Paul reflects the author’s decades of experience ministering to rural church communities. The dynamics of building and maintaining familial relationships are felt throughout the story, even as they join together to protect their community from harm. Pastor Paul’s teenage daughter, Melissa, gets involved in the drama, establishing some unexpected friendships along the way. Many of the characters in this story learn valuable lessons about the importance of supporting one another.
Rather than focusing on “blood and gore,” this story examines the hurts and fears that motivate someone to compromise their values and cause them to injure the lives of others. Join the narrative as Pastor Paul locates the vengeful killer.
About the Author
Curtis Carter ministered at a church in Waverly, New York for twenty-two years. While a volunteer at nearby Elmira Correctional Facility, he learned the mindset and motives of those who commit crimes. Now he is director of Golden Key Prison Ministry and lives with his wife, Nancy, in Candor, New York.