“So sorry I’m late. Traffic on the 281 was hell. Oops.” Sherilynn slapped a hand over her mouth. “Probably shouldn’t say ‘hell’ in church. Forgive me, it’s been a while.”
The entire congregation stared back in silence, most of their mouths hanging open wide enough to invite a whole colony of birds to move in.
“What are y’all looking at?” Sherilynn flapped her hands. “Go on back to your business. I’ll just take a seat and mind my own.”
“Momma,” Cordelia whisper-hissed. “What are you doing here?”
“You have been sending me to voicemail for over ten days now.” Sherilynn put her hands on her hips. “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I got Suzy minding the shop for me so I could drive on down and make sure you were okay. And what do I find? You’re sitting in church. I thought I raised you better than that.”
Cordelia groaned internally. With everything that had been going on, of course she had forgotten to call her momma, who just let those days slide on by until she had an excuse to come down here. This wouldn’t end well.
“Never mind all that.” Cordelia tugged on her wrist. “Will you just sit down, please?”
Sherilynn scooched into the pew, introducing herself to the chicks like she didn’t just blow in here like a tornado. Only twice as destructive. Daisy threw her arm around her like they were old friends, such was her way, while Belinda Sue gave a polite but firm handshake. Arline just narrowed her eyes. No doubt she’d have Sherilynn’s social security number and complete medical history in her back pocket by the end of the day.
The town still gaped at her, unable to process that the notorious Sherilynn West had returned to Sarsaparilla Falls.
The new pastor cleared his throat. “If we could get on with the service now.”
Sherilynn waved him off, raising her voice far above what was necessary. “Go on now, do what you gotta do.”
“Right.” The pastor moved to the podium and shuffled some papers.
Cordelia continued to shoot nervous glances at her. She didn’t like the idea of this town getting its hooks into Sherilynn again. And while she had found a home in Sarsaparilla Falls, she still felt very strongly that it was a bad place for her momma, and she wanted to get her out of town as soon as possible.
The pastor droned on. Sherilynn watched him with a near numb smile on her lips and a glaze to her eyes that let Cordelia know she was here in body only. Her mind had wandered elsewhere. Cordelia thought about pulling her right out of the church and sending her back to Dallas, but seeing as how they’d already caused one scene, it was best just to wait.
“And one last bit of business I’d like to address.” The pastor folded his hands in front of him. “It’s come to my attention that Sarsaparilla Falls is home to a house of ill repute.”
The congregation swung their heads around to the last pew. Cordelia sunk lower on her seat as every eye in the room landed on her and the chicks. This was too much attention for one morning. It was already hot in the church thanks to those oppressive lights, but the temperature raised another ten degrees.
Only a small handful, Edna and her ilk, looked smug about the callout. The rest of the women in the congregation shot each other worried glances. They’d gotten real comfortable with their alone time and weren’t looking to give that up anytime soon. Maureen Claremont shot the pastor a dirty look. The only reason she got to catch up onReal Housewiveswas because Daisy kept her husband occupied and out of her hair.
“I plan on making it my duty to shut this sinful business down,” the pastor said. “This is God’s country, and there is no place for prostitution within the borders of this town.”
Sherilynn snorted. “Good luck with that, buddy.”
The congregation broke out in murmurs, and none of them seemed to be favoring the pastor. Least of all because they didn’t consider the subject matter Sunday-morning appropriate. Ashlynn Vick covered her toddler’s ears while her five-year-old pressed her face into her side. Her husband was a little too young to pay a visit to the Chickadee, but her kids benefited from the books Daisy donated and she appreciated them all the same.
“If you’ll excuse me.” Arline stood, her bright-purple caftan splashed with irises swishing at her ankles. “I’ve got to use the bathroom. Tell me if I miss anything good.”
Cordelia opened her mouth, then closed it again. It wasn’t worth the effort.
Daisy crossed her arms. “And to think I was going to offer him a discount as a welcome to town. He can forget about it now.”
“The old pastor, rest his soul, might’ve been okay with the goings-on in this town, but I’m not the same.” The pastor paused and looked out on the congregation to gauge their reaction. A few of the men hung their heads—the spineless ones who didn’t deal well with a direct shaming of their proclivities—while most of the women looked ready to stage a walkout. “I won’t stand for heathens making a mockery of you any longer. We’re going to take our county back and make this a Christian land once more.”
Only four people broke out in applause, which quickly died out once they realized they stood alone. Cordelia was pleased to see that Archer and Stella weren’t among them. But it worried her that there was any support from people at all. Now that they’d been fully cleared of any wrongdoing in Pastor Reed-Smythe’s death, she figured things would go back to normal.
The lights flickered overhead. The pastor raised a finger. “And one more thing.”
The lights suddenly went out, plunging the church into total darkness thanks to those light-blocking curtains. Panickedwhispers rose above the din as people stepped over one another to figure out what had gone wrong. They weren’t expecting a storm. What had taken out the lights? And why hadn’t the generator kicked on?
A loud thud echoing from the pastor’s microphone brought everyone to a standstill. The lights flickered again, and a few screams broke out in the front. The lights flickered one more time before coming back on.
And at the front of the church, slumped over the podium, was the new pastor. Still and unmoving. With a knife in his back.
The room erupted in pandemonium. Archer tried to herd people away from the body to preserve evidence as several deputies in their Sunday best ushered people toward the exit. In the flurry of activity, a flash of movement caught Cordelia’s eye, and she shifted her gaze just in time to see a scrap of purple fabric covered in irises disappear through the side door near the front of the church. Arline still hadn’t returned from the bathroom.
