Even In Darkness--An American Murder Mystery Thriller by Lynn Hightower Page A

you did.’
    I take a breath. ‘I can’t believe how stupid I was.
You
helped him take the money in the first place, didn’t you? You probably wrote the checks yourself.’
    Marsha is shaking her head, twisting the end of her turquoise blouse in her hands. ‘No, no, no, it wasn’t like that. He took the money out himself and he forged your signature on three different checks.’
    I have to sit down right away, but I don’t want to sit on the couch any more than she does. I wind up on the ottoman at her feet.
    Marsha inhales and exhales, and stifles a shuddering sob. ‘Carl had it all set up so that if anybody found out about it, the blame would go on you. But I caught it. I know your signature better than I know my own.
I
told him he’d have to pay it back. I threatened to go to the board over it, and he said if I did he’d tell them about the affair and I’d get fired. I told him to go ahead. I wasn’t going to help him embezzle from the foundation. The board might
fire
me but they’d put
him
in jail. He warned me. He said I’d create a scandal that would end the ministries. I could see his point, so I told him I would talk to you and you could decide. That’s when he said that you already knew.’ She looks up at me. ‘I’m the one who told you the money was missing in the first place, don’t you remember?’
    â€˜Of course I remember. What I don’t recall is you saying anything about sleeping with my husband.’
    â€˜I was going to tell you. But when you came back to me and asked me to cover it up, and said you’d pay everything back, I figured Carl had told you everything, just like he said.’
    â€˜How long were you having sex with Carl, how long?’
    â€˜A few weeks, that’s all.’
    â€˜That’s enough. Look, I have to go out of town. You can clean out your desk and get your personal things next week. I’ll give you a call when I get back and we can settle up your pay and all that.’
    Marsha’s face is red, her eyes wide and streaming with tears. ‘Don’t you understand that Carl used me to get to the
money
? He thought I’d go along with it,
with him
, but I
didn’t
. I’m a
victim
, just the same as you.’
    â€˜Not quite the same.’
    â€˜But where are you going? Have you found out something about the kidnappers? Don’t you want me to keep Leo?’
    â€˜No, Leo is going with me.’
    â€˜
Joy.
At least wait till Andee and Caroline come back. You need me.’
    I am shaking my head. ‘No. You’re exactly what I don’t need. You were easy prey, Marsha. It was obvious to Carl, just like it is to anybody with a brain, that whatever I have, you want. So be it. I don’t want you near me, ever again.’
    Marsha lifts her chin. ‘We’re family, Joy. I’ve worked hard on this ministry a lot of years. You can’t just throw me away.’
    I say nothing. Waiting for her to leave.
    â€˜You’ll change your mind. When you’re not so mad, you’ll see. This is not who you are.’
    I shake my head at her. I don’t know who I am anymore, so how can she?

TWELVE
    T he drive from Lexington to Fort Smith is an agony of tedium. I drink coffee and chew gum and listen to NPR until I am suicidal over the state of the world. By midnight I hit Memphis, and it’s all I can do to make it off an exit to a hotel.
    Leo and I are on the road again by six a.m., and by noon we’re rolling into Fort Smith.
    It’s a smallish town. I frown over the directions I have printed out from MapQuest. It takes me twenty minutes and two wrong turns before I find Caroline’s place. Her Jeep Wrangler still sits in the driveway. I never came to visit them. I always meant to.
    The flower beds in the front yard are carefully weeded, and next door the grass has been cut so recently I can smell the green. White Impatiens grow