CHAPTER FOURTEEN #2
Selena let the silence sit a moment. “Doesn’t make it any less true.”
That got the smallest nod.
“You okay to talk a bit longer?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘okay,’” he said honestly. Then he rubbed his face hard with one hand. “But sitting at home feels worse, so… yeah. Ask.”
Selena turned the flyer so Brian could see it clearly. “I found this at Brenda Colter’s house. We believe that the same person who killed your mother may have murdered Brenda. We’re looking for a connection between your mother and Brenda. Have you seen a flyer like this before?”
Brian leaned in. His fingers tightened around the paper cup.
“Yeah,” he said. “Not this exact one. Same church people, though. My mom had one in her purse for a while.”
Connor glanced at Selena. Neither of them spoke.
Brian looked up. “My mom never mentioned Brenda. Do you think they knew each other?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Selena said. “Did your mother go to one of these revivals?”
“A few. Not here. In other towns.”
“Do you remember where?” Selena asked.
“Mercer Falls, first. That one I’m sure about. Then maybe Ashby. I think.” He swallowed. “She started following the page for that online. I forget how many she went to after that, but there were a few.”
Selena slid the flyer a little closer to him. “When did your mother start going?”
Brian stared at the paper as if reading it might be easier than answering.
“A while ago, a few months, maybe.”
“And do you remember anything unusual about her trips to this revival?” Selena asked.
“She started dressing up to go,” he said finally. “Not fancy. Just nicer than usual. Hair done. Lipstick. One time I asked if she had a date and she laughed at me.” He almost smiled, but it didn’t come to anything. “Said she was going where people still believed folks could change.”
Connor leaned forward slightly. “And that was the revival.”
“Yeah.”
“Did she say anything about what it was like?”
Brian stared at a spot on the table. “First time back, she talked more than I’d heard her talk in months. Said the preacher looked right at her when he was speaking. Said it felt like somebody was finally telling the truth for once for people like her.”
“People like her?” Selena asked.
His jaw tightened. “That you can spend your whole life messing things up and maybe still not be finished. That if you ask for it, Jesus will forgive all sins.”
Selena looked at Connor for a moment. He’d crossed his arms, a sure sign he wasn’t comfortable with the topic. He’d never liked religion, not when he was younger, at least.
She turned back to Brian. “Was your mother religious before that?”
Brian let out a thin breath. “Not really. Like a lot of people, she’d say she believed in God when it suited the argument.
That’s about it.” He wiped a tear from his eye.
“Then these meetings started and she got… softer, maybe. Quieter. I could hear her praying sometimes when I stayed over. At night. I don’t know what it was about, but she was upset. She’d never talk about it.”
“Did she ever meet anyone there? Pastor Elias Croft, maybe, or someone else?”
“She never mentioned anybody by name.” He shook his head. “Just ‘the revival is coming.’ She’d say ‘they’re in Ashby next week’ or ‘they’re crossing into Benton County after this.’ Like she was always paying attention to where they were.”
Selena rubbed the back of her neck, fixing her ponytail for a moment. “Did your mom ever mention feeling under threat or in danger?”
“Not to me,” he answered. “Certainly not from those revival shows. But I didn’t like it either way.”
“No?”
“No,” he echoed. “I don’t believe a person can just suddenly change like that. It’s fake. They fill your head up with stuff like you can wash away everything overnight. You can’t. You gotta put in the work first.”
He bent forward and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. The paper cup tipped, sloshing coffee onto the table. Connor moved first, quick and quiet, righting it before it could spill further and sliding a box of tissues across without comment.
Brian laughed once, a short, broken sound that carried no humor.
“Brian,” Selena said, leaning forward. “I know this might be a difficult subject, but what did your mom need forgiven?”
Brian moved in his seat and shook his head. “That’s my mom’s private business.”
Selena reached across the table and patted his hand. “We think the killer might be punishing the victims for something, possibly their romantic relationships. Was there anything unusual about your mother’s?”
“I… I’m sure she regretted some meet-ups with guys over the years,” he said.
“She wasn’t exactly a prude. She didn’t know who my father was, either.
Let’s just leave it at that. And before you ask, I don’t know who they guys were.
They’d come and go. That’s why I moved out as soon as I could. You imagine… hearing it…”
Selena felt for him. “Brian, we all have some things we don’t agree with about our folks. Trust me, I know. But whatever people thought about your mother, going to those meetings doesn’t make her guilty of anything other than trying to be at peace.”
He met her eyes at that, raw and angry and exhausted.
“My mom wasn’t bad,” he said.
“I know.” Selena hesitated. “But the more we know about her life and her personality, the better chance we have of figuring out who her killer is.”
Brian sighed and then sniffed, as though the tears were somewhere inside of him ready to fall at any moment. “She liked to drink. And when she drank at a bar, she’d lose herself, get into trouble or end up waking up with someone she didn’t even know. I… I hated that. But deep down, she was good.”
“We understand,” the sheriff said.
“No, you don’t.” His voice rose, then cracked.
He dragged a breath in and steadied himself.
“What I know is she still made my lunch when I was little even when she’d worked all night.
She still sat up with me when I had the flu.
She still knew every stupid thing I liked to eat on my birthday.
So don’t let him turn her into whatever he thought she was. ”
Selena held his gaze. “We won’t. And we will do our best to catch who did this for your mom and his other victims.”
“Victims? There’s more than just the Brenda lady?”
The Roman numerals flashed across Selena’s mind, dripping in blood. II and III. But where was the first? That was what bothered Selena. Who was victim one? “Brenda so far,” Selena said.
Connor got to his feet. “I think that probably winds up what we need, Brian.”
Brian scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “So now what?”
Connor uncapped a marker and faced the board. “Now you go home and try to rest. We’ll update you if we have anything.”
Selena helped him to his feet and ushered him kindly out of the door to the reception where Cheryl was waiting.
“Cheryl, do you have information on a local bereavement counselor?” Selena asked.
“Sure,” she said, coming out from the desk with a card and handing it to Brian. “Sorry about your mom.”
He nodded.
Selena patted him on the back. “If you think of anything else, please get in touch.”
“Now what?” he said, his voice a whisper. “I just go home and stew, I guess?”
“Get some sleep,” she answered. “Then the funeral arrangements. Sometimes going through the arrangements helps give you something to focus on.”
“Thanks,” he said, his eyes red with tears. He walked out of the station. Selena watched him.
“Poor kid,” Cheryl said.
“Yeah,” Selena answered. “We have to catch this bastard.”
“I hope you’re not talking about me,” Connor said, entering the reception.
Selena saw he was holding a piece of paper. “What’s that?”
“I checked online,” he said. “We know where that revival will be. Thought we’d best check them out. North Benton tonight. Then Canaan Ridge tomorrow. Then Harper County by the weekend.”
“Do you know this Elias Croft who runs it?” Selena asked.
“No,” came the answer as Connor stood there, looking at her like a man waiting for directions.
Selena took a deep breath. “Then it’s about time we introduced ourselves.”