The Jealous Monster

Maude  vanished in broad daylight. It all started with her arguing with the preacher’s wife. She went to her car, made one phone call. There was no answer. Maude sped off in the car. Another car was following her. 

Maude’s mother called Maude’s phone for three days straight with no answer. She was worried. Maude called her every day and told her about her day and her schedule. Her mom was worried and called everyone she could think of.  Nobody had heard from Maude since the same Sunday her mom last heard from her. The last person her mom called was Maude’s boyfriend, Henry.

The phone rang and with each ring Maude’s mother, Beau held her breath. Finally he picked up.

“Is this Henry?” She asked. 

“Yes, is this Miss Beau?” Henry asked, almost whispering in the phone.

“Yes, I am calling to ask if you have seen Maude? Have you talked to her lately?” Maude’s mom asked as her heart raced.

“I saw her on Sunday. She said that she had a meeting with the Preacher at the church. Something about her singing in the chrior I think. She was supposed to come over later that night but I never heard from her. I left a few messages and texts but she hasn’t returned them. I was about to call you and ask if you had heard from her. I am worried. Did you call the cops?”

“That’s going to be my next call, Henry, nobody has heard from her or seen her. I guess you were the last person to see her. What time did you see her?” Beau asked.

“I saw her around 10:30 am. Her meeting was supposed to be at noon so she left my place around 11. Said she was going home to change and then go to the meeting at the church. I hope she is okay.”

“Thanks Henry. If you hear anything let me know. “

Her mom hung up the phone and dialed the number to the local police department. 

Detective Hannah Mayberry took down all the information about Maude’s disappearance. She decided to go to Maude’s apartment and do a welfare check. She and her partner Detective Claus Kopper drove to Maude’s apartment building and walked up two flights of steps to Maude’s apartment, Apartment 202. Hannah knocked on the door but nobody answered. She knocked again and still no answer. The detectives decided to get the building manager to let them inside the apartment.  They looked around at the impeccably neat apartment. They looked in the living room and everything seemed to be in order. Nothing seemed out of place in that room. The kitchen was a different story. On the sink was a knife soaking in the sink immersed in bloody water. Hannah put on some rubber blue gloves and fished out the knife from the water and put it in a plastic bag. 

“Looks like foul play here.” Hannah said to her partner, Claus.

“Yeah, something happened in here. Look there is blood  splatter on the walls by the kitchen table.” Claus pointed out.

“Let’s check out the bedroom.” Hannah said as the two walked towards the bedroom across from the kitchen.

Claus walked toward the bed and pulled back the brightly colored quilt which covered Maude’s king size bed. He let out a gasp and that caused Hannah to walk to the bed.

“Blood, a lot of blood.” Hannah said as she looked at the blood soaked bed.

They called the CSI unit and then made a visit to the last person who saw Maude alive according to her mother. 

Claus banged on the front door of the small white house on the corner of Elm street. A few minutes later Henry Jackson opened the door. He looked a little disheveled as he answered the door. Hannah and Claus identified themselves and asked to talk to him about Maude.

Henry explained to them that the last time he saw Maude was on Sunday, three days ago and he hadn’t seen or spoke to her since. He told them she was supposed to go to the church to a meeting with the preacher about the choir or something related. He explained that she left around 11 and said her meeting was at noon and that she needed to change her clothes at home and was supposed to meet him later that evening for dinner. When she didn’t show up he called and texted her but figured she may be still doing church business. 

“How involved was she with the church?” Hannah asked Henry.

“She was in the choir and helped out at certain functions and did their books sometimes.” Henry replied.

“You might want to check with the pastor.” Henry continued.

“Why do you say that?” Claus asked

“Because I think that they might have been having an affair.” Henry said looking down at the floor.

“What makes you think that?” Claus asked.

“ Well, about a week ago we had an argument and she went to use the bathroom and she got a text on her phone. I picked up the phone, read the text and took a picture of the text with my phone. Here is what it said.” Henry said, handing his phone to the detectives. 

The text messages weren’t good. They had explicit pictures of the preacher and words to match.

“Guess we need to pay the preacher a visit.” Hannah said as they got in the car and drove off.

“Preacher Ross?” Hannah asked as they entered the church’s front office.

“Yes, can I help you?” 

“We want to ask you a few questions about Maude James.” Hannah said holding up her badge.

“Oh yeah. I hope that they find her. She’s a sweet girl.” 

“Preacher Ross, can you tell us about the relationship you have with Maude?”

“She’s in the choir and she does the books sometimes. “  The preacher said.

“Anything else you want to tell us?” Claus asked.

“No, I don’t know anything else. The last time I saw her was on Sunday.” 

“What time on Sunday did you see her?” Hannah asked the preacher.

“A little after noon. She was here to discuss the choir. She was supposed to sing lead on a song for next Sunday.” The preacher explained.

“Well, you are saying that you were just friends?” Claus asked

“Yeah, we were friends.” 

“Okay, take a look at this text from your phone. Do you send texts like this to all of your parishioners?” Claus asked the preacher.

“Oh, well, I didn’t send that. Other people have access to my phone too. I put it down and someone in the church office could have picked it up. I am telling you we were just friends.”

“What time did Maude leave after the meeting?” Claus asked.

“Around one or so.” 

“Thanks Preacher Ross. We will be in touch.” 

“We need to get a warrant to search the Preacher’s car.” Hannah said.

“What are you thinking?” Her partner asked.

“I am thinking that he is not telling the truth.” Hannah replied.

A few days later they had the preacher’s car and the CSI unit was going over it in a fine tooth comb way.

“Hannah, look at the report. Do you see what I see?” 

“Yes, I do.” Hannah replied to her partner.

“Time to arrest the Preacher for murder.” Hannah continued.

“A warrant for what? My arrest? What are you talking about?” The preacher yelled as Hannah read him his rights and handcuffed him.

“I didn’t kill anyone he yelled.”  They put him in the back of the squad car and took him to jail.

The preacher insisted he was innocent and even had a press conference from jail to proclaim his innocence. His wife even said he was at home all of Sunday night. She said he couldn't have killed anyone.

“Hannah, the preacher keeps saying he is not the killer and plus we don’t have a body. Do you think he is innocent after all?” 

“The evidence points to him.” Hannah replied thumbing through his file.

“But, maybe, just maybe we have the wrong person. I was thinking about the case since he got arrested. He is right, the timeline doesn’t make much sense to me.” 

“Ok, lets see. Maude went missing on  late Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening. The preacher said he saw her on Sunday afternoon for the meeting and she left in the early afternoon. Her boyfriend saw her earlier and none of the neighbors said they saw her after Sunday or heard anything from her apartment. But, from the blood evidence someone had to hear something. “ Hannah said to her partner.

Just as they were about to leave the office for lunch the phone rang. 

“Hannah, we might have a lead on the Maude case.”  Claus said, hanging up the phone.

Two hours later and elderly woman dressed all in white from head to toe with a big white hat. Her hat looked as if it was too big for her head and her grey hair peaked from under the hat on one side.  She walked slowly and carefully over to Claus' desk and sat down on the chair across from the desk.  She placed her white purse in her lap and  proceeded to speak. 

“Detective. My name is Mary Rise and I have some information about the Maude case.”

“Continue, Mrs. Rise.” Claus said as he placed his cell phone on the desk to record the conversation.

“Well, I was in Church the Sunday that Maude went missing. I was in the back of the church putting out the bibles for the service that afternoon and I heard it.”

“What did you hear?” Hannah asked.

“I heard the preacher’s wife and Maude arguing. They didn’t notice me because they were too busy arguing.” Mrs. Rise continued.

“What were they arguing about?” Claus asked.

“They were having the same argument that the wife has had with so many pretty young church members who are female.” 

“What was that?” Hannah asked.

“See, Mrs. Preacher’s wife knows that her husband has a what do you call it? An eye for the ladies. This is not his first church. He had preached at two other churches before this one and was asked to leave for the same reason. He would take interest in a young woman and the rumors would fly that they were involved and he would move on to another church. The wife didn’t like it but there is nothing she could do about it except maybe divorce him which in my opinion she will never do.” Mrs. Rise said.

“What exactly did she say?” Hannah asked.

“I didn’t hear the whole argument but the part I heard was the preacher’s wife saying that if she didn’t leave her husband alone she would be sorry. And then Maude said she wasn’t doing anything wrong with the preacher and she left. She got in her car. I thought that was the end of it until I saw the preacher’s wife running after her. She couldn’t catch her but she got in her car and looked like she was following her.” Mrs. Rise continued.

“About what time was this?” Claus asked.

“I am not sure the exact time but it was after noon. I would say around one or one thirty.” 

“But that is not all I saw.” Mrs. Rise continued.

“What else did you see?” Hannah asked.

“I saw another car following the preacher’s wife’s car.” 

“Who’s car was that?” Claus asked.

“Well, this information is something that we didn’t expect.” Hannah said as she and Claus got in the car and headed out. They were now going to the real killers house.

“Open up. Police!” Hannah said banging on the front door of a house they had been to.

A few minutes later he came to the door. He had his hands up and Hannah took his hands and handcuffed him and took him to the police station.

“Henry, do you want to tell me what happened to Maude?” Hannah asked.

“I am sorry. I am so sorry.” Henry put his hands on his face and started crying.

“I didn’t mean to hurt her. I killed her.” Henry said.

“What happened?” Claus asked.

“I followed Maude from the church. The preacher’s wife was a car in between us. I don’t know why she was following Maude but she was and I was too. A few miles out of town the preacher’s wife turned and I guess she went back to the church or something but she stopped following Maude but I did not. I honked the horn and Maude pulled over to the side of the road. I got out of the car and went to her car. She rolled down the window and wanted to know why I was following her. I made up an excuse and told her I really wasn't. I just saw her going the same way. She believed me. I think she believed me because my sister lives out that way. The texts I saw on her phone were on my mind from the preacher. I needed answers. I told her to follow me to this place we used to go sometimes to get away from it all. It’s our special place. It is Smiley park over there on Tucker street. It is sort of secluded and not many people go there.” Henry said looking at his hands.

“Than what?” Hannah asked.

“After we got to the park I got out of my car and into hers. We were talking and I asked her if she was having an affair with the preacher. She denied it and I showed her the texts. She said that they were inappropriate texts and she told him never to send them to her again. But, I knew she was lying. I took out the gun from under the seat and told her to tell me the truth. She begged for her life. The next thing I remember is her slumped over in the driver's seat of the car.”

“Then what did you do?” Claus asked.

“I panicked. I left her there and got in my car and left. Later that night I called the preacher and asked to borrow his car. I left my car at my sister’s house and drove the preacher's car back to Maude. I took out her body and put her in the preacher’s car. I then took Maude to the woods nearby and buried her body underneath a tree and went back to the preacher’s house. I had Maude’s body in the trunk of the car where I knew he probably wouldn’t look. But, I knew that the cops would look there once I planted the seed of his guilt. When they found the blood they would blame him for Maude’s death. It was in my mind the perfect crime.” Henry said, smirking. 

Henry was convicted for murder in the first degree and sentenced to 100 years in prison. The preacher and his wife divorced a year later and left town.