Husband and Wives (20 page)

Lucy pointed at the woman next to her in the kitchen, a doe-eyed blonde with very large breasts to match the rest of a full-figured body. ‘Abigail,’ Lucy said. Pointing at the nursing mother, another dark-haired and olive-skinned young woman, Lucy said, ‘Charlene, Margery’s sister. And you’ve already met Nadia.’

‘Could we all sit down?’ I asked.

Lucy nodded to the other women, then said, ‘Nadia, please take the children to a bedroom.’

Nadia hustled the children out. The baby stayed latched to its mother’s breast. The women sat down on the couches. Nadia came back and squeezed in with the other wives.

‘So there are five wives. How many children?’ I asked.

‘We have been blessed with seventeen children,’ Lucy Mayhew said.

I asked, ‘Have there been other wives, or always just you five?’

‘There was a wife before me,’ Lucy said, ‘but she died in childbirth. The son she bore is now in his thirties and is a fine young man with three wives and five children. He lives in Utah.’

‘So how’s it work, five women in one household?’

‘I run this house with Abigail and our children. I only have two left at home. Abigail has three,’ Lucy said.

‘Whose daughter is Naomi Ruth?’ I asked.

Lucy’s face clouded over and her head went down. ‘Mine,’ she finally said.

‘Has something happened between you and Naomi Ruth?’ I asked.

Lucy straightened her shoulders and held up her head. I wasn’t going to see her shame more than once, her body language seemed to say. ‘My daughter married within the church, but soon became a heathen. Cut her hair, dresses in modern clothes, takes her children to public school, skips church at least twice a month!’ Lucy shook her head. ‘I’ve washed my hands of her.’

‘You don’t like her husband?’ I asked.

‘David is a fine man,’ she said. ‘He comes to church as often as he can, but he is weak and doesn’t seem to be able to control his wives. They do whatever they want!’

I nodded my head. This whole lifestyle was so fascinating I had a hard time staying on track. ‘Ma’am, the reason I’m here is because Brother Earl said one of y’all might have been friendly with Mary Hudson.’ I looked around for one of them to confess to a friendship with the dead woman. None did.

‘Did y’all know her at all?’ I asked.

‘Yes, of course,’ Lucy said. ‘But I’m not sure what my husband was referring to when he said we were friendly.’

‘Did any of y’all talk to her?’ I asked.

‘Of course,’ Lucy said. ‘The women of the church meet together quite often. We sit together during service and have our women’s meetings and cook and clean together at the church. So we all saw each other while doing our church chores and such.’

I looked pointedly at Abigail, the one who appeared closest in age to Mary Hudson. ‘Abigail, how well did you know Mary?’ I asked.

Abigail looked at Lucy, not answering me. Lucy said, ‘Sister Abigail knew her as well as the rest of us.’

I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this bunch and I knew it. I changed tactics. ‘Whose son is Earl Jr?’ I asked.

No one answered. ‘Mrs Lucy,’ I said. ‘Is Earl Jr your son?’

‘Yes, and please refer to me as Mrs Mayhew.’

‘Sorry, Mrs Mayhew. Could you tell me where Earl Jr is at the moment?’

‘No,’ she said.

‘Is he here in the compound?’ I asked.

She was silent. Damn, I wish I had a search warrant, I thought. ‘Is he in the other trailer?’ I asked.

No one answered.

‘Mrs Nadia Mayhew, please take me over to your trailer,’ I said, going for the weak one. Hell, that’s what you do.

Nadia stood up and headed for the back of the double-wide.

‘Nadia, no!’ Lucy said emphatically.

Nadia stopped in her tracts.

‘Mrs Mayhew, are you trying to impede my investigation?’ I asked.

‘Where’s your warrant, Sheriff? And, lest you forget, this is not your county.’

I shook my head. ‘Y’all aren’t being forthcoming with me. I feel like one of y’all knew this woman better than the others and y’all are stonewalling me. And I know you know where Earl Jr is. I don’t like that. Somebody killed that woman, and when people aren’t forthcoming, when people try to stonewall me, well, it makes me think something hinky is going on. So tell me, Sister Lucy, since you seem to speak for this sisterhood, what kinda hinky are y’all up to?’

Sister Lucy stood up and pointed at the door. ‘Sheriff, it’s time you left,’ she said.

I was getting pissed. ‘Well, I ain’t leaving alone!’ I walked out the door and called the shop. When Holly answered, I said, ‘Send someone over here to Tejas County with the van. I’m bringing in the lot of ’em!’

It’s true. Sometimes I overreact. I had to leave one wife with the children or have children’s services come pick ’em up, so I left the nursing one. But even so, I had me a crowd. To even try to comply with the county regs on separating the sexes in jail cells, I had to put all the women in one and Brother Earl in one by himself. Hardly seemed right. The women didn’t have very much room. Holly and I carried in some straight-back chairs so there’d be enough seating for all. Least we could do. Least I could do. I’m the one who started this debacle. I called Bill Williams and told him what I’d done.

‘Shit, Milt! Why’d you do that?’ he said.

‘Hell if I know, Bill. That Sister Lucy was getting on my last nerve, wouldn’t tell me anything, and I couldn’t find Junior.’

‘Shit, Buddy? He’s a piece of work,’ Bill said.

‘Could you find him for me and hold him? I’ll let his mama and the rest of ’em go if I can get his ass in here.’

‘You got the preacher?’ he asked.

‘Oh, yeah.’ I laughed. ‘My deputy Nita Skitteridge had a grand old time with him.’

‘She the lady of color?’ he asked.

‘One and the same. Seems Brother Earl has a problem with what he calls “mud people.”’

‘Yeah, saw that once in town. Called one of our councilmen, Bennie Charleston, a mud person. Thought Bennie was going to take him down.’

‘Anyway, call me when you find Buddy, OK?’ I pleaded.

‘Not going to be a priority, Milt. Got my own shit going on here. But if we find him, I’ll call ya.’

I got off the phone and was sitting in my office wondering why I’d pulled such a dumb stunt when David Bollinger walked in, followed closely by Holly.

‘Sheriff! I tried to stop him,’ Holly said.

At the same time, Bollinger was saying, ‘Milt, what in the Sam Hill are you doing?’

I stood up and waved Holly away. ‘It’s OK, Holly,’ I said. ‘I got this.’

She left and I pointed at a chair for Bollinger. ‘Have a seat, David,’ I said.

It took a second, but he finally sat. ‘I mean, really,’ he said.

‘Don’t start. I’m beating myself up enough about it. But your father-in-law is a real pain in the ass, David.’

He laughed. ‘Um, true. But we must honor our fathers and mothers, Milt.’

‘Not when they’re dumb shits,’ I countered.

He shook his head. ‘Don’t remember seeing that in my Bible. I think even dumb shits must be honored, if for no other reason than they brought us into this life.’

‘You’re a more generous man than me, Counselor.’

Bollinger stood up. ‘You want to set bail or can I just take them all home?’

‘You know where your brother-in-law is?’ I asked.

‘Buddy? Haven’t seem him since last Sunday,’ Bollinger said.

‘If you see him, hold on to him, OK?’

‘You want me to tie him up or what?’ Bollinger asked, being sarcastic.

‘That would be nice,’ I said, standing up and heading for the door. It was time to end this. ‘I had to use the police van to get ’em all here.’

‘I’ve got my wife’s minivan out there,’ Bollinger said.

‘Which one?’ I asked.

‘Which minivan?’ he asked, frowning.

‘No, son. Which wife?’

‘Does it matter?’ he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Probably not,’ I replied.

I’d barely released the lot of ’em before Holly got a call and said, ‘Sheriff, it’s Sheriff Williams from Tejas County.’

Being still in the reception area, I took Holly’s phone. ‘Bill?’ I said.

‘Got him,’ he said.

‘Buddy? No shit?’

‘No shit. He was disturbing the peace at a little place here we call Joe’s.’

‘I know the joint. You got him in lock-up?’

‘Yes I do.’

‘I’m sending someone to get him.’

‘Over and out,’ Bill said.

Jean Mcdonnell – Saturday

John and I went up to ICU the next morning to check on Rachael and Melissa, but they weren’t there. My initial reaction was a racing pulse and rising blood pressure, until the nurse told me they’d been transferred to the general medical floor, two floors down, because Rachael was doing so much better. I asked for and got the room number, went down to the second floor and found room 210. Mother and daughter were both sitting up in bed and smiling. When we got totally into the room, I found out the reason for the smiles: Roy Donley was sitting in a recliner across from them.

‘Hi, all,’ I said as we entered.

‘Hey, Doc,’ Roy greeted, and the other two said hello. ‘And who’s this fine-looking fella with you?’ he asked, holding out his hand to John.

‘John, this is Mr Donley who’s helping your daddy,’ I said.

John took Roy’s hand and shook. ‘Nice to meet you, sir,’ he said.

‘You’re back?’ I said to Roy.

‘Yes’m. The McKinseys got out of jail around nine this morning. The chief told me they were going up before the judge around then, and I figured they’d get out, so I came on up here around eight to get set up and found them being moved down here. So everything’s copasetic.’

I saw Melissa wave tentatively to John, who walked over to her bed. After whispering together for about a minute or two, John crawled into Melissa’s hospital bed and Melissa turned the TV to Cartoon Network, the volume turned low while the grown-ups talked.

I couldn’t help noticing the ease with which Roy Donley and Rachael conversed. They seemed like old friends rather than new acquaintances. Although friends might be a rather tame word for what might be going on there.

Fifteen minutes later, as John and I were saying goodbye, Carol Anne Hudson stuck her head in the room. ‘Good morning,’ she called out. We all greeted her back. ‘Rachael, I want you to know this was a unanimous decision by your children and I had nothing to do with it. It was all their idea; I just carried it out to the best of my ability.’

‘What in the world?’ Rachael said, laughing.

Carol Anne stepped back and Rachael’s four other children, June and Samantha and Matthew and Luke, came in the room. All four with shaved heads.

Rachael burst into tears, laughing and crying at the same time. Melissa jumped down from her bed, rubbing the heads of her siblings. ‘Cool, huh?’ she said.

Rachael pulled her youngest, Samantha, into her bed. ‘Your beautiful blonde hair!’

‘We all wanted to look just like you, Mama!’ she said.

Rachael pulled June to her and kissed her dome. ‘You have a beautifully shaped head, Junie,’ she said. ‘I noticed that when you were born.’

She pulled the kids to her one at a time, kissing their bald heads. ‘You are the best children any mother ever had,’ she said.

‘You say that now, but wait till we don’t clean our rooms – you’ll be singing another tune!’ Matthew said.

She swatted at his backside but he was too quick for her. ‘You bet I will. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, you little heathen!’

‘Mama!’ Samantha said. ‘You sound just like Miss Emily!’

Everyone stopped laughing and looked at the youngest child. Melissa spoke up. ‘Mama just used Emily’s favorite word to call us, that’s all. But Emily’s going to prison, huh, Mr Roy?’

‘Oh, Roy!’ Rachael said. ‘I’m so sorry. In all this excitement I forgot to introduce you.’

‘I think I figured out who everybody is,’ Roy said with a big smile. ‘And Miss Melissa, to answer your question, you betcha Emily and Mr McKinsey are both going to jail big time!’

So introductions started as Carol Anne and a few of her children came in and John and I slipped out. I felt embarrassed that I’d made such snap judgments about these people. I appeared to have been totally wrong about Jerry Hudson and his family, and now here were these wonderful children, having gone through an incredible ordeal, banding together in solidarity with their mother by shaving their heads! It was an incredibly touching display – and an incredible sight. All those glistening domes. I felt tears in my eyes as we took the elevator to the main floor.

As the elevator doors opened, my son looked up at me and said, ‘Mama, can I shave my head too?’

Milt Kovak – Saturday

Jean called me to tell me about the kids at the hospital and their shaved heads and Johnny Mac’s eagerness to shave his own head.

‘Ah, no,’ I said emphatically.

‘My response also,’ she said.

‘And he’s pissed, right?’

‘Big time.’

‘I have a suggestion,’ I said.

‘What’s that?’

‘Instead of taking him home where he’ll mope about it, take Johnny Mac to Jewel Anne’s house,’ I said, mentioning the name of my sister. ‘Her pool’s heated. That’ll take his mind off it. He’s got a swimsuit there, and they’ve got all those noodles and air mattresses and crap. It’ll take his mind totally off of shaving his head.’

‘Excellent idea,’ my wife said. ‘That’s what I’ll do.’

‘So I’ll meet you back at my shop, if you want to go with me to see Brother Bob,’ I said.

‘Who?’ she asked.

‘Brother Bob Nathanson, pastor of the United Brethren of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ in His Almighty Goodness,’ I said.

‘Hum,’ my wife said, ‘the name itself seems to exclude women.’

An hour later Jean came in the back entrance to the shop and sat down in one of my two visitor chairs.

‘So we’re off to the whatever of the whatever?’ she asked.

‘United Brethren of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ in His Almighty Goodness,’ I corrected.

‘I repeat: whatever. Your car or mine?’

I guess somebody somewhere’s making good money selling metal buildings as churches, ’cause the Brethren was also housed in one. This one was a mite smaller, maybe three-quarters the size of the New Saints Tabernacle, but it had a big sign out front with the name. Of course it would have to be a big sign to get that name up there big enough for anybody to read from the highway – which is where it’s located. Right on Highway 5, on the other side of Longbranch from where my house is. It had a huge parking lot and an area blocked off for buses. A sign said so, although I’m not sure what buses would be parking there. Did they really think they were a tourist attraction? I thought I might ask Brother Bob that.