Secret Sins: Murder in the Church (2 page)

The
officers open the barricade and they enter, but as soon as they opened the
barricade, a camera operator rushed past the officers with a television camera. An officer
ran across the church parking lot, and forcibly took the camera from the camera operator
and forced him back behind the barricade.

The walls are painted from ceiling to the floor with various pictures of Christ and
a large statue of Christ on one corner, Mary in another, Joseph in another, and the last
corner a statue of Michael the Archangel. In the center of the room, a large cross with a
k n e e l i n g altar in front. Shawn thought he was alone in the prayer room of Spirit Temple
Pentecostal Christian Church Shawn as he prayed as if he had any real prayer, “Almighty
and merciful God lead and guild me in this time of trouble.” Shawn do not notice the
strange man at first, he was standing next to Michael the Archangel.

Shawn looked at Tony Rome closely, but had no memory of the man that stood
before him, Shawn inquired, “Then if you’re not with the police then who are you with?”
The door to the prayer room opens, and a female with medium complexion and shoulder
length black hair,
a lovely
figure enters, and
she
introduces
herself
as, “I’m
Detective
Virginia Breeze, and I’m in charge of this investigation.” Shawn had intended to introduce
Tony Rome, but Tony he was gone.

The
Cardinals
were
playing
the
Houston Astros
in
Houston,
and
Shawn
is
propped on his reclining sofa. It’s the bottom of the fifth ending, and the phone
rings. Without much thought or even a glance at the caller ID, Shawn picks up the
phone, “Pastor Grave.”

“It’s Daniel at the front gate, and you need to come out here,” says Daniel
from the front gate.
“Oh. Why is that?”
Daniel replies in a low voice, “It’s Mrs. Murdock, she has been beaten her
up.”
“What! I’m on my way!” Shawn hangs up the phone and lowers the leg
rest of the recliner.
Nichelle
comes
in
carrying
the
six month old baby, Amber. Shawn is
putting on his shoes, “The front gate...It’s your mother.”
“Daniel just called and said she’d been beat up.”
Amber starts toward the car, and their live-in nanny, Thelma comes in and
takes Amber from Nichelle’s arms and walks up the stairs in the direction of the
nursery. Shawn and Nichelle were about to leave when the doorbell rings.
Shawn rushes and opens the
door, and Mother Beulah falls forward into
Shawn’s arms. Shawn and Daniel carried Mother Beulah inside
and
laid
her on
the sofa. Daniel asks, “Shall I call 911?”
Mother Beulah starts to come to, “What happened?”
Nichelle tries to hold back the tears, “That’s what we would like to know?”

YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT RAY DID!
I kept telling Nichelle, “I don’t want to go to the hospital!”
But,
Shawn
wouldn’t hear of it, so he called our family physician, Dr. John Marshall. I could
tell from the moment Officer’s Jenkins and Kincade walked through the door that
there would be more than a few questions, and of course
the two Paramedics
arrive and add to the stress. Shawn has the build of a heavy weight boxer, and
Officer Kincade looks at me, and asks, “Who beat you up?”
Officer Jenkins never took his eyes off of Shawn, and as the Paramedic was
taking the blood pressure cuff. The Paramedic says, “Wow!”
I asked, “What the reading?” “168/200…we need to get her to the
hospital ASAP,” says the Paramedic with a sense of urgency in his voice as his
partner loosens the straps with around the gurney.
Officer Jenkins continues glaring at Shawn without blinking, and Officer
Kincade restated his question more forcefully, “Who beat you up?”
The Paramedics rolled the gurney close where I was sitting, and one of them
asked me, “I
need
for you slide
onto
the
Gurney and we’ll get you to Urgent
Care.”
I don’t intend to go to the hospital, but I am not sure how I can avoid it. My
solution
came through the door with the arrival of my personal
physician, Dr.
John
Marshall and
Virginia Breeze.
I looked at one of the Paramedic’s identification badge that hung from the
side of his belt and it indicates his name as Steve Alton. Everyone in the room
knew Dr. Marshall from television. Dr. Marshall is a Chief Medical Editor at the
location television station.
I am truly surprised, or rather shocked to see Virginia because Virginia is a
homicide investigator. As soon as Officer’s Kincade and Jenkins seen Virginia they
tried to usurp authority, “Detective Breeze? There’s no homicide here,” commented
Officer Jenkins.
Virginia quick tempered response, “You can wait outside...I’ve got this.”
Officer Kincade and Jenkins never moved from the spot they stood, “We’ll
need to take a report,” replied Officer Jenkins.
Virginia said firmly, “That’s an order.” From the looks of things, I can tell that
Virginia doesn’t care for Jenkins and Kincade one iota, so I interject, “Oh Virginia!
I’m so glad to see you!”
Nichelle and I watch as the two Officer’s step just outside the living room
door, but I’m certain they can still hear every word with the door wide open.
Nichelle walks over and closes the large solidly built cedar door, so now I know
“They can’t hear squat now.”
Paramedics
interrupted
and
said
to Virginia, “We
need
to
rush
her
to
Urgency care right away.”
Before Virginia could say anything Dr. Marshall commented,
He looks at Steve and says, “Let me see her chart.”
Under the circumstances, Dr. Marshall examined
me,
but
even he couldn’t
convince me to go to the emergency room. Nope. Not me. Not today.
“Of course Dr. Marshall,” and immediately Steve hands the digital pad he’s
holding over to Dr. Marshall.
Dr. Marshall asks, “What kind of supplies you have in the unit?”
Steve replies, “Just about anything you need Dr. Marshall.”
Dr. Marshall nods and tells Steve, “Let’s go take a look?”
Steve informs
Dr. Marshall, “No
problem. We can administer whatever she needs
here.”
Dr. Marshall replies, “I like a man that can think fast on his feet,” he tells
Steve as they walk out the door to the Paramedic unit. Virginia kneels on one knee
next to me and asks, “Don’t worry I’ll take care of everything just tell me what
happened.”
When you’re as famous as my son-in-law Shawn Graves, so any and everything
that happens
is
news.
I
knew
as
soon
as
Daniel called the police
the
media
organizations swarmed the Graves Estate like vultures.
Virginia
and
her
mother,
Nadine
Dalton had been
members
of
Spirit
Temple
Pentecostal Christian Church for a long time. When the 9-1-1 call came through it was no
accident that Virginia arrived at the Graves Estate. From inside the mansion, I can hear
the helicopters flying overhead.
Virginia asked, “Tell us what happened.”
Everyone
knew Ray Murdock has
been
seeing other women for years, and everyone knew about Jean Newton. Ray’s in his late
sixties, and Jean Newton is 32 years old, and he’s been messing around with her on and
off for the past five years.
We used to go to church together, but a year ago he had some work to do at the office,
and told me to drive myself to church and he’d see me at church. Little did I know that
I would continue driving myself to church every Sunday from that point on.
I’ve
had
the same routine
for
the
past forty years,
Sunday dinner. When I arrived home, there was a moving
house, and movers were taking furniture from my house and loading it onto the truck.
I didn’t say anything to anyone, but I was
thinking, “What’s got into Ray?”
“You’ve wanted to redecorate the house for a long time,” commented Nichelle with a
smile.
change
clothes
and
prepare
truck parked in front
of my
As I was walking up the driveway toward the front door, and another truck pulled up.
The truck was from The House of Fresno’s.
“That place with all the imported and designer furniture,” expressed Shawn.
That’s the store. The men immediately got out of the truck and I headed into the
house. My house was empty, and there were men from Ray’s construction firm putting up
new wall paper, and there was new carpeting and drapery. The house was beautiful a s
w e l l a s empty.
A young man with a goatee walked up to me
with a clipboard, and asked “Mrs. Jean Murdock?”
Nichelle shouted, “No way!”
I declared in no uncertain terms, “I’m Mrs. Ray Murdock!”
Mr. Goatee cleared his throat and looked at his clipboard and started flipped pages,
“This order was placed by your daughter, Jean Murdock.”
I don’t know how I felt, but I told him, “She is not my daughter!”
At about the same time, Jean came down the stairs and looked at Mr. Goatee, “Great!
You finally made it!”
Shawn and Nichelle both laugh.
Mr. Goatee recognized
Jean immediately,
“Ms. Newton…I guess that’s Mrs. Murdock now. It’s a pleasure to see you, your maid was
about to show me where you wanted the furniture.”
It was at that moment I lost all composure, and I looked dead at Jean and asked,
“What are you doing in my house?”
Ray’s construction crew exited the house and went outside, and looked at Jean on the
way out and said, “Break time.”
Being the socialite she is, she smiled politely and pointed to the living room, “Put
everything in there.”
Mr. Goatee nodded and left the room, and I smacked Jean so hard that the sound
echoed outside,
and Jean fell backwards
onto the floor yelling, “Help! Help! Why won’t
someone help me?”
Ray came in and picked her up off the floor
crying, “You assured me that she would not be coming back here!”
Two men from Fresno’s came in carrying a brown and gold sofa, and we waited
until they brought in everything. I wanted to leave, but something wouldn’t let me leave. I
thought about it. My father built that house, and I wasn’t going to
let
Jean,
Ray, or
anyone take my home from me.
Nichelle responded softly, “Okay. We understand that, so what happened next?”
Ray reached in his pocket and gave the man two one hundred dollars bills and said
apologetically “I’m sorry for any misunderstanding.”
Mr.
Goatee
inspected
the
two
one
hundred dollar
bills
as
if
they
might
be
counterfeit, then he said, “No problem. Thank you for shopping at the House of Fresno’s.”
Ray workers came back into the house and headed upstairs, and Jean followed as
she tried to wipe the blood from her nose. Droplets of blood spotted her pristine white
dress. I could hear her talking to one of the workers as she was walking up the stairs, “I
just paid six hundred dollars for this dress and now I’ll have to throw it away.”
The worker told her, “There’s more where that came from.”
“That true,” said Jean.
As soon as everyone was out of sight I looked Ray dead in the eyes, “What do you
think you’re doing?”
Ray looked at me and grinned, and then that’s when he attacked me. His
gorilla-like hands gripped around my throat. And if his workers hadn’t rushed down
the stairs to pulled him off of me, I’m sure I would be dead now.
Someone, and I don’t know whom, helped me off the floor and walked me to my
car. My purse was still on my arm, and I took my car keys from my purse. Ray ran outside
as I was about to get into my car, “You’re not taking Jean’s car no damn where!”
Ray snatched the keys from my hand, and he started slapping and kicking at me until I
left walking down the street. I cried for help, but none came.
Virginia asks, “Didn’t the man with you try to help you?”
I replied, “I don’t know where he went, but he had disappeared.”
Virginia asked, “Did he live in your neighborhood?”
“I’m
not sure,” I said. Nichelle comes to my house
every
day,
and
she
knows
everyone in the neighborhood. As I look around, I don’t see Nichelle. I asked, “Where is
Nichelle?”
Daniel is standing in the middle of the floor with his hands in his pockets, and he
says, “Nichelle left the estate of few minutes ago.”
I looked at Shawn, and I can tell by that expression on his face that he knew where
Nichelle went.
Dr. Marshall stammered over the words, “I just gave
Nichelle
a
prescription
for
Mother Beulah.”
I
could
tell
that
the
Police
Officers
brought the story. But I’ve known Virginia
since she was little and I don’t think she believed it, or if she did she didn’t let on. Virginia
asked, “Where were you going?”
“Ray keeps all the credit cards in his pocket, so I could go to a hotel, so I was
headed to the only other place I could go.”
Shawn answered, “Here?”
I tried h a r d
to hold the tears as I tried to say, “Yes. I continued walking until
someone stopped to help me, and it turned out to be the same man that helped me a few
minutes earlier.
Shawn looked at Beulah and asked, “Who was he?”
Beulah muttered to herself, “Tony something.”
“Was it Tony Rome?”
The mere mention of the Tony Rome sent Virginia mind back to the old days of
the NSA. She knew Tony was considered a rogue agent, but there was one question that
kept twirling around in her mind like a hurricane is:
What’s his connection to the church?

THE DAY
BEGAN
WELL. A fair
complexioned young woman, Virginia Breeze is wearing a light pink and white silk robe
and walking into the veranda carrying a cup of coffee. The room is maliciously decorated
with green Ferns and Spider plants hanging from the ceiling. The patio furniture along
with
Grandfather
clock complement the veranda with every tick-tock. The six foot tall
Candelabra Cactus only adds character to the
Sunroom.
I hate
black
coffee.
I have
to
have my cream and sugar, and no I don’t eat donuts. It would be pleasant April morning
if it weren’t pouring down raining. The long winter, helped to decrease crime, but the Ice
Storm, of 2011 helped keep St. Louis at a virtual standstill. High unemployment and the
hot humid weather conditions will set the stage for the Major Case Squad busy season in
the City of St. Louis. Experience taught me that most, but not all of the crime will be
confined to one region of the city, North St. Louis. The City morgue bubbling over and
grabbing for more victims of homicides than Dodge City on its worst day and the funeral
services industry will be booming.
A grandmotherly woman with burgundy hair and wearing a pastel dress and brown sandals
walks in with
o f t h o s e f l o w e r y water buckets
with
a spout. The woman doesn’t
notice Virginia stretched out on the reclining in the lounge chair next to the large cactus.
She loving gave each plant a drink of water and speaks as though only she and the
plants communicated
with one
another, “There you go.” She paused and gazes at the
plant, “You’re
welcome.” The
woman nearly drops and spills the can of water when she
spots Virginia sitting in the corner next to the cactus, “Oh my God! You almost scared me
to death.”
“I’ll sorry Mama Nadine,” laughs Virginia, “It
been a while since I’ve sat out here…you have a green thumb.”

The
clock tolls six times
and
Virginia looks at the clock, “I have to go back to
Reverend Graves Estate and question Mother Beulah.”
Nadine reaches for the television remote and Virginia, “I guess you didn’t watch the
news last night?”
“I was watching an animated film with Liza and Madison after dinner and then we
went bed at about eight thirty,” states Nadine. “Why what’s going on?” she asks.
I decided it would be better to hear it from me than one of the ladies from the
church, “Reverend Graves found Deacon Murdock dead last night.”
Nadine brings her palms together as she is about to pray, then cries out, “Say what?”
“He was found dead in the baptismal pool yesterday morning.”
Nadine leans back on the sofa, “I’ve never liked that thing. They call it a baptismal
pool, but that’s an indoor summing pool.”
Nadine has been a member of Spirit Temple Pentecostal Christian Church since the
1950’s, but I became a member about a year before my husband Nicholas and I were
married. Even though I had been baptized in the Catholic Church, the former pastor,
John Graves insisted that I am baptized, but that was at the old church, not the new one.
I commented to Nadine, “Yeah, I never noticed that until yesterday.”
“Oh well. With your job you don’t spend as much time at church as I do,” she
comments, “I’d better check on Beulah and see how she’s doing,” mentioned Nadine.
Virginia glanced at the Grandfather clock, “A quarter after six, and I have a long
drive to the Graves Estate.”
Nadine looks at Virginia strangely, “What do you need to question Beulah for?”
As soon as I leave I know those church woman will start calling
my
house and
running their mouths, and since I’d already told Nadine part of the story I may as well tell
her the rest of the story. “Deacon Murdock beat Beulah up last night.
Nadine lowers her head, “I don’t know why someone would stay with someone so
abusive all those years.”
I choose not to comment because I genuinely had no idea that had been going
on, or why the church would allow him to continue as deacon of the church. I would
have booted him out on his head a long time ago.