The Choir Director (17 page)

I stood up to applaud as Aaron finished a wonderful solo performance. I was about to praise him and the choir to the congregation once again, but suddenly the doors to the church burst open and all hell broke loose.

“Outside! Outside!” I heard a woman shriek. When she came into view, I realized that it was Simone Wilcox and dashed from the pulpit to the back of the church. I was followed by Aaron, Maxwell Frye, and several others. When I reached her, I scooped Simone up in my arms, telling Aaron and Maxwell to keep the crowd back.

“What’s the matter, Simone? What happened?” I pleaded.

“Bishop! Outside! Outside!” she shrieked. “He’s dead! Oh my God, Bishop, he’s dead!”

I couldn’t make sense of the whole scene, going from the beauty of the choir’s performance to this chaos. Was it possible? Was there really a dead man outside my church? “Who, Simone? Who’s dead?”

Simone drew a deep breath and managed to get out the words as I leaned in close. “Jonathan Smith. He’s dead.”

There was a long pause before I could speak. “Smitty?” I muttered under my breath. “Smitty’s dead?”

My eyes began to well up with tears. The knot that had developed in my stomach was tightening more as each second passed. I glanced at my wife, who was standing in the front of the crowd about three feet away. It was as if time had stopped. Smitty couldn’t be dead. Why? How? Where?

Suddenly, Simone felt heavier in my arms. I looked down to see that she was completely unconscious. The stress must have been too much for her. I wished I could have joined her. Maybe then I wouldn’t have had to cope with this turn of events. But as it was, I was the pastor of this church, and I had to gather my senses and take charge of this chaos.

I gestured for my wife to help me.

“Monique, you and Aaron watch Simone. Maxwell, come with me.” By now it had really sunk in that Smitty was dead—outside the church. I jetted through the atrium into the church’s parking lot. Maxwell was on my heels. I filled him in on who we were looking for as we exited the building.

“Where?” Maxwell asked. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

We searched the parking lot until I spotted his SUV. “There! Over there!” I pointed to the back of the parking lot.
Dear God, please don’t let my friend be dead.

We approached the car cautiously, stopping in our tracks about twenty feet away.

“Is that blood?” I asked Maxwell solemnly.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“You think he’s …” I couldn’t even say the word.

“Dead?” Maxwell finished my sentence. “I don’t know, but I’ll be honest with you. It doesn’t look good.”

“Lord, this can’t be happening.” I leaned against a nearby car. I could feel my hands throbbing, so I knew my blood pressure must be through the roof.

“You okay, Bishop?” Maxwell inquired.

I had to give him credit. He was the one with the bad heart, but he was hanging in there like a trouper.

“No, I’m not. I can’t believe this. This is all my fault. If I hadn’t put so much pressure on him, he’d be here right now.”

“No, he wouldn’t. That man had more issues than
Jet
magazine.” Maxwell took a step toward the SUV. “Look, I’ve seen this type of thing before when I was over in Iraq. You hang back and call the police while I take a look.”

“Okay.” I was grateful that he was taking the lead. I pulled out my cell phone from under my robe.

As I placed the 911 call, I watched Maxwell walk up to the car and peek in. From the look on his face and the way he shook his head, I knew it wasn’t good.

“It’s Smitty all right. Simone was right. He’s dead,” Maxwell proclaimed after I ended my call.

I didn’t want to believe what Maxwell was telling me. “You sure? Maybe we should take him out. We might be able to revive him.”

“Nah.” Maxwell shook his head. “Ain’t no reviving him, Bishop. He’s gone home.”

“How do you know?” I took a step toward the car, and Maxwell stepped in front of me.

“T. K., please. This is really not something you want to see.”

But I was in so much disbelief that I had to see it for myself—and for Smitty, as his minister. I braced myself and walked around to the passenger side of the vehicle. “Stand back,” I told the members who’d begun to approach the area. I knew they wouldn’t be able to be held at bay inside the church for too long.

Looking inside the truck, I saw a sight I would remember for as long as I live. Smitty was slumped over the steering wheel. Half of his head was missing, and the blood had begun to clot. His right eye was bulging out, hanging by a thread from the socket. “Oh my Lord, Smitty, no!” I turned away, steeling my stomach to keep from vomiting.

From the large crowd that had gathered nearby, I could hear cries of, “What’s going on? What happened? Did somebody die?”

It took me a few moments, but I finally regained my composure, remembering that I was the one they were supposed to lean on.

I held up both hands. “Please step away until the ambulance and the police get here. We don’t know what happened, but we don’t want to contaminate the scene if there’s been a crime committed here.”

They milled around a while longer, but once they realized they were not going to be able to see anything, many people moved back toward the church.

Every few seconds I glanced over at the car. Was this all my fault? My mind played over our last encounter. I thought about how upset Smitty had looked when I pulled out the folder, which revealed his thirty-year-old secret. Maybe I shouldn’t have played my trump card on him, but when he backed me into a corner about hiring Aaron, I had to do what I had to do. Now I had to wonder—did I push him into killing himself? I shuddered with guilt.

This looked like a suicide, but Smitty’s warning still echoed in my mind. What if Smitty had not been overreacting when he said there was danger out there? I scanned the crowd, wondering if his tormentors were in the midst of us at that very moment. Were Smitty’s blackmailers in the crowd?

I looked over my shoulder at the SUV in frustration.
Dammit, Smitty, why didn’t you tell me what was going on?

As I held Simone in my arms, a part of me wanted to drop her right there in the middle of the aisle and go outside to see about my husband. Judging from the panic on T. K.’s face when Si-mone whispered to him, it looked like she nearly gave him a heart attack. I needed to see how he was doing. But who was I kidding? I also wanted to see what was going on outside. Who was dead outside of the church? I knew the longer I was inside the church with Simone unconscious in my arms, the longer it would take for me to find out.

“Give her some smelling salts, fast!” I ordered one of the ushers, who rushed over and did just that.

With a couple waves of the salt under her nose, Simone’s eyes fluttered open. “What the hell? Do you know how many noses y’all done stuck that thing in?” She pushed the usher’s hand out of the way.

“Simone, are you all right?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m all right. What happened? What’s going on?” She sat up and looked around with a scowl on her face—until her eyes landed on Aaron. Then a smile appeared. “Am I in heaven? Because there’s an angel standing in front of me.”

“She doesn’t look all right to me. She seems to be hallucinating. Maybe we should get her to a hospital,” one of the church elders stated. “They called an ambulance outside. Perhaps she needs one as well.”

At the sound of the elder’s voice, Simone looked as though a light went on in her head, reminding her of exactly what was going on. “Oh my God, you have to get help. He’s outside,” she mumbled. “He’s outside … dead,” and then she passed out again.

“I think you’re right,” I agreed with the elder. “She does need a paramedic. Go and see if you can find some help for my friend. Hurry. She’s passed out again.”

Aaron stood next to me rather unemotionally the entire time, but when the EMTs rushed in and carried an unconscious Si-mone out to the ambulance, I think I noticed a hint of concern.

“Aaron, can you drive me to the hospital? Simone doesn’t have any family in the area, and someone from the church should be there when she comes to.”

“Sure, First Lady.” Aaron didn’t hesitate. “You wait here and I’ll drive around.”

I was glad he agreed. T. K. and I had driven to church together that morning. I didn’t want to take the vehicle, not knowing what his situation was. Not able to spot him among the swarming crowd, I didn’t have time to waste.

I looked to Tia. “Tell my husband that I’m going to the hospital and to call me on my cell when he gets a chance.”

As Aaron headed for his vehicle, I watched Simone being loaded into the ambulance. By the time I found out which hospital they planned on taking her to, Aaron had pulled his Escalade in front of me. He got out, then raced around and opened the door for me. I climbed in as he waited behind me to close the door.

I couldn’t help but think,
No free ass feels this time
.

Aaron followed the ambulance as best he could, but after we got caught at a red light, I had to give him the remaining directions to the hospital. By the time we arrived in the ER, Simone had already been taken back and we were asked to wait in the lobby for the doctor to come talk with us.

Aaron kindly escorted me over to a chair. I sat down while he remained standing.

“Well, now that we got her here safe and sound, I think I’m going to go ahead and leave,” Aaron said to me. “Will you be all right calling Bishop for a ride home?”

“No!” I shouted, standing back up at the same time. Realizing how loud I was, I sank back down into my seat. “I mean, no, don’t leave. Don’t leave Simone here like this.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, Aaron let out a slight chuckle before he
repeated my statement. “Don’t leave Simone here? But you’re here.”

“Yes, but you’re the one who needs to be here more than anyone else.”

Aaron put his hands up in defense. “Look, First Lady, I don’t know what Simone is running around telling folks, but it’s not like that between the two of us—”

I cut him off right there. “But she wants it to be.”

Aaron shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so. Not after she kicked me to the curb for some dude who was parked in her—”

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand to show how insignificant I thought that was. “She told me all about that, and she’s really sorry. You’d know that if you’d just take her calls.” I think what I was saying was starting to sink in for Aaron. “Aaron, don’t get me wrong. I know my friend is a handful.”

“That she is,” he agreed.

“But I imagine you can be quite a handful yourself.”

He shrugged, indicating there was some truth in what I was saying.

“See there? Perfect match. Or maybe you two have simply met your match in each other. Maybe finding someone like yourself, seeing yourself in someone else, is exactly what the two of you need to reevaluate who you are in life.”

Aaron nodded. I could tell I was making sense to him. I would have loved to sit there with him and really drive it home, but that’s when I saw T. K. enter the lobby.

“Just think about that,” I said to Aaron. “Think about it while you wait here for Simone, okay? My husband just walked in, and I need to go see about him. So, can I trust you to be here for Simone?”

After a pause, Aaron nodded his confirmation.

Feeling comfortable that he was a man of his word, I went over and threw my arms around my husband.

I could feel a slight tremble. Pulling away from him, I asked, “What’s going on? Who was it that Simone was talking about?”

Looking right past me in a state of shock, T. K. replied, “It’s Smitty. Smitty is dead.”

I stepped back from him, and my hands flew instinctively to my mouth. “Someone killed Smitty?”

T. K. looked me in the eye, shaking his head. “No … I mean, yes, Smitty is dead, but the police think it was suicide. Although they can’t rule out foul play right now.”

There was silence between us. I was trying to comprehend what he’d told me and how Smitty’s death was related to his recent phone call with T. K. This whole thing was frightening.

“What about Maria?” I asked when I could finally speak. “Does she know? Did anyone talk to her?”

“Maxwell and I just left her. She’s in pretty bad shape. You might want to go over there when you leave.”

“I can’t. I rode over here with Aaron, and I think he’s gonna stay and be with Simone.”

T. K. looked over my shoulder at Aaron. “Taken a liking to her, has he? He could do worse. She’s a beautiful woman when she doesn’t have an attitude.”

“Maybe when this is all over, you can tell him that. I know Si-mone will appreciate it.”

“I might just do that.” He looked grateful for the brief opportunity to discuss something other than the nightmare at hand. “But anyway, why don’t you use my car to go see about Maria?” T. K. took out his keys and handed them to me. “I’m sure Maxwell will be here any minute. I’ll catch a ride with him.”

I took the keys from my husband. For now, I’d go see about Maria, but later, I was going to make sure I got a chance to corner my husband and find out exactly what was going on. Whether Smitty killed himself or someone else had been involved, there had to be a reason, and I wanted to know what it was.

I walked into James’s hospital room and was greeted with a smile. “‘Bout time you showed up,” he cracked. He was wearing an oxygen tube and had IVs in both arms, but his voice still had a lighthearted tone to it. Although he looked thinner since my last visit a few days ago, he was in good spirits. He seemed determined to live his last few days fully. The doctor had said he probably had less than a month to live with the way the cancer had metastasized. Then again, they had said that last month too. Good ol’ James was a fighter. There was no doubt about that.

I wished I could have returned the smile James gave me, but instead I could barely look him in the eye.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” he asked. “You look like you’re the one who’s been given a death sentence, not me.”

I sighed, tears welling up in my eyes at the image of Smitty with his head half blown off. “Man, James, I don’t even know how to tell you this.” I sat down in the hospital chair beside his bed. I didn’t want to upset him since he was so frail, but I also knew I had to tell him or he’d drive me crazy.