Page 86 of Hidden Hero

“Jesus, Cora. Fuck, baby. You’re okay. You’re okay,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

Cora clung to him, her fingers digging into his shoulders. “I stabbed him,” she said, her voice shaking. “In the arm. He needs—he needs?—”

“It’s handled,” Jeremy murmured, his lips brushing against her temple. “Pete’s got him. It’s over, baby. You’re safe.”

The world spun, but Cora anchored herself to the feel of Jeremy’s arms and the warmth of his embrace. In the chaos, he was her only certainty. And she held on as if her life depended on it. After inhaling deeply and steadying her heartbeat, she leaned back to hold Jeremy’s gaze.

“What do you need, Cora?” he asked, his palms cupping her cheeks.

Releasing a cleansing breath, she said, “I need this room cleared, Jeremy. As soon as possible, I need this room cleared.” She spied his confusion and lifted on her toes. “Respect, Jeremy. I need to maintain the dignity.”

His gaze moved past her to the autopsy table, and his brow soothed as he nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” He bent to brush his lips over hers, then stepped back and began taking charge of the scene.

Buford was hauled out to receive medical care while in handcuffs, his rights being read to him. The other law enforcement officers were quietly ordered to leave the premises other than only what was necessary. The room quickly emptied, leaving only Jeremy and Pete.

“We’ll be at the station. I know you have work to finish here. Elizabeth and John will take Janice’s and David’s statements. We’ll get yours when you’re available.”

She nodded, sighing in relief. As the others left the room, she approached the table. She stared at the body in front of her, then completed the closing sutures. When finished in the quiet room, she drew the sheet over to protect their dignity. “You can rest in peace now.”

Janice walked back into the room, having spoken to the detectives. Without speaking, she held Cora’s gaze and nodded. David soon joined them, and they proceeded to tidy the room.

38

“Buford always had secrets. I never worried about it. Not until… not until I was cleaning the area he used as his office. Then I found… stuff. I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t ask. He didn’t take kindly to me asking questions. I kept it to myself. But I watched.” Donna licked her bottom lip, then dragged her gaze from her hands clenched on the tabletop to Jeremy’s face. “See, the thing about disappearing… you know… being in plain sight yet not being seen? Well, it makes it easier to learn what’s going on.”

Jeremy watched her face, noting the ease in her expression as though the weight of the world had lifted. They were sitting in one of the interview rooms in the station, with her on one side of the table and he and Pete on the other. The recording device was running, and he had a file in front of him as he made notes.

“And what did you find that day, Mrs. Grissley?” Jeremy asked.

“Buford was always so particular about the church being clean, but he also demanded that I not mess with his desk. He said that if I moved anything, he might not be able to find his sermon notes. He hated the idea of me seeing any notes he had made. So I avoided his desk and just dusted around it.” She rolled her lips together as she inhaled through her nose, then blew the breath out slowly.

“One day, after he had left to do his visiting, I went past his desk and spied his half cup of coffee still sitting there. When I went to pick it up… I’m so clumsy… I knocked it over.” Her gaze darted to Jeremy’s. “I panicked. I grabbed the cup and began dabbing at the liquid with my cleaning rag. I cleaned it up without too much trouble. But some of the coffee had dripped over the side onto a box of his sermon tracts. The pamphlets he gives to Jed to take to his workplace.”

Jeremy prodded. “What did you find, Mrs. Grissley?”

She winced, and her gaze dropped to her hands still on the table. “I pulled out the top ones to ensure they were dry. There was another box below them. It wasn’t sealed, so I opened it to make sure those pamphlets were dry, but it didn’t have any inside it. Instead, there were several bags.” She lifted her gaze to him. “They were bags of pills. All kinds of pills. Every color. Every shape. I’ve never seen so many pills in my life!”

“Did you know where they came from?”

She shook her head. “I had no idea. I couldn’t imagine. But then I heard the church door open, and I was afraid. I shut the box lid, dropped the pamphlets back on the top, and grabbed my cleaning rag. Jed Harborrow walked in. He was smiling big and greeted me nicely. He was always so kind.” Blowing out another breath, she continued, “Anyway, he said that he was to get the box to take to work. He bent over and looked inside the box. My heart nearly stopped because I was afraid he’d notice I’d messed up the pamphlets. But he just picked up the box and said goodbye. I was so nervous about Buford noticing something, but I made sure to leave his desk just like it was and hurried over to the other side of the church to clean before he got in.”

“Do you think that Jed knew what was in that box?” Pete asked.

She lifted her shoulders, heaving another long sigh. “Detective, I have no idea.”

“What happened next?” Jeremy asked.

“I didn’t say anything to Buford because he would’ve been so upset that I’d been snooping. But I couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t long before another box—just like the first one—appeared under his desk, with pamphlets stacked on top of an inner box. I didn’t look. I was too afraid.”

“Then what?”

“Fred Rudolph came in and said he had something to give to the pastor. Buford had been gone all morning, and I didn’t know when he’d be back. I asked Fred what he had, and he looked confused for a moment, then held out a small plastic baggie with a few pills. He said, ‘I’m bringing these to Pastor Grissley to give to the poor.’”

“To give to the poor?” Pete asked, his head cocked, his pen halting over the pad of paper in front of him.

“I didn’t know what he meant. But I asked if he thought Buford would want him to just leave them. Fred shook his head. He said he didn’t want to leave medication where someone, especially a child, might find it.”

She winced and shook her head. “Detectives, I never even thought about that. We have children’s groups in the church, and they move around a lot. It never dawned on me that one of them might go looking for a box just for fun and find the pills. But I told Fred there were other pills here, and he could put his with the others.”

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