Promises Pt. 03

Fenton became worried when he rang Cynthia at around 7:00pm, he knew that she would normally have been at home preparing the evening meal for herself and her husband. He also knew that, at that time Mayotte would be deep in a relief session with Janine. When he tried again a few minutes later and got no response, his concern forced him to drive to the Mayotte house where, unable to get a response from his ringing of the doorbell and calling Cynthia on the phone, he rang the police.

A patrol car arrived some five minutes later and the officers walked casually up to Fenton at the front door. "What seems to be the problem?"

"My name is Pastor Fenton from the Shining Light Christian Church and I have been trying unsuccessfully to contact Cynthia Mayotte, she's our Senior Pastor's wife. She would normally be at home at this time but I have got no answer from any calls that I have made over the last hour or so and I've just rung the doorbell and received no response."

"Where is Pastor Mayotte?"

"He is in his office. As you know he is involved in this court case and it has taken a lot out of him and after court each day he has made it a habit to shut himself away in his office so that he can pray. Sometimes he is in there for no more than a few minutes while on other occasions he can be in there for hours. He has specifically asked that he not be disturbed at these times."

"I don't suppose that you happen to have a spare key for this house, or know where there is one?"

"No I don't."

"Very well you had better stand back a little." He took his night stick and gave the door glass a sharp blow, knocking all the shards away before looking inside. "Shit!" Reaching through the door he unlocked it and walked in to find Cynthia sprawled in a pool of blood on the floor. "Don't come in!" He called over his shoulder as he bent down to look for vital signs. There were none. He stood up. "I'm sorry, she's dead. There's blood here but she's not bleeding, so it would appear that she has been dead for some time." His partner returned to the patrol car to call for the detectives and the Coroner's van

"When was the last time that you saw her alive?"

"Earlier on, it must have been around ten this morning, she called in to the church on her way home from shopping."

"Did she seem concerned about anything?"

"We are all concerned at the moment, what with the court case and all, and I know that Cynthia has been worried about it of late, probably more than the rest of us. The Leadership Team in this church are very much like a family."

"I know this will probably sound a little silly, but do you know of anyone who would want to harm her in any way?"

"No! Cynthia was one of the nicest and gentlest people that I have ever met. Everyone loved her, and I have never heard an unkind word spoken against her, ever."

"I'll get a patrol to call by the church, I don't care what his instructions are, Pastor Mayotte will have to be disturbed, he needs to be told."

When the patrol reached the church there were still two cars parked in the car park. The Pastor's BMW stood in its reserved space while a couple of spaces away a blue Ford Focus was parked. The officers rang the doorbell and received no response. They rang the telephone number on the notice board and got a recorded message that informed them the office were closed and inviting them to ring back during office hours the next day. They contacted the officers at the crime scene and got Mayotte's mobile number from Fenton and tried that. The call went straight to Message Bank. They then obtained clearance from their station, after explaining to the officer in charge that they were concerned for the safety of the people inside, given that the wife of one of them had just been found shot dead. They broke the door down and eventually found their way upstairs to Mayotte's suite of offices.

Their knocking on the door resulted in no response so they called out. This also brought about no response so the order was given to attack the door with a slide ram. This brought an immediate response. A flushed Mayotte opened the door. "Can I help you?" In the background one of the officers could just make out Janine hastily doing up the buttons of her blouse. This took longer than it should, because when she got to the bottom she realized that the buttons didn't line up, so she had to undo them and start again.

"Pastor Mayotte, I regret to inform you that your wife has just been found shot dead inside your home. I think that you should come with us, and your friend as well," indicating Janine, "We will need to talk to both of you. Have you anyone that you can contact to replace the glass in your front door, I'm afraid that we had to break it." Mayotte rang the church's maintenance man and arranged for him to repair the glass. He got into his BMW, Janine took her car and they all drove towards the Mayotte house.

"I think there was a little more than praying happening back there." The driver commented.

"What do you mean?" His partner asked.

"I recognize the good Pastor's friend from when I worked in Vice, she used to be on the game but found religion and retired, but it would appear that she may have come out of retirement."

"You're sure about that?"

"Oooh yeah! She was one of the best strippers on the circuit, she got only the top gigs, and only provided the extra-curricular on her terms. Her manager was built like a brick shithouse, and took no bullshit from anyone, you do the wrong thing by Janine and you knew all about it, when you came around in hospital that was."

"So how did she get mixed up with the good Pastor?"

"Rumour had it that he was one of her regulars and it was him that showed her the light, leading to her retirement from the game."

"I think that this might require further investigation."

"If you're suggesting what I think you are forget it, it could lead to disaster."

An unmarked police car arrived at the Mayotte residence and Detective Inspector Forbes emerged. "What are you all standing around for?"

"Just waiting for orders sir."

"You want orders? You, you and you," he indicated the three who had been in a group, 'I want every house in this block and surrounding blocks door-knocked to see if anything unusual was noticed here this afternoon. Don't miss anything, don't discount even the most inconspicuous scrap of information, and most of all don't overlook the obvious. I want to know about any vehicles seen in this area, I want to know about any person wandering the streets who looked as if he didn't belong and I want all of that now, if not sooner!"

The uniforms scuttled off to begin their task.

"The rest of you, I want the front yard here scoured with a fine toothed comb, every blade of grass and every garden bed, anything that looks as if it doesn't belong I want tagged and bagged!"

Mayotte rushed from his car almost as it stopped in his driveway. He was barred from entering the house. "If you don't mind sir, Forensics haven't finished yet. First I will need to ask you and, what's her name?" indicating Janine, "some questions. I'll need to speak to both of you just so that I can be sure of your movements this afternoon."

"What do you want to know?"

"What time did you arrive at the church after the court adjourned?"

"We got there at around six."

"And you went straight up to your office?"

"Yes."

"Just you?"

"No, my Personal Assistant came up with me, she made us both a cup of coffee and we sat and talked for a little while, we discussed the day's events."

"And what did you do next?"

"I was feeling tense so Janine, that's my P.A., offered to give me a neck massage."

"What were you doing when the police arrived?"

"Janine was still massaging my shoulders."

"Then why didn't you answer the door?"

"We didn't hear anyone knocking. The office is some distance from the door."

"But you didn't answer the phone either."

"I didn't want to be disturbed so I had it diverted to the answering machine, and my mobile to Message Bank."

"Can you think of anyone who would want to kill your wife, for any reason?"

"My first thoughts are that it could be someone wanting to get to me for some reason."

"Do you suspect that it might have something to do with the court case?"

"I really don't know."

"That's all for now. It looks as if Forensics have finished, we need you to formally identify the deceased." He led the way through the front door to where Cynthia had fallen. Mayotte looked at his wife, she seemed so peaceful lying there. There was no sign that she had expected the murderer to shoot her.

Felton walked over to Mayotte. "Have you anywhere to stay the night, you shouldn't stay here."

"I was thinking that I would check into a hotel somewhere, I need to be alone right now."

"Do you think that wise? I would have thought that you should have someone around you, a friend maybe."

"Who did you have in mind?"

"I thought Janine might be the right person, after all you have got quite close to each other lately."

"I don't like the inference that Janine and I have done anything wrong."

"That wasn't what I was suggesting at all."

"I'll still go to a hotel." Mayotte walked to his car, his mobile rang as he started the motor, it was Janine, "How are you?"

"I'm not feeling very happy right now, I need you so badly. I'm checking in to the Grand, I would appreciate it if you would join me."

Forbes had noticed Janine standing beside her car talking on her mobile at the same time that Mayotte was talking, and put two and two together. "I think we should keep an eye on those two, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there wasn't a little horizontal calisthenics between them tonight."

"Do you think he might have had anything to do with his wife's murder, like so that he could have the lovely Janine move in permanently?"

"Wouldn't you? She's really gorgeous and has a great personality."

"I don't think personality is her main attribute."

Meanwhile Fenton had driven off. He was shattered. He was angry. His plans had just gone up in a puff of smoke. He was going home to his empty house and cat.

*

Calvin Coolidge Jones sat in the sleeping car of the night Overland train to Melbourne. He could have travelled by plane but didn't want to use the return ticket the church had provided, instead he would travel by rail to Melbourne. From there he would take a flight to Brisbane using the newly acquired passport complete with a remarkably professional Visa stamp. This had cost him extra but he knew that it would be good, he had a lot of faith in the Hell's Angels, the last group that anyone would expect him to use. He had used them from time to time in the US to carry out special tasks for him. This time he needed a passport and a 9mm Glock 19 complete with silencer. These had been dropped off at the church, along with the clothing and surgical gloves that he wore so that there would be no fingerprints or gunshot residue.

In a way he felt sorry for having to kill Cynthia, but then he felt that he had no choice. It was only a matter of time before she found out about Matthew and Janine, and she could make life very difficult for them. And then there was that snivelling little toad Fenton. It was obvious that he had the hots for Cynthia, and he had ambitions to take over the church. He wasn't going to let that happen, and the way to kill two birds with one stone was to kill Cynthia and hope that Fenton either got the blame or the message not to mess with Matthew.

The other thought that crossed the mind of Pastor Calvin Coolidge Jones, was that he didn't want to be around to give evidence in this court case, because he was fully aware of the limitations of his theology. He knew that he was to be called as a witness. He also knew that he would stand as much chance against Henderson as Mayotte had, and he sure as hell wasn't going to allow Henderson that opportunity.

The police will eventually trace the hog, even though it had false plates, to the Angels. They will know, once forensics have identified the type of pistol used, that the Angels were the most likely to have either provided the weapon or been responsible for the killing. They would probably even trace his 'lady friend' even though, if his instructions had been followed, she was basking on some lonely beach in Queensland. By the time any of this happened he would be home free, out of this shit hole of a country.

Then for a short while he had felt some concern at having to bail at short notice from the court case, but he reasoned that as that particular ship was sinking, he needed to go into damage control back home. To this end he had already sent a text message to his daughter Mindy to start distancing them from the Bikers for Christ, at least until this died down.

His mind drifted to his relationship with Mindy. This was something that they didn't want exposed. Since his wife Mandy had announced her desire to form her own church, specifically for women, Mindy had taken over her role in the church. She was also the go-between for the extra-curricular activities between the church and the bikers. He suspected her enthusiasm for this role had more to it than her church role. When she was a Youth Pastor, she had organised for the youth members to go on a run with the Bikers for Christ.

*

Floyd was tall and strongly built, his leathers were much cleaner than the mainstream biker leathers, and there was a silver crucifix pinned on both lapels. He checked Mindy's helmet, Calvin had insisted that they all wear a helmet, to make sure that it was a snug fit. She smiled at him and winked at him. "Are we ready to rock and roll?" She asked.

"Sure thing, let's go." She climbed up behind him and put her arms around him. "Hang on Honey." And they were off.

Several minutes later Floyd felt Mindy's hands moving down from his waist. "Holy shit, this little honey is horny today, I might just have to find a place where we can stop." He thought as he scanned the road ahead, there was a tree-lined stream a mile ahead. He turned the ignition on and off a couple of times as they approached the trees, and finally off so that they coasted to a halt just next to a side road. He propped the bike on its stand and they got off. "What's the problem?" Mindy asked, as she crouched beside him looking at the motor.

"Nothing really, a loose wire possibly."

The other riders stopped and he told them the same thing, telling them to continue the ride. They took off, leaving Floyd and Mindy beside the road.

"Jump on." He said as he fired the motor up, it ran smoothly.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mindy asked.

"That depends on what you're thinking."

"This." Mindy reached out and cupped his balls in her hand, giving them a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

"What are we waiting for?" They climbed onto the bike and road it a hundred yards off the road until they could not be seen.

This was the beginning of a much closer relationship between the Bikers for Christ and the Shining Light Christian Church. Mindy would often accompany them on their 'testimonial runs' where they visited different churches giving colourful testimonials of their lives up to and including their conversion from a life of sex and drugs to the purity of their life with Christ.

Mindy, at one time, found herself pregnant, not knowing whether it was Floyd or her father that was responsible, she convinced Calvin that it was his, and forced him to arrange an abortion, not the first time that he had done so.

Now all of this was to be put on hold because of some stupid court case way across the other side of the world. She would not give up Floyd for that long.