Promises Pt. 04

Mayotte knocked on Fenton's door. "Graham, I need to speak with you, after the meeting will be soon enough, okay?"

"What is it about, can you tell me?"

"It's to do with the future of the church. I can't say anything more at this stage." He walked back to his office to prepare for the service.

Fenton went into the auditorium, as he always did, to check on the arrangements. There was a large crowd already inside reserving their seats and chatting with others, while in the foyer the crowd was building. It was going to be a big night. Fenton frowned as he left the auditorium.

The crowd for the evening service was, if anything, bigger than that for the morning service. This service was usually more casual than the morning services and usually had an 'awesome man of God' style speaker although none was programmed for this evening. The music team leader signalled for the music to commence and Felton walked out of the auditorium to fetch Mayotte. Ten minutes had elapsed but there was no sign of either Mayotte or Fenton. A confused buzz wafted over the crowd.

Fenton returned ashen faced and shaking.

He mounted the stage and held up his hands for silence. The music staggered to a halt and a hush descended over the congregation. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have an important announcement to make. Pastor Mayotte is dead." Cries of dis-belief rose from the crowd. "I have just found him in his office and the police are on their way. I will have to ask you to remain here in case they wish to interview you. I'm sorry but I don't feel that music is appropriate at this time, but if you would all join with me in prayer."

A mood of sombre reflection descended over the congregation. Mayotte was dead, the police called, that could only mean foul play was suspected. What else could go wrong in this church?

Janine was not at church. This was unusual enough for Felton to mention it to the police when they arrived. A patrol was sent to her address only to find, after breaking down the door, her body sprawled naked across her bed. Preliminary investigation suggested that the bullet had passed through her right hand and into her head. It would appear as if she had raised her hand in front of her face to protect herself. The shot had been from close range, but there was no sign of forced entry, or the murder weapon. The photographer and the forensics team got down to their respective tasks of recording the crime scene and collecting evidence. It was likely that there was a link between the murder of Janine and the death of Mayotte, what that link was would be determined by the evidence gathered from both sites.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Inspector Forbes, of the local CIB, was faced with the enormity of gathering information at the church. Mayotte had arrived at 5:00pm, his normal time for the six o'clock service, had spoken briefly to Fenton and then went straight to his office passing dozens of people on his way down the hallway. Many of these commented that he seemed somehow pre-occupied.

Fenton had called on him at 5:30pm to let him know that everything was running smoothly, the sound check had been done, the words for the choruses were cued on the computer ready to be projected on the large video screens, the lighting cues had been finalized, all the microphones had freshly charged batteries, the recording suite was ready to go. The security people were already moving around among the crowd alert for any signs of problems. Mayotte was, according to Fenton, a little subdued, but that was to be expected. When the service started and Mayotte hadn't come down from his office, Fenton went to find him, which he did. Unfortunately Mayotte was dead.

Forbes detailed his police officers to set up tables and have the people file past, give their names, addresses and contact phone numbers and ask them if they had noticed anything unusual. Few had, it seems, noticed anything other than the usual pre-service chaos. It was several hours before the last of the congregation was allowed to leave and all that remained were the police and Pastor Fenton.

"I suppose that you can account for your whereabouts this afternoon and evening between say, 3:00pm and the time the service started at 6:00pm?" Forbes asked Fenton.

"I went for a walk to try and get my head around what has happened over the last couple of weeks. I find that by walking on my own, along a lonely stretch of beach, is very soothing, and I can gather my thoughts much better."

"Did anyone see you on this lonely walk?"

"I really don't know, they might have, but then I wasn't paying any attention to what was going on around me."

"Where exactly did you go for this walk?"

"I drove down to Port Willunga, parked my car in the Star of Greece Café car park, and walked along the beach to Sellicks Beach and back again."

"How long did that take you?"

"I left home at around 1:30pm and was back here by 5:00pm."

"And you walked all that time?"

"Yes. Look, I don't know if this is relevant or not, but I received a photograph in the post the other day, of Janine Elliot leaving Michael Henderson's house in the early hours of the morning. He might know something that could help you."

"That will be all for the time being, I might need to talk with you again." Forbes began packing up the notes that he and the others had made. Fenton walked out to his car

"Something doesn't ring true here." Forbes was addressing his partner, Detective Constable Shelley Pratt, "I know that there has been a lot of negative publicity over the last couple of weeks, but now this. First that clown from the US comes over here to support Mayotte, and ends up shooting his wife. But why, what was his motive? Now Mayotte and Janine Elliott are both dead in what we are supposed to believe is a murder/suicide, but why? And the suggestion that Henderson might somehow be involved was just Fenton's attempt to muddy the waters, and divert attention away from himself. But I suppose we have to follow it up."

"The judgment hasn't been handed down yet and there is still an outside chance that he wouldn't have lost and even if he did lose, would that be enough reason to take his own life and that of his P.A.? There is no obvious motive, unless, unless she was more than his Personal Assistant. Could you ask the Pathologist to do a test for recent sexual activity and while we are at it a pregnancy test on her?"

"You don't think that there could have been a little hanky-panky happening in the hallowed halls of the Shining Light Christian Church do you?"

"It wouldn't be the first time that a preacher got caught with his pants down, and it hasn't always been with someone of the opposite sex either."

"You don't sound as if you have a lot of time for them."

"I think that a lot of them are a mob of sanctimonious hypocrites who try to tell normal people not to have fun. What I want is someone to go through the rubbish containers around here to see if there is anything at all suspicious. I also want a search warrant for Fenton's house and car. I want them gone over with a fine tooth comb. And I want a search of every ditch and patch of bush between here and his house, I don't want to miss any possible scrap of evidence. "

"It sounds as if you don't trust him?"

"You are right, I don't. He has the most to gain from all of this, and everything about this church has been about gain."

"Why wasn't the shot heard? There is no silencer on the gun. Pratt, could you go outside, shut the door on your way out, and when you are ready give me a call and I will yell at the top of my voice, see if you can hear me."

Pratt walked outside and a couple of seconds later called Forbes' cell phone. Forbes yelled as loud as he could and returned the call. "I didn't hear a thing, this office, for some reason, is soundproof."

"Inspector." Forbes and Pratt were just about to tell everyone to pack it in when the forensics expert called him over to where Mayotte's body had been laying. "While you're looking for evidence I suggest you look for a box of some description."

"Why do you say that?"

"Look at the carpet where Mayotte's hand was. See what happens when I shine this light on it, can you see the pattern of gunshot residue?"

"Yes, that's weird how it is in a clear straight line."

"You have a very clever murderer here, or at least one who either watches a lot of those CSI type shows on television, or who reads a lot of detective novels. If Pastor Mayotte committed suicide, as we are supposed to believe, there shouldn't be any residue on the carpet at all. What I think has happened is that, whoever did this, shot Mayotte and then placed the gun in his hand and fired it into a makeshift ballistics box so that there will be residue on his hand and we wouldn't find the spent bullet. He has even removed the magazine from the gun and placed another bullet into it, so that the number in the gun correspond with there having only been one bullet fired. So we need to find a box, and we might just find a pair of gloves, a spent bullet case and maybe a shirt in it. Find that and we have our murderer."

"We have a whole bunch of questions in need of an answer. Firstly; if Mayotte committed suicide with this gun, where did he get it? The person that killed Mayotte must have known that this room was sound proofed because there is no silencer on the gun and no-one heard anything. How many people knew that this room was sound proofed? By all reports Mayotte was back to his former self this morning, he was really firing on all cylinders, and had the crowd right behind him, so why would he have ended it, what has happened in the mean time?"

As Fenton drove home from the church his mind was going over the afternoon's events. Had he covered his tracks well enough?

Janine had not answered the door, instead called through it. "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you, it's important, it's about Matthew." She opened the door and allowed him to enter. She was dressed in a housecoat and her make-up was incomplete. "Matthew is in big trouble and he asked me to speak with you."

"What about?" Does he know about the baby? She asked herself.

"It looks as if to save the church he might have to step down as Senior Pastor, at least in the short term."

"But why? He has only been doing what he has been taught to do by the church in America."

"Be that as it may, what I came to see you about is, when this happens, I want you to stay on as Personal Assistant to the Senior Pastor, will you do that?"

"Are you assuming that it will be you?"

"I would see myself as the logical choice, yes."

"Then the answer is no. I won't stay on with you." She realised as soon as she said this that this might not have been a good answer. Fenton's glare told her of his anger.

He stood in front of her, his red face thrust close to hers. "You fucking whore, how dare you refuse me! I have watched you and that posturing fool trying to hide the fact that the two of you have been fucking for months, probably even before you came to work for him. He has betrayed Cynthia, the gentlest and dearest woman I know, for some fifty dollar whore. I have lost my Cynthia and I think that he should lose you the same way, you don't deserve to live, neither of you deserve to live!" A silenced pistol appeared in his hand. Janine had just enough time to put her hand in front of her face before the bullet passed through it into her forehead. She was dead, even before her body reached the floor.

He quickly dragged her into her bedroom and lay the body on the bed. Removing her housecoat, he shoved it into a plastic shopping bag that he pulled from his pocket, along with the pistol and the pair of latex surgical gloves he wore.

Checking to see if anyone had been disturbed, he left the building and drove towards the church.

In his office he continued his preparations. Taking the housecoat and gloves from the bag, he stuffed it into a cardboard box. He unscrewed the silencer from the barrel of the pistol and wrapped that in a cloth and placed it back into the shopping bag. Now for Mayotte.

The unmarked police car pulled up outside Henderson's house, and Forbes and Pratt walked up to the front door. Henderson answered it on the second knock and ushered them inside. "How can I help you?"

"We have just come from the Shining Light Christian Church, you are familiar with it, we understand."

"I've been inside the place a few times a while ago but not recently, I'm not that familiar with the building itself but, as you are obviously aware, I'm very familiar with their operations, yes."

"The reason that we were there is that Pastor Mayotte was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head this evening."

"Shit!"

"Not only that, but his P.A. Janine Elliott was found, also dead from a gunshot wound in her apartment."

"Double shit!"

"We understand that you know Janine Elliott well."

"I know her, but not that well. We had an interesting discussion the other evening, you see she had been sent here to seduce me and provide the church with evidence that they could use to get me to back off in court, similar to what happened to Ralph Nader when he was giving evidence to an inquiry into the auto industry. It didn't work then, and it didn't work this time."

"But she spent the night here."

"Yes, although how you knew that could be interesting. I have my suspicions of course, and it was a very pleasant and platonic night all round, I enjoyed her company as much as she told me she enjoyed mine. Sex didn't happen."

"Where were you this afternoon?"

"Here, alone, and before you ask, I can provide proof that I have been here all afternoon. Come with me." Henderson led the way to his study. "I don't know whether you have been following the court case that involves me and the Shining Light Christian Church, but comment has been made as to how extensive my knowledge of the Bible is, given that I only took on this case a couple of weeks ago. This is the reason why." He pointed to his computer screen. "This is the result of many, many years of research into the Christian Bible, and, as you can see," he clicked a button on the keyboard, "this file which, when I finished working on it yesterday contained one hundred and fifty thousand and some words, if I access the backup file from the last time I worked on it, that will verify that fact. As you can also see," he clicked on word count on the toolbar, "it now contains some six thousand more words, which isn't bad for someone like me with dyslexic fingers."

"Can you think of any reason why Mayotte may have killed himself and Janine?"

"There is one reason. Janine told me that she was pregnant and that he was the father, it could be that she told him about it, and the news, on top of everything else that has happened was enough to send him over the top, although I very much doubt it. I would, if I were investigating this, go with a double murder scenario and concentrate on who has the most to gain from Mayotte's death."

"I actually agree with you, we thought that it was a smokescreen but had to check it out to be sure."

"If you don't mind me asking, who made that suggestion, it wouldn't have been Pastor Fenton by any chance, would it?"

"You should know that we're not at liberty to divulge that information." Forbes said as he and Pratt left.

Chapter 11

Trial Day 8

Greed is a vice that has no place in today's church and today's society, where the gap between the rich and the poor has widened, and is now a huge abyss between the obscenely rich and the desperately poor.

Fenton had called a press conference before court was due to resume. "As you are all aware, Pastor Matthew Mayotte was found shot to death in his office at the church last evening. His Personal Assistant, Janine Elliott, was also found shot dead, in her own home. These deaths are linked in what appears to be a murder/suicide. It is not for me to point the finger of blame in this but, again as you are aware, Pastor Mayotte has been under tremendous pressure of late because of this trial, and it would appear that this, and the loss of his wife in tragic circumstances, has led to the pressure unfortunately taking its toll."

"We, his friends and colleagues at the Shining Light Christian Church have been deeply affected by this sad turn of events and would appreciate it if you, the media, would allow us to grieve in our own way, and in peace."

"It is indeed a sad day for us, and society in general, when the irresponsible actions of a few can have such a devastating effect on so many. It is the lot of people such as us, that those who don't understand, or fully appreciate what we do or why we do it, should be so critical of us. They don't understand what it is for us to commit our lives to service of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifices that we have to make, the criticism we have to bear, in his name"

"Funeral arrangements will be made and you will be advised of the time and place, but we, the church hope that you will not turn this solemn event into some sort of media circus. Let those who have died rest in peace, and those who would mourn, do so in peace. Thank you for your time."

"I was right!" Forbes was reading the Forensic Pathologist's report on Mayotte. "The good Pastor did not commit suicide. He was supposed to have put the gun to the left side of his forehead and pulled the trigger but the finger prints evidence and gunshot residue pattern does not support that. In fact there is something very curious about the residue pattern."

"Forensics was right as well. It would appear that, based on that pattern, he was shot by someone who then put the gun in his hand and fired a shot so that it looked like he shot himself. If that was the case there would have been residue on the back of his hand but there wasn't. Also the spent casing was on the wrong side of the room if you take into consideration the type of gun, the position of the body, and the blood splatter."

"The other interesting evidence is that the shot that killed Mayotte was fired from a distance of not less than a meter. If Mayotte had taken his own life, as we are led to believe, there would have been powder burns around the wound. From the angle of trajectory he would also have had to hold the gun in his left hand and pulled the trigger with his thumb. The evidence does not support that scenario at all, for a start he was right handed. He was murdered."

"And the body itself, now that was another curious thing, why would someone stand up to commit suicide, usually you would expect him to have been seated behind his desk, he could have held the gun in both hands, but Forensics have ruled that out, and the force of the bullet impact would have thrown his head back. The resultant blood spatter would have been on the wall behind the chair. It was not. What we can't rule out is the possibility that he was talking to someone who pulled out a gun, and shot him and then set out to try to convince us it was suicide. Another thing we should consider is that it has to be someone who knew that Mayotte's office is soundproofed, who had a key to the office, it has a dead-bolt and can only be opened from either side with a key. I think we should concentrate on someone close to the good Pastor, very close. I don't buy the suicide scenario anymore."

"By the way, when I was talking to one of the security people last night, he happened to mention that there was a CCTV set up in all internal passageways." Pratt had that look that told Forbes that she had something of significance to tell him. "There was one person and one person only who entered Mayotte's office, other than Mayotte of course, between 5:00 and 6:00 pm, guess who?"

"Pastor Fenton, who else could it have been. The Post Mortem report on Janine Elliott is also very interesting. She was, as I suspected and Henderson confirmed, three months pregnant and there is no first prize for guessing who the father will prove to be. There were a couple of other interesting results of the forensic examination of her apartment. She wasn't naked when she was shot. There were anomalies in the blood pattern on the bed that would suggest that she was wearing something like a dressing gown or housecoat which was removed from her body after she had been killed. Whoever did this wanted us to think that it was someone that she was extremely close to, Pastor Mayotte for instance, who shot her. There was no evidence of any recent sexual activity, but that, under the circumstances, would be expected given what has happened over the last couple of weeks."