The Cold Case of Pastor Elkhorn

Marty frowned.

"You don't have a motive, so you don't have a case."

I smiled.

"I have a motive and that's why I want to talk to her."

Marty said he wanted an hour alone with Miss Wagner. I took him to the interrogation room and then called Rochelle and said I'd be late getting home. An hour later I opened the door of the interrogation room and asked Marty if he was done. He said he was, so I went in and closed the door.

"Miss Wagner, I've already advised you of your rights. Do you understand them or do I need to explain them again?"

She said she understood.

"OK, now I asked you before what you saw when you found Reverend Elkhorn in his bedroom, but I have another question I want you to answer first. You told the detective investigating the case back then that you'd never go into Reverend Elkhorn's bedroom if he was there. Since you worked in the house, you had to know he was in his bedroom that day. Why did you go in there?"

Marty leaned over and whispered something in her ear, then looked at me.

"Miss Wagner thought she heard strange noises coming from the bedroom, so she went in to see if Reverend Elkhorn was in some sort of distress."

"I see. Miss Wagner, I'm sure that as his housekeeper you knew of the other women who sometimes visited Reverend Elkhorn in the bedroom with the door to his. You did, didn't you?"

Marty didn't let her answer.

"You don't have any proof of that."

"Oh yes I do. I have three identical DNA sequences from the underwear Reverend Elkhorn was wearing when he was killed, and I have a DNA sequence from the daughter of one of those women he saw in his second bedroom. Her DNA proves she was Reverend Elkhorn's daughter. The woman's husband divorced her because he knew he couldn't have fathered the child.

"What I believe is that Reverend Elkhorn was telling women who had problems conceiving that he could cure them. His cure was to take them into his second bedroom and have sex with them.

"Miss Wagner, since you did the laundry, it was you who would have changed the bed sheets and you'd have seen the results. You may not have seen any of the women go into his second bedroom, but you had to have known something was going on that wasn't the way Reverend Elkhorn usually cured people."

Marty whispered something to Miss Wagner and then she whispered something back. Then he turned to me.

"Miss Wagner says she did see the soiled sheets, but thought it was caused by Reverend Elkhorn and his wife having sex."

I flipped through the papers in my file again, and then lied out my ass.

"Well, I don't believe you Miss Wagner, because Mrs. Elkhorn told that detective that she and Reverend Elkhorn were never intimate. She said Reverend Elkhorn told her sex was only for reproduction and that God had taken away his ability to do that so he could spend his life curing people. If they never had sex, how would the stains get on the sheets and why would they be using the second bedroom instead of theirs? Also since I have proof that Reverend Elkhorn wasn't sterile like he told his wife, why would he tell her he was? She told the detective she wanted a big family."

Again, there was a whispered conversation between Mary and Miss Wagner before he answered for her.

She doesn't know why he'd have told his wife that. She did know about the second bedroom and about the other women, but didn't say anything because she thought she'd get fired. That's not a reason to charge her with murder."

I smiled.

"I know that, but I have some other evidence that leads me to believe she did kill him.

"Miss Wagner, I believe you spoke with a woman yesterday, a woman who said she was writing a book about Reverend Elkhorn's death. That woman told me you said you loved Reverend Elkhorn and wanted him to give you a baby, but he wouldn't. In fact, when you went to his bedroom, took off all your clothes, and asked him to, he said he'd fire you if you ever asked again, and then he'd tell the whole congregation that you were a heathen woman and should be banned from the church.

"That writer also took a picture of a really big knife in your kitchen, the same type of knife used to kill Reverend Elkhorn. She also told me you showed her how sharp that knife was. The coroner who examined Reverend Elkhorn after his death said the knife that killed him was long and very sharp. When the current coroner saw the picture of the knife, he told me it matched the wound on Reverend Elkhorn's body.

"What I believe happened is that Reverend Elkhorn made you really mad, mad enough that you decided to kill him. You waited until one of the women he was curing left, sneaked into his bedroom through the little bedroom that adjoined his, and took your big knife and stabbed him from behind while he was sitting on a chair. Since you had worked as a butcher, you knew the only place where you'd be sure to kill him with one stroke was under his collar bone, so that's where you pushed in your knife.

"You rolled him off the chair then and did some other things to his body, and then waited a few hours before you called the police.

"I can understand why you wanted him to give you a baby. My sister had problems having kids and it about drove her insane. She was finally able to have a baby through in-vitro fertilization, but I was really worried about her for a while.

"I can understand why it made you mad enough to kill him when he said he wouldn't give you a baby, especially when you knew he'd done it for several other women. When he said he wouldn't, you probably thought he was telling you that you weren't good enough or pretty enough. I can understand how that would work on a woman.

"What I can't understand is why you did the other things to him. Why the cross and why did you cut off his...well, why did you cut it off and put it in his mouth?

Marty looked at me and frowned.

"You can't prove any of what you just said, and even if she told some writer what you say she did, it's just hearsay evidence."

"Oh, I think I can. I'd bet if I send a Crime Lab team to her house, I'll find some evidence on that big knife. It's a funny thing about knives like that. They have handles that are riveted on. When you use one of them, something always runs under the handle and you can't wash it out. It just stays there forever, waiting on some Crime Scene tech to take the handles off and sample the handles and metal part for DNA."

I looked Miss Wagner right in the eye then.

"When I do that, I'm going to find Reverend Elkhorn's DNA, aren't I?"

Marty said he needed to talk alone with Miss Wagner, so I got up and left. I figured he was going to get Miss Wagner to tell him the truth so he'd know what he was up against.

For a suspect to lie to their attorney at first is pretty common. That's why I hit her with all the facts I had and a few lies. I wanted her to think I had figured it all out and there was no way she could avoid going to jail. She'd have to tell Marty the whole truth for him to have any way of helping her. Otherwise, if the case went to trial, the DA would chop him to ribbons.

I hadn't been lying about the knife. I'd solved two cases that way in the past, one with a kitchen knife and one with a folder. In both cases, the killer had carefully washed off the blade and the handle, but didn't realize the blood would have seeped under the handle or into the part of the handle of a folder the blade goes into when it's closed. If that knife was the same knife she'd used to kill Reverend Elkhorn, it would have his blood under the handle scales.

This time, it only took Marty half an hour before he knocked on the door of the interrogation room. I'd been standing outside, so as soon as he knocked I went inside and asked if Miss Wagner was ready to tell me what happened.

Marty said she was, but the things I'd said she did weren't right. I said if I wasn't right she needed to tell me what really happened that day in Reverend Elkhorn's bedroom.

}{

An hour later, I booked Miss Wagner for murdering Reverend Elkhorn and had her in a holding cell by herself. Since she was as old as she was, I didn't think it was safe to put her in with anybody else.

When I got home, Rochelle was waiting on me.

"Did she confess?"

"Yes, but it wasn't quite like we thought. I booked her for murdering Reverend Elkhorn, but I don't think she's going to serve any prison time. What I think is the judge is going to send her for treatment at a mental hospital in Nashville and after a week or so, they'll put her in one of the local nursing homes and she'll continue treatment as an outpatient. That's what the DA told me he was going to ask for anyway, and after talking to her, I think that's the right thing to do. I don't think she was smart enough to figure out what Reverend Elkhorn was doing to her. She just believed everything he said to her until he basically slapped her in the face with an insult she couldn't ignore.

"She was really messed up in the head when she killed him, and she still is. What happened is she knew what he was doing with the women who came to him because they were having trouble conceiving. After she'd changed the sheets on the bed in the bedroom beside the master bedroom, she knew he was having sex with the women. When she saw that they all got pregnant after they came to the house, she knew he wasn't sterile like he'd told his wife.

"She was very aware of how she looked and knew she'd never find a husband, but she wanted at least one baby. She thought since she was a loyal member of his congregation and Reverend Elkhorn had done that for the other women, he'd do it for her. She waited until she knew he was in the bedroom alone, and then did what she told you were things she couldn't talk about.

"Those things were stripping naked while he watched her and then offering herself to him. He never did turn her away like we thought though. He said God would let him give her a baby if she'd do some things to prove to God that she was worthy.

"What those things she couldn't talk about were was having her give him oral sex and then letting him take her anally. She said that happened three times and he still hadn't really had sex with her. She knew that had to happen if she was going to get pregnant.

"She started listening at the door of the little bedroom when he had a woman in there, and heard him tell the woman that God had given him permission to cure her because she was beautiful. He said if she'd been fat or ugly, he couldn't because God didn't want there to be any more fat or ugly people in the world.

"Since Miss Wagner knew she was both, that just devastated her. She'd been letting him do what he wanted to her, but after that, she knew he was just using her. That's why she decided to kill him. She thought instead of working for God, he was really working for the Devil. She still believes that, by the way. She didn't show any sign of remorse. In fact, she was almost smiling when she wrote out her confession.

"The next time she went to the bedroom to see him, she took a big purse with her and the knife you saw in her kitchen was in that purse. When she got into the master bedroom, she told him she had a special surprise for him and for him to get undressed and sit in the chair and not look until she said he could.

"He did what she said, and once he was down to his underwear, he sat down. She took the knife out of her purse, walked up behind him, and stabbed him. She said she knew where to stab him so it would kill him because pigs had about the same structure and she knew it wasn't very far from the collarbone to where the heart and lungs were.

"After she stabbed him, she put the knife back in her purse and waited for him to die. Once he did and fell off the chair, she took a cross that was hanging in the living room and pushed it up his rectum to punish him for the anal sex he'd made her do. Then she cut off his penis and stuck it in his mouth. She said she did that so he'd know how it felt when she'd had it in her mouth.

"Marty listened to what she had to say and then told me he was going to ask for the judge to send her to a psychiatrist to see if she was sane enough to stand trial. I pointed out that she'd tried to run on me, and had taken a butcher knife from the kitchen, wiped it clean of prints and then left it beside the body, so it was obvious she knew what she'd done was wrong. He just looked at me for a couple seconds, and then asked if after hearing her talk about what happened, did I really believe she was fully competent. I didn't answer him because Miss Wagner was still sitting in the room. I just told him I'd do what I could do.

"When I told the DA she'd confessed and after he'd read her confession, he looked up and said, 'She's one screwed up woman, isn't she? This confession reads like she believes killing him was ridding the world of evil.'

"I asked him what he'd think if Reverend Elkhorn had done all that to his wife, and then told him I didn't think sending her to prison would accomplish much. She's already seventy-seven so any sentence would mean she'll die in prison in a few years. I also said I didn't think she was really competent enough or smart enough to handle the change from her current life to life in prison. I said in my opinion, sentencing her to prison would border on cruelty. He agreed, and that's why he's going to ask for treatment in a mental hospital for her."

Rochelle stroked my arm then.

"You're feeling pretty bad about all this aren't you?"

"Yes I am. We already know that asshole ruined the life of Charity's mother and also the life of Miss Wagner. I'm pretty sure there are at least six more women out there he impregnated and either didn't suspect or didn't tell their husbands and took that secret to their grave.

"At least donors to a sperm bank have to fill out a medical history and are rejected if they carry the genes for some congenital disease or defect. Those kids won't know that until they get sick or develop the defect. I think I agree with Miss Wagner. He was evil."

Rochelle pulled on my arms.

"Come to bed. You'll feel better in the morning.

Well, I didn't really feel better the next morning, but when Rochelle straddled me, smiled, and said she was going to fix me, it did help. It helped enough that I called in sick and we spent the rest of the day making me feel a whole lot better.

}{

Rochelle has started another novel based on this case, except she's changing it a lot. The preacher is still an asshole who gets people to donate to his church by curing people of all sorts of things. The housekeeper still tries to get him to give her a baby, but in Rochelle's novel he refuses. She quits the job of housekeeper and changes churches where she meet a man who was also in an accident and they...

Well, that's about all I can tell you for now. Rochelle told me how she thinks she's going to end the story, but since her agent will be trying to sell it to a publisher, it's better if nobody knows the end until it's published.

It'll take Rochelle probably a month to finish this novel so we won't start on another case until then. In the meantime, I've been looking at Harry's old cold case file for another interesting case. I think I've found one that Rochelle will like.

The case dated from December 20, 1992. A duck hunter had a floating duck blind on a small pond on a farm his brother owned, and got there at about daylight that morning. He used a small-flat bottomed boat to set his decoys out and then went back to his blind to wait.

After two hours, he'd seen a few ducks fly by, but none of them were coming close to the pond. That was unusual for that time of the year because every year before, there had always been ducks that used the pond. After three hours, the duck hunter gave up and rowed out to collect his decoys.

He'd put the last two decoys next to some cattails that grew along one side of the pond, and when he got close to them, he could see what he thought was a large dead fish floating on the surface. When he got closer, he realized the dead fish was the calf of human leg floating just below the surface. He rowed a little closer and saw the rest of the body lying inside the stand of cattails.

When Harry and the coroner and the Crime Scene techs got there, the EMT's had already taken the body out of the cattails and had it lying on a plastic sheet. The coroner made a pretty thorough examination of the body looking for a gun shot or stab wound or some other sign of trauma sufficient to cause the woman's death, but didn't find anything.

It wasn't until the coroner opened the woman's skull that he was able to determine the cause of death. That cause was a brain hemorrhage. Nothing in the body told him the cause of the brain hemorrhage so he surmised it was extremely high blood pressure that had caused one of the arteries in her brain to rupture. He couldn't identify any specific cause of the extremely high blood pressure. She wasn't overweight, the lab tests on her blood didn't show the presence of any alcohol or drugs, and she wasn't diabetic.

He was unsure how to classify the death, but since the woman appeared to have had no problems that could have caused the brain hemorrhage and the fact that she was found half lying in a pond and naked, he classified it as murder.

It was a day after the nightly news reported the finding of an unidentified body in the pond that the desk sergeant transferred a call to Harry's phone. The caller just said the woman was Bridget Mays and then hung up. To Harry, the caller sounded like either a man with a high voice or a woman with a low voice, but the caller hadn't said enough to tell for sure.

That's where Harry basically hit a brick wall. He did try to find out if Bridget Mays had any living relatives, but couldn't find any. When he turned the case over to me, he just frowned.

"This one bothered me for a long time. I'm sure the girl was murdered somehow, but there was nothing that pointed to how or who did it. If I'd been able to find the son of a bitch who killed her, at least I'd have felt like I'd done the best I could for her. Maybe you'll have better luck.

I've never thought solving cases involved much in the way of luck. All the cases I'd solved had been solved by a combination of the available evidence, some calculated theories of what might have happened, and then digging into the past in an attempt to disprove those theories. I guess when Rochelle finishes her book, we'll see if that will work on this one.