Within an hour of leaving the station, Astrid was sorted with a car and driving to the Church house. She needed to look at the building and location before speaking to Adam’s sister in her self-imposed exile. She’d wanted to ask him why Eve Church had locked herself away from the rest of the world but decided it was inappropriate while he sat inside a cell. And what sort of names were Adam and Eve Church anyway? She checked the family online on her phone while she waited for the paperwork for the motor to clear.
The first thing she found was the reports of the crash which killed their parents. Sally and James Church, hit while making their way home from the Christians Against Sin event they’d organised. Some of the more salacious websites posted photographs of the debris, including one where Sally Church’s hand flopped out of the car and on to the dirt. It reminded Astrid of a scene from the end of Bonnie and Clyde. But that wasn’t the most interesting thing she discovered: the other driver in the collision was a woman named Annie Chapman. It wasn’t that which piqued Astrid’s curiosity, but the fact Chapman wasn’t drunk and was a member of the same congregation as the dead couple: The Church of the Old Testament.
So why was Adam under the mistaken belief a drunk driver killed his parents? Who told him that and why? The police?
She considered those questions while she found the group’s website and forced herself to read through their religious teachings, all of which they claimed came straight from the Old Testament. They appeared to focus only on the negative, a hatred for the following: immigrants, the poor, minorities, science, gay people, liberals, progressives, and so-called social justice warriors. She skimmed most of it and settled on the section saying God hated everyone, finding a long list of Bible quotes as evidence. Three of them stood out to her:
Psalm 106:40 - “Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.”
A bad workman always blames his tools.
Proverbs 22:14 - “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.”
Astrid assumed it was about her, but it was the last of the quotes which interested her the most.
Proverbs 6:16-19 - “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
She studied the words intently with parts of it echoing the case around Adam Church: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief; a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
The words kept ringing inside her head as she drove towards Adam Church’s house. They didn’t come with an American accent, but an English one which sounded exactly like her parents. It was mainly her father, Lawrence, but her mother chimed in from time to time. She didn’t understand why this was since neither of them was particularly religious.
She tried to drown them out as she headed to the house. Following the GPS directions on her phone, she found herself on Hillcrest Drive, driving down Broadway, then Linthorpe Road and the Westway. She slowed down at the intersection of Berwick Street and High Sierra Cross and stopped. The voices in her head vanished as she stepped out of the car. She was twenty minutes from her destination, but she needed to get her thoughts in order before getting there. The wind brushed her cheeks as she stared at the view of the downtown skyline, peering across the tops of the trees to the buildings of Eureka Falls. People milled around below her, most of whom appeared to be wearing different military uniforms.
Perhaps there’s been an invasion.
She returned to the car and set off again, turning on the radio to a station featuring brass band music. She scooted through the channels until she found one playing the latest tune from Beyoncé. She hummed along to it as she drove past shops, restaurants, banks, spas and gyms before reaching a more residential area and her destination.
Astrid got out and peered at the house with the crime scene notifications around it. She removed the phone from her pocket and took some photos. If she observed the neighbourhood curtains twitching, it didn’t register with her. She scanned the street, seeing a typical residential area with rows of similar houses and, she assumed, similar people living in all of them.
The temptation to see inside the house was great, but she fought it off, assuming the building was still considered a crime scene by the police. She was unsure if Hudson and Hicks resented her or not from the brief time she’d spent with them, but there was no need to antagonise them unnecessarily. Not yet, anyway.
If my boss had sent me out to chauffeur some stranger back to the office, I’d be less than pleased, that’s for sure.
She remembered several of her early assignments with the Agency when George had paired her with experienced agents who would treat her as if she was no better than the gum on their shoes. She’d also spent plenty of days babysitting witnesses or suspects when she could have been doing so much more.
Astrid scrubbed away those memories and picked her way down the side of the building to the back. She stretched her neck to stare up to see if there was any way somebody could have prised a window open to climb inside, but saw nothing from where she stood. Even if the killer had entered that way, how did they get the two girls into the basement? Surely the kids would have run if they’d seen someone breaking into the house, and what were the chances of them going in with a stranger?
She pondered the questions as she gazed from the house towards the trees beyond the back and into the hills running parallel with the street. She removed her phone to check for messages, finding none from George, Courtney or Olivia.
Did I text Courtney to tell her I changed my flight home?
She couldn’t remember. Not that her sister would care. She’d probably be glad, knowing Astrid wouldn’t be around to fuss over Olivia again.
Astrid returned to the front and stood in the street, gazing up and down its length, surprised it was empty so early in the afternoon. She’d return once Adam had his lawyer and told them to give her a key to the place. It was hard to judge how the killer got in and out with the girls until she looked inside.
And that’s all on the assumption Adam Church is innocent.
She considered that as she returned to the car and drove away.
Perhaps his sister might provide an insight on that.