Reborn: I Let My Mother Suffer the Price of Her Favoritism novel · Chapter 15 of 32
Chapter 15: Church Property
Callie's POV
The altar guild president came through the sacristy door with six women behind her and a candlelighter in her fist.
She was seventy, small and square, with white curls set that morning and a navy cardigan buttoned to the neck.
I had known her since I was four years old.
She had given me my first Communion cookie.
"This room is for the altar guild," she said. "It is not a place for police."
"It's a place for evidence, ma'am," the deputy said.
He lifted the black composition book in his gloved hand, and he did not look rattled.
She looked at the open steel box and went gray.
I watched her do it, and it was the thing that told me.
She did not look shocked.
She looked caught.
"That is private church property," she said. "Maureen keeps her personal papers here with the church's permission, and I will not have it picked over by strangers."
"You gave her permission?" I said.
"I did."
"You hold the second key."
"I hold keys to every cabinet in this church. It is my job."
"The lock is oiled."
She turned to me.
"The lock," I said, "is freshly oiled. Somebody opens that box often enough to look after it."
The six women behind her shifted, and one of them, a heavy woman in a green coat, took half a step back.
"I oil all the locks at Advent," the president said.
"Did you ever read what was in it?"
"Callie," the pastor's wife said quietly.
"No. I want to hear it."
The president lifted her chin.
"I would never read a friend's private business."
"I'm not asking about the friend," I said. "I'm asking about the box."
Everett had not moved from my side.
He put his hand flat against the small of my back, warm through my blouse, and left it there.
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