Brother Ezra Page 2

I was in this Revival tent and sober as a judge. Tom was walking around speaking in tongues and Delores was taking her clothes off. She had dropped her jacket and sweater on the platform and was unbuttoning her blouse when the preacher put his hand on her head and yelled SIN NO MORE. Delores began buttoning her blouse without missing a beat.”

  “What was Tom doing? Had he flashed anyone yet?”

  “Tom was walking down the aisle talking to the congregation. Sometimes in tongues and sometimes in English.” Baker paused for a moment. “At least that’s what some of the people said. I was busy watching Delores and didn’t pay any attention to what Tom was doing. They said he rubbed Liz Patterson’s head. She screamed that her headache she’d had for twenty years was gone. He rubbed Josephine Kegan’s knee. She threw her cane away and started dancing around the room.”

  The sheriff tapped his Maalox bottle on the desk checking how many tablets were left. “Other words, you didn’t actually see any of these cures. Liz’s headache could have been gone for years and Josephine walked in with the cane on her arm.”

  “Don’t you believe it? Here we have a Healer and a possible Saint in Taylorville and you don’t want to believe it.” Baker leaned back and shook his head. “Some people claim they saw a halo when Tom walked out of the tent.”

  The sheriff dropped the Maalox bottle back into his shirt pocket. “What happened to Tom? Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know. The choir started singing and everyone joined in. Delores had her clothes on but she acted like she was in another country. I had to help her back to her seat. She couldn’t tell a Mack truck from a bicycle.”

  “What then? Did you go outside to check on Tom?”

  “I couldn’t. Delores was passed out and laying on my shoulder. If I had got up, she would have hit the ground again. It was fifteen minutes before the meeting was over and I could drag Delores outside.” Baker hesitated for a second. “By then Tom was no where to be found. I took Delores home. I had to take her inside or she would have laid down on the porch. Her mother wanted to raise cain with me for bringing her home drunk. I wasted more time explaining what happened. I went to the saloon looking for Tom. News from the Revival had already reached there. Everybody thought the whole Revival thing was funny and wanted to know what I had done to Delores.”

  Sheriff Abel leaned back and smiled for the first time. “I don’t see anything you done wrong. Maybe the next time you can get saved. That will help come election time.”

  Baker shivered. “I don’t want the preacher yelling in my ear and tapping me on the head.” He paused for a moment. “What do you want me to do now? Check on the Hilda Swenson’s rape story or look for Tom?”

  Sheriff Abel glanced at his watch and then studied a calendar taped to his desk. “I don’t have anything pressing or absolutely has to be done. Let’s both of us ride up there. We’ll check out this Swenson woman. Maybe she’s remembered something else.” He grinned at Baker. “But with the amount of alcohol she consumed, it’s doubtful she even remembers leaving the saloon. After that, we’ll scout around for Tom. He aught to be easy to find if he’s wearing a halo.” He gave his shirt pocket a reassuring pat. “Let’s go. I feel good this morning. Just like I got the bull by the tail on a downhill drag. Nothing is going to bother me today.”

  He stepped out into his secretary’s office. He tapped on her desk with his nightstick. “Baker and me are going over to Taylorville. We want to talk with the Swenson woman and Tom Henry. Don’t bother us unless it’s important.”

  His secretary nodded without moving her eyes from her computer. “Go ahead. I’ve got things under control here. We did get a phone call from a Swenson woman from Taylorville.” She glanced up at the sheriff. “She said she wants to talk to Chief Deputy Baker.”

  The sheriff nodded and walked out, slamming the door harder than usual. “I’m going to fire her just soon as her dumb brother loses an election. Let’s go.”

  Twenty minutes later Baker parked the unmarked squad car in front of an old two-story house. One shutter hung at a thirty-degree angle. Paint was peeling in places and one windowpane was missing in the attic dormer. Baker raised his hand to knock when the door opened. A woman waved them in.

  She started talking while she was closing the door. “I saw him this afternoon. The man who raped me. I saw him walking down Main Street.”

  Baker had his notebook out. “What did he look like?”

  “I know the guy.” She leaned against the entrance to the kitchen. “It was Tom Henry. I saw him about an hour ago walking by the hardware store. Something clicked in my mind and I knew it was him.”

  “Whoa, not so fast with your accusations. Just what clicked in your mind? You had an awful lot of booze that night.” The sheriff sat in one of the living room chairs. “Just exactly what do you remember?”

  “You don’t believe me, do you? You just think I was drunk. It was him. I couldn’t forget his stinking beard.”

  “Where did it happen?” Baker wrote his question down and waited for her answer. “Was it here in your home?” He waited a few seconds. “Did the rape occur between here and the saloon?”

  She waited a moment looking first at Baker and then at the sheriff. “I’m not exactly sure where it happened. It could have happened in a yard, in his car or here in my apartment. I don’t remember that.” She paused. “Not yet, but I will. He’s a nasty old man and deserves to be put away.”

  “Let’s go to the hospital and let a doctor check you out.” The sheriff leaned forward as if to get up. “Once we get his DNA, we’ll nail him right to the wall.”

  Swenson sat down on an old ragged sofa. “I don’t want to do that.” She waited for one of them to ask why. When they didn’t she kept on. “I had sex the night before with my boyfriend and I don’t want to drag him into this mess. You guys might implicate him just so you can say you caught the rapist and it wasn’t Tom Henry.”

  The sheriff leaned back in the easy chair. “You don’t have to worry. We’ll get some DNA from him and everything will be rosy. This information will be strictly confidential.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t understand. He’s an influential man in the community.” She looked at the floor for a moment. “And he’s married.”

  Baker closed his notebook. “Just what in the hell do you want us to do? What you’ve told us is absolutely worthless. Tom wouldn’t even need a lawyer. The judge would laugh us out of court.”

  She wiped at her eyes with a tissue. “I don’t know what to do. If I remember anything else, will you arrest him?”

  The sheriff stood and walked to the door. “Not much chance of that without DNA. Don’t wait too long. The DNA will degrade and be worthless.” He opened the door. “One last question. Did you tell the state police what you told us?”

  She shook her head. “I wanted to tell Chief Deputy Baker. He was nice to me this morning. I want him to get credit for arresting the rapist.”

  “Well, if you remember anything else, call Deputy Baker. He’ll be here in a flash.” The sheriff stepped outside on the porch. “By the way, Baker loves meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy.”

  Baker trotted out to the squad car. “Why did you tell her that? She’s just dumb enough to call me.”

  The sheriff grinned as he got into the passenger seat. “She might just be your style. Decent looking and the house was neat. Check it out to see if she owns it. Her boyfriend may be the owner. Now let’s go round up Tom Henry and see what language he’s speaking today.”

  Baker slowly drove to Main Street and parked in a space giving a long view of the street. Baker had just shut the engine off when the sheriff tapped on the dash with his club.

  “Who in the hell is that? Look at him. Walking around Main Street in a bathrobe and carrying a big stick. There are more crazy people here than you can shake a stick at.”

  Baker removed his sunglasses for a moment. “That’s our man. Tom is even dressed for the occasion. Who does he look like to you?”
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br />   “A fruitcake.” Sheriff Able opened his door. “What can we arrest him for? Indecent exposure? Just plain crazy?”

  Deputy Baker climbed from the squad car. He waited until the sheriff was standing on the sidewalk. “We want to ask him a few questions. He is a possible rape suspect.”

  “What are you talking about? That woman wasn’t raped. She was drunk and dreamed that someone took advantage of her.” The sheriff looked at the man in the bathrobe. “She’s just as crazy as this loony is. Both belong under lock and key.”

  They walked a hundred feet to where Tom Henry was talking with an older woman. They watched as Tom placed his hand on the woman’s head. He seemed to be saying something. The woman nodded her head and bowed as much as her old body would permit. She turned and slowly began shuffling toward the two men.

  “That old coot is running some kind of scam here. He’s probably taking money from old women. I’ll have him in the county lockup by tomorrow.”

  Baker took a few steps and stopped in front of the woman. “Pardon me, Ma’am, who was that you were just talking with?” He pointed at the retreating Tom Henry.

  She dropped her shopping bag and held both hands over her heart. “That’s Brother Ezra, bless his heart. He was saved last night at the Revival Meeting. The Good Lord Jesus spoke with him and gave him some healing powers and a new name. Now Brother Ezra belongs to us.