Ben (The Sherwood)

“Elder William Cobb.”

“The man who disappeared last December,” Mom stated, and Lilah nodded.

“He had discovered that Ron was stealing from the church too. He followed him. He accused him of killing both Disa and Merci’s parents. He was so smug when he said that he did.” Lilah’s eyes traveled up to me and Disa. “I’m sorry,” she said to Disa.

I comforted my woman. I didn’t know what else to do.

Mom got up and called for Dad. He came into the kitchen and sat where she did. “Lilah start at the beginning and tell your story. Simon needs to hear it,” Mom said.

Matt sat beside her and I wondered if he had been hanging out at Heath’s with her. There was a connection between them. A something that being male I didn’t dissect. A flicker. A spark.

I listened to the words and couldn’t believe the number of cover ups Ron Parson had been doing. The embezzlement. The death of Disa and Merci’s parents. Elder William Cobb’s murder.

“I heard it all. That is why he wants me back,” she told Mom and Dad. “The compound is terrified. The children are no longer going to public school. They are home schooled for fear that they will tell something they shouldn’t.”

“Merci,” Mom shouted for her. “God knows where that girl is. She and Seth have been sniffing around each other.”

I wanted to laugh but it wasn’t funny. Disa looked at me with troubled eyes. “Should we still get married in two weeks?” She asked.

“Yes,” mom informed her.

“That answers that,” I told her. Then I kissed her forehead.

Merci entered with Seth right behind her. “I called for Merci not you,” she informed my brother glaring at him. He stuttered like the young pup he was when Mom was angry, not like the rest of us who were used to her blustering. “Go back to the living room.”

He exchanged looks with Merci then she nodded at him.

“How do you not know about Ron Parson’s criminal activities?” Mom asked. She was suspicious of her now. I could tell. “You were his wife.”

Merci glanced around the room. She was nervous. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she declared.

“I’ll bet you do.” Mom took a few steps towards her. “You aren’t so innocent, I bet. You were in on it, weren’t you?” Colombo couldn’t have done better but Mom was questioning the wrong suspect.

Merci was wide-eyed and afraid. She was twenty-three and lived a sheltered life on the compound. She was innocent.

Mom poked her shoulder. I cleared my throat and handed Asia to Disa. I stepped over to my mother. “What are you doing?”

“She knows more than she’s telling,” Mom insisted.

“Mom she doesn’t. He isolated her from everyone and everything at the compound.”

“That’s true,” Lilah spoke up. “Merci was lonely.”

Her lower lip trembled. She had tears staining her cheeks when she gazed at my mother and snapped. I mean literally, she snapped. She shoved my mother back. “I was his prisoner,” she shouted. “I’m not spy or whatever you think of me.”

I stepped between them. Mom was shocked right now. It wouldn’t take her long to recover. I didn’t want her to retaliate.

“He came to me whenever he felt like it. It was my duty,” she spat the word at Mom like it disgusted her, “to please him. I just wanted to die, Mrs. Hatfield. I hated his touch. I hated his body rutting in mine like a dog. I was nothing to him but a body. A blonde who served his needs. We,” she pointed to Disa and then herself, “look like someone he lost a long time ago.” Then the tears really started rolling down her face. “He’s crazy. Sometimes he would call me by her name.”

“What’s her name?” Dad asked.

“Bella Michaels,” Merci said the name and Disa’s knees buckled. Dad caught her. We turned to her. I went to her and took Asia from her.

“What?”

Her head was shaking back and forth.

“What Disa?”