The Gravedigger, Kacie Clement [surface ebook reader TXT] 📗

on the town. We had just finished our midterm exams and needed a break from all the studying. That is the night she met Charles Chestfield. I didn’t like him right on the spot. I think it was the way he looked at us, trying to determine which one he should choose. He chose Faye. Three months later, they married.

I still can’t believe it. I don’t know how Charles sucked her in so fast. There was nothing I could do. My mother loved him, and she would tell me over and over to leave it alone. Charles loved Faye. He was a pastor, for heaven’s sake.

After Cassie’s death, Faye and I would go for walks. She was so sad. That’s when Faye first mentioned that Faye thought Charles had been having an affair. But she felt it had ended, and she needed to focus on her marriage.

After Sarah was born, her second daughter, she still seemed sad. Faye wouldn’t talk about what was wrong. Mom suggested she see a therapist.

I was working at the Charleston Hospital. In January, she called me to ask me if she started a Christian school, would I come and be the school’s administrator. She had already gained approval from the church council and raised close to half the money needed to build it. She was so excited. I told her I would accept the position. We often talked weekly about the new school. Then, in May, she became quiet. I asked her what was wrong. She cried.

She told me Charles was having an affair with one of the church’s women, a newly divorced young woman with a small child. In June, she told me she had found crushed pills in Charles’s briefcase. Faye was scared Charles was going to kill her. Shocked, I begged her to come back to Charleston.

In July, my sister was dead. They said she killed herself.

I know Faye didn’t commit suicide. She had just told me the week before she was pregnant again.

Charles Chestfield killed my sister.”

Kamira asked, “Did Faye see a therapist?”

Joy Ault nodded. “I planned for Faye to visit with a friend of mine who was a therapist. After Sarah’s birth, she was so worried that Sarah would share the same fate as Cassie, and she didn’t seem happy in the marriage. She didn’t want to at first, but I made her at least go once. After Faye died, I talked to my friend, June Hughes. She has passed now, but she told me that in April 2003, Faye suspected Charles was again having another affair. Faye had said to her that Charles had many relations outside their marriage. The church council asked Charles to leave as pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church because of inappropriate behavior with a teenage girl. Mind you, Faye had never told me that.

Kamira asked, “What happened after Faye died? Was her death investigated?”

Joy, realizing her tea had gone cold, handed her cup to Lucy. As Lucy got up to rinse her cup and pour her mother another cup, Joy continued her story.

“Charles had told the police that there were clues Faye was in a downward spiral, that it began when Cassie died. Yes, she had a hard time, but she prevailed. Yes, was she nervous about Sarah sharing the same fate? I know in my heart that Faye would never have left her children.

My daughter Lucy and I never believed Faye committed suicide. It wasn’t in her nature. A month after Faye died, I received Faye and Charles’s cell phone bill. Charles had already died by that point. Even after Charles’s death, there were still active calls happening, and they were coming from Charles’s cell phone.

It was then Lucy, and I knew something wasn’t right. We had gone to talk to the police department, but they wouldn’t listen. They had already ruled the case a suicide and would not reopen the investigation into Faye’s death. They said it wouldn’t change anything. Charles was dead. They wouldn’t even look at the phone records.”

Lucy said, “Even with the cell phone records, the district attorney in Shadowbank would not look at the case any longer. That was in 2005. We had nowhere else to go with this. But I know Charles killed my Faye, and he is out there somewhere.”

Kamira, feeling a quickening in her gut, asked the women, “So you both believe Charles Chestfield is still alive?”

Kamira watched as Joy Ault’s eyes filled with tears, as she nodded her head in agreement. She heard Lucy Ault say, “You’re damn right Charles is alive, and he killed my sister.”

Kamira nodded and asked, “Did either of you know Daniel Billings? I believe he was the gravedigger.”

Lucy smiled, “Danny. His last name was Billings? I didn’t know that. I had met him a few times. Faye adored him. She had found Danny one morning behind the library in Shadowbank. He was a veteran that had, what do you call it? PTSD from the war? He was terrific with Faye. He helped her with Sarah when she was a baby. If Faye needed anything, Danny was right there to help Faye.”

Kamira nodded, “Where is Sarah today?”

Lucy smiled and replied, “She is at school today. After Faye passed, I adopted Sarah.”

Kamira looking somber, asked, “Tell me more about Daniel and Faye's relationship.”

I believe Danny was in love with Faye. It devastated him. Danny was more upset over the loss of my sister than her husband. Danny dug Faye’s grave himself. He wouldn’t let anyone help him.

I went to bring him some breakfast the following day before the funeral, and Danny disappeared. But Charles was there. I couldn’t believe it. He was finishing putting up the sheetrock before his own wife’s funeral. It looked like he had been at it all night. He should have been with Sarah.”

Kamira’s eyes widened. “Where in the church did you see this, Lucy?”

Lucy tilted her head, puzzled. “In the church's basement. Down the hallway from where Danny stayed. Why?”

Kamira smiled, “Just wondering is all.” Looking