25

The Butte Falls church was on Crowfoot Road. Technically not in Butte Falls proper, it was in Eagle Point but served Butte Falls. It was small and reminded Tess of an old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse, with a peaked roof sporting a cross where a school bell might have been. They’d climbed some in elevation. There was forest all around and the smell of pine trees and fresh air hit as soon as she got out of the car. A slight man who looked Mexican met them as they approached the building.

“Pastor Mac.” He smiled, looking hesitant as his eyes took in Tess and Logan. “What’s up? Esperanza say you called for me.” His speech was heavily accented.

“Octavio.” Macpherson held his hand out and the two men shook. “I don’t think you’ve met our new chief.” He gestured to Tess. “This is Chief O’Rourke. And you know Sergeant Logan.”

Octavio nodded and Tess shook his offered hand. “Nice to meet you, Chief O’Rourke, but I think something must be wrong, you here.”

“We don’t know that yet. We just wanted to ask you some questions.”

“Yes,” Macpherson jumped in. “Octavio, did Anna come to see you the day before yesterday?”

Octavio nodded slowly and set Tess on edge. There was something off about this guy.

“Sí. She come to talk about Glen.”

“Glen?” Macpherson looked surprised. Tess and Logan exchanged glances.

“What about Glen?” Tess asked.

Octavio grinned. “He’s a believer now. He came to Christ, got clean from the drugs. Anna, she want to make sure that Glen, he tell the truth.” He paused. Then held his hands up. “Well, it’s true. Glen, he Christian now.”

Obviously the Rogue telegraph and news of Glen’s murder had not reached here for some reason. However, Octavio’s information brightened Macpherson. Tess remembered enough of church to know that this was important to believing individuals. For a brief second it brought back the memory of how happy her dad had been when she was baptized. Shaking the memory from her thoughts, she concentrated on the task at hand and couldn’t help but notice that Octavio would not look her in the eye. He concentrated on Macpherson. He didn’t even glance at Logan.

“Glen’s more than that, Octavio. He was murdered yesterday.”

Octavio’s eyes got wide. “Murdered? What, uh . . . how this happen?”

Macpherson filled him in.

“Oh, Dios mío,” he said, shaking his head. “Who would do this? What does it have to do with Anna?”

“We’re trying to figure that out. How long was she here with you?” Tess asked.

Octavio hiked a shoulder. “We had lunch, my wife with us; then she go home. One, maybe one thirty.”

“Did she tell you she was going home when she left?”

“Sí, she say she want to tell Pastor Mac about Glen. She was very happy.” Again he muttered something in Spanish. Tess caught shock in his tone and his words, something about the devil’s work. Murder was that.

Tess saw Macpherson frown. Octavio saw it too because he asked, “What’s wrong? Something happen to Anna?”

“We don’t know,” Macpherson said. “She . . . well, she hasn’t called or anything and she’s not been home since Wednesday morning. Glen told you that he changed his life, or you see that he did?”

“I see with my own eyes. He’s a new person. And now he’s with Jesus.”

Tess folded her arms and stared at Octavio, wondering if this information about Glen could possibly have any bearing on Anna’s whereabouts. “Anna didn’t mention a side trip, another stop, anything?”

Octavio shrugged. “No, nothing.” He looked down at his feet.

After a beat to get the man’s reaction, she asked, “Is your wife here now?”

Octavio looked toward the church. “Yes, she’s with the baby.”

“I’d like to talk to her.” Tess started for the door.

But Octavio stopped her. “Not here. My house. It’s over there.” He pointed to the other side of the lot to a single-wide trailer. “But she don’t know where Anna is.”

“I’d still like to ask her myself.” Tess nodded to Logan. “I’ll be right back.”

He said nothing and Tess couldn’t read his expression. Could Logan see there was something wrong here or was it just her?

As she walked away, she could hear the three men begin talking about Anna, Octavio’s dismay sounding insincere as far as Tess was concerned.

A woman peered through the curtains as Tess approached the trailer. Her face was visible above a sticker with the PSS security logo. As she stepped up on a small wooden porch, the curtain dropped abruptly.

Tess rapped on the door. “Esperanza, it’s the police. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

She heard shuffling and the sound of a baby cooing. It was a long moment before the door opened.

“Sí?” A dark-haired woman with beautiful eyes and a fearful expression stood in the doorway, holding a baby on her hip. “I no speak English,” she said, smiling tentatively.

“No importa. Hablo español.” Tess was fluent in Spanish and she could tell Esperanza was surprised by that.

Tess asked about Anna, and Esperanza looked anxiously over Tess’s shoulder at her husband before she answered. She basically said the same thing her husband did, except for the time Anna left. Esperanza said Anna left sometime after two and that she had a long, private talk with Octavio before she did go.

Tess mulled this over as she walked back across the parking lot to the church. Octavio was hiding something—she could feel it—but it didn’t track with her that it was murder. Still, she couldn’t assume. She glanced around the church grounds and knew there could be a car hidden somewhere. She and Logan would have to take a look.

“What specifically did you and Anna talk about?” she asked Octavio when she returned to the men.

“Glen. I told you.”

Before Tess could follow up, Macpherson spoke up. “Octavio specializes in reaching hard-to-reach men. He’s a prison chaplain. This is big that Glen turned away from his old life and wanted a new one.”

“I get that,” Tess said, keeping eyes on Octavio. “But your wife said you had a long, private conversation with Anna. What did you talk about?”

He seemed prepared and answered quickly. “A job. We try to think of where we can find Glen a good job.”

If Octavio was surprised by their visit at first, he clearly had recovered. He looked Tess in the eye and smiled, but for the life of her, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about the guy.

“Do you mind if Sergeant Logan and I take a look around the grounds?”

He shook his head. “No, go ahead.”