Page 46 of Donut Disaster
I lift up my glass as well. “To Noah and Cormack. I have a feeling she will make sure the two of you stay together forever.”
Noah closes his eyes a moment, because I’m pretty sure he knows I’m right.
There are some people who just refuse to hear the truth.
And there are some people who seem incapable of telling it.
Yes, Dr. Drake might very well have a forked tongue, but is he a killer?
Or is he simply as harmless and disillusioned as Cormack?
Chapter 14
Morgan Dawson’s funeral is held in Honey Hollow Covenant Church to a full room brimming with bodies—all of them living minus one, and that one isn’t present in any form.
Noah texted this morning and let me know that forensics confirmed Cassie Montgomery’s fingerprints were found on Dr. Dawson’s gun. He also said it wasn’t necessarily incriminating evidence. She was his girlfriend. She could have handled it at any time. He also mentioned Dr. Dawson’s fingerprints were all over it as well. There’s no telling who actually did the deed.
I take a deep breath and glance around the church. There is no casket, no urn, just an oversized black and white picture of a smiling Dr. Dawson in which he looks friendly and affable, the way I’m sure most will remember him.
Noah, Everett, and I sit just a few pews back from the front where Cassie and Anika are warring it out with the waterworks. That sounds terrible, I know. But for some reason, I can’t help but feel they’re trying to outdo one another. If Cassie starts to bawl, then Anika bawls ten times harder. It’s been a steady competition of who can grieve the loudest, the longest, and the strongest—all the while they’ve been giving one another the side-eye. One might say they are competitors until the very end.
I still don’t know what Cassie’s secret is. Could it have been dark enough for her to inject him with a lethal dose of a toxic drug and then shoot him? I still can’t make heads or tails with the double whammy the poor guy was given.
Pastor Gaines speaks to the crowd with those never-ending smiling eyes. It’s a bit unnerving after a while. I can see why my mother might find him so enchanting. He’s handsome, has that quasi-man-in-power thing going on, and if he were staring you in the face with that perennial smile of his, I can see where someone might think he was very interested in you. But my mother’s luck with boyfriends has never been good. And deep down, I wonder what lurks inside of this one. I suppose I should give him a pass from my suspicions due to the fact he’s a man of the cloth so to speak, but I can’t so I won’t. When it comes to dating my mother, no man is above my scrupulous cynicism.
Cookie Monster is here, front and center. He’s seated at the base of that oversized picture, howling away and whimpering without allowing himself to catch his breath, and it’s the most heartbreaking thing I have ever witnessed.
Jeremy, Morgan’s brother, is here. He’s got sunglasses on, his head tipped back, arms folded, and every now and again his head lops forward, indicating to me he’s falling asleep. There’s a tear-filled older woman to his left—I’m assuming his mother. And to his right sits Jessica Nicole. I’m surprised she showed up after all those things she said about Morgan. If there’s one person Morgan wasn’t kind to at all, it was her. But I suppose she’s here supporting Jeremy, and that’s very selfless of her, so I commend her for it.
Pastor Gaines calls up Cassie who reads a sweet poem about two people making their way back to one another in eternity. It’s both touchy and a bit creepy considering how angry she was that he was cheating on her—or rather just plain old angry with Anika for existing.
Anika goes next and reads a few passages from the Bible on love, and it feels heartfelt and yet a bit rehearsed.
Who wouldn’t rehearse having to read a few passages of anything in front of a large crowd?
I nod and smile her way as she steps off the altar, letting her know she did well.
Pastor Gaines takes a breath as he steps up to the pulpit once again.
“Next up is a special farewell orchestrated by the beloved brother of the deceased, Jeremy Dawson.” He nods his way before stepping aside.
Jessica Nicole smacks Jeremy over the shoulder, and he wakes up with a start before jumping to the altar.
“Hey”—he breathes heavily into the mic, sunglasses still securely in place—“I just want to say that even though my brother and I didn’t always get along, we were family. And because of that, I want to bring up a few of his friends and offer up a special goodbye just the way he would have liked it.” He points to Jessica Nicole, and she pulls something that looks like a boombox from under the pew, and sure enough an obnoxious rhythm belts out of it.
Noah leans in. “Why does this sound familiar?”
Everett leans in on the other side of me. “Because it belongs in a strip club.”
Before I can respond to either of them, dancing down the aisle come a string of women clad in shiny red corsets, tight black pants, and heels that can double as dangerously tall stilts. Each one has long, luscious hair, their face colored in with a touch too much cosmetics, and a sway to their hips that is perfectly illegal in any church at any given time.
In the blink of a carnal eye, the girls hit the altar and start in on a dance routine that’s both mesmerizing and lewd. It’s well coordinated with every kick and bosom shake occurring at the exact same time, and a part of me wonders if Meg orchestrated this routine. She works down at Red Satin and teaches the girls how to sway their hips just like this.
A thought occurs to me.
“Hey?” I whisper to both Noah and Everett. “Isn’t it funny how we didn’t have to go to Red Satin once during this investigation? And here it’s practically come to us.”
Everett’s chest pumps with a dry laugh. “I’m betting Morgan would have loved this.”