Secret Sins: Murder in the Church (16 page)

At this moment I am experiencing the same feeling
she had the day
Shawn
left me
standing at the altar. I slowly sip my Mocha Cappuccino. People begin crowding
the Coffee Shop and the man I saw talking to Shawn walks over to my table with
a bagel and a large cup of coffee and asks, “Mind if I sit with you?”
I looked up at the man wearing a tan cargo shorts with a white dress shirt and
jacket, and answered, “Of course not.” But the truth is I did mind, but I was
curious what he wanted from me and where Shawn went.
He sits down and takes a bite from his bagel, then says, “Excuse my manners. My
name is Tony Rome.” Tony looks around the Coffee Shop before looking Dana in
the eyes.

Dana smiles, “I’m Dana Khan.”
Tony looks me over while not trying to be obvious, “Dr. Dana Khan?”
I looked at him suspiciously, “Yes…as a matter of fact,” I
answered and
then
asked him sharply as though he was a paparazzi reporter, “Are you a reporter?”
Tony laughs, “What difference does it make? What if I were?”
I got up and walked out the door, “I don’t have any comment,” I told him as
I walked out the door.
Tony walks out of the coffee shop and ran to catch up with me. I unlock my rental
car door, and Tony caught up with me, “You had a lot to say to Reverend Shawn
Graves a minute ago,” I opened the car door and got in, but Tony prevented me
from closing the door.
I forced a fake smile at Tony as a couple watches Tony from the window of the
Coffee Shop then I snapped at him, “Yeah, what business is it of yours?”
“I just thought you’d like to know that the person that was poisoned is Shawn
Graves’ father-in-law, Ray
Murdock. The victims
are members of his church!”
Tony closes her car door, “Have a nice day Dr. Khan,” then he walks away.
I watched as Tony got into a solid black SUV and speeded away, but as soon as I
pulled off the Coffee Shop parking lot an unmarked police car flash’s its lights and
I
pull
over
to the shoulder, and reach’s into my purse for my passport and
international license, “What have I gotten into in the United States?”
A
plain-clothes
officer
comes
over
to
my
car, and
flashes
her
badge
and
Identification, but she
flashed
it
so
quick I
hardly
had
time
to read it, but I
caught
the
name, “Detective Virginia
Breeze,
St.
Louis
Police Department.”
Virginia asks, “Dr. Dana Khan?”

Puzzled, “Yes I’m Dr. Dana Khan.”
Two police cars pull up beside my car and I asked, “What’s going on?”
Detective Breeze answered, “I need for you get out of the car and ride with

I
got
nervous
and
concerned, “I
have diplomatic
immunity…I
want
to
contact my embassy,” I demanded.
A male officer opens my car door, “I’ll drive your car.” Dana grabs her purse
and a leather portfolio and gets out of the car.
Virginia looks around, “Hurry. Get out of the open. You’re not under arrest,
but you are in danger.”
Numerous police cars block off the street, and a police helicopter lands in the
middle of the intersection of Skinker and Clayton Road, and Virginia grabs Dana
by the arm, “Follow me.”
The Police Officers help Dana and Virginia into the helicopter and like the
invisible wind the helicopter slowly lifts off in an Easterly direction.

It is early Sunday morning and the humidity has
made
the outdoors sweltering
and the
heat scorching. Captain Reed and I awakened Judge Perry Boone at 6 A.M. to
get him to sign a court order that would allow us to take Reverend Shawn Graves
in
and
examine
his hands
and
fingerprint
him
for
a
comparison with
the
fingerprints of Eric Campbell. Captain Reed and I setup a secret sting operation
within the church to track the Lottery Ticket once Nadine makes the drop in the
collection place. We obtained a second warrant
that
would
allow
us to
observe
the Church Service activities from every angle via the media observatory.
The services had started by the time we arrived and to our surprise Reverend
Graves was not there and the Spirit Temple Pentecostal Christian Church full to
the
fifty thousand seat capacity. There are three eighty- four
foot
Sony
LED
Television’s suspended on the back wall of the stage. Most people refer to them
as JumboTrons.
There are cameras and lights suspended from the ceiling Yes, I
said stage because it looks more like a concert stage than it does a pulpit of a
church. The round, five hundred thousand square foot structure of the building
looks more like a shopping mall than a church.

The Junkyard Prophet was preaching, “Have ever
wanted to
kill
someone?”
The congregation
remained
silent
and
he
continued, “I’d better preach to myself?” “Amen,”
yelled throughout
the
church
by various people within the congregation.
“The Devil’s been busy in the Spirit Temple Pentecostal Christian Church.”
The crowd went silent again, and Junkyard raised his voice and is saying, “God
said beauty for ashes, but by the Devil keeps giving us ashes to ashes!”
People started randomly yelling, “Hallelujah!” People are seated in stadium style
recliners and some are standing and others are walking in the isles, but
we made our way through the church and to the Media Observatory. The door
of the room was locked and there was no answer when we knocked. The large
sign on the door read, DO NOT ENTER, but Captain West entered and two
seven foot tall, Goliath Security
guards
immediately approached ready for
battle with steel batons with razor sharp spikes circling around them, and they had
one in each hand and I was ready
to grab
my gun
and
Captain
West
looked at me and said, “I got this!”
I showed my badge and the Court Orders, but they did
not faze the two guards.
The company is called Goliath Security because all the security guards look like
Goliath’s, but I and Captain West are no David’s and I feel fine with putting a
bullet in both of them. One of the guards raised his baton at Captain West and I
pulled my revolver and said, “By his strips ye are healed, but by the bullet ye be
dead!”
Both men dropped their weapons as two Uniformed Police Officers
come into
the
Media Observatory and handcuffed both men,
and
Captain
West
instructed
them,
“Take them out the back way so no sees you!” The room was filled with television
monitors
that covered every angle of the church and The Junkyard Prophet. The various
technicians had stopped what they were doing and were watching Captain West and
I, and I said, “We are only here to observe,” that relaxed the television crew a little
and they got back to what they were doing.
One of the cameras zoomed in for a tight close-up shot of The Junkyard
Prophet and the Female producer turned up the audio so we could hear
Junkyard’s
sing
song
style hooping, “Sometime you have to give people to God
and other people you have to lay down your Bible and send them to God!”
Captain West said, “He’s got to be kidding with that crap.”
Some of the monitors showed people dancing and shouting in the isles as the music
producers gives the keyboard player playing instructions to match the rhythm of
Junkyard and one of the technicians said, “People love it!”
Captain West commented, “That why this place stays packed?”
One of the overhead camera zoomed in on a woman dancing and shouting and a
man
is sprawled out
on the floor having convulsions and
the
producer
said,
“Here’s our boy- Johnny Holy-Ghost!”
One of the men jokes, “And he’s right on queue!”
Junkyard continues, “It’s done got quiet in here!”
More people started jumping and shouting like a bunch of church house zombie
psycho’s
at
a
picnic.
The
Junkyard
Prophet
started preaching
with
greater
enthusiasm, “The rope might be binding, but you’d better be care you don’t hang
yourself!” There was a brief pause for a few seconds before he continued, and
said, “Read Isaiah 6:8,” and the scripture appeared on
the television
screen
and
from memory he loudly quoted the scripture, “Also I heard a voice from the Lord,
saying Whom shall I send and who shall go for us?”
A loud voice from the mist of the crowd yelled, “Here am I, send me!” The
cinematographer
ordered the
camera
operator to
pan
the
camera
around
the
crowd and try to get a shot of the man that yelled, but they are unable to find the
exact seat and isle or the man had moved. The Junkyard Prophet is one of those
preachers that is gifted with preaching and singing and as he walks to the center
of the stage he grabs a microphone as the band starts playing. He starts singing
the opening of Bishop Paul S. Morton’s, Memorable Moments, that features, “
Don’t
Do It Without Me.”
As Junkyard and the choir sang the Church Usher’s gathered for morning
collection. Nadine was one of the Ushers.
They
were
lead in
brief prayer
by Mother Beulah then she gave each
person a collection plate. Each Usher placed their tithe envelope
in
the collection
plate including Nadine. I walked closer to the
producer and told her, “Zoom
in on the Ushers for a second,” The camera
zoomed in and I saw Nadine place the envelope in the collection plate.
We watched the entire collection process and for a big church it is very organized
and we
watched Nadine’s collection plate go
down
the row. There the plate stopped moving when a Shatoya and
Jade stopped to
make change for a twenty from the loose currency in the collection plate. Captain
West said, “Tell those chick’s that
is not a bank.” Shatoya and Jade broke the
twenty like Jesus broke bread and they put one dollar each in the collection plate.
“The producer said, “They do that all the time.”
“I had no idea,” observed Captain West.
It
only
took
fifteen
minutes
from
start
to finish
for
complete
the
morning
collection and we watched as the collection was taken to the counting room. The
room and doors had been repaired and there is a new safe installed. The safe is the
type owned and accessible only to
armored
car
companies.
The
watched
the
finance committee members count the money with the precision of a professional
bank tellers using automated counting machines. Another larger machine counted
and wrapped the
currency
by
denomination
and
fed
in
the safe.
The
tithing
envelopes are placed in a neat pile and given to finance clerk and taken to Shatoya
and Jade’s office to process Monday morning.
Captain
West
and
I watched the
entire counting process. Since Ray and Tyrone
were dead it didn’t take long to replace them and
they
were
replaced
by Devine
Prophetess Quinn
and
Magda.
We
watched
as
Nadine’s
envelope was opened by Magda and she showed
it
to The Prophetess and
Mother
Beulah. Beulah looked at the ticket and placed it back into the envelope and laid it
on top of
the pile.
The
idea of another ticket showing up in the collection plate was a
joke to everyone, but Mother Beulah and Nichelle. We watched as Mother Beulah
unlocked Shatoya and Jade’s office placed the large box with all of the other tithe
envelopes and locked them in the office.
Captain West and I made our way in the direction of the counting room because I
needed to locate Shawn Graves. Nichelle was coming out of the counting room
when we arrived. Nichelle looked dead at Captain West and demanded, “Why did
you arrest my security detail?”
“Threatening a police officer with spiked clubs,” replied Captain West.
Nichelle said sharply, “They were just doing their job.”
I asked, “Their job is to beat people down with clubs?”
Nichelle looked at me and said, “Gun are not allowed in church, so we decided
for safety sake that they could use spiked clubs.”
I looked at her and ask, “I need to see Reverend Graves.”
Nichelle asked, “Why?”
“We can only discuss it with Reverend Graves,” I said.
“I’m his wife and you can tell me and I’ll give him a message,” she said.
Captain West asked, “Where is Shawn
Graves?”
I
said, “Some
would think
you’ve
got
something to hide.”
The church staff started filing out of the counting room and Nichelle whispered,
“Shawn is preaching at a leadership conference in Atlanta.”
“When will he be back,” I asked. Nichelle, “I think tonight.”
Captain West looked at Nichelle and said, “He’s your husband and all you’ve got is
you think?”
I asked Nichelle, “What airline is he on?” Nichelle said, “He never uses the
airlines,” and she smirked and continued, “He took our private plane to Atlanta.”
I thought for a moment and asked, “What hanger do you used?
Nichelle answered, “Mid-America Airport.”
If he filed a flight plan, they would have record of it, but for some reason I bet
he didn’t, but
one
phone
and I verify my
suspicions.

Captain West and I had the entire setup planned to perfection. Christian Kane
was to
stake out the interior of the Lottery Office when the person arrived to collect the
One Billion Dollar grand prize Lottery Ticket. And I showed the Lottery Director,
John Marlin a copy
of
the
ticket, “I
need to
verify
whether or not this is a
legitimate winner or not.”
“I would like to be able to help you but there is a problem here,” John cost for a
moment or and looked at the photocopy of the front and back, “I don’t have
and all the information to help
Captain West sat and will high back chair with his legs crossed and he looked
directly at Director Marlon, “She just gave you a perfect photocopy of the ticket,
what else do you need to know?”
Christian
is rubbing
his
hands together
and contemplating his next move. He
gets up from his seat and walks over to director Marlins desk and looks at the
photocopy of the ticket, “and What’s missing?”
Director Marlon opens his desk drawer and pulls out blank ticket and turns it
over shows it to Christian and points to the serial number printed on the back of
the ticket, “You see this serial number?”
Christian answered, “Yes I see it.”
By this time both I and Captain West had walked over to Director Marlin’s desk, we
looked at ticket and we looked at the ticket and only saw a seven digit number
and name
of the issuing state, Missouri. Director Marlin
turned to his computer terminal arrowed down to the Retail option then hit the
return key. He waited a second, “I’m going to show what I can tell you about
ticket,” said Director Marlin. The next screen that popped up was box that
he
entered
the
serial
number
from the ticket. Instantly a data exploded across the
screen and the director explains, “This information
tells me
what
retailer
was
issued this roll of ticket stock and as you can see the system gave us another serial
number.”
I watched carefully as he arrowed over to the number and hit enter key again and
like magic, the name of the retail location came up, “This looks like a small Mom
and Pop store called Quinn’s.”
Captain West walked back to his chair and sat back down, “Yeah, I know the place.”
I comment, “It’s been in business a long time.”
Director Marlin said, “The lottery license was issued to Louis Quinn.”
“I knew him also,” said Captain West.
I looked at Captain West and said, “You know him?”
“Used to
go
in there all the time before he died two years ago,” said Captain
West.
I walked back to my seat and sat next to Captain West, but Christian continued
watching the Director.
The Director continued keying information on his computer, “That’s strange.”
Christian bent over and looked at the computer and pointed to a something on
the
screen, “Why does it
say the license was
renewed the week before the ticket was issue?”
“That’s
what
so
strange,”
Director
Marlin paused
and
then
continued, “The
license was renewed by Louis Quinn a week before the date on the copy of the
ticket.” He exits from the screen and the system takes him to another State-wide
database and he
keys in the name Louis Quinn along with the Social Security
Number. I went back to his desk and watched what came up and another a few
moments,
the
death certificate of Louis J. Quinn
with
the
date
of
death
of
January 13, 2010.
The Director pulls
up another screen and a picture
popped
up
in
the
screen
and
immediately I knew who
it
was, “I
can’t
believe this.”
Captain West walked over and looked at the screen and picture, “You’ve got to
be kidding!”
The Director turned at Captain West, “What seems to be the problem?”
Captain West answered “That’s not Louis Quinn.”
Director
Marlin
tried
to
prove
he
was right, “We have a several checks and
balances in place to identity people, so there are no mistakes.”
“Well the lottery just bounced that check and the balance is off kilter,” Captain
West said firmly.
The
Lottery
Director
got
a
little
annoyed
and said, “This is not supposed to
happen,” and
he continued, “I intend to get to the bottom of
this,”
and he
points
at
the
picture of the man on the screen and demanded, “Who is this?”
“His name is Alvin Carney,” answered Christian.
I added, “Also known as, “The Junkyard Prophet.”
The Director got up from his desk and raised his voice, “I know you can’t be
talking about that television preacher?”
Captain West said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, “The one, the only prophet
on hand to share God’s plan!”
The Director glared
at
Captain
West as
he informed him, “I want to the actual
ticket.”
I nodded at Captain West, “I’m sure you do,” I murmured as Captain West and I
left to get into position. Christian remained inside just in case something unforeseen
should occur.
I have a team of twenty officers hidden and otherwise
camouflaged
at
the
St.
Louis
Lottery Office’s gated parking lot. Even the
guard at the main gate is one of Christian’s
men. Captain West and I waited in ordinary
and a very plain looking van with an entire
swat team. I still feel apprehensive because of
what I have learned about the church I grew up in and the people Nadine and I
knew.
I watched on the television monitor as a 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo stopped at
the front gate and after a few seconds, the gate opened and the car drove in and
parked near the entrance. I turned to one of the officers sitting at the console next
to me and instructed him, “Run the plate.”
The officer replied, “Doing it now,” and after a momentary pause, he said, ““That
plate does not go to that car.”
Captain West asked, “Whose is it?”
“Tyrone Lane and it says he’s deceased,” the officer said.
We watched as the door on the driver’s side of the Hyundai opened, and we were
stunned by whom we saw get out of the car and Captain West yelled, “No way!”