Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

Shannon, Tabatha, and Amanda joined her family. The six children in the Freeman household were all attractive kids. If Mary felt any diminishment in her role in her family, she didn’t act out about it.
    Some people who grew up with Mary and her adopted siblings in Knoxville remember her as vivacious and fun-loving, with a constant smile, but more recall that she was quiet, a little reserved, but always kind.
    Mary Carol was very pretty then and excelled in anything musical, joining choral groups at Doyle High School, and she sang well enough to be selected for the Madrigals—which wasn’t easy to achieve. She wasn’t a member of the elitely popular cliques at her school, but she had many friends and she certainly seemed happy. When Mary graduated from high school in 1992, she had a long string of activities printed under her senior picture, including religious, musical, and sports clubs. She belonged to Future Teachers of America. She headed off to David Lipscomb University in Nashville, where she worked toward a teaching degree, and joined the University Singers.
    And in 1993, Mary changed colleges. She moved to Henderson, Tennessee, and Freed-Hardeman University, where there was a program in special education, her ambition since she had helped care for her sister. Freed-Hardeman was established in 1869 and traces its heritage to the Church of Christ, which helped to build it. Indeed, even today, all members of the board of trustees for the university must be members of the Church of Christ, and the curriculum includes both an undergraduate and a master’s degree in what is called simply “Bible.”
    The Freed-Hardeman motto is strangely non-religious-sounding: “Teaching How to Live, and How to Make a Living,” but it may be only pragmatic for an area where surviving can be hardscrabble.
    Matthew Winkler attended Freed-Hardeman after graduating from high school in Decatur, Alabama, thirty-five miles south of the Tennessee line. He was one of nineteen hundred students there, and he majored in “Bible.” His father, the Reverend Dan Winkler, was a professor there so it was natural that Matthew would go to Freed-Hardeman. He apparently wasn’t forced into a mold he resented; Matthew said he wanted to preach. But Mary always felt he would rather have been a teacher.
    It was to be expected that Mary Freeman and Matthew Winkler would meet in a college as small as Freed-Hardeman. Although there were no fraternities or sororities there, at least half of the student body joined one of the college’s seven Greek-named social clubs. Mary was a sophomore and Matthew a freshman when they both joined Phi Kappa Alpha. The social clubs gave them access to intramural sports, retreats, and the annual spring production of “Makin’ Music.”
    With Matthew’s plan to carry on his family heritage of ministry, he would, of course, need to marry a suitable wife. As he came to know and date Mary Freeman, she seemed to be a superlative candidate for the woman who would stand beside him, bear his children, sit in the pews of the churches where he would preach, teach Sunday school, deal with the ladies of the church, and maintain a neat and welcoming home.
    Her own goal—to become a teacher—was completely acceptable for a minister’s wife, and her lovely voice would be a bonus as future congregations sang “Throw Out the Lifeline,” “In the Garden,” and “We Will Gather at the River,” three of the old-timey hymns popular in the Church of Christ.
    And Mary was very pretty, slender, sweet, and fun. Their attraction to each other certainly wasn’t just based on suitability. Matthew was popular and very good-looking. Even as a freshman in college, he had the charisma and confidence that drew people to him. He and Mary seemed to make a great couple, and they appeared to be in love. They had dated for only four months when Matthew asked Mary to marry him. Mary said yes immediately.
    Both their families were pleased when they became engaged, the tall man majoring in Bible studies and the petite future teacher. On April 20, 1996, they were married in a ceremony with Mary’s father officiating.
    Matthew continued to work toward his degree, but Mary didn’t graduate. She took a job in the deli department of the Piggly Wiggly supermarket to help support them. She was a little concerned when Matthew began to tell her what to do—and when, in the first months of their marriage, he turned out to be quite strict, much as