Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (12 page)

Sleep did not come easy that night. The
heighten senses that warned of danger that were bred into both cops and cons
were on double duty and I spent most of the night reading and re-reading
Joshua’s letter.

Coda
Five

A Pastor is privy to a lot of information that other
members of a church do not have. Not only do people come to them with problems
and concerns which are not for the general congregation to know about but they
are also in a position to put together pieces of puzzle and therefore be aware of
things that others are not aware.

The sad thing was that I remained unaware of things
in my own home.

Now let me be clear despite what many think there
was never an affair between McKenzie and I. Others may have an opinion but they
would be speculating in the wrong direction. I will admit however that the
situation between Ivy and I grew progressively worse, and in truth I must admit
that I had emotionally left our marriage not long after Miriam was born, so for
nearly fifteen years Ivy and I existed in a partnership for the ministry but
not a marriage. This I now understand put a clear strain on Josh Jr and Miriam,
both of them suffered from rebellion issues as well as other social problems.
To the naked eye Josh’s problems were more noticeable, the haughtiness, the
arrogance the aggressiveness, but to me as a father, admittedly not a good one,
Miriam’s withdrawal from society and her inability to mature were much worse.

As I said a Pastor is aware of many things, and has
an ability to put things together in that awareness and this allowed me to
learn and discern many things that were wrong in other people’s houses if not
my own. It did not take me long to realize that all was not well in the
Longstreet household.

What I forgot was that Dr. Longstreet was a pastor
as well and while I was learning the workings of his house and praying for the
Lord to intervene in his troubles and the troubles of other leading families in
the church, Dr. Longstreet was increasingly aware of the troubles in my house
and looking to exploit them rather than pray for them.

The Longstreet household was not the only house in
the church with pressing matters, the Lafayette’s the Prihor’s, the Semper’s,
the Jones’, the Hayden’s, even your Sister and Brother-in-law, all had varying
degrees of martial issues. In point of fact as a pastor I was able to see that
all the families in our church were imperfect which I finally realized was part
of the human condition. The problem I missed seeing was when a number of those
families, though Dr. Longstreet became aware that the Lexington’s were also not
perfect, they took that as a sign of failure instead of humanity. What happened
then was one of the great problems with our movement, we devoured ourselves.

Chapter Twelve

At nine A.M. I was at the shop and by
nine-thirty a messenger from Christina’s office had delivered a stack of papers
which included the crime scene forensics and the autopsy reports.

Friday’s can be busy at the shop, a number
of the people whom we have pulled books for on Wednesday will come in on a
Friday, which is of course payday, to pick them up. We also get folks looking
to buy collector cards or books as gifts who will almost always use Fridays to
do that, and of course Friday is also the day people need money for the week
end so we always have folks who come in and try to sell us their stuff.
Therefore a lot of the haggling that I need to do to keep stock in and make a
profit is left for Fridays. Still the morning was slow enough for me to read
though the stack of reports. I gave it a once over and then called Christina.

“You lite out of there yesterday so fast I
did not even see you leave.” I said as a way of hello.

She laughed “If I wanted to be in the
middle of family squabbles I would practice divorce law.”

I heard her puff her hair. “So what trouble
did you get yourself in last night? The scuttle butt at the court house is you
were the victim of a hate crime, and the punch line of the joke is that the
phone book is the suspect list.”

It was my turn to laugh. “I think we need
to begin in the S’s then.” I gave her my thoughts on the incident and I could
almost see her smile.

“So you are ticking off all the right
people.”

I could not help but agree. “If ticking
them off helps clear Ivy I’m all in. How is she doing anyway?”

“Holding her own. Washington County is not
a picnic but it’s not Riker’s Island. She’s as safe as you can be in prison,
with no skills.”

“I think you would be surprised at how many
skills Mrs. Lexington actually has counselor.”

“Perhaps. But is she skilled enough to kill
is the question.”

“No, the question is, is she skilled enough
to kill Joshua and McKenzie, anyone can kill, killing people you know and loved
is different.”

Christina gave a snort. “Not for a defense
attorney. Anyway did you read the stuff I sent?”

“Yep, gave it the once over, I want to go
into more detail, but let me hit a couple of points. They confirmed what I found
out Monday night that there were no footprints out the back door of Mac’s
place.”

“Shooting holes in Ivy’s claim that someone
was in the kitchen and went out the back door.”

“Maybe, though it is clear Ivy or someone
fired a shot into the kitchen.”

“She says it was her, and I can’t see a
reason to lie about that.”

“So the question we need to turn back on
the D.A. would be is shot Mac in the living room and Josh by the door to the
kitchen, why fire a shot though the dining room into the kitchen?”

“To throw the cops off is what the DA will
claim.”

“Maybe.
 
I also noticed that the angle of all three shots was different.”

“I saw that and am thinking of having a
computer model drawn up. Trying to show where a shooter would need to be
standing to make all those angel match up. The police and DA can do one but it
would be tipped to their point of view.”

“Could something like that be done from the
pictures they took?”

“Yes, if we add in Josh and Mac’s height
and weight.”

“Can we put Ivy in the picture; use her
height and weight to see if she could have fired the shots?”

“That would be ideal, though of course it
could back fire. Put the gun right in her hand.”

I pondered for a moment. “If it could do
that wouldn’t the cops do it already?”

“Meaning?”

“Well if that kind of forensic report could
put the gun in Ivy’s hand. A computer animation of her firing at Mac and then
Josh, or vica versa, wouldn’t they already be using it?”

“They have a pretty strong case without it;
Ivy did have the gun in her hand when the police came in the door.”

“From a 911 call of shots fired called in
15 minutes earlier.”

“Yep.”

“White Pine Drive is back behind business
parkway. One way in and one way out, no outlet. Yet the 911 caller did not see
Ivy’s car.”

“Did not see any car. But then again Mac’s
house was just off the loop and the caller was from three doors down and across
the road.”

“Because no one closer was home?” I asked

“Don’t know” Chris responded.

I tired another question. “How did Ivy not
pass a car on Business Parkway going up?”

Christina thought for a moment. “She had
to. The shooter should have been leaving via the road as she was going on up.”

“She say she saw any one?”

“No, but she admits to being distressed. She
didn’t like Mac calling her and asking her to come over.”

“Any more details as to why?” I asked.

I could almost see Christina shake her
head, her voice on the phone was hallow. “No, and I think…I know she is lying
to me.”

“She had a reason?”

“Mac had a reason to call and Ivy had a
reason to go over there.”

“And one can’t answer and the other won’t.”

“Right.”

I flipped over some of the papers. I
noticed Greg haggling with a customer over a copy of Uncanny X-Men 100, he was
doing well, the book by the legendary team of Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont
was worth something but the copy being presented was not in mint or even near
mint, something that is sometimes hard to explain to a seller. Greg was walking
the guy though understanding with a mixture of assertiveness and kindness. I
was proud of him.

“Okay back to this computer imaging of the
crime scene. We can do that?”

“I don’t see why not.” Stated Christina. “I
mean I can’t and I doubt you can, but Argon would be able to.”

“Really?” I said somewhat surprised. “He
can do stuff like that?”

“Yes.”

“Impressive.”

Christina laughed. “Your brother-in-law is
an impressive guy. You should get to know him.”

It was my turn to laugh. My sister Leda was
ten years younger than me and her husband two years younger than her. Argon and
I were friends in the way that American Co-Workers are friends, brothers in
Christ and Family in the Albanian manner of ‘family against the world’ but his
family back in New York, the Hoxha’s came with more baggage than I liked to
deal with so I kept a somewhat guarded distance. Perhaps I was wrong.

“Well maybe I will.” I said still smiling.
“If I brought him over copies of this stuff would that be enough for him to do
this?”

“Did I send you over the photos of the
inside of the room with that package, I think I did.” Christina said.

I flipped though the file again. “Yep I got
them.”

“Then he can at least do some preliminary
work.”

“Okay I’ll call him right now.” I paused.
“If we’re done?”

“Just a word to the wise: don’t take this
incident at the car to lightly.”

I gaze out the window and across Massey
Blvd to the Diner; Rita was at work there right now as was Roberta.

“Believe me Chris; I never take threats to
my family lightly. Dealing with that is the next thing on my agenda, soon as I
call Argon.”

We said our good byes and I dialed up my
brother in law. As always we switched to Albanian. As we started to speak I saw
Greg cock his head, the kid has been working for me for nearly two years now
and I am sure he is starting to pick up some of the language.

I explained to Argon what I needed. He
assured me that he could do what I wanted, within his limited capabilities, he
added. He reminded me that he was a web designer, animation such as I was asking
for was a little beyond him but that he could pull it together. I asked how
long and he paused, I knew he had a number of projects on deck all of which
were important. But I was family, his wife’s older brother. In our culture, and
he unlike Leda or I was pure blood Albanian, that carried a lot of weight. I
could hear the wheels in his head turning as he mentally juggled what he needed
to do. Finally he told me that if I could get him the materials within the hour
he could have a somewhat completed project back to me by Monday Morning. I
thought that was a good deal and told him so. Swinging over to the Dual Highway
where Argon kept his office would take me in the opposite direction from where
needed to go, but it would be, I hoped, worth the trip. I had no mentioned
payment to Argon though I was sure Christina would compensate him for his work.
Still I made a mental note to let him know, discreetly that he would be paid.
It would be vulgar for us as family to talk of an exchange of money. But he and
Leda, while doing all right could use the extra cash. I was also somewhat
curious as to what problems they had gone to Joshua with, and why he would
mention that to me in his letter. I knew the disappointment they felt in the
fact that Leda could not have children, it was heavy on their hearts even after
all these years, and Argon’s typically Albanian refusal to consider adoption
did not help matters. I said a quick pray for my sister’s marriage and promised
myself to find out what was up, I refused to believe that anything Josh had put
in his letter was random and while I did not think that the mention of the
Hoxha’s was because he thought of them as suspects, I did believe it was
something that Joshua had wanted me to know and involve myself with.

Greg was putting a new series of football
card into holders.

“Good job with that X-Men 100” I said.

Greg smiled a big goofy grin, while his
father Stan was short and built like an oak tree Greg was tall and more like a
willow, when they stood together I could help but think of Gimli and Legalos
from the Lord of the Rings.

“The guy just would not haggle down, thinks
he can get more on e-bay.”

I shrugged. “They all do at first. Let him
try eventually he will wander his way back in and be more receptive.”

Greg nodded his head in agreement. He saw
the stack of papers in my hand. “Going out?”

“If you can handle the lunch rush?”

He looked around the empty store. “So far I
got this.”