Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (14 page)

The door was closed but I could hear Tim
talking on the phone.

“I understand and I am aware of the
situation.” He paused, the hazard of only being able to hear one side of any
given conversation.

“No I am not forgetting how much is owed,
the project went slower than planned.” Another pause

“No, the alternative source I was looking
at hit a snag.”

Alternative source?

“No I am not saying it’s a done deal. No. I
need a little more time.”

Another pause

“Three weeks.”

“Two” He whined.

“Ten days please. No, please don’t. Please.
Thank you thank you.”

I waited to hear the phone hit the receiver
and then realized he had likely been on his cell. I gave it a moment than
knocked.

“Yes yes I am busy what is it Patty.”

I swung the door open “Not Patty, Tim, How
ya doing?”

“Mykonos what are you doing here?”

“I needed to speak with Dr. Longstreet but
I thought I pop in and say hi to you Tim. So ‘Hi to you Tim.’”

“And hi to you, now get out.”

“Ouch, you wound me Tim; all I’m trying to
do is help Ivy.”

He gave me the evil eye. “Sure you are.”

I shrugged. “Believe it or don’t. So on Monday
when you called Josh and Mac, which one did you call first.”

“Huh?” He shook his head. “Why on earth
would it matter which one I called first? And besides that you have the phone
records you know which one I called first. Joshua.”

“And when you could not get him you called
Mac?”

He nodded “Correct.”

“Must have been pretty desperate to talk to
Josh.”

“I would not say that.” He intoned flatly.

“Really? You called the girlfriend of your disposed
Pastor late on a Monday Night in order to track him down.
 
Seems to me that if it was not important you
could have just left Joshua a message, we both know he was anal about returning
messages as soon as he got them.”

Lafayette tried glaring at me as a means of
an answer.

“Tim?” I said with a smile.

“It was urgent I could not wait for Joshua
to take his head out of the clouds and call me.”

I nodded. “So did it have to do with your
meeting with Ryder Mathewson and Doug Hallman the next day?”

“Who told you I met with them?”

“Ryder.”

He fumbled. “I wasn’t alone the whole
deacons board was there and Dr. Longstreet.”

“But only you called Joshua.”

“I wanted to get an understanding of his
position. I knew that he owned, personally, the radio tower property and I knew
that the station that was only valuable to Mathewson with the land.”

“Really? He told me otherwise. In fact he
offered a million dollars for the station, without the tower and you and Jim
Sinclair beat down the offer. Why?”

“The fact is the station with the land is
worth more than that, and we need more than that if we are to keep doing the
Lord’s Work. Joshua massively mismanaged the funds of this church, as you are
well aware!”

I wasn’t and I didn’t think it was true but
I let it slide.
 
Instead I smiled and
asked. “So you have another buyer other than Ryder? One who wants both the
station and the tower?”

“Yes. “ He stumbled. “No.
 
We need another buyer I am not currently
aware of one.”

But clearly he was.
 
“So with the church in bad financial straits
you decided to not take the bird in the hand and instead hold out?”

“Yes. I am a business man and it is wise
business choice.”

“Do you always make wise business choices?”
I asked

“And much as the Lord Leads I do.”

I shrugged “Just wondering because the
construction that Dickens Homes is doing over in Martinsburg seems to have ground
to a halt.” Dickens homes was Lafayette’s business.

He smiled. “Just a bad economy.”

“Isn’t all this radio station stuff moot
now anyway?” I asked

“How so?”

“Well if Josh left his policy in trust to
run their station don’t you think Calvary can keep operating it, I mean seven
million is six more than you had on the table from Ryder.”

“But you and your friends from Guiding
Light would have say in how the operation is handled. And until the will is
overturned Guiding Light owns the land.”

I smiled “But aren’t we all Christians
together Tim?”

He took a deep breathe. “That land and the
station by rights belong to this church and only this church and we will have
them and I will sell that station and its land.”

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why? Look if the station remains jointly
held, for a lack of better word, between Calvary and Guiding Light, or even if
Calvary gets the whole station and
 
the
land, as long as that seven million is available that is more than enough to
operate the station and support Calvary’s other work. Isn’t the main thing
keeping the station on the air to support the work of the Lord?”

He slammed his fist down on his desk. “No.
It is not. I want that station sold.”

“To the buyer you have?” I smiled.

“I told you I don’t have a buyer.”

“Then why would you want to risk seven
million dollars Tim? Why stop God’s work and lose money?”

“Get out of my office. This conversation is
over. Get.” He sat down behind the desk and glared at me.

I stood just long enough for him to know I
was leaving by my own choice. “See ya around Tim. We will continue this
discussion.”

I strolled back down the hall to see if
Longstreet was available. As I did I wondered just what was going on with Lafayette.
One million dollars was nothing to sneeze at yet he did not want to sell the
station to Ryder, that meant that whoever he did want to sell the station, he
was doing so for a specific reason and that person was somehow forcing him into
that position or he stood to make a lot more money personally then one million
dollars.
 

Perky Patty waved me on into Longstreet’s
office.
 
He had taken over the room that
had been Josh’s and had turned what had been a warm intimate room into one of intimidation.
His desk was against the far wall and the large window behind it, its shades
draw up and dark forest green curtains pulled apart gave the illusion of a much
longer walk. The desk a deep cherry wood was large and if one looked closely
slightly raised. The cushion chairs in front of it were deep set so if someone
sat on them they would be forced to sit lower than the man behind the desk. On
the wall on the right was a large portrait of Dr. Longstreet’s illustrious
ancestor the Civil War General James Longstreet.
 
Dr. Longstreet wore a cream colored suit with
a darker cream shirt and an off color cream tie.
 
He stood to greet me reaching out his gnarled
hands. He saw me cast a glance at the picture and said by way of greeting.

“If Lee had listened to him the battle at Gettysburg
would have ended with a glorious Southern Victory.”

I shook his hand and smiled. “And are we
saying that would have been a good thing?”

He chuckled. “You know like most
Southerners I dream wistfully of a Southern Victory in the war, but the truth
is, again like most Southerners I am very proud of the nation to which we
re-united and would not under any circumstances wish to be separated from any
of it.”

“Even New York” I said with a grin.

“Well upstate New York is quite pretty.”
 

We both laughed less sincere than either of
us would admit.

“Sit Brother Adam and tell me how I can
help you.”

I parked on the edge of the arm of the chair.
Resting against the back with my legs planted on the floor. Longstreet noted
and nodded.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “Sir, I
suppose you heard what happened to my wife’s car last night?”

“I say, Yes I did, darn shame vandals.”

“No Sir, not vandals, intentional, done in
a juvenile attempt to frighten me off this case.”

“Who would do such a thing? Surely not someone
from here?”
 
I watched his face, he knew
who I suspected and wanted me to say, but not yet. Time for a non-squitter.

“What can you tell me about Dennis Prihor?”

His head visible shook. “What? Surely you
do not think that Dennis…..”
“No I don’t this is unrelated for now.”

Longstreet leaned back in his desk chair
and folded his hands in front of him. Mister Burns set to release the hounds.

“Dennis and Kitty have been members of Calvary
for more than a decade; they joined shortly after Joshua came on board as Associate
Pastor. I believe in fact that he was on the soul winning team that led them to
the Lord.” He paused, got up and walked over to small fridge. “Water?” He
asked.

“Thanks.”

He took out two bottles handed me one and
then sat back down. He took a long slow sip and then went on. “I forget
sometimes that you are relatively new to the area but surely you know the
Prihor family?”

“I know Dennis and Kitty from here and I
have heard the name around town. I always thought it was odd that such an
uncommon name was common here in the county.”

“They are all one family.” Longstreet said
flatly.

I let that sink in.

Washington County Maryland sits on the
western edge of the state and just below Central Pennsylvania which has a large
Romanian Population, a small but significant portion of which had crossed over
time into the area.
 
I had simply assumed
that Prihor was the name of an interconnected group perhaps from one village or
region of the old country. It never crossed my mind that they would all be one
large family.

Longstreet coughed to get my attention.
“There are four boys, the Father owns Prihor Trucking, you must have heard of
it, and the youngest brother Darren runs Prihor landscaping. I know you know
them, their signs are on half the lawns in the county.”

“They are all related?” I repeated still
dumbfounded.

“Yes, though Dennis is the only saved man.
There is the father, Dorin, the oldest boy Dracul, yes Dracul, they call him
Drake, the next one Daniel, then Dennis and finally Darren.
 
They have diversified business holdings
though out town.” He shook his head. “I am surprised you do not know this.”

I wasn’t. While I had been in the area more
than five years I had made it a point, until recently, not to poke my noise
around too much. If it did not affect me, my wife, my family or my church I
really did not care.
 
It had served to
keep me out of trouble for an unprecedented extended period of time, in the
grand scheme of my life that is, and it was only when Christina dragged me back
into a mess that I broaden my prospective.

Longstreet looked me level in the eye.
“They are a powerful family in this county.”

I smiled. “In New York that would have sinister
connotations.”

“It does here as well.”

Well knock me over with a spoon I thought.

I lifted my eyebrows and smiled wryly. “And
how would a simple country pastor know that.”

Longstreet leaned back in his chair. He
folded his hands across his chest and seemed to be weighing something heavily
in his mind.

“I.” He stopped took a sip of water seemed
to think some more and then went on.

“I have never truly liked you.”

“You wound me Sir.”

He shook his head. “And that right there is
the reason why. Your mouth runs ahead of your brain far too often. You are a
bull in a china shop; you barrel in with that smart mouth and what you think is
humor and far too often you never stop to really think about what you are going
to say next.”

He stopped and waited. I smiled. Seconds
ticked off.

“And now you choose silence?” Longstreet
said with a grin.

“Seemed like the most sarcastic thing to
do.”

He laughed so hard I thought he would burst.
When he got control he went on. “As I said I never really liked you, however I
am beginning to see that you have some talent in certain areas and while you
are abrasive and rude you do have a heart for the Lord. I questioned your
salvation at first, but I now do believe that Joshua was correct, you my friend
got a good dose as they say.”

“Well in the interest of honesty, if that
is going to help move this conversation along. I never liked you either, unlike
most folks around here I don’t by the Colonel Cornpone routine and in fact I am
insulted by it. Your Southern Charm hides a snake.”

“Be ye wise as serpents.” Longstreet said
with his best serpentine grin.