Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (15 page)

“And there’s that.
 
However, I also think you have reasons for
the things you do and that more often than not you at least think they are the
right thing. So now that we have established our feelings for each other, can
you either answer my question or buy me flowers?”

Longstreet laughed once more. “I will skip
the flowers and tell you what a simple country pastor knows of things like
that. It is my job to know. As in your case, at first I doubted Dennis’
salvation, I know it is not my place to do so and Joshua and I had many
discussions on my reluctance to believe people, however sometimes I think doubt
is a good thing. It keeps you from letting chickens into the hen house.
 
In Dennis’ case, as in yours I did some
checking.”

He waited for me to take the bait, I
didn’t, bad fish.

He went on. “As a Pastor, even at the time
a pastor Emeritus, there are things which I can find out, information which
comes to me in confidence which I can then with great help from the Lord
discern. I learned all I could about the Prihor family and much to my surprise
it seems that Dennis’ salvation was actual.”

“I kind of though only God could make that
call?”

Longstreet grinned. “Well yes of
course.
 
In any case Dennis is sincere,
but as to the rest of his family……” he tapered off.

“Any of them in the radio business?” I
asked.

“Aside from his father-in-law?” He replied

“I’m thinking Jersey is a world away.”

Longstreet pondered for a moment. “I would
agree though Kitty is as much a Jersey Girl as you area New York boy.”

“Hard places to get out of your system.
Still the father-in-law seems a stretch, anything closer to home?”

“Drake just purchased the old Hagerstown
Morning Star Newspaper, looking to give the Herald Mail a run I guess.”

“In this day and age? Print media?”

“Print media can be a stopping off point.”

“True.
 
You going to raise Cain if I speak with Dennis?”

“No.”

“Which one of the Prihor’s deals meth and
crank?” I asked

His head reared back. “None of them, I
would think, far too messy. Why?”

“A pot head I know told me that one of the
Prihor’s was dealing meth and / or crank to a member of this church.”

Longstreet shook his head. “No, No, as I
said far too messy, the old man would never allow his sons to do that. To
dangerous. You know this stuff. It is like your Albanian friends in New York.”

I was about to ask him what he knew of my
Albanian friends and then thought the better of it. That would side track me.
Instead I nodded.

“I can see that, what about a cousin or nephew?
Drugs are far too big a money maker to turn down completely.”

Longstreet thought about that for a moment
then gave a slow shake of his head. “Yes, I say Yes, I can see that. They are
as I said a large family, there are a number of nephews and such, second
cousins and all down the line, one of them perhaps could dabble in drugs but to
sell them to a member of this church, No. Who in this church would by drugs?”

“The same person who vandalized my wife’s
car. Jim Sinclair.”

I would have sworn in court that he cursed
under his breathe. He got up briskly and got himself another bottle of water,
he had not finished the first, but he opened this one and chugged it down.
Suddenly he looked old.

“I understand that you and my son-in-law do
not see eye to eye.”

I cut him off. “Your son-in-law is a racist
with ties to the Klan and likely worse.”

“My daughter loves him. Nancy loves him.”
He said sadly.

I let that sit.

“Where is Jim right about now Sir?”

Longstreet stared at me. “His shop I
suppose.”

“I came here to be polite to you. I believe
that you want to help Ivy get free, because of that we’re allies, for now. So I
came to tell you I’m going to go and talk to Jim.”

He nodded. “You do what you need to do.”

I got up and started out then did a Colombo
and turned around. “One more thing Sir.”

“Yes.”

“You did not seem surprised either by my
accusation of Jim’s crank use, or by the idea that he is the one who vandalized
my car.” He began to speak and I held up my hand.
  
He stopped and I went on “Why didn’t you
handle this matter before this?”

“I told you a Pastor knows things.
 
Often we can take our knowledge and use it
for good. Jim serves…served a purpose here. And often, and in my case I guess
this was true as well, often a Pastor does not see things in his own house. I
knew Jim had issues, his racism, his anger, many things, but I missed the big
picture.”

Not all that different than Joshua I
thought and so I said it. “You and Joshua seem to have more in common than
either of you knew.”

He pondered a moment then spoke. “They say
that the most exclusive club in the world is that of former Presidents that
only those men know the weight it bears on each other and so their bond is
tight.
 
I wonder if Pastors are the same
way.”

I started toward the door again, this time
he stopped me with a questions. “Brother Adam, do you think Jim killed Joshua?”

“No. Not right now I don’t”

“Good. Do you have evidence of his
vandalism of your car?”

I noticed he did not dispute my claim that
Sinclair was behind the action.

“No. I’ll get that though sooner or later.
Right now it is just important that he knows that I know.”

“I can see that.”

I thought for a moment to ask him about
Nancy and her re-action than just let it go and walked out.

Chapter
Fifteen

I stopped at the Sheetz at the bottom of
the hill to get gas and figure out my next stop. I wanted to see both Dennis
Prihor and Jim Sinclair. I knew where to find the later but not the former, so
should I look for Prihor and then go to Sinclair or the reverse. As so often
happens in situations like that the Lord took the matter out of my hand. A
silver BMW pulled up in front of the Sheetz and Dennis Prihor got out and went
inside the store.

I finished pumping my gas then pulled my
car up and into the spot next to Dennis. I spotted him over by the coffee.
 
Sheetz has some of the best gas station
coffee this side of a WaWa.

I came up next to him and said. “Hey Dennis
let me buy you that cup of Joe.”

He turned and smiled. He was just a little
shorter than me with a thick crop of cruelly black hair and deep set brown
eyes. His noise was so long and thin that it made mine look fat.
 
“Brother Adam, long time no see, how are you
amic?”

He used the Romanian word for friend, not
to different from mik the Albanian term.

“Good, good” I fixed myself a cup of coffee
and walked with him to the counter.

“So what do I owe this honor?” He said as I
paid for our coffees.

“I wanted to ask you about something I
heard that was upsetting.”

He nodded tightly and we walked outside. We
leaned against the hood of his car and he asked me as I sipped my coffee.

“Please tell me this has nothing to do with
that awfulness surrounding Pastor Lexington and Mac?”

“It does and it doesn’t.” I replied. He
gave me a puzzled look and I went on. “I ran into someone who told me that someone
named Prihor was dealing crank or meth.”

“And Prihor is not a common name? Seems
half the Romanians around here are named Prihor.”

I smiled. “And there lies part of the
problem, since both you and I know that Prihor is not a Romanian last name at
all, I never met anyone else with that name. Romanian names end with the Q
sound, as in Ceaușescu or Dracue; Prihor is the word for bird, a Robin
specifically. I am assuming that at some point someone in your family adopted
it for some reason as a last name.”

Dennis looked at me and sighed. “I get the
feeling that you and I have a lot in common, not the least of which is not
always being very proud of our family lines.”

“I can agree to that.”

“Look I barely speak with my family.”

I shook my head. “No. I can’t buy that, you
are Eastern European, you all live to close, they may keep you out of the
family business but you guys speak.”

He snapped. “What would you know of our
family business.”
“Drake is buying a newspaper. Do you think he would be interested in a radio
station as well?”

He blinked twice then “And you’re implying
what?”

“I’m implying that Calvary was offered one
million for the radio station and that Tim Lafayette and Jim Sinclair swayed
the vote to turn it down.”

“And what does that have to do with my
family?”

“I am just not thinking that they are going
to get more than that price for the station, which means that Tim and Jim want
it sold to a specific person for a specific reason.
 
“

“And?”

“And Jim Sinclair is a meth head and there
is a Prihor selling meth and Tim Lafayette is way over extended on his latest
construction project and your father lent him a lot of money for the project.”

“Who told you about that?”

I smiled. “You just did, until now It was a
guess.”

He laughed, his deep set brown eyes sparkled
and he laughed. “Wow, good thing I did not go into the family business.”

I nodded. “Salvation makes lying harder.”

He brushed his hand through the thick curly
black hair. “I guess. Look I did know Dad lent Tim some money, in fact I put
them in touch with each other, but this radio station stuff I am in the dark.”

“What about the meth?”

“Got a cousin, hangs out over by Pizza Hut
across from South High, by Jim’s store in fact. He may deal.”

“Doesn’t Kitty’s father own a couple of
stations up Jersey way?”

“Yes, but…..”

“But?”

He shook his head. “I suppose that if Drake
brought the Calvary Station my Father-in-law could help him with the networks
and such. But to be honest Drake and my Father-in-Law don’t even know each
other.”

“No?”

“No.” He said flatly. “Not really, not
enough to do business.”

He seemed on the verge of saying more when
Tom Lafayette’s big blue Buick pulled up and parked just two spots down from
us. The aghast look on Tim’s face was worth a book of e-ticket rides at Disney.

He raced over to where we were sputtering
as he approached. “Denny is he annoying you? He’s been told to leave people
alone. Do you want me to call the police?”

I shook my head “Timmy calm down. Dennis
and I were just discussing the money you owe his father.”

“What??????” The sputtering turned to fear.

I grinned. “And why you would turn down an
offer on the radio station.”

Dennis smiled at me and nodded “Adam I’ll
give you a call later. I’m going to speak with my father about all this; he is
out of town today but will be back tomorrow.”

“Okay meanwhile I may want to talk to your
cousin and I will be talking his buddy, Jimbo.”

“Now wait here a minute” Injected Tim.

Dennis ignored him. “Be careful, he is not
a close relative or well trained.”

Tim injected again “Hang on I want to talk
to you guys”

“About?” I said stoically.

“You seem to have the wrong impression.”

“Really, see Timmy here is my impression,
you are in debt to Mr. Prihor and as a means of paying off that debt you were
going to arrange for the sale of the radio station to his son Drake.
 
There were and are just two problems with
that. First the land that the tower is on was owned by Joshua and there was no
way he was going to let that be used for a secular radio transmission, much the
same way as the trust committee is not going to allow it either, second if Calvary
wanted to sell the station they had a firm offer from Ryder. “

“Wait a second.”

“No Timmy you wait. See you beat down the offer from Ryder, using Jim, who likely
owes his shirt to one of the Prihor cousins and so is in deep like you
are.
 
You were also trying to strong arm
Josh into selling the radio tower land, that’s why you called him and Mac that
night. The only questions I have to figure out was are you so deep into Mr.
Prihor and so afraid of him that you would kill Josh and Mac in some misguided
attempt to get the land.”

Dennis looked at Tim and then at me. “Tim
should be afraid of my father, but if he thinks for one second that taking something
like murder to his door would endear him to my old man, than he is more the
fool.”

Lafayette stood paralyzed. Dennis turned
and shook my hand. “I’ll not only speak with my father but set up a time
tomorrow afternoon for the two of you to talk. My father is far from an
innocent man, but killing a preacher, even a fallen one, is not in his deck of
cards.”