Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (3 page)

Our
house is one of four on the farm; we live nearest to the main road and away
from the center of the farming action, something both Rita and I
appreciate.
 
My Mother-in-law used to
live in our place but now she occupies a smaller but at her age more practical
house closer to the main barn. Stan Grant, the manager and foreman of the place
and his family live in the largest of the buildings and with good reason, Stan
has three girls and two boys, the oldest of whom works part time at my comic
and card store while attending Hagerstown Community College. The fourth place,
actually a permanent trailer is occupied by my step son Donald and his cousin Gary
both of whom are long haul truckers, on the road more often than they are home.

“Yo
5-0” My wife called from the back stoop, she is enjoying this year where she can
make fun of both my past as a cop and my current age. “You going to take your
car and follow me?”

“Right
behind you Slim.”

I
found a stool in the corner of the counter that was unoccupied when we entered
the diner. I grabbed a seat as the counter girl, Tammie, poured me a cup of
coffee. The Lighthouse Diner was the culmination of a long held dream of Rita’s;
it had quickly become a popular spot not only for food but for conversation and
gossip. That morning the place buzzed with both.

Hagerstown,
the county seat for Washington County, in Western Maryland has about forty
thousand people, the entire county is just a little over half a million, in
other words it is still small enough to have a small town feel and attitude,
while not everyone knows everybody, everyone
 
knows somebody who knows somebody else.
 
So it was no surprise that word had sprung around that I was assisting
the defense, In fact I would have bet that the WHAG Morning News had made
mention of it. As I sipped my coffee people stared and whispered softly.

“Got
to hand it to you my Love, you sure know how to be the center of
attention.”
 
Rita said with a smile, as
she wiped down the counter in front of me and began to read though a list of
emails on her galaxy pad.

To
accompany a voice that I find mesmerizing my wife is also the single most
beautiful woman in the world. Her coco skin and dark hair, tucked under
kerchief as she worked the counter, were just part of her charm.

“That
he does.” Said a usually happy voice that this morning was tinged with sadness.

I
turned and smiled. “Want to grab a booth Pastor?”

Pastor
Luke Blaine gave me a gap toothed grin and a hearty handshake. “If your lovely
wife can spare you for a few moments.”

Rita
smiled. “Pastor I got a feeling that even if I couldn’t this would be one of
those times he would need to go.”

Luke
reached over the counter top and gave her a light hug and said sadly “Fraid so
Rita, I’m afraid so.”

My
Pastor and I settled into a booth, Rita brought over a large glass of Orange
Juice for him as well as a mug of coffee.

“Honey,
you need more java?” She asked me knowing full well that the answer is always
yes.

I
nodded.
 
Luke and I sat silently till she
came back with a carafe.
 
Luke ordered
some eggs over easy and light toast.
 
I
took a chance and ordered a cheese Danish, if I were alone Rita would have
commented on my cholesterol; with the Pastor there she just glared and grinned.

“How
is Miriam?” I asked.

Luke
shook his head “I called over to the Longstreet house this morning and Nancy
said that she was fine but that I would not be allowed to speak to her.”

“Aren’t
you her uncle?”

“Yep.”

“What
a mess.”

Luke
took a large gulp of his O.J. “Did you ever think that it would come to this?”

No
I thought I never did.

Chapter Three:

Ten
months ago I had
 
been attending Calvary
Baptist Temple with my family, Joshua Lexington had been our Pastor, Beau
Longstreet the revered founder and pastor emeritus and Luke Blaine, Joshua’s
step-brother the young and dynamic assistant pastor. Then one Sunday Morning
right after the altar call, Ivy Longstreet had strolled up to the podium with
Dr. Longstreet by her side. Joshua had been at the side altar praying with a
new convert.
 
Before any of us really
caught wise what was happening: Ivy had used the pulpit and its mike to accuse
her husband of having an affair with McKenzie Daniels, one of the young women
who worked in the church office.
  
At
first you could have heard a pin drop and then the uproar was louder than the
host of heaven.

Beau
Longstreet took the pulpit, while Joshua stood still in shock. Longstreet’s
voice roared as he called for the removal of Dr. Lexington as pastor. When
Peter Semper the chair of the Deacons board rose to object he was shouted down.
It was a junta plain and simple. With no evidence and just an accusation
Longstreet and deacon vice-chair Lafayette had removed the pastor before any of
us could act. Despite objections they also fired Luke right on the spot.

There
were a number of problems. First and foremost the ouster of a pastor under
those circumstances was not Biblical. There was a procedure in the church
constitution for his removal, if it was necessary, but that was circumvented.
Further there was no ground for firing Luke except he was Joshua’s brother and
third there was no affair: At that time.

And
at that time became the pivotal point moving forward.
 

Rather
than disgrace the house of the Lord with a battle and further blacken the eye
of the church a number of us, seventy-five in all, followed a time honored
Baptist tradition and planted a new church. Joshua Lexington, by then in the
midst of a divorce was in our movement disqualified from being a Pastor and so after
much prayer on all sides the new Deacon Board of the newly founded Guiding
Light Baptist Church called Luke Blaine to be our Pastor.

And
so the whirlwind seemed to begin to settle down. Friendships across the two
churches strained by the conflict, began to heal, and while the Lexington
Divorce was contentious at best, it did not seem to affect us.

Until
Joshua began dating McKenzie.

Luke
took a long sip of his coffee. “I do not believe for one second that Ivy would
murder anyone let alone Joshua.” He said, sounding as if he were convincing
himself.

“What
about Mac?”

“No.
No No, she may have wanted to but no she would not. Ivy’s been my sister in law
since I was a kid, I just do not believe it.”

I looked
into my coffee cup, hoping that like my Albanian Grandmother I could read the
coffee grinds and see an answer, but I was not her, there were no grinds and
answers were few and far between.
 
“If
not her than whom?”

Luke
shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You
been getting a lot of phone calls?”

“Everyone
in the church.”

“What
about outside the church?”

“Two
reporters.” He said sadly “I was not very Christian to them.”

“Any
one from Calvary?”

“No.
why?”

“Are
you the executor of his will?”

“I
think I am. Why?”

I
shrugged. “When all else fails follow the money.”

He
laughed “if I recall it all goes to the kids.”

I
glanced at my watch. Nearly eight.

“Are
you going to the courthouse?” I asked.

“No,
that does not seem wise.” He said.

“Keep
trying to see Miriam and when you do let me know how it goes.”

“Will
do.”

We
sat silently for a moment. My Pastor wanted to say more, but he could not find
words. I spoke slowly.

“I
need to meet up with Dana before the courthouse opens. Can we pray for a moment
before I bolt?”

Luke
smiled and opened his Bible, it was no surprise that he read; “The Lord is my
Shepard I shall not want.”

You
have to understand, as a New Yorker I have a different prospective of
Hagerstown than someone who was born and bred here. To me it is a small town,
where to them it is a mid-size city. Sometimes those two conflicting ways of
looking at things are amusing, as in when my friends talk about Hagerstown
Traffic Jams or what does and does not constitute a “bad neighborhood.”
 
Sometimes those two views collide, as it did
that day at the courthouse, while it was not the media zoo that such a case
would be in the city, it was quite a sight for Hagerstown.
 
Three news vans were parked out front, one
from the local station WHAG, one from a Washington Affiliate of ABC and low and
behold one from FOX News. Big stuff.

Inside
was a circus of a different kind.
 
As I
passed though the metal detector I was amazed to see nearly 40 people from Calvary
Baptist standing around with Dr. Longstreet. I saw young Josh Lexington right
in the middle of the pack.
 
Longstreet
spotted me and motioned me over, but I was saved from the rapid horde by
Christina appearing at my side.

“Come
on, 5-0, I need you in the conference room.”

I
was not pleased that the nickname was spreading, but I was thrilled to avoid a
tidal wave of people I use to consider friends.

Chris
was better dressed than she had been last night but not by much, contacts had
replaced the taped glasses and the purple pants had given way to black. I was
in what Rita called my going-to-court-suit, a dark gray off the rack at
Wal-Mart suit with a pink shirt and matching tie.

I
never wear anything to court that I want to keep or feel a sentimental value
for, the one exception is of course my wedding ring. One of the things that I
cannot shake since my arrest and incarceration is the completely irrational
feeling that every time I walk into a court room they are going to lead me out
in handcuffs.
 
It is irrational I know it
is, but, I cannot escape the feeling. And so this morning I had put on two pair
of sox and had only been talked out of an extra pair of underwear by Rita.

Inside
the conference room Christina handed me two sheets of paper. “These are the
phone records for McKenzie Daniels and Joshua Lexington in the twenty fours
hours before they died.”

“You
got these from the DA? That fast?”

“Not
exactly” She said with a smile

I
looked over the sheets she handed me.

“Not
much here.”

Christina
puffed her hair out of her eyes. “No. There are a lot of duplicates which may
be interesting.”

“Coroner
report?”

She
shook her head. “Not yet, just preliminary stuff, approximate time of death and
such.”

“There
were no footprints outside the back door.” I stated.

“You
went last night?”

“Yep.”

“Doesn’t
mean there wasn’t someone there.”

“No
grass was kinda high, no mud or dirt, so someone may have been there.”

Christina
puffed again then said with great weariness in her voice. “Those people out
there think that they are taking Ivy home.”

I
nodded.

“The
D.A. is coming in with Capital Murder. I will fight for bail but you and I both
know it’s not going to happen.”

I
could only nod some more.

She
glanced at her watch. “I need to go down and see her. Can you maybe give them a
heads up?”

“Yeah
I got this.”

She
left the conference room; I hung back a minute and glanced over the phone lists
once more. Interesting.

I
stepped out in the corridor and was immediately swamped. I could barely make
out voices there were so many people crowding around me. Finally I all but
shouted.

“Pastor,
if you can’t keep this crowd in check they are going to toss you out!!”

Tim
Lafayette surged forward “I would like to see you try.”
 
He took a step toward me and grabbed my arm
near the elbow.

I
grinned. Tim was a good ten years older than me and a head shorter. He was a
fat out of shape bag of wind.
 
I twisted
quickly and took hold of his thumb bending it backwards, like a kid in a playground.

“Do
not touch me.” I said more menacingly than I meant.

Longstreet
came along side of me “Adam. Let him go. Tim, it seems in this case Brother
Adam is once more on the side of righteousness, stand down.”

I
started to say something and then thought better of it. Instead I jerked my
thumb towards the conference room. “Step inside a minute.”

Longstreet
and Lafayette entered the conference room like men who were about to take
charge of a situation, I dissuaded them of that notion by speaking first.