Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (4 page)

“Ivy
will not be getting bail.”

They
began to speak and I held up my hand.

“Christina
will try but it is a Capital Murder case and so no bail will be granted.”

“We
will mortgage the church” Longstreet said repeating his promise of the night
before.

“You
can do what you want but no bail will be set.”

He looked
at me hard, with those Southern eyes, deep gray they spoke of a time when Men
were Men, women were weak and blacks were slaves, when the smell of human sweat
mixed with the jasmine of the trees on plantations from Virginia to Mississippi
and back again.
 
There was something not quite
human in them. His voice when he next spoke was soft and mellow like a wind though
cypress, but I could smell the fire and brimstone in the air.

“They
will regret doing this to a fine Christian Woman.”

I
shook my head. “Perhaps.”

I
gave my best, ‘I really do like you even though I think you are a brain damaged
jerk’ grin to Lafayette.
 
It fell short
but I asked my question anyway. “Tim, why did you call Josh and Mac yesterday
morning?”

He
stammered and lied. “I didn’t.”

I
shook my head. “No, don’t lie, you did I have their phone records.”

Longstreet
looked at Tim than glared at me.

Tim
paused and chewed a little on his lower lip. I kept watching his eyes and
smiling, just a good ole boy waiting for an answer. “Brother Tim?”

“I
guess maybe I did call, likely something to do with the church’s radio station
you know the paper work and such is all fouled up thanks to Joshua’s
mismanagement.”

“And
Mac?”

“She
was the church’s financial secretary.”

“Did
you go to see them?”

“Huh.
No why would I do that?”

“Just
wondering.”

Longstreet
gave me his copperhead grin. “Brother Tim, can you step outside for a moment,
tell the folks I will speak to them in a minute. Remind them that Brother Adam
is helping Miss Ivy.”

Lafayette
nodded but I don’t think he believed the last part.

When
Tim had closed the door behind him Longstreet took a step towards me and said
“I appreciate your helping Miss Ivy, but I will not let you badger anyone else
in the church over this. You know as well as I do that Brother Tim had nothing
to do with this.”

“I
do?”

“Yes.”

“No,
Sir I don’t. See here’s the deal, if Ivy did not kill Josh and Mac then some
else did and I intended to pursue every avenue to find out who.”

“A
random robbery” He stated it as if it were a fact.

“In
which nothing was taken? Unlikely Sir.”

He
cocked an eyebrow. “But you will look into that as well correct?”

He
had me.

“I
will but I will also examine every other option.”

He
gave me a tight smile. “I will not allow you to harass my people.”

I
was saved from answering him buy the vibration of my cell. I glanced quickly at
the message

‘Come
to my office now.’
 
It was from my civil
attorney Ric Blade.

I
looked at Longstreet and gave a small smile. “Go tell your people that she is
not getting bail. And then tell Ms. Denmark that I had to go, and that I will
catch up with her later on today.”

“I
am not your messenger boy.”

“Suit
yourself. The more you work with me, the more I’ll work with you.”

I
am not genetically programed to enjoy being summoned. Neither the Irish nor the
Albanian in me, enjoys being commanded. One of a number of reasons I was both a
lousy cop and a lousy inmate. Still when Ric Blade commanded I appear I was Johnny
on the spot.

My
attorney, who has the misfortunate of having a name better suited for the WWF
than a court room had the acumen of Hilary Clinton, the Kindness of Barbara
Bush, the Grace of Jackie Kennedy and the steel of Nancy Regan, all rolled into
one of the more impressive legal minds I have encountered. Her office on Oak
Hill Drive was not far from the courthouse but because of the convoluted way
Hagerstown City roads were set up it took me longer than I wanted to finally
arrive at the place.

Her
Secretary Jeannie gave me a polite hello as I entered the office and said “Go
right on upstairs she is expecting you.”

Ric
did not look up from her desk as I came in, instead she said “Grab a seat.”

She
finished typing on her computer and then leaned back in the chair, her fingers
were the only thing that showed her age, which was I suspected, though I was
not sure, somewhere in her mid-sixties.

She
began without familiarities “I have here an unusual situation. You have of
course heard about Joshua.”

She
knew I had, he had been Pastor to both of us until we joined Guiding Light.

“Christina
has asked my help.”

Ric
raised an eyebrow “Really? You do not believe Ivy pulled the trigger?”

“No.”

“The
woman is a socio-path, incapable of telling the truth and programed to believe
her own lies.” Ric said without malice but with intent.

I
smiled, some of the bitterness still existed on both sides of the church split
it seemed. “Nevertheless I do not think she did it.”

“Hmmm…this
further complicates things.” She lifted a file from her desk. “This is Joshua’s
will. Mac’s is also here.” She pointed vaguely to her desktop.

She
opened the file and took out a letter “Allow me to read you something. It is a
codicil prepared by Joshua and placed in this file after being witnessed by
Jeannie and me just last week.”

She
put on a pair of store brought reading glasses and began to read:

“‘Dear
Ric:
  
I make this change to my last will
and testament in sound mind and with full capacity. I confirm my appointment of
my Step Brother Lucas Blaine as the Executor of my Estate, with this one
exception. If the circumstances of my death are in any way suspicious, in your
professional opinion’ “

Ric
paused and said “I find murder to be suspicious.”

I
nodded and she went on:

“‘In
your professional opinion, then and only then do I hereby revoked Lucas Blaine
as the Executor of my estate and do herby request the appointment of Adam Mykonos.’”

I darn near fell out of the chair.
                          

“Like
heck.”

Ric
smiled “You can of course decline but then I will be in a quandary.
 
Joshua did not want his brother to be
involved if there was any type of suspicion in his death, so I will literally
not know what to do.”

“Why
me?” I pleaded.

She
shrugged “I have two letters here from Joshua to you; perhaps the answer is in
them. My instructions say you can read the first one before accepting but not
the second.”

She handed me an envelope with my friend’s
neat and elegant handwriting on the outside. ‘To Adam’.

Coda
One:

If you are reading
this then I am dead, killed in such a way as to arouse the concerns of both Ric
and I would hope the police.

LOL, now that may
be the most melodramatic sentence I have ever written and I am or was a Baptist
Preacher!

My dear brother in
Christ, I am sure that you are confused as to why I would ask you to be my
executor in these circumstances and perhaps even confused as to why anyone
would want me dead. The sad truth is that there are a number of people who
would benefit from my death and any one of them has the capability of being
responsible for it.

I could at this
juncture begin to name names and point out people that I believe have both the
motive and the fallen heart to do myself, or heaven forbid McKenzie harm.

That however would
be unchristian, I would be making accusations based on what my heart tells me
and we know that the heart is ever wicked. So while I can, and via this letter,
do, ask you to find out who may have harmed me, I cannot simply give you the
names of those who might. I can however give you details of my departure from Calvary
that up until now neither you nor Lucas nor anyone else who left with us has
been fully aware of.

I am sure, though I
have never spoken directly to you concerning the matter, that you are aware
that my removal as Pastor of CBC had little to do with a non-existent extra-marital
affair with Miss Daniels. While McKenzie and I have begun recently to court
there was no affair while we were at CBC. Rather my removal had everything to
do with Beauregard Longstreet and his objections to the direction I was taking his
ministry. As the founder of CBC Dr. Longstreet felt that even as Pastor Emeritus
he would and should be the de facto leader of the church. I do not feel that
this is a Biblical Principal; rather it is clear to me that God’s man for his
Church is His chosen Pastor. In the case of CDC that was myself.

But like all
Pastors I learned things during my ten years at CBC many things that I did not
know when I began this journey. Like many I had been taught that the church is
God’s building and that is in fact true, however I came to learn that it is
also His wheel. The Universal church is a large wheel moving ever forward with
the Lord Christ as it’s driver, each local church is an attached to the wheel
with its Pastor as the center spoke holding the wheel together. There are many
many wheels and so if one goes bad the mechanism keeps moving forward.

CDC was a wheel
gone bad. I ask you to find out my dear brother not only what happened to me,
but where that wheel went bad.

I have much more to
write and share with you, but I need you first to choose. Before you do I ask
you to pray, I cannot give you long to do so, if I have meet with foul play
than you above all others know that time is not your friend. But take some
small amount of time and go and pray. I am sure Ric has an empy office. As you
pray please medititate on this scripture

Ezekiel 1: 16 to 21

16 The appearance of the wheels and their workings
was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance
of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 When
they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn
aside when they went. 18 As for their rims, they were so high they were
awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. 19 When
the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living
creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20 Wherever
the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the
wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living
creatures[c] was in the wheels. 21 When those went, these went; when those
stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels
were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was
in the wheels.

Yours in the
service of Him whom we all serve

Joshua J. Lexington III

Chapter Four:

I
sat back in the chair. I traced the outline of my goatee with my finger and
then rubbed the side of my temples.
 

“I
need to pray about this. Is there somewhere…….”

Ric
cut me off “Use the break room downstairs, there is fresh coffee in there as
well.”

I
smiled “Has my wife told every one that I always pray with a cup of coffee in
my hand?”

“Your
wife is a very outgoing person.” Ric said with a grin.

Forty-Five
minutes, two cups of coffee and one very long conversation with the Good Lord
later and I was back in Ric’s Office.

“And?”
She asked cocking an eyebrow as she did.

“And
what choice do I have, I accept.”

She
smiled and reached into the bottom draw of her desk. She took out a large
manila envelope.

“This
is the second letter.” She said flatly.

I
took the thick envelope from her and opened it. There were more than a dozen
pages of single spaced typed text.

“Letter,
this is a short novel.” I stated.

“Joshua
was nothing if not long winded.”

We
both laughed thinking of our friend whom one day we would see again.

“Is
the will in here?”

“No.”
She handed me a file on her desk. “Here. We need to schedule a reading. I can
handle the logistics of that.”

She
added briskly, “The sooner the better. Is tomorrow good?”

I
started to say yes, and then backed up. “No, tomorrow is Wednesday, way too
busy at my real job.”

Wednesday
is the busiest day of my week, as the owner of a comic book shop it is the day
when the new books for the week come into the shop. Fans, geeks and assorted
others from across the county would be in the store that day to get their
weekly fix of comics. Further as an Independent Baptist Wednesday night was
Bible Study at the church.
 
Young Greg
Grant and I would open the shop at 9AM work till 6:30 that night than drive
like number 47 to church by 7PM, then depending on the time of year I would go
back to work from 8:30 or so till 11PM.
 
Wednesday was just far to busy.