Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) by Thomas Gillen

loving
wife and one to my sister’s husband Argon, had given me more information on the
Greencastle property. My wife knew nothing about the matter, which was not all
that surprising if she had known I would have known. Argon, who had been a
deacon back at the old church, confirmed the transaction and reported that it
was held in confidence by the deacon’s board at Millicent’s request. He added
very tellingly:
    “Një çift i njerëzve në bordin e dhjak,
sidomos miku tuaj Jim Sinclair ishin të lumtur për ta mbajtur atë të fshehtë.
Ata nuk duan që ajo e di ne kishte marrë një dhuratë të tillë të madh nga një
person zi”
    I chuckled, of course Jim Sinclair would
work hard to that it would never become know that the deacons’ board had accepted
such a large donation from an African American. I told my brother- in- law,
that it was bad enough for them that they had an Albanian Deacon. “e keqe e
mjaftueshme që ata kishin një Dhjak Shqiptare.”
    Stan pulled up in his vintage 1960 Buick
Lesabre which he had spent most of the winter painstakingly restoring. Like all
good Independent Baptist we go soul winning on Thursday Nights. Guiding Light
Church uses the Spark of Grace method, which was developed by a pastor at a
fellow church here in Washington County. Stan and I were on an MBCC team, which
meant we simply went door to door taking a survey and copying the results over
to other more experienced soul winners. Normally we go from around 6:30PM to 8:00
PM or so but since Rita and I had to meet Ryder Mathewson at Fireside at 8 I
had asked Stan if we could leave an hour earlier.   Five thirty is not an optimal time for
knocking on peoples doors, many folks are not home yet, but better to find no
one home than not go at all. We had a short survey board of only twenty houses
over in the Smithsburg area. As we drove over there I asked Stan about the land
sale.
    “I knew, mostly because the land was held
by Thompson Farms, Millicent’s company not by her personally.”
    I confess ignorance when it came to
Thompson Farms, Millicent knew that while my wife and I loved Clear Spring and
Washington County we had no love of farming, Stan managed the farm and the
company and we liked it that way. I knew that Millicent had control of the LCC
that comprised Thompson Farms, I also knew that my wife, her sister Rhoda, who
was married to a missionary in Jamaica, and Stan also were shareholders. Other
than that I was basically clueless and kind of liked it that way. It was hard enough
to run my own business and help Rita keep an eye on the diner and Donald on his
and Gray’s trucking concerns without further complicating my life with an
industry I knew nothing about.
    “I am trying to understand why this land
was so important?” I asked.
    “The location of tower is what gives a
radio station its signal.   I guess. And
anyway we had a hard time finding a plot of land big enough to put the tower
on. There was not a chance that we were ever going to get clearance to put it
on the church property.   Plus that
despite, the fact that it seems like you are driving up hill to Calvary you are
still way down in the valley. The higher up you build the better off you are.”
Stan stated.
    Okay I thought got it. I think.
    “You were up on Calvary a long time weren’t
you?” I asked.
    “Bout twenty years, ever since Jessica and
I moved to the area.   We’d been down on
the Eastern Shoe before this.   She wanted
to move closer to her mom and dad.”
    “So you know Longstreet pretty well.” I
stated.
    Stan shook his head “No, to tell you the
truth, Brother Adam, until Pastor Lexington got there I just kind of went and
sat in the pew. Never really even paid attention that was true for a lot of us.
Longstreet and his family kind of did everything and we all just kind of followed
along. Heck Argon will tell you that as well.”
    I was sure he would.
    “Joshua changed that?”
    “Yes Sir, he felt that everybody should
have