Read Online Joe Dillard - 02 - In Good Faith by Scott Pratt - Free Book Online

I’d run across him several times in the past. My impression of him wasn’t good, although I hadn’t said a word about it to Sarah. I remembered Godsey as a belligerent hard-ass, always filing violation warrants against his probationers for the tiniest of infractions. He was also a sanctimonious zealot, a man who apparently thought he knew all the answers to questions involving faith and eternity. I’d heard him harangue people in the courthouse hallways about getting right with the Lord more times than I cared to remember. One time a few years ago, I’d seen him back a young woman against the wall with his chest and shove her face with the heel of his hand. I started to confront him, but by the time I broke away from my client he’d stormed out the door. Now he’d transferred to Crossville, and he was taking my sister with him.
    Rio began to bark at the front door.
    “She’s early,” Caroline said.
    I walked through the house, quieted the dog, and opened the door. Sarah stepped inside, wearing black jeans and a pink, V-necked pullover top with short sleeves. I noticed she was wearing a silver fish on a chain around her neck. I’d never seen it before.
    “Nice necklace,” I said. Sarah’s conversion to Christianity had been both recent and complete. Caroline and I had gone to her baptism back in mid-August. The ceremony was held on the bank of the Nolichucky River behind the tiny Calvary Baptist Church near Telford where Robert Godsey was a part-time pastor. Godsey himself had immersed her in the brackish water.
    “Thanks, Robert gave it to me.”
    “Come on in.” I kissed her on the cheek. “Let’s go sit out on the deck. I’ll get you a glass of sweet tea.”
    A few minutes later, we were sitting on the deck beneath cirrus clouds that drifted high across the sky like giant kites. I looked beyond Sarah at the pale green lake below, the late-afternoon sun glistening off the ripples like thousands of tiny pieces of hammered gold. An easy breeze was blowing, so pleasant that I thought of falling asleep.
    “You okay?” she said. “You look tired.”
    “I’ll be fine as long as we don’t talk about the murders. I need to think about something else for a while.”
    “No problem. The thought of them sickens me. Where’s Caroline?” Her lips turned upward when she mentioned Caroline. Sarah had a terrific smile, with deep dimples like miniature crescent moons.
    “In the bathroom. She’ll be out in a few. I think she’s planning on grilling steak. You hungry?”
    “Sounds great.”
    “All packed and ready to go?”
    “I guess so.”
    “When do you start the new job?”
    Robert Godsey’s father owned an insurance agency in Crossville. Sarah was going to work for him as a receptionist.
    “I start next week.”
    I took a deep breath and braced myself. I didn’t want to get into an argument with her on her last day in town, but there was something I wanted to get off my chest.
    “Can I ask you a question without you getting all pissed off at me?” I said.
    Her eyebrows arched.
    “I’m serious. You know I love you and I only want the best for you.”
    “You’re already hedging. What is it?”
    “I guess I just want to ask you whether you’re sure about this. Really sure. You’ve only known this guy for a couple of months.”
    “His name is Robert, and I’ve known him for close to a year.”
    “But you’ve only been dating for a couple of months.”
    “Three months, almost four,” she said.
    “Exactly. So why do you feel the need to pack up and move almost two hundred miles away? Are you sure you don’t want to try the long-distance-relationship thing for a while and see how it goes? Get to know him a little better?”
    “I’m leaving. The decision’s been made.”
    “I know, but humor me for a minute. Does he make you thumpy?”
    “Thumpy?”
    “You know, pitty-pat. Fluttery. Heart pounding inside the chest when he comes into the room, that kind of thing. Caroline still does that