Page 4 of Vows of Murder

After we’d gotten out of earshot, Amanda looked at me. “I believe this is going to be a very entertaining and informative visit.”

Up ahead, the pathway divided into three different directions. A paper sign that readOpen House, this wayhad been taped over the permanent wooden sign. The wooden sign indicated that we were heading to the meetinghouse. The other two paths were to the women’s dormitories to the left, and the men’s to the right.

“Apparently there are no family units here. I wonder if they have more than one complex.” Amanda slowed down a little and I glanced over to see if she was okay. She’d gone through two sessions of cancer treatment in the last two years. She was in remission, but her body was severely weakened from the poisonous treatments that hopefully killed the cancer. She nodded. “I’m fine, it’s just a bit of a walkfrom the car.”

I glanced around and saw a bench near where the path divided. “Let’s sit a moment and enjoy the flowers.”

She let me lead her over to the bench and sank onto it. “Sorry, I get tired easily. But I am determined to keep building my endurance. I want to dance all night at your reception.”

“I’m glad you came out early.” It had been a bit of a shock, but it had been nice to get to know Amanda a little more before I became partof the family.

“After you put off the wedding twice, I didn’t want anything I was going through to affect this date. If I fall here, the hospital is nearby. I can get a day pass to attend the ceremony.” She patted my arm. “You look like I just scared you. I’m joking.”

Except I knew she wasn’t. My phone rang as we were sitting. “Hold on a second, it’s Greg.”

When I answered the phone, he didn’t even waste time on a greeting. “Whatare you doing?”

“Your mom and I are at the open house for New Hope. I’m sure I told you about it last night.” I could hear the anger in his voice. Had he expected us to be home?“What’s wrong?”

“No, not where are you. Why did you send me this resume?” He was talking about the email I’d sent over that morning.

I had been going to give it to him last night, but I’d forgotten. “Oh, sorry, I misunderstood. That’s for the state position you’ve been talking about. I think I have all the dates and jobs right, but you need to review it. Especially since they are such sticklersfor accuracy.”

“I never asked you to do this.” He didn’t sound happy.

From the tone of his voice, I was missing something big. “I know. I was just being helpful. I know thisis a big step.”

Amanda was looking at emails on her phone, trying not to listen to the conversation. And failing.

“Stay out of my career. If I wanted your help, I would have asked for it. Besides, your dates are wrong on the South Cove job,” he muttered, clearly reading the resume.

“I just wanted to help.” I tried to explain, buthe cut me off.

“Jill, this is important. Don’t mess with my career. You have your bookstore to look after. I’m a big boy and can make myown decisions.”

I started to tell him that I knew that, but the line had gone dead. He’d terminated the call. I put the phone backinto my purse.

“Everything okay?” Amanda askedfrom beside me.

I stood and smiled, probably looking like those guards had when they’d smiled at us. “I’m fine. Greg’s fine.” I added to myself,We’re fine. I just hoped that was true. I hadn’t heard Greg that mad for a long time. Something I’d done had triggered this reaction and I still didn’t know what or why. Maybe this was the orange that Deek had seen in my aura on Tuesday.

The meetinghouse was a log structure. It had tall ceilings and tons of windows. One wall looked out over the ocean. The building had been built on a hill, so you could see for miles. I would bet you could even see whales in the distance. The large foyer had handouts on a table and a large library on one side of the room. I wandered over to the library as Amanda went to find a restroom. Now that I was alone, I thought about calling Greg back, but I decided to let him cool down a bit before I delved deeper. We could talk later.

The library had a variety of books, from philosophy to memoirs to current fiction titles. The lower shelf on each bookcase was filled with children’s books. It was mostly secular, but there were a few shelves of books on world religions. There were more versions of theBible than I even knew existed. King James, NIV, and others focused on women’s studies or teens or even kids.

“My favorite is the Bible comparing Greek to the King James version. It brings us much closer to the original meaning that the authors had for the books as they were written. It’s huge, but so worth the read.” Kane Matthews stopped beside me, then pulled out a book and opened it to a random page to show me. He’d come up behind me without me noticing. “It’s all about the context, where an author’s coming from, don’t you think?”

I didn’t look at the book. Instead, I turned to meet Kane’s gaze directly. “I think it’s always about context. Words can mean so many different things. You have to have the context to be able to correctly interpret any work.”

He smiled and nodded, reshelving the book as he did. “Now, there’s something you and I agree on. I didn’t think itwas possible.”

“You have a lovely library.” He somehow looked softer today. Maybe it was the shared affiliation to books that was helping. I nodded to the shelves. “I’m surprised your flock even needs to buy new booksfrom my shop.”

“There’s always room for another book.” His eyes twinkled for a second. “To read a story that someone created out of thin air? Now that’s a blessing. You must feel that way about books. You sell themfor a living.”

“Authors do have a type of magic. Some call it the muse, others inspiration. The good ones, anyway. They can spin a tale with just a few starting points.” She nodded to the great room they were in. “This building is beautiful. Do you only use itfor services?”

He pointed to a door hidden between two shelves of books. “That’s the way to my office and the restrooms. I spend most of my time there during the day. Preparing my sermons, what I like to call my talks. Reading spiritual texts.”

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