Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) Read Online Free

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