Redemption (33 page)

Reverend Kemp cut through the thinning crowd to the table. “Eighty was my bid, I believe.”

“
Yes sir,” Travis said.

“
I arrived late and missed your description of the premises. Does my purchase also include the ten acres where Mount Zion used to stand?”

“
It certainly does, Reverend Kemp,” Travis said. “It certainly does.”

“
Hold on,” Jimmy Lee said. “That plot of land wasn’t for sale. My daddy sold that to someone a long time ago, and I don’t have the right to sell it.”

Travis held out the description of the property. “That’s not what this says, Mr. Sellers. Your daddy didn’t sell it to anyone. He
gave
it to someone. Says right here that he did.”

Jimmy Lee snatched the paper out of Travis’s hand. “To who?”

“
Someone named Julius Willis,” Travis said.

“
Old Doc Willis,” Reverend Kemp said. “Fine man. One of the original members of Mount Zion. A great man of God.”

Jimmy Lee couldn’t believe what he was reading. “But it says here that Willis willed it to his daughter, Cassandra, who in turn willed it to her daughter, Callinda.”
What the hell kind of name is that?

“
Right,” Travis said, “and Miss Callie Poindexter sold it to Ms. Annie Mitchem right before she died. It’s all there in black and white.”

“
Callie ... Poindexter?” Jimmy Lee let the paper slip through his fingers.
J’s mama owned the land where her son died. But why would she sell it to Annie Mitchem?
He looked up in the oak again.
And where’s that stupid scarecrow?

“
You have a cashier’s check for that amount, Reverend?” Travis asked.

Reverend Kemp reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a check. “I do, indeed.”

And how did he know that eighty thousand would be the right amount?
“Hold on just a damn minute, Reverend.”

“
Yes, Mr. Sellers?” Reverend Kemp said. “You seem unstrung.”

Is this nigguh talkin’ white to me?
“There’s been a misunderstandin’ here, a big misunderstandin’.”

“
Do explain,” said Reverend Kemp.

“
If I had known Ms. Mitchem owned that land, I never would have sold it. I was only sellin’ the house, you see, not that acreage back there, so if you don’t mind, let’s call this null and void until my lawyer can check all this out. And if you like, I’ll let you have the house and this piece of land for forty. You can’t beat that deal with a stick. That’s twenty-five under—”

“
I
mind,
Mr. Sellers,” Reverend Kemp said.

Jimmy Lee caught his breath.
Oh no, you didn’t just say that shit to me?
“C’mon, Reverend. You don’t need all that land.”

“
Oh, but I do.” He smiled. “I’m building a church, Mr. Sellers.
Re
building would be the proper term. I intend to re-establish Mount Zion. Your daddy would certainly be proud of you today.”

Jimmy Lee’s head ached. “You intend to rebuild Zion? What you wanna do that for? This is way the hell, I mean, it’s in the middle of nowhere.”

“
Yes, it is,” Reverend Kemp said. “Far from distractions, the perfect spot for a church. We’ll break ground ... next Friday, I think. After the funerals.”

Oh yeah. The funerals.
“Isn’t there any way I can change your mind? I’ll let you have this place for twenty.”

“
My mind is made up, Mr. Sellers.”

Travis began packing up his equipment. “I’ll meet you at the next one, Mr. Sellers.”

“
Huh?”

Travis folded the legs of the table. “See you at the next one.”

“
Yeah.” He watched Travis carry the table to his truck then looked at Reverend Kemp. “Reverend, uh, Kemp, how’d you know the biddin’ would stop at eighty?”

Reverend Kemp looked around, stepped closer, and whispered, “J told me.”

Jimmy Lee’s blood turned to ice. “What did you say?”

Reverend Kemp stepped back. “God told me. What did you think I said?”

“
That’s not what you—”

Reverend Kemp smiled. “Good doing business with you, Mr. Sellers. Drive safely.”

Drive safely? What’s that supposed to mean? Wait, I got a ride here with Travis.
He watched Travis’ truck turning onto 115. “Shit!” He turned and saw Autumn Harper and Sheriff Overton smiling at him. “Hey, can I get a ride with y’all? Travis musta forgot I rode with him.”

“
But your car’s over there, Jimmy Lee,” Autumn said, pointing at his Jaguar sitting in Joe Graves’s field.

Jesus! But I didn’t drive it here! Calm down, calm down. Better play it off or they’ll think I’m crazy.
“Oh yeah.” He pulled out his keys. “I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached.” He gripped the keys tightly. “See y’all there.”

“
Drive safely,” Autumn said with a laugh.

Drive safely? What the hell is goin’ on?

54

“
You’d think he’d be happier,” Overton said as they walked to the Escort resting in a nearly empty field. “Eighty grand is way too much for Annie’s place.”

“
Is it?” Autumn asked.

“
You heard Travis. He said sixty-five max.”

She stood in front of the driver’s door. “Oh, I don’t know. Eighty thousand for a brick house and twelve acres could be considered a steal.”

“
Twelve?
”

Autumn pointed toward the road. “Look.”

Overton turned and saw Reverend Kemp and the white bidders on the old dirt road to Mt. Zion putting up a sign that read: “FUTURE HOME OF MT. ZION AME.”

“
Annie
owned that land?”

Autumn giggled. “Yep.”

“
How?”

Autumn shrugged. “She just ... did.”

“
And Jimmy Lee didn’t know it?”
That makes no sense unless ...
“Why didn’t Jimmy Lee know it, Autumn?”

“
Annie only purchased it ... recently. On Monday, as a matter of fact.”

“
Monday? She died ... on Monday.” He looked at the ground beneath his feet.
Joe Graves’s field. Joe Graves found Annie.
“Joe Graves sold it to her?”

“
No, but a good guess. He witnessed the sale.”

“
Then who—” He stared hard at Autumn. “Whoever hit her—”

“
Shh,” Autumn interrupted, and opened the car door. “Think it all the way through first. You’ll get it eventually. Oh, we better follow Jimmy Lee.”

Overton got in. “Why?”

Autumn got in and buckled her seatbelt. “He shouldn’t be driving, I mean, I bet he’s pissed as hell.”

“
So?”
Isn’t he always?

“
He just sold Sellers family land to a black man, and said land is where an
African
Methodist church will be built for all the world to see.”

Overton looked out his window. “They’ll have to cut back a lot of brush.”

“
You know
we
will,” Autumn said. “Gonna pave that road, too.”

Overton looked at Jimmy Lee crossing 115 to his Jaguar. “He’ll catch up.”

“
No. We’re following him.”

“
Why?”

She shrugged. “Can’t start without him, right? No sense in standing out in this heat any longer than we have to.”

Overton started the car. “Sure. But why are we
really
following him?”

“
You’ll see.”

“
Another prank?”

Autumn laughed. “You’re
really
catching on, Miles. You’re beginning to think it through.”

Overton let Jimmy Lee leave the field and followed a few car lengths’ behind. “Sugar in his gas tank?”

“
No. Nothing as sophomoric as that.”

“
A stink bomb under the hood?”

“
Just watch, Miles.”

“
I’m watching, I’m watching, but I don’t— What’s he doing?”

Jimmy Lee’s Jaguar swerved back and forth and cross the yellow lines several times before sliding to a stop on the left shoulder. Jimmy Lee then threw open his door and ran into a field on other side of the road.

Overton stopped the Escort behind the Jaguar.

“
Y’all put a snake in there?” Overton asked.

“
No,” Autumn said through her giggles. “Though that’s not a bad idea.”

Overton shook his head and got out, creeping up on the Jaguar. He peeked into the back seat and saw a scarecrow.
Why a damn scarecrow?

Overton reached in and turned off the Jaguar’s engine while Jimmy Lee paced back and forth in the field across the road, kicking up dust. “You okay, Jimmy Lee?” he yelled.

Jimmy Lee kept pacing.

Overton turned to Autumn who had sneaked up beside him. “It’s just a scarecrow.”

She nodded. “Wonder how it got in there.”

“
I’ll bet.”

“
You better go get him before he digs a hole to China,” Autumn said.

Overton crossed the road and waited until Jimmy Lee paced his way. He touched his arm, and Jimmy Lee jumped. “You okay, Jimmy Lee?”

Jimmy Lee blinked repeatedly and muttered something about “damn phones.”

This boy’s getting heatstroke.
“Why don’t you let Autumn and me drive you to the next one.”

Jimmy Lee nodded, and Overton led him to the Escort.

Autumn held the door for him. “You okay, Jimmy Lee?”

Jimmy Lee shook his head and got in, and on the way to Lester’s, he kept muttering. “
Damn
phones then the
damn
computer then the
damn
mail at three AM then the
damn
lady nearly dyin’ at my feet then the
damn
kid in the tree who turns out to be a
damn
scarecrow and it’s in the back seat of a car
I didn’t drive!”
Jimmy Lee
took a long, deep breath. “
No, I am not okay!
”

“
Who’d you see in the tree?” Overton asked.

“
Some kid. At first.” Jimmy Lee giggled. “Then he turned into a scarecrow.”

“
What did he look like?” Autumn asked.

“
Some white kid, fifteen, maybe sixteen,” Jimmy Lee said. “Good-lookin’ kid.”

Daniel!
Overton thought.
Daniel was there, and Autumn kept me looking away from the trees!

“
Oh, Jimmy Lee,” Autumn said in a soothing voice, “that was probably the sun playing tricks on you.”

Overton shot Autumn a look.
Did she mean “sun" ... or did she mean “son”?

They dropped off Jimmy Lee near Lester’s foundation where Travis had set up shop in a sunny spot. Because of the way the fire had burned, a column of sunlight flooded the foundation and crater like an old space movie Overton once saw. Shafts of light shot through the woods where a multitude filled every available spot.

Every black person on earth is here,
Overton thought as he searched the shadows for Daniel, Callie, and Isaiah.

“
They’re not here,” Autumn said.

“
Right.”

“
Really. They don’t have to be here.”