The Covenant (39 page)
Authors: Jeff Crook
With Sam's death finally ruled a murder, Jenny was awarded his life insurance settlement. She sold the house and moved to Arlington. Eugene Kitchen bought her house at her asking price, which was twice what it was worth. I suspected, as did she, that the money came from Luther. He had paid her off anyway.
It was early September and it still hadn't rained but the weatherman was predicting showers any day now. It was cloudy when I woke up, overcast as I stood on my patio watching the river ooze between its sandy and shrunken banks. Thunder from a storm over Arkansas nearly drowned out Sheriff Stegall's voice when he called and asked me to stop by. I took it as a sign and agreed to see him.
I expected more questions. Instead, I got a ride in his paramilitary recreational vehicle.
We pulled up in the field where Deacon had planned to build his church. There was a road now, with fresh white curbs, and flagged stakes marking off the lots of the newest expansion of Stirling Plantation. Jenny's street had been extended and connected through, and they were already pouring concrete slabs for new houses. Ruth's woods were bulldozed, though there were still a few trees sticking up here and there, looking naked and raped. Spring Lake was just a mudhole at the bottom of the hill, and bulldozers were shoving more dirt into it as I stepped out of the RV.
There was nothing left of the house, not a single brick, not even a pile of ash and cinders, just a hole in the ground that used to be the cellar. If not for this, I wouldn't have known where the house stood at all. Stegall led me to the edge, where a large round stone hung by a strap from the bucket of a backhoe. “Workers were clearing this away when they found it.”
“What is that?” It looked more dirt than stone.
“An old millstone.”
An older man with a thin beard and a couple of rough-looking college girls were working in the cellar, peeling back the dirt with trowels and paintbrushes. “Archaeologists,” he explained. “See, when they moved the millstone, they found a well.”
I felt a cold finger touch the base of my spine. It wasn't Stegall. It was Goober Trey, the call-before-you-dig man, who had predicted, three months and a lifetime ago, that we would find a well in the cellar.
“The well was full of bones,” Stegall said.
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JEFF CROOK
is the author of the previous Jackie Lyons novel,
The Sleeping and the Dead,
as well as several other novels, including
Sword of the Prophet.
He is a native and lifelong resident of the city of Memphis. You can sign up for email updates
here
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Also by
Jeff Crook
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Contents
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE COVENANT.
Copyright © 2015 by Jeff Crook. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Cover photographs: house © Rodney Harvey Photography; ghost © Caryn Drexl / Arcangel Images; tree © Chuck Wagner / Shutterstock
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Crook, Jeff.
Title: The covenant: a mystery / Jeff Crook.
Description: First edition. | New York: Minotaur Books, 2016. | Series: Jackie Lyons mystery; 2
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037862 | ISBN 9781250000293 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250031426 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women detectivesâTennesseeâMemphisâFiction. | Women mediumsâFiction. | MurderâInvestigationâFiction. | Paranormal fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural. | FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3553.R5463 C66 2016 | DDC 813/.54âdc23
LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037862
e-ISBN 9781250031426
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at
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First Edition: January 2016
