The Covenant by Jeff Crook Read Free Book Online Page A

the smell of frying fish.
    He seemed surprised to see me, so I explained my visit. “That preacher again,” he mused. “Did you finally meet him?”
    â€œJust got back from the house. Mrs. Loftin has invited me to dinner.”
    â€œJenny’s a good woman,” he said, almost to himself. “She doesn’t deserve any of this. God knows she’s been through enough already.”
    He was standing above the spot where I’d found Sam Loftin facedown in the water. I glanced back toward the street, but didn’t see a car parked there. “Do you live around here?”
    He snorted and shook his head. “Not on my salary. I couldn’t even afford one of the golf lots.” He explained that a golf lot was a piece of undeveloped land that the community sold to people who didn’t live at Stirling. The lots were scattered around the borders and too small to build a house on; people bought them because ownership gave them access to the clubhouse, the golf courses and other amenities. It was like the membership fee of a country club, except it could be taxed as property by the county.
    â€œWhere’s your car?” I asked.
    â€œI parked on the other side of the lake and walked across the levee.” He turned and climbed up the rocks. “I remembered you said Sam was coming from that direction when you saw him. I was hoping maybe he dropped something.”
    I took a sip of wine and swirled it around in my mouth, remembering that I didn’t like wine. Lorio was taking me at my word about what I had seen, even though I couldn’t have actually seen Sam Loftin walking anywhere. “Did you find anything?”
    â€œJust this. I think it belongs to you.” It was my cell phone. “It was down there by the water’s edge between two rocks.”
    I thanked him. “How did you find it?”
    â€œIt was ringing.”
    I checked the last call received. It was from my mother. She had phoned a dozen times since this morning. Her normal routine was to phone me every other Sunday, never on a weekday, except when she found some nice gentleman from her church who was about my age and had just gotten a divorce and was available if I wanted to meet him and settle down, preferably back home in Pocahontas—the small town in Arkansas where I grew up and where she and my father still lived together in nominal matrimony.
    â€œI’m sorry about what happened to you yesterday.” Lorio pulled up a tuft of dry grass and shook the loose, dry dirt from its roots. “It’s hard to believe it’s only been one day.”
    â€œY’all were friends?”
    He took a deep breath and nodded without looking at me. “Sam called me from the office. He was working yesterday morning.”
    â€œOn a Sunday?”
    â€œSam worked all the time. He wanted to meet after my shift ended. We were gonna watch the Cardinals game at his house. That’s why I was the first one at the scene—I was already in the neighborhood. Then, when I saw you standing here, I just knew…” He took his hat off and and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm.
    â€œWhat did you know?” I asked him.
    â€œThat Sam had killed himself.”
    â€œWhy would you think that?”
    â€œYesterday…” he began, then sighed and pressed his hat on his head. “Sam’s oldest daughter, Reece, drowned herself at this same spot, five years ago yesterday.”

 
    8
    W E ALL SAT DOWN TO A dining table practically groaning with food: Jenny and her kids, Deacon, Holly, Nathan, Officer Lorio and me. My seat was at the end of the table, opposite Deacon. A large picture window to my left provided a view of the pool and boathouse. The preacher thanked the Lord for the bounty provided by Jenny’s neighbors at this, her time of need, amen. Jenny passed around a box of cold fried chicken bought at a local convenience store.
    â€œDoris Dye brought