No Easy Solution (Crowley County Series Book 1)

by T. E. Killian

  * * *

  Gil had just returned to his office from lunch after fixing himself a sandwich at the parsonage. Even though his mother had given him cooking instructions for the last two weeks before he left St. Louis, he wasn’t in too big of a hurry to begin trying out what he’d learned, at least not on himself. Maybe he’d try it out on Harry first.

  He was smiling to himself when he looked up and saw Jake Hollis standing in his doorway. His first thought was why hadn’t Betty announced the man, but then he remembered that she was taking a long lunch today.

  “Good afternoon Jake. Come in and have a seat.”

  Jake stepped into the room, pulled one of the visitor chairs a little farther away from the desk, and sat down. Gil realized then that Jake was more than a head taller than him. He hadn’t realized just how tall the man was at the deacon meeting yesterday, since Jake had sat slouched at the other end of the table.

  He had to be at least six five and was rather thin too, which made him look even taller. What hair Gil could see under the cap Jake hadn’t taken off, looked to be dark blond. He had a long nose and otherwise sharp facial features. That description made Gil think of Washington Irving’s character Ichabod Crane. He wondered if Jake shared any of Ichabod’s other characteristics as well, especially the loose morals characteristic.

  Gil shook himself to rid it of that stray thought and pay attention to what Jake had been saying.

  “I think me and you can work together to make this a better church, don’t you think so Preacher?”

  Gil hadn’t heard what came before that question therefore he was a little leery of agreeing to it. So he chose to ask a question of his own.

  “Why don’t we start with the Sunday evening service Jake? I understand that you wanted it at six o’clock. That’s fine with me, as long as we have one. I think that the Sunday evening service is important in that it’s not only another chance for us to study God’s word and worship Him, but it also gives those who couldn’t for some reason come in the morning an opportunity to still worship on Sunday.”

  Jake was silent so long that Gil was beginning to think he wasn’t going to answer at all. He kept stroking his jutting chin with the long fingers of his left hand.

  “Okay Preacher, you got yourself a deal.”

  “Good. I understand that the monthly business meeting is this Wednesday evening. Shall we try for then?”

  Jake only nodded, rose to his full height, and looked down on Gil. He then turned and without another word, ambled out of the office leaving Gil wondering what had just happened.

  Gil tried to take his mind off that meeting so he could get some work done. He’d been rather successful at that and was deep in concentration on what he wanted to talk about on Wednesday evening that he hadn’t even realized that Betty was back from her extended lunch until she called out to him.

  “That was Richard on the phone and he asked that you meet him and some other deacons in the conference room in ten minutes.”

  He really must have been concentrating. Not only had he not heard Betty come back from lunch but he hadn’t even heard the phone ring. Some concentration!

  Then he thought about what she had just said. What could the deacons want to talk to him about already? They’d just had a meeting the day before after all.

  “Thanks Betty.”

  Gil was sitting at the conference table waiting when Richard came through the door first with J.C. Davis and Leroy Wilton close behind him. Gil looked but didn’t see Jake Hollis coming in with the rest. When he thought about it later, that should have given him a clue as to what was coming.

  When they all sat down, Richard cleared his throat and started to speak but J.C. interrupted him.

  “We want to know what kinds of deals you’ve been making with Jake Hollis.”

  “Deals?”

  “Yes, you and Jake have been . . .”

  Richard held up his hands and J.C. stopped mid-sentence. Then Richard very calmly said, “Jake Hollis is going around town telling everybody that he’s made several deals with you and one is about the bars in town.”

  Gil was speechless. He couldn’t think of anything that he had said to Jake that would have given the man the idea that he was going to work with him to get rid of the bars.

  When Gil didn’t speak right away, Leroy said, “We think we deserve to know what’s going on around here. After all, we are the deacons.”

  Gil tried to speak and nothing came out. He tried clearing his throat and this time it came out in a squeak. Richard jumped up, went to the water cooler in the outer office, and came back with a cup of water.

  Gil drank it down in one gulp then tried to speak again. “Gentlemen, I have no idea what you’re talking about. The only thing Jake and I talked about was reinstituting the Sunday evening service. I simply asked if he would support a motion to bring it back and make it at six o’clock. He said he would and left.”

  J.C. looked unconvinced. “You mean to say that the two of you didn’t even talk about the bars?”

  Gil was shaking his head but as he frantically searched his memory, he remembered something of what Jake had said when Gil had been thinking about how Jake looked like Ichabod Crane. He did remember something about the bars.

  “Wait a minute. When Jake first came into my office, I was thinking about how much he looked like someone else and I completely missed what he said at first. But now I remember hearing the word bars.”

  When the other three men all began talking at once, he waved his hands and said, “But I never agreed to whatever it was that he said.”

  The other three men stopped trying to talk and leaned back in their chairs almost as one.

  Richard was the first one to speak again. He looked at the other two deacons and said, “Fellows, I think Jake did to the Pastor what he’s probably done to all of us at one time or another.”

  When they all, including Gil, turned puzzled looks on him, Richard continued, “Jake’s good at making a statement or asking a question and no matter what your answer is, he’ll only hear what he wants to hear.”

  Leroy slammed his fist down on the table. “That’s right. I remember last year when he brought one of his trucks in to get it worked on. I told him how much it would be and when he came back to pay he swore I’d said something else much lower.”

  Richard looked over at the banker. “J.C.?”

  J.C. looked a little sheepish. “Yes, I recall several years ago, he came in for a loan and I told him he needed more collateral and he came back the next day ready to sign the papers saying I’d said he was approved.”

  Richard frowned and said, “Me too. There’s been many times when we’ve helped each other get crops in, but Jake always remembers any agreement we make differently than I do.”

  Gil had been looking from one to the other during their accounts and now understanding dawned on him. That was what had happened to him.

  Richard cleared his throat again and said, “Fellows, we got some major damage control to get started on here.”

  For the next fifteen minutes, they planned how they were going to minimize the situation before it escalated out of control.

  * * *

  Jo was in the process of turning the bar over to Grady, the evening bartender, when the phone rang. She’d been pushing herself so she could get out of the bar before Carla’s new teacher could come in for supper. She was sure he would and she did not want to deal with him right now. She had too much else to worry about.

  Three customers came in and sat down at the bar. Thinking that the phone could take longer than waiting on the three customers, she motioned with her head for Grady to get the phone.

  She had just set glasses on the bar ready to draw three drafts when Grady shouted over the crowd noise, “It’s for you Jo.”

  He came over, grabbed the first glass, and began to fill it while she went back to the phone.

  She almost groaned when it was Sue Ann whose phone calls were seldom short.


  “Hey, Jo Jo I think you’ll have to pay attention to what’s going around town now.”

  When Jo didn’t respond Sue Ann said, “This time it’s Jake himself going around telling everybody that he and the new preacher have all kinds of plans and one of them is how they’re going to close down all the bars in town.”

  Jo’s temper flared up and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Mike Bates had just walked in and took a stool at the bar in front of her. She didn’t want to be rude so when he waved to her, she tried to smile as she waved back.

  “Sue Ann, I thought I told you this afternoon that I’m not going to believe anything people say about that preacher unless I hear it from him or see him do it. Is that clear?”

  “Good grief, you don’t have to get so nasty. I was just telling you what’s being said around town. But I do think you need to be ready to do something about it and soon.”

  “Sue Ann, what could I possibly do? I can’t just go up to him and say that I’ve heard he was going to give me a hard time. And if I do anything else, I could either get arrested or at the least sued.”

  It was silent on the other end. Then Sue Ann said, “I just don’t want to see you have all that trouble like you did last year, that’s all.”

  Jo had to smile. Sue Ann was switching tactics on her. Now she was going to try to shame Jo into doing what she wanted. “I know Sue Ann, and I love you for it, but right now, I’ve got a bar full of people and Carla’s new teacher just sat down in front of me. I need to go.”

  “Oh, he did? Okay, goodbye.”

  With that, there was a click in Jo’s ear so she hung the phone back up with a shake of her head. Sometimes she just didn’t know what to expect next from her best friend. But thanks to Sue Ann’s phone call, she was now stuck with Mike Bates who was leaning on the bar waiting for her to come over to him.

  There was no way she could get out the back door and up the stairs to her apartment without walking right past the teacher. And it would also be rude if she let Grady wait on him. She didn’t want to do it, but she slowly turned to face Mike Bates and said, “Welcome to The Early Bird, Mike.”

  He smiled at her and said, “It’s good to see you again Mary Jo. Like I said yesterday, I thought I’d try the food here. I think I would get rather thin if I tried to eat my own cooking every day.”

  She forced herself to laugh with him and said, “Well, the menu for the day is on the board up there.” She pointed to the board on the wall behind the bar. “The chili is good tonight and of course we always make the best greasy burgers in town.”

  He didn’t seem to know how to take that until she laughed then he joined her. “I think I’ll take a burger with fries and a bowl of that chili too.”

  She looked at him with a frown. “Both?”

  “Sure.” He chuckled. “I worked out for an hour before I came down here so I’ve worked up quite an appetite. Besides, I’m still a growing boy.”

  “Okay.”

  She laughed with him again as she wrote his order on a ticket, turned, and stuck it on a wheel on the shelf between the bar and the kitchen.

  “What’ll you have to drink?”

  “I’ll just have a draft.”

  When she slid his glass across the bar to him, he looked up at her with a big smile and said, “Thank you Mary Jo.”

  “Just Jo.” When he gave her a puzzled look, she said, “Even though I grew up around here, I don’t like that custom of calling everyone by their first and middle names.” She laughed. “It was a constant argument between my parents. My mother was from Arkansas and she wanted us to be called Mary Jo and Carla Sue but my dad just wanted Jo and Carla.”

  When he didn’t say anything, she said, “I guess you could say that when I was old enough to decide for myself, I sided with my dad and so did Carla.” Why did she tell him all that?

  He gave her that big smile again and she knew what was coming next.

  “Jo, do you ever get out much?”

  She was ready. “No, between this place and taking care of my sixteen year old sister, I’m pretty well tied down most of the time.”

  “I was wondering . . .”

  Sue Ann flying through the door and landing on the stool next to him interrupted what he was about to say. And Jo didn’t think she’d ever been happier to see her best friend even if she had just gotten mad at her on the phone.

  Sue Ann looked from Mike to Jo and said, “What did I miss?”

  Jo looked at Mike and they both broke out laughing.

  Sue Ann looked from one to the other of them again and said, “What did I say?”

  Before anyone could say anything else, the door burst open and there stood Floyd in the doorway in jeans and black t-shirt. He looked at Sue Ann then glared at Mike, ignoring Jo, and then he advanced on the trio. He sat on the stool next to Sue Ann thus placing her between the two men. For the first time Jo could remember, Floyd didn’t take his hat off.

  Jo almost laughed out loud. She certainly couldn’t keep the smile off her face. It was just too ridiculous. Mike was hitting on her, Sue Ann was hitting on Mike, and now Floyd was going to hit on Sue Ann. And to top it all off, all Jo wanted to do was sneak out the back door. If they all ignored her, maybe that’s exactly what she’d do.

  First, she thought she should introduce the two men to each other.

  She turned to Mike and said, “Mike, this is my cousin, Floyd McCracken. Floyd, this is Mike Bates, Carla’s new history teacher.”

  Mike reached behind Sue Ann to shake hands. “Glad to meet you Floyd.”

  Floyd looked at the hand as if it were a snake then grabbed it and shook. Jo could tell that he was intentionally squeezing a little too hard.

  “That’s Sheriff McCracken to you Son.”

  Sue Ann threw up her hands and said, “Floyd, why don’t you act your age for once.”

  With that, she flew out the door the same way she’d come in with Floyd right behind her.

  When Jo returned her gaze to Mike, he said, “Did I miss something?”

  Jo couldn’t help it, she finally let loose with her laugher, and she laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes.

  When she finally regained control, she said, “I’ve known both of them all my life and I just today figured out something that neither one of them has quite figured out yet.”

  When he gave her a puzzled look, she said, “They’re in love with each other and just can’t or won’t admit it.”

  Just then, Mike’s meal came. She sat it in front of him and said, “I need to get upstairs to my apartment and feed my sister.”

  He reached out and touched her arm as she started to go past him. “Could we possibly get together sometime Jo?”

  She looked back at him over her shoulder, forced another smile, and shook her head. “I don’t think so, Mike. It wouldn’t be good for Carla and besides, it could be a conflict of interest for you.”

  “Do you mind if I ask why?”

  She frowned. “To make a long story short, when our parents died two years ago, I became Carla’s legal guardian. So now can you see that it wouldn’t be a good idea?”

  He looked shocked. “I’m sorry Jo. I had no idea. Maybe after Carla is out of my class then?”

  Jo was relieved that it was going so well. “We’ll just have to wait until then and see, okay?”

  With that, she left Mike to his meal and went through the kitchen to pick up their supper to take upstairs.

  Chapter Five

  Tuesday night, Gil worked late on his Bible study for the Wednesday evening service and on planning how he would approach getting the Sunday evening service back on the schedule.

  Even after he went to bed, he lay there thinking about everything that had happened since he’d arrived in Crowleyville and then the business meeting the next night.

  He had finally fallen asleep after midnight and was sleeping soundly when a strange noise awakened him. At first, he thought he might have dreamed it, but then he heard it again. He sat up
in bed and turned the lamp on just as Harry came tearing through his bedroom doorway. That was when Gil realized that Harry was the one making that strange sound that he now recognized as alternating between a growl and a whine.

  Before he could stop him, Harry was in his lap on the bed. Gil had been working on Harry to get him to sleep in his bed in the utility room. The bed was one that Bert had picked out for Gil to purchase. Yes, somehow, Bert had talked him into keeping the furry little creature.

  Just as Gil was about to scold the little dog for jumping on the bed, a pounding started on the front door. He pulled on a pair of pants over his pajama bottoms, slipped his house slippers on, and headed for the door, turning on the front porch light when he arrived. When he looked through the peephole, no one was there.

  Just as he turned away from that door, the pounding started on the back door. Of course, when he turned on the back light and looked out, there was nothing there either. He looked down and Harry was at his feet shivering in fright, so he reached down and picked him up.

  Gil was walking back toward the front of the house when he heard what sounded like gunshots very loud and very close. He crouched down on the floor with the little dog still in his arms. The sounds came again and this time, he heard the tinkle of glass breaking.

  He was near the front of the house and his study, so he crawled into it, reached up to get the phone off his desk, and called 911.

  Ten minutes later, when flashing red and blue lights lit up the front of the house, Gil rose and went to the front door. As he opened it, a large man in uniform came storming up the steps. No! How could he be so lucky as to call 911 at two o’clock in the morning and get that bully of a sheriff?

  Gil turned on the hall light and opened the door. The Sheriff filled the doorway. “What’s going on here, Boy?”

  Gil tried to calm himself and not let the sheriff know that it upset him to be called boy. He knew that was exactly why the big bully did it. Gil had had his share of troubles with boys and men just like the big freckle faced sheriff.