To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower

Author:Amanda Flower [Flower, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

I stared at her, gape-mouthed, for a moment, but then I snapped my mouth closed, remembering the hundreds of times that I had reprimanded my students for putting on a dumbfounded expression. I told my students not to overdo their surprise, and here I was, overdoing it. However, who could blame me? The very last statement I had expected to come from Olive Ann Michaels’s mouth was that she knew who Herman’s killer was.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“It’s not just one person. It’s a conspiracy,” she revealed in a hushed tone.

“A conspiracy?” I asked.

“Yes, it is a group of men.”

“Who are they?”

“The club. They are the ones who orchestrated Herman’s murder. I’m sure of it.”

I gaped at her. I was going to have to stop reprimanding my students for gaping, because I realized that there were times when it just couldn’t be helped. “The club?”

“Yes,” she said with the utmost confidence. “They are a group of men who are all members of the Gem City Club. They sit around and think of ways they can gather more power and control over Dayton society. They are both scholars and powerful men of industry. Every last one of them is in it for his own gain. They will stab each other in the back if given half a chance.”

I winced at her statement because Herman had been stabbed to death. Her turn of phrase was a little too close to the truth for comfort.

I stared at her. “You believe the members of this club got together and killed Herman?”

“Yes, and I’m comfortable telling you this because I know how your father feels about such clubs and how they distract from church work. Men should spend their free time away from their jobs and families doing good works for the church, if you ask me.”

It was true that my father was not a proponent of private clubs or societies. He’d actually started a new denomination of the Church of the United Brethren and taken his congregation with him because the younger generation of the church had wanted to have the ability to join men’s societies, such as the Freemasons and others like it. My father had been dead set against the change. To this day, my father would not speak of the Freemasons, and my brothers and I knew not to bring them up.

But it was still hard for me to believe that members of a social club would conspire to kill a man, and so I studied Olive Ann with uncertainty. What were her motives for telling me this, and how much of it could I believe?

I cleared my throat. “Yes, it’s true that my father doesn’t care for such organizations, but I have never heard of them murdering someone.”

“Maybe that is the case for the majority of the members, but I know for certain that the most powerful men in this club have their hands in all the corruption in Dayton.”

“How would you know that? I believe Gem City is a men’s only club.

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