Water's Edge by Robert Whitlow

Author:Robert Whitlow [Whitlow, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Christian, General, Suspense, ebook, book
ISBN: 9781595544513
Google: kF9JYaempwwC
Amazon: 1595544518
Barnesnoble: 1595544518
Goodreads: 9884217
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2011-07-19T05:00:00+00:00

chapter

NINETEEN

Tom left work early so he could begin sorting through the boxes in Elias’s garage. The old man joined him outside, not to help but to watch from a chair. Rover sat at Elias’s feet.

“You keep surprising me,” Elias said as Tom carried out a box and set it on the ground.

“How’s that?”

“I never thought you’d tackle those boxes. Are you sure you don’t want me to call the Burk girl?”

“I need to do this myself.”

Tom sat opposite Elias. He placed a box between them and opened it. It contained cookbooks from a small antique bookcase that used to sit in his mother’s kitchen. Little strips of paper extended from the sides of the volumes. Tom opened one to a pork loin recipe his mother often prepared when guests came for dinner. He saw her faded handwriting on a slip protruding from another book. When he pulled it out, it read “Tom’s Favorite Cookies.” He didn’t have to open the cookbook to know it contained a recipe for chocolate chip cookies with chopped pecans and a hint of brown sugar. His mother would cut the cookies thin and cook them crisp so they could withstand a dousing in milk and still deliver a sharp crunch.

“This makes me hungry,” Tom said, showing the slip to Elias and telling him about the cookies.

“I remember those,” Elias said. “She used to put them in a jar in the cabinet above the stove so you couldn’t get to them.”

“And she kept putting them there after I could.”

Tom gently shut the book. “How can I throw this away?”

“You don’t have to.”

Tom set the cookie recipe book aside and repacked the box. He’d intended on flying through the boxes, but sitting in the warm afternoon sun, it was more pleasant to slow down and reminisce. Unfortunately, pleasant memories from the past couldn’t completely dispel Charlie Williams’s harsh accusation from the morning. Tom resisted the urge to tell Elias about the DA’s suspicions. As with Esther Addington, the old man would be horribly upset by the news, and sharing the information wouldn’t relieve Tom’s hurt. He looked through a box that contained high school yearbooks for both his parents and himself and set it aside to keep. When he opened the next box he caught his breath.

It contained legal-size file folders.

He pulled out the first one. Written on the tab was “Creswell Estate.” But to his surprise, it didn’t contain records from the probate court. Instead, there were extensive notes by his father that included Bible references. As he read the correspondence he realized it was a case in which his father helped Christians try to resolve a dispute without going to court.

“Did you know he did this?” Tom asked Elias, holding out a Settlement Agreement form that contained Bible verses about forgiveness.

Elias squinted at the papers for a minute. “Oh, yes. I’m the one who told Billy Creswell to call your father. After Billy’s father died, his two sisters who lived in Florida came up to claim an equal share of the estate.

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