Righteous - 01 - The Righteous by Michael Wallace

Author:Michael Wallace [Wallace, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9781612182186
Amazon: 1612182186
Goodreads: 10387289
Publisher: Balsalom Publishing
Published: 2011-01-31T13:00:00+00:00

“They can’t see me talking to you.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.” She looked to the door on the far end of the greenhouse, as if worried someone would come inside suddenly. “I’ve got children, you know. I have to think of them. I didn’t want to get mixed up in this. I don’t know why she told me. Why not Charity? How about calling her own mother or telling one of her brothers?”

He drew closer. “Fernie, what are you talking about? Tell me.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Calm down. It’s okay.”

She breathed out slowly. “I’m scared. I never thought…” She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I found this in Amanda’s Book of Mormon.”

Jacob took the paper. It was a half-written letter in a woman’s cursive. The writing was shaky, as if the writer had been under stress.

Fernie,

If you read this, then I’m already dead. My blood has atoned for my sins.

Dear God, why am I so alone? I don’t know where to turn. I will tell the prophet, but maybe he already knows. That is what they say. You are my cousin, my sister wife, and my friend. And you are a good woman. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe someday we’ll laugh about this together. But if you discover this letter in your dresser and something has happened to me, you will know why I died and by whose hand.

First, go to my room and get the manila envelope under my mattress. It will help you understand the rest of this letter.

That was all. Jacob turned it over, but the other side was blank.

“I don’t understand either,” Fernie said. “Amanda didn’t finish, and the letter wasn’t in my drawer. Something made me open her Book of Mormon. Well, I know what it was. Amanda would sometimes jot notes or journal entries and stow them in her scriptures to look at later. I thought I might find some clue as to what she was thinking before she died.”

“Good thinking.” It occurred to Jacob that Amanda had guessed Fernie would check her Book of Mormon. “And the manila envelope? Was it under her mattress?”

“I haven’t looked, Jacob. I’m afraid. What if someone sees me?”

“In a house as full as yours,” Jacob said, “they’ll appropriate that space soon enough. We have to get that envelope before someone moves the bed and sees it.”

“I know, I just couldn’t do it,” Fernie said. “I kept telling myself that you were chasing your own tail, Jacob. I couldn’t believe it was one of us. It had to be one of the Mexicans, and the sooner you figured that out, the better. I was safe in my own house.”

“Fernie, they cut Amanda’s throat and tore her tongue out by the roots.” She looked blank, so he added, “Think about the temple.”

Light dawned in her eyes. “Oh, no. Jacob…”

He took her in his arms. She lay against his chest, trembling, and he thought of that day almost ten years ago when he had last held her.

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