Four Reasons to Die Read online

  Then the crowd parted, and Jimmy, surrounded by family and staffers, cut a path through the melee. The governor-elect spied Matt and headed his way.

  Matt extended his hand. “Congratulations, Governor.”

  “Almost.” Jimmy winked and pulled him into a bear hug. “Thanks for stepping in, Preacher.” He lowered his voice. “This won’t be too much for you, will it?”

  Matt was afraid of that very thing, but he managed a smile as photographers surrounded them. “I pray all the time. No problem.”

  Jimmy laughed. “I can always count on you.”

  James W. joined the two. “Heard you got roped into praying, Preacher.” He slapped Matt’s shoulder. “I take my eyes off of you for one second and look what happens.”

  “Let’s get a photo of the three of you,” a reporter called out.

  The three posed: Jimmy’s hand on Matt’s left shoulder, James W.’s on his right.

  “Pastor Hayden!” An aide waved at Matt from the doorway to the outdoor stage. “Time to go.”

  Matt was ushered through the heavy wooden exterior doors and down to his seat on the bunting-festooned podium. He settled into the padded folding chair, then gulped when he saw the huge crowd spread out before him. There must be thousands of people on the south lawn. Directly in front of the stage was a roped-off area for friends and family of the dignitaries. He spotted Pearl, the widow of James W.’s oldest brother, and her new husband, Bo Peveto, staring at him with open mouths.

  He felt as stunned to be here as they looked to see him.

  Matt had been given an aisle seat four rows up from the official family seats. He shuddered when he realized he was in the direct line of sight of the cameras and news crews mounted on a scaffolding halfway through the crowd. He surveyed the fifty or so folks that sat with him on the stage. Every one of them was spit polished, squeaky clean and conservatively attired.

  Matt, however, feared he stuck out like a sore thumb. His suit was ill-fitting; he’d lost a good twenty pounds over the last few months. Then there was his hair. The surgeons had done a great job of putting a plate in his head to protect the exposed brain, but now his skull looked lopsided. He’d grown his hair long to try and cover the deformity. He must look like a hippie to some.

  He decided to focus on the prayer he was about to give. He studied the paper, still in his hand. He read it through, then shook his head. He needed to add something about helping the poor—.

  There was a movement to Matt’s right, and he looked up to see Reverend Meade taking the seat directly in front of him.

  “Did you write a good prayer?” Meade paused to ask.

  “Best I could do in a pinch.” Matt shrugged.

  Meade nodded. “I’m sure it will be fine.” He lowered his bulk onto the folding chair, and Matt’s discomfort about his appearance abated. No one would be able to see him with the Santa-sized man sitting directly in front of him.

  “Ladies and gentleman,” came a deep male voice over the loudspeaker. “Please rise for the posting of the colors by the Texas military joint Color Guard.”

  Matt stood and put his hand over his heart, more to hide its pounding than to honor the flags that passed him by.

  The white-uniformed Color Guard took its place in the aisle as the dignitaries were ushered in. They raised their sabers as the incumbent lieutenant governor and his family entered. Jimmy, Elsbeth and a very proud James W. followed. When all were settled, the Wilks County Boy Scout troop led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Standing to the extreme right of the stage, the University of Texas Longhorn Band played the National Anthem.

  There was a roar off in the distance, and everyone strained their eyes to watch for the military flyover. The engines of the four planes rumbled deep in Matt’s bones as they skirted the crowd and stage. Then a thought struck him. The benediction was at the very end of the program. Surely, Reverend Duff would hear those planes going overhead and show up now.

  Matt bowed his head as Reverend Meade took to the podium and began his invocation. “Almighty Father, Creator of all things good, Giver of all things righteous...”

  Matt realized his hands were shaking. His doctor had warned him not to get excited or upset. The last stroke he’d had was caused by exactly those precursors. He must take deep breaths. In one, two, three, four, five; out one, two…

  He continued the process until he felt his insides calm.

  Meade was still praying. “Strengthen these two good men whom you have chosen to lead your peoples and this great state to obey your will. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”

  Matt hadn’t heard a word of the prayer, but he didn’t care. His head was clear, and his hands were steady.

  Next on the agenda was the swearing-in of the lieutenant governor. Matt had never met the short man with the slicked-back chestnut hair. In Texas, the governor and lieutenant governor did not run as a team, so Jimmy’s entourage had never included the man standing at the podium with his hand on the Bible.

  His acceptance speech ensued, and Matt felt his nerves start to quicken again. No Reverend Duff. Matt might have to do this after all.

  Surreptitiously, he looked back at the benediction. Bless our leaders with the gift of discernment that they may listen only to the guidance of those sworn to do Your will, not those of false prophets who have only their own interests at heart. Yes, Matt thought. That one’s dead-on.

  His thoughts were interrupted when applause erupted after the lieutenant governor’s acceptance speech.

  Next came the main act. The Texas Supreme Court judge introduced Jimmy; he and his parents headed up to the podium. Elsbeth took center stage, holding the Bible for her son to take the oath; James W. stood behind Jimmy, the buttons on his suit straining to maintain their hold.

  It always struck Matt how alike father and son were. They shared the same height, the same burr haircut, the same Czech blue eyes. But mainly, both shared their love of Texas: all of its bravado and all of its courage.

  Jimmy put his hand on the Bible.

  Panic slammed into Matt like a Mack truck. The benediction came right after Jimmy’s acceptance speech. Breathe, Matt told himself, trying to still his shaking hands.

  “So help you God?” The judge was prompting.

  “So help me God,” Jimmy said.

  The crowd broke into wild applause as the judge shook Jimmy’s hand. Elsbeth, then James W. hugged their son. Then, Jimmy went to the podium to deliver his acceptance speech.

  “Please, God,” Matt silently prayed. “Speak through me. Let it be you talking, not me. Give me peace.” He prayed it over and over again, until Jimmy ended his speech.

  Matt was called to the podium to deliver the benediction. Though his stomach was nervous, his steps were steady. He looked out over the crowd and felt the peace that “passes all understanding” fill him. “Let us bow our heads in prayer.”

  He waited for the crowd to settle, then began. “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us…”

  The prayer was a short one, and before Matt knew it, he was finishing with the last petition. “Seek first not the kingdom of plenty or the kingdom of political superiority but may our new governor and lieutenant governor humbly seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.”

  He was surprised when the audience applauded. Not overly so, but it was a prayer after all.

  Jimmy came up to his side and shook his hand. “Thank you, Preacher.”

  Elsbeth’s handshake was less enthusiastic, but then again, she’d never been much of a fan. James W., on the other hand, folded him in a bear hug. “Great job, son,” he said.

  Son. That said it all. James W. had always treated him like a son. Matt’s own father up in heaven would approve.

  Relieved and happy, Matt returned to his chair and was about to take his seat when Reverend Meade turned around.

  His eyes were filled with rage.

  Matt’s smile dropped. “Is something wrong?
”

  Meade narrowed his eyes, and Matt could almost feel the sparks shooting his way. Meade leaned close. “I know who you are,” he hissed.

  “What?” Matt asked.

  “I know who you are,” Meade repeated. “And what you’re trying to do.”

  Matt was stunned. “I beg your—”

  “And you won’t get away with it.” Meade refused to let him finish. “Stay out of my way, or else.”

  Matt fell back in his seat, his head spinning, as Meade tramped back up the aisle.

  3

  A Good Ol’ Texas Barbecue

  Ten minutes later, Matt was still in his seat on the now-empty inaugural stage. The doings for the big barbecue were beginning to take shape on the Capitol lawn. Towers of scaffolding were replaced by chuckwagons and trailers filled with long, black grills. He was thankful that the activities gave him a few minutes of anonymous solitude. Despite his deep-breathing exercises, his heart still thudded and his hands still shook. The image of Reverend Meade’s grim face and his fire-filled stare refused to dissipate.

  Matt hadn’t seen that much hate in a man’s eyes since his days as an undercover cop on the Miami docks.

  He felt a presence at his side and looked up. Bo Peveto, his friend and now James W.’s brother-in-law, stood there, his brows furrowed. Matt nodded. “James W. send you to find me?”

  Bo, tall, lanky and dressed in a tailor-made suit of dark gray, grunted as he sat on the stairs. “He’s worried about you. So are Pearl and me.” He studied Matt’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  Matt shook his head. “A little overwhelmed is all.”

  Bo sniffed. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But I’ve been a bartender way too long not to know when someone’s bothered.”

  Matt took a deep breath, then let it out. “I need to sleep on it some.”

  Bo nodded. “Pearl and me have to head back to Wilks.”

  Surprised, Matt looked at his watch. It was barely noon. “Already?”

  “Angie called. Said the Fire and Icehouse is packed. Guess the whole town is celebrating Jimmy’s inauguration. It’s more than she and the staff can handle without another bartender.”

  Matt understood. Bo had been given the day off to attend the inauguration as the newest member of the Novak clan.

  Thinking of Angie back at the Icehouse brought a smile to his face. Somehow he, the small-town pastor, had managed to fall in love with the red-haired vixen who owned the Fire and Icehouse across the river from his church. The match hadn’t gone over too well with some members of his congregation, especially since Angie was reputed to be an angel by day and a devil by night.

  Now that he thought about it, however, maybe that was truer than people realized.

  “I’m all for getting out of Austin,” Matt said. “Let’s go.”

  Bo helped him to his feet and up the stairs to the south lobby entrance. “Everybody’s in the governor’s office on the second floor. Elevators are across the rotunda. You good for that?”

  Matt nodded. It took a few minutes, but they finally made it inside the elevator. Matt leaned against the paneled wall and wiped a drip of sweat from his brow.

  Jamal hurried over. “Saw you coming across the rotunda,” he said, nodding to the second-floor balcony that circled the lobby. “Mr. Peveto, it’s time for the family portrait.” He grabbed Bo’s elbow and showed him through to the governor’s…Jimmy’s…office.

  Matt followed. The Novak clan was gathering in front of the large room’s deep blue curtains. Jimmy stood in the middle, his mother and father on the right, beside the Texas flag, and Pearl and Bo on the left, beside the United States flag. Matt grinned with pride at his friend, Bo. After serving twenty years for manslaughter, the gray-haired hippie now stood tall beside his beloved new wife and smiled for the camera.

  Pearl, on the other hand, was a tiny thing. Her short-curled, gray hair was as dew on a rose with her pale face and smooth skin. She had a small chin that gave the impression she was a frail, timid woman, but she was far from that. Ask the man she’d shot to save Matt’s life last July.

  Though Pearl and Bo were an unlikely pair, James W. and Elsbeth were the perfect foils to each other. As the cameras flashed, Matt studied the two of them. Both proud as could be. Both singular personalities with outspoken opinions. And somehow, both loved the other deeply.

  Would he and Angie make as good a match?

  Jamal returned to the room, this time herding those who had given speeches at the inauguration. To Matt’s chagrin, Reverend Robert Meade was among them.

  “Thank you, family,” Jamal nodded to the Novak clan. “Let’s have the speakers now. Governor, you stay where you are.” Jamal directed everyone where to stand. Meade bristled when Matt was instructed to stand beside him. Matt wasn’t really happy about the configuration either. Though he kept from directly looking into Meade’s eyes, he could still feel the heat of hatred emanating from the man.

  Jamal studied the tableau. “Pastor Hayden, please stand in front of Reverend Meade. He’s blocking you.”

  Meade’s glare almost singed Matt as he walked to the front.

  “Looks good,” Jamal nodded. “Okay, everybody. Smile!”

  Jimmy’s next group photo included Hester Honeywell. Matt sat down on a nearby chair to watch the Texas political bigwigs gather around Jimmy, Hester among them. How were they referred to again? Oh, yes. The Texas Philanthropic Society. And their philanthropy was devoted to preserving the Great State of Texas in all its glory.

  As the cameras flashed, Bo and Pearl approached. “We need to get going, Preacher,” Bo said. “You ready?”

  “I sure am,” Matt stood, a little more easily this time. “I’ll let James W. know we’re leaving.” He headed for the far corner where James W. and Jamal were looking at a clipboard.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “Bo needs to head back to the Icehouse, so I have to leave.”

  Jamal’s head jerked up. “You can’t. You’re sitting at the head table for the barbecue. All the dignitaries are.”

  Matt shook his head. “I’m no dignitary, only a substitute. Besides, I’ve had enough for one day.”

  “But Hester Honeywell specifically asked to be seated next to you.”

  Matt’s eyes rounded in surprise. “You’re kidding.”

  “I was going to put you between her and James W.” Jamal said quickly.

  “C’mon, Preacher,” James W. said. “I could enjoy myself if you were there.”

  “You’ll be with Elsbeth.”

  Jamal shook his head. “Jimmy sits in the middle, then Elsbeth sits beside Governor Burr, then Mrs. Burr, then James W., then you, then Hester, then—”

  “What about Reverend Meade?” Matt interrupted.

  “Reverend and Mrs. Meade will sit on the lieutenant governor’s side. He’s their home church pastor.”

  Well, shoot, Matt thought. “I really don’t want to do this.”

  “You’ll be doin’ me a favor,” James W. said. “This might give me an excuse to get back to Wilks tonight. Takin’ you home and all. Hell, I have a county to protect.”

  “All right,” Matt sighed. “But that’s it. After the lunch, I’ll head back to the mansion to get some shut-eye until you’re ready to head for home.”

  “Thanks, Preacher.” Jamal headed for the center of the room. “All right, everyone! Let’s get some grub!”

  Matt was a Florida boy, born and raised. An undercover cop serving on the drug-infested docks of Miami, he’d seen violence and graft and gluttony and murder—including the assassination of his own father at the hands of a corrupt chief of police. Matt considered himself a man of the world, and after discovering he felt more inclined to show God’s love to folks than to try to control his own anger in a damaged system, he became a man of the cloth. Between the reality of the world and plumbing the depths of his soul, he figured he was prepared for “most anything.”

  Nothing had prepared him for Texas.


  From his view at the inaugural barbecue’s head table, seventeen thousand people—at least, that was the number of tickets sold for the event—were taking their seats for the sit-down lunch on the Capitol’s front lawn. The four city blocks of rolling grass were spread with tables and chuckwagons and servers and police. Music blared, echoing off the skyscrapers that cocooned the Capitol grounds. And the guests! Stetson-topped cowboys, Texas flag-diapered babies, big-haired women and silver-buckled businessmen all waited in anticipation of the feast to come.

  James W. looked out over the crowd. “Take a peek at all those folks out there, Preacher. They’re all here to celebrate my Jimmy.”

  Matt suspected some of them were there for the food, but he kept that under wraps.

  “Mrs. Burr,” James W. said to the woman sitting on his left. “This is Pastor Hayden.”

  The chic woman extended a petite hand. “That was a lovely benediction you gave. So refreshing.”

  “Thank you,” Matt replied. Refreshing?

  “Mrs. Burr and I go way back. Met each other back in freshman chemistry on the north forty.”

  Matt had been in Texas long enough to know James W. was referring to the University of Texas campus, only a few blocks north.

  Mrs. Burr nodded. “Did you see that Elmer Wittig is going to be the new director of the chemistry department?”

  “You don’t say.” James W. turned, and the two fell into deep discussion.

  Matt looked back at the crowd. “How are they going to feed all these people?” he asked, not expecting an answer.

  “Leave it to Eddie Deen,” Hester answered beside him. “He’s been doing this since 1995. And everyone’ll be served in less than an hour.”

  Matt shook his head. “Impossible.”

  “I thought you believed in miracles.” Hester’s lovely lips pressed into an amused smile. She gestured to the waiter tasked with serving the head table. “The pastor here needs a Shiner,” she said. “And so do I.”