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PART I
SPEAKING IN TONGUES

38-D
(C’mon now. I didn’t promise you ALL the answers.)

“I’m curious,” Trey said when Albright’s food came and he dug in without so much as a thanks. “What’d your wife do to get Scarritt run outta town?”

“My wife was part of that congregation long before Scarritt was hired, before she joined our church, so she left a couple of friends behind, then her friends left when Scarritt was hired. She went to them, laid it out raw. They told their husbands. Things snowballed. Rumors and secrets came out.”

“Scarritt’s women?”

“Named names, but better than that. Marina is the Scarritts’ grandchild.”

Trey grunted. “I knew it had to be somethin’ like that.”

“This is what I know or have pieced together. Since most of it’s rumors from bitter cuckolds, although TJ knew enough I could connect some dots, take as many grains of salt as you need. The Scarritts were living in Chicago. He had a much bigger congregation there, going on a thousand. Their daughter got pregnant by an older well-established congregant. A deacon. They sent the girl away somewhere to have the baby, but when Marina turned up on their doorstep, Scarritt confronted him.”

“And do what?” he asked, wondering how this connected to his grandparents’ need for revenge.

“The deal was, Scarritt would raise the baby as their miracle baby, but the deacon had to pay for her upbringing.”

“Seems reasonable.”

“The deacon wouldn’t play. Scarritt threatened to expose him publicly as the baby’s father, but the deacon knew about Scarritt’s stable of female parishioners, which included the deacon’s wife—”

“Oh. I see. Their daughter was revenge. Scarritt’s wife isn’t corruptible.”

“That’s what I think. Scarritt didn’t know the deacon knew, and the deacon ambushed him. He didn’t bother to threaten. He just took the pulpit and called Scarritt out publicly. He named names. The husbands were not forgiving.”

Trey whistled. “Why’n’t they sell her?”

“He wanted to, but the missus wanted a second chance at raising a godly girl who would stay and take care of her in her old age.”

“Marina had a lot of freedom for a girl she was trying to keep home.”

“She was so strict with their daughter, she ran wild just to spite them. They assumed Marina would be as willful and the missus was careful to give her just enough freedom. Then she let her run with Dot in spite of the fact that we’re Mormon because Dot’s defiantly straight-laced, whereas Marina’s impressionable. Unsure of herself. She also made sure Marina was well dressed but not turned out well and then was more than happy to let her stand next to Dot. If you get my point.”

Trey nodded. “I figured that out as soon as I saw the missus all got up in high fashion, a permanent wave, and makeup. Dot knew that too.”

“Yes. It surprised them when you took to her, but the missus thought you’d break her heart, then that would teach her a lesson she’d never repeat and live at home forever. Since Marina does all the housework, she freed up the missus’s time. Throw in school and Dot dragging her everywhere around town and the missus can do whatever she wants whenever she wants. On top of that, Marina made all the missus’s clothes.”

“Scarritt wanted her out of the house and was willin’ to marry her off to me to do it, the sooner the better, but makin’ a good show of abiding by the calendar nudge nudge wink wink.”

“Yes.”

“But here’s Marina. She gets a good grade in home ec and geometry, more pin money than her schoolmates, time to read and sew to her heart’s content, and freedom a preacher’s daughter doesn’t usually get, and she’s happy. An’ all she’s gotta do is keep the house, make fashionable clothes, stay uglified, and step’n’fetch for the missus?”

“Yes.”

“Why’d he want her gone then? Benefits him as much, an’ I know he’d rather Marina do the cookin’.”

“I suspect he was planning to take his spoils and run off with a parishioner, but hadn’t finished laying his groundwork.”

“Huh. So they did right by her, all this business not countin’.”

“All this business ends with you at the altar.”

Trey huffed. “Have you asked her opinion? What’d she want with me now, after all that?”

“Has any pregnant girl of her station ever been given a choice? She can go away, have the baby, give it up for adoption, then figure out how to make her way in the world, or she can marry the father. You’re the better alternative.”

“I run a gin joint, gamblin’ den, burly-q, and whorehouse and I’m the better alternative?”

“It does not matter what she wants, capisce?”

“That don’t answer the question.”

He sighed. “Liz thinks she’s still sweet on you, although that’s probably because you’re the first man who’s paid attention to her. I have reason to believe you won’t disappoint her. Am I wrong?”

Flattered by Albright’s approval, Trey shook his head. “Are you a praying man, Preacher?”

“Bishop, if you please. Of course I’m a praying man. Why?”

“You know how cons get outta jail an’ they found Jesus in the joint and now they’re peace and love and whatnot? You ain’t that. You got out at your peak and then suddenly went straight just ’cuz your woman did. Women get religion without life kickin’ ’em in the ass. Cats like us don’t or can’t and we don’t follow our women to church an’ we don’t go from bootleggin’ to foalin’ just ’cuz. We sure as hell don’t have enough pull with Boss Tom to get him to agree to something he already said he wasn’t gonna do on pain o’ torchin’ an’ Gio told me a while back you’re one of us. What’s your story?”

Albright pursed his lips. “Sometimes,” he began slowly, “God needs muscle and he uses feral men to do his dirty work. I’m not bishop because I’m especially spiritual. Sometimes I don’t even know if I believe half what the church teaches and half of that time, I don’t care. But I’m a better, happier man for being part of these people. I’m bishop because God knows I’m the only man around who’s moral enough to walk the straight and narrow path, and immoral enough to know when to hop off it to do what God wants done to protect them and build his kingdom on Earth. I also have access to the Machine and Mafia to help fight off an angry mob of godfearing Christians.”

“That’s why you let your elders keep Boss Tom’s books?”

Albright nodded.

“Machine. Mafia. Mormons. You got western Missouri covered. Answer the question.”

Albright’s tension and willingness to stand Trey down seeped out and then all Trey saw was a weary man. “My predecessor,” he said low, “was just like you and me, only he came to the church an ex-con who found Jesus and turned peace and light. He found us, my wife and me. Dot. She was a baby. Long story short, Liz joined the church. I wasn’t having any of it, then he came to me and said, ‘I’m tired and I need a man like you to take my place.’”

Trey listened, rapt.

“Liz wanted out of the Machine, and my point of view was changing now that I suddenly had a daughter. But who was I to be the head of a bunch of people who thought God called me to lead them? I knew it was bunk. What’s God going to do for me? Here they are, choosing a life that makes them social outcasts and puts a target on their backs to boot, and if God wants me to lead them, he’s going to have to make it worth my while.”

Trey nodded.

“‘Peace,’ he said. That wasn’t enough. I could take my wife and kid anywhere out of the Machine’s reach and get that. I came up on a farm. I foaled my first when I was thirteen because I was big for my age, then I fell into tending the animals. I could go to school, make a good living, set up shop anywhere else, but my wife wanted to stay. She had friends here, in the church. She was shaping up to be a good woman and I liked that side of her. I still wasn’t going to do it, but then she told me she had faith that I could do the job and she would be with me every step of the way. You may not believe it, but having the faith and help of a woman you love is some kind of drug that’ll make you think you can conquer the world.”

Trey laughed.

“It’s taken me a long time to come to terms with God, if not what the church teaches, but to my mind, religion gets in the way of a man and God and I’m not much on middlemen. I still don’t have peace. I’m not there just to preach, just to spread God’s love and wisdom, just to succor the poor and needy. That’s my wife’s job and those in my congregation who are good at it. I’m there to give comfort to people like you and me and Gio, and help them go straight. I’m there to protect the whole community. To do those things, I have to be who I’ve always been, and be able to maintain my connections to my past. I can’t do what I do with somebody right on top of me giving me thou-shalt-nots, so I’m the bishop.”

“Your people know your past?” At Albright’s nod, Trey said, “An’ they’re jake with you?”

“About half. I have members who don’t like that someone with my past is the bishop, they don’t like that I’m on speaking terms with TJ and Lazia, and they don’t like the men who come to me for absolution—which we don’t actually do, by the way—but I remind them that church is a hospital for sinners. I have one sermon and I preach it when the griping gets so loud I can hear it. God gave us two rules: Love and listen to him, and love and serve your neighbor. Virtue and morality follow.”

“No wonder you don’t believe in hell. You’d end up in it.”

Albright chuckled wryly. “You could look at it that way, but we’ll get ours on Judgment Day. God doesn’t hand out mercy without administering justice, and vice versa. And God’s been known to break his own rules.”

“So you’re God’s underboss.”

Albright nodded.

“And you think I’m his soldier and you’re giving me an order.”

Albright nodded.

“And if I say no?”

“You won’t. I’ve just given you everything you want and settled your obligations so you can capitalize on it.”

“An’ I surely do appreciate that,” Trey said fervently. “When and where’s the wedding? Get my affairs in order, buy a house, all that. She can’t live here.”

“Haven’t planned it yet. Simple. Quiet. I won’t pay for a big wedding.”

“I will.” Albright looked surprised. “Least I can do. I could do worse.”

“You’re nowhere near good enough for her.”

“That is a correct read on the situation.” Trey chucked his head toward his office. “’Mon back. I’ll set you up.”

38D

If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.

Speakeasy staff.