chapter 72
SAMANTHA HAD PLANNED on spending Sunday morning cleaning out closets, but she got distracted reading cherished old newspaper clippings about Friendship Cemetery, which dates back to the mid-1800s. Columbus was a hospital town for the Battle of Shiloh during the War Between the States, and an untold number of injured soldiers from both sides were brought there. Many of these soldiers were buried in Friendship Cemetery. In the spring of 1866, a group of Columbus women placed flowers on the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers in an attempt to heal the nation. That act of kindness is credited with becoming our modern Memorial Day. Sam’s great-great-grandmother was one of those women.
Sam was deep in thought when her cell phone rang. Since it rarely rang on Sunday, she expected it to be important. She got up and sat on a small couch that was almost a hundred years old. Tom the cat climbed into her lap and quickly went to sleep.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Sam, it’s Walter. I hope I’m not interrupting something important.”
“I hope you’re not in jail.”
“No, I’m right here at the Henry Clay. Listen, I’d like to come see you tomorrow about a coupla things, if you have time.”
She didn’t want to tell Walter that she didn’t have any other meetings planned and he was free to come whenever, but she had learned to play the game. “I’ve got a full morning until ten thirty. You could come then.”
“I’ll do that, and maybe afterward I can buy you lunch.”
“Perfect. Can you clue me in?”
“We wanna start a college scholarship at a school, and I wanna discuss givin’ the Kroger money back,” Walter said.
“I think that’s a fine idea, Walter. We’ll talk about how to play our hand so no one is incriminated.”
“That’s why we want you to handle it. Maybe there’ll be a reward. If there is, you’re welcome to it.”
“Thank you, Walter.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Walter? Are you all right? You sound tired.”
“I haven’t been sleepin’ good. Turns out, stolen money can weigh heavily on you.”
“We’ll take care of it. This might help you rest: I have a friend who goes to church with the store manager who was having that fling. He and his wife have been going to counseling, and it looks like they’re going to make it. He’s broken, and he realizes what he almost lost. There are still some trust issues, obviously, but apparently, he really manned up and is committed to doing everything he can to save his marriage. He’s even gone back to church.”
“So, you’re saying something good came outta all this.”
“In a very roundabout way, yes.”