Annabeth returned Zeke’scall while he was in the whirlpool bath in his condo. The day’s training had gone as well as yesterday’s, and he could see the fever pitch rising in the coaching staff, in his management team, all of whom were now in Arizona, turning up at practice today. They stood to the side, arms folded, in khaki pants, fleece vests and Nike hats from Zeke’s endorsement deal, reminding Zeke of little matching Lego men. Created brick by brick in his name.
Zeke punched the button to stop the jets in the bath and put Annabeth on speaker.
“Sorry it’s late,” she said. “The news in Macon, Georgia, never sleeps. But I pulled up all my files on Matthew. I can email them?”
“Sure, yes, thanks,” he said. “Do you mind giving me a brief overview? In the interest of time?” Zeke knew he probably didn’t have the discipline to read all the fine print. That was Sybil’s department. He closed his eyes, dipped his head backagainst the ceramic lip of the tub. He missed her in a way that reverberated in his bones.
“Well, the CliffsNotes version is that Matthew showed up at the Revivalist Church about fifteen years ago, in his early twenties. Pastor Aaron—” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Sorry, force of habit from growing up in the church. Aaron Jones hired him to build a new wing of the building. As I showed you, what Matthew rebuilt after the fire is pretty jaw-dropping, easily the biggest church compound in the area, but Jones was pushing the limits of what was thought of as impressive at the time.”
“Where’d he come from? When he showed up in Georgia.”
“Excellent question,” Annabeth said. Zeke heard her clicking her mouse. “Right, according to government records, he was born in Florida, finished high school there, then there really isn’t a solid trail of addresses.” She paused. “Do you mind me asking why the interest in Matthew? I don’t think anyone ever thought he had anything to do with the fire. If…I mean, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“Didn’t you feel like something wasn’t right with him?”
“You’re talking about a man who is leading what is considered by most to be a doomsday cult, so I think the answer to that is clear.”
“Right, right,” Zeke said. He wasn’t sure what he meant to say, and he hated this about himself—his instincts could lead him right up to pressing his nose against a window, but once there, he didn’t always know how to ask for someone to open it. “I mean…it’s as simple as he gave me the creeps.”
“If it helps, his brother, Silas, has a notoriously even creepier reputation.”
“He has a brother?” Zeke sat up a little straighter in thebath, the water sloshing around. He hoped Annabeth didn’t hear it.
“A few years younger. He joined Matthew not long after Matthew started working for Jones. My understanding is they were hard workers, excellent at construction. But Matthew was even better at prophesizing, and I think he was elevated to Jones’s number two pretty quickly. It didn’t hurt that two other elders were killed in the fire. This is all conjecture, sort of church gossip from my notes, but I think Jones’s grown sons were pissed off. They stayed at the church because to leave it, like Levi or I guess like Elizabeth—Betty,” she corrected, “you had to take pretty drastic measures. But there was always a grudge there from the Jones boys.”
“And how did Patience end up with Matthew? She seemed…” Zeke drifted. He didn’t know what she seemed. Kind at first. Hardened minutes later when her husband descended.
“Oh, she didn’t have anything to do with that. Pastor Jones made all those choices. Patience was his eldest daughter, so it made sense that she would marry his right-hand man.”
“In the twenty-first century? He’s arranging marriages?”
“The church, or, I mean,thatchurch, the Revivalists, isn’t run like it’s in the twenty-first century,” Annabeth said. “Especially when it came to the pastor’s daughters.”
“And did anyone ask Patience or Betty how they felt about that?”
“That’s outside my purview, not really a reporter’s beat,” she said. “But I do know that Levi thought for himself. From what I saw of Betty, she did too. I think Patience was thought of as pretty headstrong, which is why she has a spot on Matthew’s council now.”
“What does that mean?”
“She took care of some of her dad’s policing, the dirty work. Not with men really, but keeping the other women in line. Dress codes, courting, showing up for Bible study, all of that.” She half laughed. “I actually like Patience because sometimes she’s just totally normal, and then you see her in action, and she’s sort of a psychopath. But under the guise of doing it in the Lord’s name. Or more accurately, Matthew’s.” She quieted. “Do you mind me asking…is this still about Betty? She hasn’t turned up?”
“No,” Zeke said. “She hasn’t turned up, and something about this whole thing, the fire, is nagging at me. Who set it. It has to be part of this, why she ran from home. But it seems like a lot of people were plenty happy to get rid of Jones.”
“Oh. Yeah, no one disputed that, even at the time. Actually, Matthew cried a lot. I remember in the days afterward, trying to get him on record, and he couldn’t hold it together. But also he struck me as a performative narcissist, so who knows what was real and what was for show.”
“And you believe the findings, that it was an electrical fire?” Zeke wasn’t sure why he kept poking around this. He wasn’t an expert in these things. He wasn’t a detective. He didn’t even listen to true crime podcasts or watchDatelinelike Sybil. His fingers were pruning now, and the bathwater was lukewarm. He should get out, start his evening stretching routine. He considered it; there was almost nothing he wanted to do less than his evening stretching routine. Even if the water turned to ice, even if his lips turned blue and his fingertips peeled off.
“You know,” Annabeth sighed. “I don’t know if I do or I don’t. I think the local investigators, certainly, were happy to put it to rest, if I’m honest. Down here, a lot of them didn’t want to ensnare themselves with the Revivalists, even with PastorJones gone. The church has long tentacles. When the FBI left town, because my reporting showed they were really just there for the pastor, I think the local cops wanted to tie it in a bow.”
“Justice had been served?”
“You didn’t hear that from me,” she said, and Zeke could tell she was stifling a yawn. “But certainly, plenty of local residents thought so.”
60
Night Twenty-Five
Betty
