The following is an excerpt from chapter eight of SOUTHERN CROSS, the third novel in the Erin Solomon mysteries. In the excerpt, Erin is at a tent revival in rural Kentucky with her good friend and fellow reporter Daniel Diggins (“Diggs”), investigating the murder of Diggs’ childhood best friend. Naturally enough, madness ensues.
Reverend Barnel’s tent was a deluxe—I didn’t even know you could get a tent that big. It was powered by a generator situated behind the stage. Speakers bigger than Barnel himself flanked the makeshift platform, and aisle upon aisle of folding metal chairs filled the space. It was a cold, damp evening, but the masses in the tent generated enough heat to more than make up for that. There was a table with refreshments: breads and cakes and cookies, soda and juice, a couple of industrial-sized tubs of potato salad. Apparently, Barnel was big on carb loading. I put a dollar in the jar of a little girl with a dress buttoned from her throat to her ankles, and helped myself to a cup of chocolate pudding and a spoon.
Diggs gave me the hairy eyeball.
“What? It’s chocolate.”
He just shook his head at me, like I was a lost cause. Which I may have been, but I didn’t care. I had chocolate.
By the time we found a seat, the reverend’s opening act had already started: a kid named Toby and his parents, playing guitar and singing hymns. I gathered from the reaction of the crowd that the family was a headliner around these parts, but they didn’t do a lot for me. Within two minutes of a countrified version of “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” I was ready to stab little Toby in the eye with my plastic spoon. All around us, hands went up in the air, people whispering prayers or shouting “Hallelujah” over the music.
Everyone got to their feet when Toby and his kin started up with a medley of country hymns I didn’t recognize from my own church-going days. I set my empty cup under my chair and stood with Diggs. A wall of bodies closed in on all sides, the smell of sweat and Avon perfume obliterating the last remnants of my chocolate high…
As soon as Barnel took the stage, the energy changed. The crowd fell silent. A Hellraiser chill raced up my spine when he raised his hands to the sky.
“The time has come, my friends. I know you’re here tonight for hope; you’re waitin’ on me to tell you that there’s still time for you to save your kin, to change your ways, to do all the things you been promisin’ the Lord you’d do all these years. But tonight I don’t have a message of hope… If you ain’t with us now, friends, you gotta get with the Lord this second. Now. There’s no more waitin’ on Him to come…”
Barnel mopped his sweating brow with the back of his arm. His face was flushed. A baby cried in the back, but otherwise the tent was quiet. Barnel grabbed his mic and took a couple of steps toward the congregation, leaving his pulpit.
“Jesus Christ himself spoke to me this week, brothers and sisters. Clear as day. Clear as I’m talkin’ to you here and now. And he told me that I am the bringer of light. That’s right—you heard me. He said, ‘Jesup T. Barnel, it’s up to you now. You gotta get this ball rollin’.’”
I looked at Diggs, who just shook his head like the whole scene was beyond nuts. His composure made me feel marginally better: the rest of the crowd was freaking the crap out of me.
“The clock is tickin’, brothers and sisters. Forty-eight hours: that’s all you got. At midnight this very night—just thirty minutes from right now—a series of events will start up to bring you to your very knees, right here in Justice. I don’t know what they’ll be… but I know it’s my job to see us through as best I can. Which is why after tonight, the Lord has told me it’s time for me to leave y’all for a little while.” There was a collective gasp from the crowd. A woman started crying.
“Don’t y’all worry none, though. We’re gonna be reunited on them golden shores. And my soldiers are right here. They know their place—I’ve passed the Lord’s message on to them, and they know what they’ve gotta do. And you know what you’ve gotta do.”
Based on the way everyone seemed to be holding their breath at once, I was guessing I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t totally clear on that, actually.
“You’ve gotta repent,” Barnel finally clarified. “You’ve gotta hole up, protect your loved ones, and get down on your knees and pray to almighty God. Those standin’ with me know what’s what: they know who’s not worthy. Orders have been given from on high, and there will be those in this town—those among you this very night—who will be taken. And forty-eight hours from now, the final cleansing will be done. And those still standin’ will be taken to the Kingdom of the Lord, to live with Him for all eternity. Let me hear you say, ‘Amen.’”
A chorus of ‘amen’s rose up around us. Diggs looked at me, then back at the man behind the pulpit. Barnel raised his hands, and they fell silent once more.
“Are you on the right side, brothers and sisters? When He passes judgment, will you be found wantin’… Or will you set at his right hand?”
People were starting to freak out around us—It’s all well and good to know that Armageddon’s headed your way at some unappointed date in the near or distant future. It’s something else entirely when a crazy old preacher with a branding iron tells you the end times are kicking off at midnight, so you best be ready.
“I think we should get out of here,” Diggs whispered to me. “I’m not getting a great vibe.”
Didn’t have to tell me twice. The “amen”s and “hallelujah”s reached a crescendo as Diggs and I made for the exit, doing our best not to attract undue attention. As it was, we were almost home free when Barnel called after us.
“You run, Daniel Diggins—you know which side you done landed on. You run as far as you can, but you can’t outrun the Lord. He’s comin’ for you.”
Where can we find you online?
Where can readers buy your books?
All the Blue-Eyed Angels*
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Eyed-Angels-Solomon-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B007B2IG1A/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-the-blue-eyed-angels-book-1-of-the-erin-solomon-mysteries-jen-blood/1114843198?ean=2940033076666
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/134828
Signed, print copies w/ free shipping within the U.S.: http://erinsolomon.com/store
*Right now, All the Blue-Eyed Angels is free on Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.
Sins of the Father
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sins-Father-Solomon-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B008OKBNOK/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sins-of-the-father-book-2-of-the-erin-solomon-mysteries-jen-blood/1114843230?ean=2940044741287
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/208170
Signed, print copies w/ free shipping within the U.S.: http://erinsolomon.com/store
Southern Cross
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Cross-Solomon-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00BSXJP5O/
Smashwords (available only until April 6): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/294975
Signed, print copies w/ free shipping within the U.S.: http://erinsolomon.com/store
