Three Sides of the Tracks Read Online Free PDF Page A

swimming sculpted her firm athletic body.
    Eyes the color of fresh clover flashed. “Do you think I care whether you
cut me off or not?”
    Jessie’s expression was singularly bewildered. “What the hell is all this
supposed to mean?”
    Marie couldn’t contain herself. She snickered. “Jessie, you’re one stupid
son of a bitch.”

 
    3
     
    Martin
     
    Martin Townsend III barely nodded at Reverend Holcomb’s receptionist as
he strode past.
    Jeannette had watched Martin grow up, so she didn’t utter a word when he
blew by and opened Holcomb’s door without knocking. She’d never seen an
expression on Martin’s face quite like the one she saw now.
    Holcomb sat tapping a pen on a stack of papers. The look on his face
didn’t change, and he didn’t say anything as Martin’s long legs strode across
the carpet in a posture formed by four years at the US Air Force Academy and
six years as a fighter pilot. He was president of the family bank, the largest
in Georgia between Atlanta and Savannah.
    He leaned down, both hands on the desk, and his square jaw hovered over
Holcomb. “Have you completely lost your mind?”
    Holcomb sat silent.
    “Well?” Martin asked, raising his voice. His blue eyes, bristling with
anger, bore into the preacher’s. “You look like crap.”
    “Been up all night. Ashamed of myself for giving in to that bastard.”
    Martin was mildly surprised at the language. “Not half as ashamed as
you’re going to be when Belinda’s mom and dad get to you. They might have cut
her off for marrying Robert, but she’s still their daughter, and, besides that,
they’ll take it the same as if you had done it to them. You’ll be damn lucky if
you make it out of this one, Reverend. Fortunate for you they go to First
Baptist. Won’t matter much though, not with their influence.”
    A light came into Holcomb’s eyes for the first time. “But I thought
that’s why you were here. Didn’t they call—”
    “How long you been here now, ten years or so?”
    Holcomb nodded.
    “You don’t know about Belinda and I?” skepticism apparent in his tone.
    Holcomb looked truly dumbstruck.
    “We were going to marry. We were inseparable all our lives, all through
high school. Until . . . until I went to the Air Force Academy.”
    Martin saw the fear creep into Holcomb’s eyes. “Uh huh, you’re doggone
lucky I wasn’t at the service yesterday. You know how it is. It doesn’t matter
what comes later; you don’t ever, ever get over your high school
sweetheart. There’s more to it, but . . . well, we’ll just leave it at that.
    “I had a hundred voice mails when I arrived back in town late last night.
All morning too. I didn’t know whether to go to Belinda’s or come here first.
I’ve never been to Belinda’s, not since she and Robert married.”
    Holcomb sighed and spoke gravely, in a depressed tone. “I know your
families are close—”
    Martin waved his hand dismissively. “You don’t know the half of it. Never
will.
    “From what I’ve been told, this Jessie Whitaker was involved in all this.
That right?”
    Holcomb gripped the arms of his chair and pushed himself up. He held his
hands out plaintively. “He threatened me, Martin. Threatened me. I tell
you I was in such a state of mind that I didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t
time to think. He just kept yelling at me. Vulgar, very vulgar. Spit flying
from his mouth. Eyes bulging. Shouting, ‘Get that boy outta here. Get him outta
here. Over and over. Threatened to cut off his contributions. You know I have
to be responsible for the church’s finances, and Jessie, well, really his wife
makes him, gives a lot, and I mean a lot of money to our general fund
and subsidizes many projects also. Well, you see it in the bulletin. With him
yelling at me like he was . . . and . . . I mean I didn’t want to do it. I
begged him not to insist, but he was in a rage, a rage, I’m telling you. I
don’t know what the boy has done to him, but it