Whenever life threw Evan a breaking curveball, he’d seek the counsel of his mentor, Rev. Marcus Thurston. Driving straight to the old one-bedroom parsonage in Appleton City from the courthouse in Osceola, Evan hadn’t phoned to announce his arrival. He didn’t want to worry the man, and he wasn’t at all sure he wanted to stay for long. But he needed a reality check — perhaps along with a spiritual transfusion.
It was early spring, this fine early-May morning was warming rapidly, and Evan expected to find Thurston laboring in his garden. But today when Evan let himself in the front door, he was surprised to see the former pastor seated comfortably in the parlor of his Depression-era clapboard home having coffee with Sheriff Chester Otis, who had brought a box of his favorite fresh-baked crul
