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else?”
    “No, I think that pretty much does it. I'll call you if I need anything more, if that's okay.”
    “That's fine.” Fine. Fine. I may as well have said “nice ,” she thought, completely disgusted.
    He stood to go. “Keep your chin up. I'll be praying for you, especially tonight. Only happy dreams for you, I hope.”
    “Thank you.”
    “It's just a terrible start to Easter week, you know. First the guy in the park and now this.”
    “What guy in the park?”
    Oliver turned red and dropped his eyes. “Sorry. I'm not supposed to say anything.”
    And that was exactly the wrong thing to say to get Cindy to back off. “Oliver, tell me, what do you know?” She put as much pleading into her voice as she could. If he knew something that would help her make sense of what had happened, then he wasn't leaving without telling her.
    “A jogger found a guy on Palm Avenue, next to the park. He was dead and sitting on a donkey.”
    “Dead on a donkey on Palm Sunday on Palm Avenue?” she asked.
    “Yes. Police asked the editor to keep it quiet for a day while they try and figure it out.”
    “A man was killed in mimicry of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, and the police want to keep it quiet?”
    “Wouldn't you if you were them? I mean, that's pretty crazy, right? They don't want people to get scared.”
    “It's a little late for that,” she said grimly.
    “Are you okay?”
    “No, but I am a little better. Now I know that the guy in the church wasn't killed at random.” She opened the door for Oliver. “Good luck with the article.”
    “Thanks,” he said, a bewildered look on his face as he left.
    Cindy leaned against the door for a moment and breathed deeply. As relief flooded her, she had the sudden urge to leave the house but realized that her car was still sitting in the church parking lot.
    She grabbed her purse and keys and locked the door behind her. The church was less than two miles away. The air was warm, and birds were singing. Spring had arrived in Pine Springs with all its promise of new life. Birds feathered their nests. New leaves had popped out on all the trees, and tulips bloomed in bright bouquets. With so much around her alive and green, it helped to drive away the images of death that plagued her mind.
    By the time she was halfway to the church, she resolved to walk to work more often. The air and the exercise were good for her, and they definitely did a lot to brighten her mood. It was safer than driving too. Lots of people died in cars every day.
    When the church came into view she saw the janitor, Ralph, and Drake, one of the church members, standing on the front lawn. Two of the three crosses the church had put up the Friday before to celebrate Easter were standing, but the third lay on the ground.
    “What's going on?” Cindy asked as she walked up.
    “Hey, Cindy.” Drake gave her a quick hug. “You okay?”
    She nodded.
    “One of the crosses fell over a couple of hours ago. A gust of wind caught it just right and over she went,” Ralph said. “Drake is helping me put it back up.”
    “We need to anchor all three of them deeper in the ground and brace them,” Drake said. “By the time we're finished they should stand through a hurricane.”
    “That's better than I can say for the buildings,” Ralph said with a short laugh.
    “With you two on the job I'm sure they'll withstand anything,” Cindy said.
    “Yeah, now just give me a hammer and some nails and let me reconstruct these buildings,” Drake said.
    “Wait, here you go.” Ralph handed Drake a hammer and three nails.
    Drake looked at them and then at one of the two standing crosses. “Hey, can you put me up for the night?” he wisecracked, waving the nails at the cross.
    “Very funny, Drake. I think we've all heard that one a million times,” Cindy said.
    “But never in such dramatic fashion.”
    It felt good to joke around with Ralph and Drake. Maybe she should have stayed at work and not gone home