It seemed to Lucy that a rustling, perhaps even a wave of resistance, emanated from the Miller clan, but Marcia sat perfectly still, while Sam IV fidgeted beside her.

“To many of you, Sam was the man who had it all. He owned the biggest store in town, had the biggest house and the biggest bank account. Sam could afford things most of us can’t, and many of us envied him.

“You might be surprised to learn that Sam envied you.

“To many of you, Sam was your boss, your employer. He was a good man and a fair man; he was a good man to work for. It’s hard to work for a man and be his friend, too.

“You might be surprised to learn that Sam wanted to be your friend.

“Sam Miller knew that the success of his business and the prosperity it brought had changed Tinker’s Cove. Sam Miller felt badly about that. Sam Miller wanted to be your neighbor.

“Sam Miller was a wealthy man, a powerful man, and a successful businessman. Yet he grew up here in Tinker’s Cove and the values of Tinker’s Cove were his values, too. He believed in family. He believed in hard work. Let us remember him as he would have liked to be remembered: as a neighbor, a friend, a man who was one of us.” Here Davidson paused, looked around the church at the congregation, and picked up the large Bible that lay on the lectern before him.

As he stood there, holding the Bible in his upraised arm, Lucy thought of the prophets of old, of unforgiving Cotton Mather and fanatical John Brown.

“The Bible tells us that we must love our neighbor, and teaches us that it is a sin to kill.

“Sam Miller was murdered. His death was carefully planned—engineered—by one of his fellow beings. We do not know, yet, who his murderer is.” Here Davidson paused and scanned the congregation, as if he expected the guilty one to leap to his feet and confess.

“I do not think Sam Miller was killed by one of you. Sam Miller was a man of our town; indeed, he embodied all that is best in our town. This evil person” —and here the minister paused before hissing—“this sinner, must have come from outside our town.

“Every night the evening news tells us of the violence that pervades the cities of our country, of international syndicates dealing in drugs and death, and of political terrorism.

“This is the lesson of Sam Miller’s death. We must fight the evil that is overtaking so much of the world, and we must keep our town as a good place to let our love for each other shine as a beacon of light in an ever-darkening world. Amen.”