The Bishop's Pawn (Cotton Malone #13)(102)
And not just in America.
But around the world.
There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we have the resources to get rid of it.
King’s words.
Wise then and now.
I stare hard at the crypt, seeking answers. What would be gained by revealing what I know? Those who oppose King would still oppose him, and those who support him might find their faith challenged. Would they feel manipulated? Used? Or would they recognize the sacrifice he’d made? And that was precisely what it had been. The ultimate sacrifice.
King gave his life, so his message would live on.
And it has.
Every movement requires a hero.
No matter how unlikely or unwilling.
I turn from the grave and see the eternal flame burning behind me. I step close and read the plaque at its base.
THE ETERNAL FLAME SYMBOLIZES
THE CONTINUING EFFORT TO REALIZE
DR. KING’S IDEALS FOR THE
“BELOVED COMMUNITY”
WHICH REQUIRES LASTING PERSONAL
COMMITMENT THAT CANNOT WEAKEN
WHEN FACED WITH OBSTACLES.
That it does.
Many people would agree that history matters. Truth matters, too. But sometimes things are better left unsaid. Revealing what I know would only spread a dense cloud of smoke around an already burning fire, masking the flames themselves.
And that flame cannot be concealed.
To distract in any way from what King helped start seems pointless. Why fuel the naysayers? The work must go one. Sure, battles have been won, but the war is not over. King gave Foster the sole option of deciding what to do when fifty years had passed.
Now that duty is mine.
I toss all four items I hold into the eternal flame.
The two old magnetic tapes incinerate instantly, the cassette and flash drive take a few moments longer. Soon they’re nothing but charred, melted plastic. Unrecognizable. Useless.
Before walking away I whisper to King and Foster and all of the other restless spirits who surely roam this hollowed place.
Three words.
That could still have meaning.
“Free at last.”
Writer’s Note
The idea for this book has swirled around in my head for more than a decade, but I delayed its writing until 2018 and the fiftieth anniversary of the King assassination. This is also my rookie foray into full length, novel-sized first-person narrative. Always before I’ve utilized several points of view (usually three to five) to tell the story. This time it’s all Cotton, and he and I have become much closer thanks to the experience.
Time now to separate fact from fiction.
This story is a travelogue of Florida, which included Jacksonville, Key West, Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Neptune Beach, Melbourne, Stuart, St. Augustine, Starke, Gainesville, Micanopy, Orlando, and Disney World. Of particular note were the Dry Tortugas (chapters 4, 5). If you’ve never visited, it’s definitely worth the trip. There are indeed shipwrecks scattered off the southwest coast of Loggerhead Key (chapter 7). Sadly, Loggerhead no longer appears as described in the novel, since nearly all of its trees were removed by 2001.
A few extra mentions on the locales: Fort Jefferson is faithfully described (chapters 10, 11, 12), including the staff office, grounds, and moat with a barracuda (which I saw firsthand). Seaplanes and boats do come and go from the fort several times each day. O. Brisky Books is there, in Micanopy (chapter 44). With regard to Neptune Beach (just east of Jacksonville) the Sun Dog Diner (chapter 3) is no longer there, but it did exist years ago. The Bookmark, though, was there then and now, owned by Rona and Buford Brinlee. Since 2003, I’ve held an event there with the release of each novel. The cemetery at Port Mayaca (chapter 15) is real, as is the memorial to the victims of the 1928 hurricane. A similar memorial also stands in West Palm Beach, Florida (chapter 15). Outside of Florida, the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta figures prominently into the story (prologue, epilogue), and that includes the King family home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, burial crypt, and eternal flame.
The 1933 Double Eagle mentioned throughout the novel exists. The coin is the rarest and most valuable in the world (worth many millions), and it remains illegal for anyone to either possess or sell one. Nearly all of the missing coins have been accounted for, but nobody really knows for sure how many disappeared in 1933. If you’d like to see one firsthand, visit the National Numismatic Collection either in person inside the Smithsonian’s American history museum in Washington, DC, or online. An excellent book on the subject is Double Eagle, by Alison Frankel.
Sadly, the FBI’s counterintelligence initiative, COINTELPRO, is not a work of fiction. It existed from the late 1950s until 1972. First designed to root out supposed communist influences, it metamorphosed into perhaps the most corrupt and illegal organization ever created by the U.S. government. Its abuses included burglaries, illegal wiretaps, mail openings, slander, libel, you name it, they did it. Bagmen, who handled the burglaries and illegal wiretaps, like Bruce Lael, were on the payroll (chapter 31). Paid informants and spies were also utilized, several close to King (chapters 25, 34). The destruction of Jean Seberg, described in chapter 39, and publicly admitted to by the FBI in 1979, is but one example of COINTELPRO’s abuse.
The race riots of 1967 (chapter 38) generated great fear throughout the country. That was when Hoover shifted COINTELPRO toward civil rights organizations. The memos dated August 25 and March 4, quoted at the end of chapter 27, are the actual documents (with the actual wording) that ordered the move.