Back Road Mysteries – Book 1: The Church

By Jimmy Zeigler

Back Road Mysteries: The Church sets the stage for a captivating six-book series rooted in the author’s quaint hometown of New Castle, Virginia, nestled amidst the Western Mountains of the Commonwealth. This saga embarks on a riveting journey through a tapestry of murder mysteries, each laden with unexpected twists and eerie turns. Our story begins with The Church, where the murder of Janet Moore’s brother catapults her into a complex love-hate relationship with Sheriff Clifford Davidson, a bond that intensifies as they unravel the secrets buried in their town’s history.

With each book – The Tower, The Pond, The Mine, The Old Brick Hotel, and The Disappearing Town – the duo delves deeper into the enigmatic landscapes of Virginia, unearthing mysteries that lurk within the shadows of the back roads. As Davidson and Moore navigate through tumultuous investigations, the series entwines the intricacies of personal relationships with the chilling allure of unsolved crimes, leading readers through an enthralling narrative that echoes the silence of the unseen paths of New Castle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781035833511

Jimmy Zeigler

Jimmy Zeigler is a mature married man who started working at the age of 15 as a stock boy in a grocery store, was drafted into the army as a military policeman, and then spent the next 27 years working in the accounting department of the local electric company. Retiring early at the age of 49, he has now started the adventure of being an author. This is the first book in a series of six called The Back Road Mysteries. His first book was a romance novel written from a young man’s perspective and is called Love or Lust; this book came out in August of 2023. He has written five more books, The Tower, The Pond, The Mine, The Old Brick Hotel, and the last one is called The Disappearing Town. Each of the books starts where the prior one stops and all are located in his hometown, New Castle, Virginia, USA.

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About the Author

Jimmy Zeigler is a mature married man who started working at the age of 15 as a stock boy in a grocery store, was drafted into the army as a military policeman, and then spent the next 27 years working in the accounting department of the local electric company. Retiring early at the age of 49, he has now started the adventure of being an author. This is the first book in a series of six called The Back Road Mysteries. His first book was a romance novel written from a young man’s perspective and is called Love or Lust; this book came out in August of 2023. He has written five more books, The Tower, The Pond, The Mine, The Old Brick Hotel, and the last one is called The Disappearing Town. Each of the books starts where the prior one stops and all are located in his hometown, New Castle, Virginia, USA.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my brother, Tommy. He took the time to read all eight of my books and gave me some good suggestions. He is going through a terrible illness and still found the time to do this for me. Thank you, brother, Tom.

Copyright Information ©

Jimmy Zeigler 2024

The right of Jimmy Zeigler to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035833504 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035833511 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

20240517

Chapter One

Janet stood in the middle of her living room floor with tears pouring down her cheeks. She had just gotten off the phone with her mother, who had given her really bad news. The state trooper had knocked on her mother’s door early this morning with the bad news that they had found her son’s body in an old, closed church on a back road a few miles from his home.

Janet’s mind was spinning; what could have possibly happened to her brother? To her knowledge, he did not do drugs and did not run with a wild crowd. She lived in Richmond, Virginia, about four hours away, and would have to make arrangements to go home for a few days to help take care of the funeral arrangements. Her brother was only twenty-five years old and had just gotten out of the Marines a few months ago. She had talked on the phone with him a couple of days prior to this, and he seemed okay. He had found a good job with one of the banks in Roanoke City and talked as if he liked what he was doing.

Sitting alone in her living room with a hot cup of coffee, Janet let her mind wonder. She could picture her brother John and her at the Outer Banks, North Carolina, with their parents. She was about ten years old, and he was five years of age, but even then, she had taken on the job of the old mother hen, seeing to the safety of her younger brother. The moment this thought came to her, tears began to run down her cheeks again. She and John had been very close even though there was five years difference in their ages.

She had been a shy girl in school but had grown into a stunning woman in looks but was still shy and had not had many boyfriends since she had grown up. She seemed to attract all the bad boys, and she was not interested in them. John was a very good-looking young man and had many girlfriends since he came of age. He had matured early, and at fifteen years, he was a heartthrob for many girls his age and even some older ones. He looked nineteen at fifteen and had kept his young looks up until now.

Hello, Mom, I have checked at work, and I will be coming home tomorrow. I’ll leave around eight o’clock in the morning and will get home around one o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Tell Dad I’ll help you guys take care of John’s arrangements when I get there. I know both of you are really torn up about this, and I am too, but I’ll try and be the strong one if I can.

Janet got in her car and started home the next morning; the quickest route would be Interstate 64 to Interstate 81 South. Both would be seventy miles per hour driving, and neither had a lot of construction going on at the present time. Janet had made a thermos of coffee to take with her, and she was feeling tired now. She was almost to the Interstate 81 turn-off but thought she should stop at the next rest area and have some coffee. She took the next exit into the rest area and pulled into the closest parking slot to the restroom’s entrance. Walking up the steps told her she made the right choice by stopping for her coffee; her legs and feet had gotten stiff from being cooped up in the car, driving. Climbing the steps to the building, she could feel her feet and legs expressing gratitude for the break. She walked quickly into the ladies’ room and looked in the mirror. ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘I do look awful; I need to fix my face before seeing my parents. They don’t need to see the distress on my face.’

She had her coffee and then hit the road again. She couldn’t help but think she had seen the same car that had been following her before, but not at the rest stop – somewhere else. Now, Janet, you’re just imagining things, she said to herself. There’s no reason for anyone to be following me.

Chapter Two

Janet turned off Interstate 81 at the New Castle exit onto Route 311 North. This was the two-lane road that led her into New Castle, VA, her hometown. She stopped in New Castle at the IGA Express Market and filled up her car with gas before she headed up the mountain to her parents’ home, where she and her brother had been raised.

Hi Mike, how’s business? she said to Mike Carper, the owner/operator of the Quickstop store. Mike had been divorced for a long time and had raised his son by himself. He was considered quite the catch, but up to now, no female had snagged him. Mike gave her a big grin and a bear-hug, It’s been ages, Janet, since I have seen you here. We heard about your brother, John, I am so sorry for your loss.

Janet teared up a little, thanked him for his words, and got into her car, then started up New Castle Mountain to her parents’ place.

That same blue Ford was behind her again as she went into the first curve on the mountain road. She could tell they were not used to mountain roads by the way they were driving behind her. She took the next curve with a little more speed; she knew the road, but the person in the car behind her did not and almost ran out of the road. This upset her, so she accelerated her car and left the blue Ford behind because they had almost stopped when taking the curve too fast. It was only about two more miles to her home, and when she pulled into the driveway and was getting out of her car, the Ford came over the top of the hill about a quarter mile down the road. She went to the trunk and opened it to get her suitcase out. The Ford just went by the house and didn’t even slow down or look her way.

Once in the house, she told her father about the car, but he didn’t seem to be concerned about it.

Don’t worry about it, Janet; your imagination is just running away with you because of all that has happened. She put her suitcase into her room and then came back to the kitchen to have coffee with her parents.

Her mom and dad’s home was really nice; it was a labor of love for them building it over the years. Now, it was way too large for them, but she knew they were not ready to downsize just yet, so she kept her ideas to herself.

Dad, have you found out what happened to John? She asked.

No, Janet, we haven’t; so far, we have not been allowed to see John’s body.

What? Janet gasped, Dad, why not? Have you called the sheriff’s office and complained?

I called, but I was told they could not release John’s body yet and could not give me any information concerning his death.

Where did they find his body?

"The state trooper said that a neighbour had called into the office and reported a motor cycle parked in the yard of the old Mount Carmel Church. They sent a deputy up there to look, and when he opened the front door of the old church, he saw a body laying at the front of the church on the floor. He didn’t know it was John until he approached the body and saw who it was. Once he was near him, he could tell immediately that he was not alive.

The neighbours called us once they heard it was John in the church and told us that there were fifteen black FBI cars on the grass at the old church. Your mother and I do not know why your brother’s death would have caused this kind of reaction, and so far, they are not telling us anything.

Chapter Three

The next morning, Janet arose around six thirty and made her way down the back winding stairs to the kitchen. When she opened the door to the kitchen, her father and the Sheriff were sitting at the kitchen table. Clifford, the Sheriff, spoke to her as she entered the room. "Hello Janet, it has been a long time since I have seen you, and I am sorry that it has to be under these circumstances. I was just telling your dad that we have not heard back from the FBI yet, and our hands are tied until we do. I can tell you that your brother did not have any bruises or marks on his body. He appeared to have died peacefully, not that this is helpful, but it may put your mind