Critical Impact (11 page)

“Still…”

“Marg has been acting so frightened lately. I'm thinking she knows what her church has said about her husband.”

“Why did you come out here instead of coming directly to me with this information?”

“I'm telling you now.” She looked directly at him. “Hilary Jonas was also on that list.”

“Did this Web site say why these people were on the list?” Stu asked.

She shook her head. “I can sort of understand why he was on that list. I know Johnny a little bit. I grew up in this town. Johnny was always into one questionable business deal after another. But he always comes out, as he does now, smelling like a rose.”

She looked up at Stu. “I came out here because I thought it would help me remember. Maybe Johnny is behind whoever has been framing me. I think Marg might know something. I think she's afraid. I…” She paused. “I know what that's like. I didn't do this, Stu.”

Stu looked at her intently and said, “I came here, I followed you because I wanted to tell you that I believe you. I know you're innocent. I do believe you. Arresting you was a mistake.”

She stared at him for several more minutes before she whispered, “You believe me?”

“I do.” And in so saying, Stu knew he was putting himself in a compromising position. He was a police
officer. It was his job to remain objective. And, of course, there was all that evidence against her. He didn't know what he was going to do about that.

O
n the way home, Anna plugged a CD into her car stereo and thought about Stu. Earlier, when they sat beside each other on the damaged cement fountain, he had been close enough to kiss her. For a moment, she thought he actually would. But he didn't.

She had to remind herself that he was just investigating a case. How could she be certain that he wasn't still playacting? But the way he had said
I believe you
sounded as if he really meant it.

Maybe he did.

Maybe he didn't.

Anna needed to guard her heart. She couldn't, she wouldn't be hurt again. She had believed enough lies to last a lifetime.

Time to turn your thoughts away from that man in the car ahead of you,
she admonished herself. Instead, she thought about all she had learned at the Internet café today, all the disturbing things about the church that her aunt was involved in. What disturbed her the
most, what she couldn't understand was that Johnny Seeley and Hilary Jonas were on the church's “list.”

She had hoped that by sitting in front of the City Hall building something would jog her memory. It almost had. But then Stu had showed up. Every time she was near him it was like her brain short-circuited, and she couldn't think straight.

He was ahead of her on the highway. Think, she admonished herself. She had seen someone just before the building had fallen down around her. Her mind kept going back to Peter. But was it Peter?

At home, Catherine was putting on her coat.

“You're going out this evening?” Anna asked.

Catherine seemed flustered. She was rattling her car keys nervously. “Oh, dear. I know I should go. I know I should go and find out what's going on, but I'm not sure. Lois and Marg just left for a church meeting. I asked Lois if I could come and she said it would be better if I didn't. But I thought I would go anyway. What is she trying to hide? I'm getting really concerned about my sister. What do you think? Do you think I should go?”

“I'll come with you. Let's go.”

After a few false starts and a drive up Dragon Mountain on the wrong road for half a mile, they finally found the building. Anna had decided not to call it a “church” anymore. She called it a building.

The building was small and square and constructed out of cement blocks.

“This old place,” Catherine said. “This used to be an auto body shop. Can't believe someone would convert this into a church.”

“It's not a church,” Anna said.

Her mother looked at it. “But there is the sign,” Catherine pointed.

“No, Mother, what I'm saying is that I don't think this qualifies as a church. I think I would call it a cult.”

“Oh, dear, and to think Lois…” She didn't finish her sentence.

By the time she and her mother parked, the service was in session. Anna and Catherine were outside and could already hear the shouting.

“Oh, my,” Catherine said. “Our minister never speaks that loud.”

“That's a good thing.”

Inside it was bright and hot. At the front, a short, sweaty man with his white shirtsleeves rolled up was pacing back and forth, back and forth, pointing and shouting. Sweat dotted his forehead. Anna recognized Brother Phil, the minister, from his Web picture.

They stood in the back for several seconds.

“Come on, Mom,” Anna whispered. “Let's find a seat.”

Brother Phil paused and looked at them for the briefest of moments before he went back to his pacing and shouting.

The room was small and square and dismal.
Rows of folding chairs faced the front. Brother Phil strode across a makeshift platform. The walls were un adorned. The whole room was rather plain.

A few people turned when they saw them enter and whispered behind their hands. Catherine's grasp on Anna's left arm increased as they made their way to the back row and took seats by the door.

Anna didn't know quite what she had expected, but she certainly thought more people would be attending than the dozen or so individuals scattered throughout the room. She looked at the man in front and wondered what his agenda was. And she contrasted this depressing gathering to the little white church in Whisper Lake Crossing that she had attended.

The lights in this room were glaring, yet there was a darkness about the place. The lamps that hung overhead cast strange shadows against the cement-block walls. The attendees almost seemed to be in a trance.

She didn't recognize any of the people who were sitting on the wooden chairs except for Lois and Marg. A man sat beside Marg. He wore a baseball cap and black glasses.

“Do you think we should go up and sit with Lois and Marg?” Catherine whispered to her.

Anna shook her head. “Let's stay here for now.”

They did.

The preaching of this man could only be described as ranting. Anna tried to make sense of what he was
saying and she couldn't. He was going on about evil, saying that it's right here in our midst, already in our midst. He ran down a litany of sins—adultery, immorality, heresy, filth. He said words whose definition Anna didn't even know. He emphasized each syllable with a pound of his fist.

What a contrast, she thought, to the message of love and grace in her church. She was learning in her own church that there was nothing she could do to make Jesus love her more, and there was nothing she could do to make Jesus love her less. Anna didn't know how she knew it, but she knew that the man up there now, this so-called Brother Phil, was poison.

As she listened, she found herself praying for Marg and for Lois. So intent was she on her conversation with God that she didn't notice that Stu had come in until he was sitting beside her.

Her breath caught. What was he doing here? She whispered that question to him.

“I followed you.”

She whispered, “You've been following me around a lot lately.”

“I like following you around,” he whispered back. A man two rows ahead of them turned to look at the commotion. He frowned at them.

A few moments later she saw that Stu was not looking at Brother Phil. He seemed to be staring at the man next to Marg. He was frowning at him. Anna wondered why.

Finally, with a slap of fist against the pulpit, Brother Phil was done. He raised one hand and prayed and Anna bowed respectfully, although by this time she sincerely doubted that this guy had any hotline to God at all.

Brother Phil made his way to the back of the church. When Marg and Lois stood up and saw Anna, Catherine and Stu, Marg's mouth formed a little O and Lois simply stared.

“What are you doing here?” Lois asked when she reached them at the back of the church.

“We heard you had special meetings and we decided we wanted to come to your, um, church….” Anna choked on the word
church
.

Marg's eyes looked hollow as they flitted from one to the other and back again.

As soon as the service was over, Stu had made a beeline toward the man who had been sitting next to Marg. Catherine and Lois were in conversation, so that left her and Marg. Anna decided that she needed to encourage this woman. She knew firsthand how difficult it was to be with someone who was abusive, yet staying and staying even though you knew you should go. Even though Johnny might not be physically abusive, his philandering ways made him emotionally abusive to Marg, she was sure. Anna didn't know the precise circumstances, but she knew she wanted to reach out. She said to Marg, “If it's any
help, Marg, I think I know what's going on. I know what's happening—”

But before she could finish, Marg made a choking sound like a gag. Her eyes got very big, she put a hand to her chest and slumped down into the nearest chair. Lois was there in an instant with her arm around the woman's shoulders and glaring up at Anna.

What had Anna said? What had she done? She was only trying to help.

 

Seeing the hyperventilating Marg, Brother Phil strode over to where Marg was still sitting on the chair. Lois's arm was around her and she was stroking the woman's back. By this time most of the others had gone, including the young man that Stu had talked with.

“Someone get her a paper bag!” Brother Phil shouted.

Marg bent her head low, and Anna couldn't help but wonder if these theatrics were a bit overdone. But then she remembered what Marlene had said, that Marg was afraid for her life. Or maybe the woman had really fallen ill. If that was the case, should they call an ambulance? She asked her mother about this.

“I don't know, dear,” Catherine said. “I know she's been really upset about the bombing. Maybe this is just part of that. She's been through a lot.”

Anna remembered what she'd been told about Marg, that she'd been thinking of leaving Johnny a long time
ago, for adultery, one of the sins that brother Phil had railed against in his rant. Was that the reason she was so upset now? Anna also thought about Johnny being on the “list.” Marg had probably seen this list. Maybe that's why she was so upset. Marlene said that Marg had been planning on leaving her husband, but perhaps she wasn't. Maybe they had worked things out now, and she was genuinely afraid for him.

It wasn't until Stu came over, squatted down to chair level in front of Marg and spoke softly that she perked up. Anna couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Marg nodded several times. She took Stu's hand and stood up.

At the end of it all, Anna introduced herself to Brother Phil as Lois's niece. She shook his chubby hand and said it was nice to meet him. He responded with, “Yes, yes.” He seemed to be in a hurry to get away from her. He didn't look her in the eye, but focused somewhere over her shoulder and away from her.

Lois and Catherine helped Marg to the car and Stu turned to Anna. “Can we talk?” he asked.

“Okay.”

“Can your mother get home without you? I can drive you home.”

“I'm sure she can.” He was standing close to her, looking down at her, and her heart was doing that thing again. Was he asking her out? No. Wanting to
“talk” was not the same as going out on a date.
Stop thinking like that,
she told herself.

After Anna told her mother that she would be getting a ride home with Stu, she followed Stu to his vehicle. She looked at it in surprise. Then she looked at her arm with the cast. Stu's vehicle was a four-wheel quad.

“You drove that here?” she asked him.

“I'll help you get on.”

“You had time to go home, get out of your car and get this?”

“I did. I went home, listened to a couple of phone messages and then decided to come along the beach to your place. I saw you getting into your mother's car, so I decided to follow you.”

“I don't know how I'm going to get on this thing,” Anna said.

“It's has a pretty secure backrest. And I have an extra helmet. You'll be fine, I promise. Here, let me help you.”

As he put the helmet on her and strapped it under her chin, his face was very close to hers. His expression was concentrated as he snapped the neck strap into place. That on, he took hold of her left elbow and helped her climb onto the backseat. Then he made sure she was okay.

Stu was right. The backseat of the quad felt secure. Then he wrapped a blanket around her.

“I have to check on something. That's why I drove
in this. Then we'll head down the mountain. How about the Schooner Café to warm up with some coffee?”

She nodded. It sounded fine with her. She wrapped her left arm around him and it felt good.

“Hang on tight,” Stu said.

They went up the Dragon Mountain Road until the road turned into a trail that was rough and full of ruts.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Just ahead a bit.”

A few minutes later he stopped the quad, got off and examined something in the trees. It was getting dark and cold. Anna watched him and waited. He came back frowning, got on the quad and down they went to the Schooner Café.

They took a table far from the other patrons. He ordered coffee for himself and hot chocolate for Anna. There were few patrons in the Schooner Café at this time. Peach and Pete, two old men Anna had known all her life, were sitting in one corner working on a crossword puzzle together. A young mother with two children was in the center. There were some students and a few couples. That was about it.

“What were you checking up on the mountain?” she asked him.

“Oh.” He shrugged. “Some kids were playing pranks up there. I had to see if they were up to their old tricks again.”

She nodded, realized he probably had other police matters to deal with besides her case. “And were they?”

He shook his head. A waitress brought their drinks and set them on the table. Stu said, “So, what was all that with Marg back at the church?”

“I have no idea,” Anna said, shrugging out of her coat. “I just told her that I thought I knew what she was going through and then she lost it. I was just trying to reach out to her. What did you say that calmed her down?”

“Not much.” He stirred three packets of sugar and two creams into his coffee. “I just assured her that everything was going to be all right, that I live right behind her and anytime she had a problem she could come and see me.”

“She seems to rely on you a lot,” Anna said.

Stu shrugged. “A lot of people do.” He smiled shyly at her and she felt her heart speed up.

She took a sip of her hot chocolate. She asked, “Who was that man you were talking to at the end of the service? I thought I saw you looking at him during Brother Phil's rant.”

“
Rant
. That's a good word for it.”

“So?” Anna cocked her head. “Why were you looking at him the way you were?”

“I thought he was someone I knew.”

“And he wasn't?”

“I don't know. I didn't get his name. I looked over
and Marg was in distress. By the time I calmed her down and looked back, the man was gone.”