“Excuse me?” Isaac said.
Gordon put his hands on the edge of the table and leaned into Isaac. “Oh don’t play innocent with me.” He pointed at his hair and said, “You see this gray hair? That means I’ve been around a long time. And I know all about your past. These aren’t the first people you’ve murdered are they, Ike-Man?”
Ike-Man had been one of Isaac’s street names and Iona wasn’t about to let her father be disrespected by this officer of the law. She stood and got in Gordon’s face. “Let me explain a few things to you, Detective Gordon.” She pointed at Isaac and said, “His name to you is Pastor Walker or Mr. Walker, in no uncertain terms are you to ever call him Ike-Man. And another thing that you should know,” she lifted the business card she’d placed on the table, “I am Pastor Walker’s attorney and you can address your questions to me for the duration of this interview.” Iona sat back down next to Isaac.
Gordon stared at her for a moment and then took the seat at the head of the table. “Well, I see that Pastor Walker sure lawyered up quick.”
“Yeah, you’re real observant. You should be captain rather than just a detective around here. Now can you please tell us what you want?” Iona said.
“Where were you on Friday night at around 10 p.m.?” Gordon asked Isaac.
“I was at home with my wife,” Isaac answered.
Gordon harrumphed. “Convenient, wouldn’t you say, Mr. Walker?” Gordon asked.
“No, he would say that is the truth,” Iona responded, then added, “Next question please. We don’t have all day for this.”
Gordon opened the file he brought in and pulled out a picture of the now deceased Vinny Thompson. Isaac looked at the picture. Vinny’s body had been found in an open field that was under construction. He was in all black with a small hole in his head. Isaac shook his head, remembering the email he received.
“How’d it feel when you put a bullet in this sinner’s head?” Gordon asked.
“What is wrong with you?” Isaac shouted. “How can you think that I would do something like-”
Iona held up her hand. “Don’t say another word, Daddy.” She stood up. “You have nothing linking my client to this murder or you would have already arrested him. And I’m not about to allow you to badger him simply because you don’t have a clue how to investigate a murder case.” She looked at her father and said, “Let’s go. This interview is over.”
Isaac stood and followed his daughter out of the interrogation room. But since he’d had so many run-ins with the law in his younger days, he kept looking back, half expecting to be stopped, cuffed and thrown in the little three walled box with iron locks. If it wasn’t so tragic, it would actually be funny. The thing was, Isaac had done plenty of wrong, and he knew that, but for the grace of God he should have spent the rest of his life in prison. In all his life, he’d only done a three year stint in federal prison. He’d never paid for any of his other crimes. Would he now pay for the folly of his youth by going to prison for crimes he hadn’t committed?
Iona was fuming when they got in the car. Isaac looked over at her as he started the car and pulled off. “Calm down, Baby Girl. I thought you were going to jump on that man in there.”
She balled her fist and blew out hot air. “I wanted to smack the arrogance out of his stupid mouth.”
Isaac laughed. “I guess no one can say that you’re not my daughter. When I was your age, I would have knocked him down and then stepped on his head.
“That’s right,” Iona said gleefully. “I am my father’s daughter and I’m not about to let anybody forget that.”
Isaac smiled and then told her, “You did good today. I was very proud of the way you man handled that officer. That’s why I always send my people your way.”
Iona rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well thanks for that. But do you think you could ever come up with a client that actually has some money?”
“Most of the people I send your way didn’t commit the crime they were accused of – so they’re not going to have any money to give you. But don’t worry, God will reward you for your kindness to people in their time of need.”
“You really believe that don’t you?”
Isaac nodded.
Iona kissed him on the cheek. They drove in silence the rest of the way to her office. Before getting out of the car, Iona told her father, “Don’t talk to the police. If they approach you, tell them to call me.” She got out of the car and walked into her office building.
Isaac watched his daughter go into Smith, Winters & Barnes and reveled in the beautiful and successful young woman that was his daughter. He’d helped to make her the woman she was today, and as far as he was concerned, he’d done a pretty good job. Yeah, he knew that she had a mountain load of flaws, but she was yet and still Daddy’s little girl. One day, he assured himself as he drove off, she would also belong to the heavenly Father.
When Isaac entered his home, Nina was sitting in the living room waiting on him. She leaped from her seat and ran to him. Before Isaac could get through the door good Nina had asked, “What happened? What did they want to talk to you for? Is everything all right?”
“Whoa! Calm down. Everything is alright,” Isaac told her.
Nina pouted, which was something she rarely did. “If everything is okay, why would the police want to see you?”
Isaac took his coat off and headed upstairs toward their bedroom. “I don’t understand it myself, Nina. For some reason the cops believe that I shot and killed Clarence and Vinny. Gordon accused me of killing them simply because he thinks I don’t like sinners.”
Isaac hung his coat in their closet and sat down on the bed to take his shoes off. Since he preached on Sunday and often worked on Saturdays with outreach programs, Monday was his day off and he and Nina normally spent it relaxing in their suburban home.
Isaac had moved Nina away from the West Side of town when his first book hit the New York Times Best Seller list. He remembered Nina getting mad and saying that she hadn’t made the best seller list until her eighth book was published. But Isaac quickly reminded her that she wrote his book as well. His name was on the book cover because it was his experiences that had been detailed in the book, but he never would have been able to put together a book without her. Then Nina had smiled and called her friends, telling them how she and Isaac had made the best seller list on their first non-fiction book.
“That’s preposterous, Isaac. All you ever did was try to help Clarence and Vinny and hundreds of other people just like them,” Nina stated.
“Tell that to Detective Gordon,” Isaac said.
Nina put her hands on her hips. “I will.”
Isaac raised his hands. “Hold on a minute, Mrs. Walker, Iona has already taken care of the detective. So I need you to get over here and take care of your husband.”
Nina smiled at him. She took two steps toward him, then stopped and asked, “Are you sure that we have nothing to worry about?”
“I didn’t do it, Nina. So I’m not worried about the police finding evidence to the contrary.”
She continued walking toward her husband. Isaac stood and pulled his wife close to him. He kissed her and then playfully tossed her onto the bed.
“Careful,” she told him while patting her stomach. “This is how we got in the predicament we’re in right now.”
Beaming from ear to ear, Isaac told her as he joined her on the bed, “Baby, I love the predicament we’re in right now.”
Later, as they cuddled underneath the covers, Isaac placed his hands on Nina’s belly. “When do you think we should tell the kids?”
Nina scrunched her nose. “I don’t know, Isaac. I’m a little nervous about how they will react to this news.”
“I think they will be happy for us. Everyone knows that we’ve wanted another child ever since we married.”
Nina turned in the bed to face her husband. “Isaac, that was seventeen years ago.”
“It’s not my fault that you refused to marry
me until my son was twelve years old,” Isaac told her with a smile on his face.
“You weren’t worth marrying until then,” Nina reminded him.
Isaac put his hands on Nina’s stomach again and asked, “What do you think we’re having?”
“One angry child who will think we are his grandparents,” Nina said.
Isaac nudged her shoulder. “I’m serious, Nina. I want a girl and I want her to look just like you.”
Nina rolled her eyes. “Who are you kidding, Isaac Walker? We both know that your children come out looking just like a body double for you. My genes don’t have a chance against the mighty Walker genes.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Isaac chided. “I can’t believe these things are coming out of your mouth. The woman who believed that God was able to do what doctors said couldn’t be done. And now that God has done it, do you still doubt Him?”
“I don’t doubt God. I’m just terrified that we won’t be around to watch this child grow up. And how fair would that be to this baby?”
“Trust God, baby.”
Nina punched Isaac’s shoulder. “You keep saying that. But I need you to work with me on this too.”
He rubbed her shoulder. “Okay. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. Just tell me what you want, and please don’t beat me no more.”
Nina laughed at her silly husband and then she became serious and told him, “I want you to stay out of trouble.”
***
Iona spent the morning reviewing her files and passing them to other attorneys in the firm so that she could clear her desk and be ready to be with her mother for three weeks. But before she could leave town, Iona would have to work at clearing her father’s name. That was the only thing she could think about, and it was driving her crazy.
Iona had no room in her life for unnecessary complications. Her parents were more than enough for her. So when JL called to tell her that he had ballet tickets, Iona told him straight out that it wasn’t going to happen.
“I don’t think you understand me, Iona. I don’t take no for an answer very often,” JL said after Iona’s negative response to his invitation to the ballet.
“I have too much on my plate right now, JL. I’m trying to clear my calendar so I can go to Chicago for about three weeks to be with my mother.” She thought about her father’s predicament and her brother being missing in action and then took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry. I know this sounds like a brush off, but I just can’t handle one more thing.”
She hung up with JL and called Neil. When he answered, Iona asked him to come to her office.
Neil arrived within moments of hanging up. He was arrogant, but at least he didn’t keep people waiting. Iona gave him one point for punctuality. “I need your help with something,” she told him when he opened her door.
He bowed gallantly. “I’m at your service.”
“If you’ve been watching the news, I’m sure you are aware that two of my clients were found murdered.”
Neil held up his hand to halt Iona. “Wait a minute. I know about Clarence – who else?”
“Vinny Thompson. Maybe you didn’t do any work for me on him, but he was murdered this past weekend, and the cops have their sights set on my father as the shooter.”
“What cops?”
Iona looked at her notes and told him, “Two detectives came to my father’s church last week when Clarence’s body was dumped there. The detectives names are Alex Matthews and Malcolm Gordon.”
Neil took a note pad out of his back pocket and a pen from his shirt pocket and wrote the names down. “I’ll talk to them and see what we’re up against.” He looked up from his note pad. “Do you want me to check your father out just the same as I would do any other client?”
Iona glared at Neil and took away five million-zillion cool points from him for having no compassion and no ability to believe that there was actually an honest to goodness innocent man in this world. But then she reminded herself that she had never believed in the innocence of any of her clients – that is, until her father became her client.
“That won’t be necessary, Neil. My father didn’t do it, so any time you spend on him would simply be wasted.”
He looked at her skeptically and then said, “Have it your way.”
Just for that, Iona was renaming him. He was no longer Neil the jerk boy. He was now Neil the Doubting Thomas, and just like Jesus, Iona was going to make a believer out of him.
“I’ll get back to you as soon as I have something,” Neil told her as he turned to walk out.
“Oh, and Neil,” He stopped, turned to face Iona and she continued, “I need you to check out Vinny and Clarence. See if there is something that ties the two of them together, besides my father, that the cops haven’t come across yet.”
Neil tapped the pen to his forehead. “That reminds me; you were right.”
Iona looked puzzled. “Right about what?”
“Clarence. He didn’t have his car the day of the robbery. I talked with several of the guys on his shift. Three of them saw his wife drop him off at work that day.”
“His wife?”
“Yep, his own main squeeze got him killed. How about that? Clarence refuses to rat her out and ends up getting murdered for being a thief. She’s got to feel pretty low right about now.”
“Another innocent man,” Iona mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing. Thanks, Neil. Just let me know what you come up with.”
When Neil left, Iona leaned back in her seat and wondered how her life had gotten so complicated. She hadn’t believed in anything or anyone a few weeks ago. And now she discovered that she had represented an innocent man and didn’t even know it. How many other things were right and true in her life? How many were wrong and deceitful?
Chapter 17
Isaac stood behind his pulpit as he did during every Wednesday night Bible study. He declared the goodness of the Lord to his congregation and, once again, implored all who were in need to come to the Lord. A young man in the third row from the back stood up and began walking down the aisle toward the pulpit. His shoulders were slumped as though nothing had gone right for him since he’d been pulled, kicking and screaming from his mother’s womb. Tears streamed down his splotch ridden, honey toned face. Recognizing a humbled man in the midst of surrendering to God, the congregation stood and clapped for him.
He stood before Isaac with raised hands and said, “I need Him, Pastor. I need Jesus.”
“You better say it,” Isaac said as he raised his hands to the Lord also and proclaimed his need for Jesus. The Ike-man looked pretty un-cool at that moment, but he wasn’t living on cool anymore. He was living for Jesus.
An altar worker stepped in front of the man and prayed with him. Isaac observed while the man was being prayed for and noticed how sincere and emotional he seemed. Most men didn’t come to the altar with tears and raised hands, so when they were finished praying Isaac asked, “Young man, what is your name?”
The splotchy faced young man looked up at Isaac, wiped his teary eyes and said, “Dwight Johnson, sir.”
“Well Dwight, do you know what just happened here?”
Dwight lowered his head as a torrent of tears broke him down. His shoulders shook as an altar worker handed him some Kleenex. Dwight wiped his face and then used the tissue to blow his nose. He kept his head low as if ashamed.
Isaac told him, “You don’t need to be ashamed anymore, Dwight. God has forgiven you, and if you had ever done anything to me, I would forgive you. But you can’t worry about the people who refuse to forgive the things you did before Christ came into your life.”
“But I’ve done so much to so many people, Pastor.”
“Accept God’s forgiveness, son, and then go and try to mend the relationships you’ve ruined,” Isaac told him.
Dwight shook his head. “I stole from my own mother, Pastor. How do I mend that? How do I forgive myself for that?”
Isaac
stepped down from his pulpit and walked over to Dwight. He hugged Dwight and then told him, “Some of the things we do seem unforgivable by man’s standards, but trust God and let Him do a work in you.” Isaac turned to Deacon Harris, who happened to be fulfilling his altar worker duties that week and asked him to come forward. Isaac then told Dwight, “Go into the prayer room with Deacon Harris. He’s going to pray for you again and then I want to talk with you before you leave church tonight. Okay?”
Dwight nodded and left the sanctuary with Deacon Harris.
Isaac turned to the congregation and dismissed them. As he walked to his office, he realized something was missing. He should have been feeling joy for a new believer coming to Christ, but what he felt was fear. Dwight had mentioned before the entire congregation that he stole from his mother. And now Isaac worried that something would happen to Dwight. He made a decision. He asked Nina to go on home without him, telling her that he was going to wait so he could drive Dwight home and talk to him some more. He didn’t, however, tell Nina that he feared that something might happen to Dwight.
Every time Iona watched her father minister she was struck by how charismatic the old man actually was. He could convince a Buddhist to give Jesus a try. He had already managed to convert just about every Jehovah’s witness that knocked on his front door. He turned so many of them on to Christianity that the Walker house was now considered enemy territory for Jehovah’s witnessing groups.
Iona was about to get up from her seat in the church balcony and go into her father’s office to tell him how much she enjoyed his message when she noticed a bald-headed man getting up from one of the back pews. She thought she recognized that fat head. Iona was leaning forward in her seat waiting on the man to turn around when JL Tyler sat down next to her. Surprised, Iona jumped, then she nudged JL’s shoulder. “You scared me. What are you doing here?”
“Well, after begging this lovely lady to go out with me and being rejected, I figured I would become a stalker and see if that would cause her to change her mind.”
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