Have faith that God is with you in this fight
For darkness cannot survive in his light
Faith
By Shianne Minekime
Chapter Twenty-Four
They sat in the living room on a worn but comfortable brown couch. The inside of the house was pretty much on par with the outside. A little worn and faded but clean and neat. The furniture was solid wood and gleamed with the glow and scent of orange cleaner. Mrs. Harper directed them to the couch and sat opposite them in a rocking chair. She sat proudly, back straight and shoulders up, looking at them a little warily.
“So what do you want?” She asked, directing the question to Annie, the lady with the badge.
“We just wanted to come and talk to you about your son, and tell you how sorry we are about the…the way his life ended.”
Annie looked to Tina for help and Tina nodded.
“I know you lost your son Mrs. Harper and I didn’t, my daughter I mean, but….”
Tina faltered, looking at her hands and her words trailed off.
“Annette,” Mrs. Harper said, “you can call me Annette. I appre ciate what you’re trying to say,” she said as she stared out the window with a world of sadness in her eyes.
There was a long pause and then she spoke again.
“He wasn’t a bad boy you know, he got into a lot of trouble but he was never mean, just lost.” Her eyes filled up with tears. “It seemed like the harder I tried to help him the further he got away from me. But he was never mean and I knew that he hadn’t hurt that little girl, never in a million years.”
She stood up abruptly and walked out of the room, reappearing in a few seconds clutching a picture frame. She held it out to them and Annie slowly took it, turning it so Tina could see, too. It was a beautiful young girl, laughing over her shoulder with long brown hair and her mother’s good looks.
“That’s my daughter Patty, she was eleven years old when her brother went to jail, actually when he died.”
She held out her hand and Annie handed it back.
“She’s beautiful,” Annie said.
Annette nodded and set the frame gently on the shelf.
“He was crazy about his sister and her about him. She followed him everywhere he went and he was always gentle and patient with her, never minded when she wanted to hang out with him and his friends and go fishing with them.”
Tina felt tears come into her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she said gently.
Annette nodded. Her hands fluttered softly in her lap, like a trapped bird wanting to fly. “I guess the Reverend has a lot to answer for,” she said.
Jamison found the connection he had been searching for in the last place he would have ever expected to find it. Sitting at lunch at Charley’s eating his BLT and French fries and downing his third cup of coffee he overheard a conversation from the next table. The realtor in town, a pretty, older woman named Sandy or Candy or something, was gossiping with some lady he didn’t know. He tried to ignore it because he was tired of gossip about the Reverend, sick to death of the very sound of his name. But he couldn’t ignore it, it just burned its way into his brain. Apparently Candy, or whatever her name was, had taken over the realtor business from her mother, Julianne, who apparently had too much fondness for the drink. So her daughter had taken it over and her mother had told her daughter a long time ago that she had sold a property in the next county, in Summerset, to the Reverend’s mother. The Reverend’s mother had been a single mom who had showed up in town with her son and had never made a reference to the boy’s father nor had she answered any questions about him. She had purchased the property in her maiden name of Smithers, further fueling the talk around town about her. In those days women didn’t just drop their last names you know, Candy said and the other lady nodded agreement.
Jamison sat frozen for about two seconds after the words sank in and then got up and threw a twenty down by his mostly uneaten food.
“Is something wrong?” The waitress asked him as he went out the door but he didn’t even hear her. He was already on the phone calling for backup and calling the state police for helicopters. The helicopters were fueled up and ready, pilots warned to be ready in case a break came.
Annie and Tina were just leaving the Harper’s when Annie’s cell phone rang. She walked over to the car to answer as Tina said goodbye to Annette.
Tina offered her hand and was shocked when Annette hugged her. She blinked back tears again.
“Thanks, for coming, and for listening,” Annette said.
Tina nodded wordlessly and hugged her back.
“Tina, we’ve got to go,” Annie called. The urgency in her voice made Tina jog down the steps, waving goodbye over her shoulder. Annette lifted her hand in response and went back into the house.
“Get in,” Annie said. Tina jumped in the car and put on her seat belt. Her heart had started to thump and her hands turned clammy.
“They found him?” She asked.
Annie nodded.
“Jamison thinks he knows where he is,” she said as she peeled out of the yard. She took a hard left off Valley and hit the road back the way they had come, leaving a trail of dust billowing behind them. She slapped a little red light on the dash and punched it. Tina looked over her shoulder at the farmland rapidly disappearing behind them, thinking of the mother living there, still suffering the loss of her son. How strange it must be to finally have her beliefs validated after all these years, great and terrible at the same time. She could finally clear his name but was forced to relive every moment of that terrible time. Tina clasped her hands together to stop the trembling.
‘Please God,’ she prayed, ‘let them catch him so he can do no more harm.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
He spent the time after his escape from Annie at the property his mother had left him. He knew it was not in her married name so he figured it would be safe for a while. At first he was furious, that they had found him out after so long and that they had gotten Hailey back. He plotted all sorts of terrible things in grisly detail in his mind. After a little while though he came to see it as God’s will and realized that his work must have been done in Patterson. Maybe he was meant for a different place now. If God chose to test his faith then who was he to question it. He stopped shaving and allowed himself to become all scruffy looking. He hated it but figured it was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. He wore an old pair of horn rimmed glasses from the days before he got contact lenses and dressed in old jeans and flannel shirts. The clothes he found at the house had belonged to the man who used to watch the place and the pants were too big so he had to tie two belt loops together with string, which gave them an odd sort of lopsided look. No one would have recognized him, except maybe Jamison, but he didn’t intend to ever be close enough to him for that. He had bought a beat up old pickup from an equally beat up old man many years ago and had never taken it out of the old guys name, it still sat in the barn. He didn’t see any way it could be traced to him. His fourth day at the house, he drove it to the gas station in Summerset. It was a nerve wracking test of his disguise but no one gave him a second look, he bore no resemblance to the clean and neat older man they were calling a monster on TV. Just a scruffy old guy in a beat up pickup living on social security. He ate the canned food that was still in the house, mostly peaches and chili beans. He spent the time there at his mother’s house listening to the radio and following the hunt for him as it gathered steam. It amused him to no end as they all stumbled around falling over each other trying to find him. He didn’t like all the guessing about why he had done it though. How dare they try to understand his work, God’s work, and try to call it names like schizophrenia and paranoia. One psychiatrist came on talking about how his mother had probably molested him as a child. That put him in a rage for hours and he stalked back and forth across the living room with clenched fists. After that he didn’t keep it on, just checked in every now and then. As the search widened and intensified he began to gr
ow nervous and he finally decided it was time to leave. He knew the police would have a hold order on him at the borders or he would have liked to go to Canada. Lots of country to lose yourself in there, some of the most beautiful country God had ever created. But there was lots of country in the states, too, which could become home to him and where he could carry on his work. All this was but a temporary setback. And so he decided to leave. He would go through Patterson cloaked in his disguise but he would stick to the side roads and avoid the populated part of town. No point in pushing his luck. As the helicopters were heading toward Patterson, as the people bent on catching him were gathering, he was already on the road. He passed through the area where roadblocks would be set to catch him mere moments before they were set up. One more bit of good luck, he would have thought that it was meant to be that he remain free. He would have been wrong.
Annie left Tina at the station, there was no time to take her home. The helicopters had just landed when they made it back from their visit to Annette Harper. There were four state policemen going as well as Annie and Jamison. Dozens more were gathering on the highway and the side roads, setting up roadblocks. Jamison left Johnson in charge of the station while he was gone. It was sheer luck that there were no reporters or media there to hound them.
The man in charge of the state police, a large compact man called Gunner, shook hands briefly with Jamison. Jamison found his name ironic.
“Sherriff,” he said in greeting and nodded respectfully to Annie, “Ma’am.” Once again Annie was amused at being called Ma’am. Some of the women at the bureau would have a fit if someone called them that. Luckily she wasn’t that touchy.
The state police were loaded for bear. All had automatic pistols and two carried assault rifles. For a moment it seemed ludicrous to Tina as she stood and watched them. All that for one old man? But thinking of what he had done she was glad they were so prepared. She watched the group get ready, Annie and Jamison as quick and comfortable with the whole thing as the state police. Watching Annie swiftly don her vest and check her gun she wondered what it must be like to live the kind of life she did. Sure it was probably exciting but probably stressful and scary, too. Tina shivered watching them. Susan came up on the porch behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“They’ll get him honey, don’t you worry about that,” she said confidently.
I hope they kill him, Tina thought, but didn’t voice the thought. It seemed wrong to say it but she felt no guilt for thinking it.
Johnson backed away from the helicopters as they loaded up. Annie lifted a hand to Tina and Tina waved back. Johnson came and stood on the porch with Tina and Susan, watching the helicopters lift off in a massive cloud of dust and watching them until they disappeared out of sight. The phone rang and shattered the newly built silence. Susan sighed.
“I guess people saw them goin’, or saw one of the roadblocks” she said resignedly. “We’re gonna have lots of questions now.”
Susan went back into the station. Tina stared fixedly at the horizon where the helicopter had disappeared.
“You think they’ll get him?” She asked quietly.
Johnson looked at her, thinking that she looked about wrung out. She had been through a lot and he sure hoped it was the end of the nightmare for her. Of course a trial wouldn’t be much better but at least it would be the end of the fear. Looking at the worry lines on her face and the shadows under her eyes, he didn’t see a need to mention all that. Cross that bridge when you come to it, he figured.
“Jamison’ll get him,” he said. Tina nodded and remained standing alone on the porch as Johnson went back into the station.
She dug her cell phone out of her pocket and used it to call James. She wanted to wait here until she heard something but she wanted him to come in too. It was his place too and she did not intend to leave him out again.
He stuck to the side roads like he planned, winding his way slowly past Patterson. Gospel music played thinly from the old radio but it still sounded beautiful to him. He hummed along with it and drove at a steady forty five, not attracting any attention on the quiet roads. He felt empowered and serene, sure of his place in God’s plan and that he would be led out of this mess. Soon he would have a fresh start for his work, a new place and new people to lead. Coming down a long hill he saw the Millers’ pond at the bottom. It was over a mile wide but not that deep and the old rickety wooden bridge had given way years ago to a sturdier, modern one with gleaming silver railing. It was a popular fishing spot but today it was deserted. The old pick up picked up momentum as it dropped down the long hill. He was almost onto the bridge when she stepped out in front of him. One second there was nothing there and the next she stood in front of the truck, standing completely still and watching him and the old pickup bearing down on her. He made a strangled sound and jerked the steering wheel hard to the right. The old steering column wasn’t up to that sort of NASCAR type of driving and it made an awful grinding sound. Gravity hit the truck hard and it fishtailed wildly. He hit the bridge on the left side not a foot before the railing started and went off the side. As the truck went over carrying him with it, he caught one last glimpse of her. She was still just standing and watching him and not even moving. He knew her face and the last thought that went through his mind before his head hit the driver’s side window was ‘it can’t be’. The truck hit the water, left front tire first with a tremendous splash. The resulting wall of water hit the pilings of the bridge. The little girl stood and watched the truck settle slowly and comfortably into the water. The water covered the hood and then slowly covered the cab. Finally it became still with only the very back of the truck showing, just the tailgate mostly. The surface of the water calmed and became motionless again. The bugs resumed their busy lives, skimming the water and flitting among the weeds on the edges of the pond. Had he been conscious, the Reverend could have swum out easily or just climbed out and up onto the truck, but he wasn’t. As he went off the bridge, his head hit the side window so hard that he made a little spider web of cracks on it, he drowned there two feet under the pond water with the fish swimming past him and the little girl watching from above him. The image of her face was the last image he took with him from this world. A young couple passing by about twenty minutes later called it in to the station. They almost didn’t see it either, it was almost hidden from view by the bridge. The girl was mad at her boyfriend and so was staring rigidly out her window to avoid looking at him and she spotted the tailgate poking up out of the water. It took her a second to register what it was and then she made her boyfriend stop and back up to the bridge. He sighed in annoyance, thinking she was just jerking him around to get back at him. Not like the fight had been his fault anyway, she was so picky that she made him nuts. They got out of the car and stood on the road looking at the almost submerged truck and neither one of them wanted to jump in to check it out.
“Maybe someone just pushed it in there,” she said hopefully.
He gave her a withering look and she stomped back to the car and used her cell phone to call the police. After the tow truck got there and the truck was pulled out, the sight of the limp body behind the steering wheel made her quickly forget her anger and she clung to her boyfriend. The fight was forgotten and he held her tightly as they waited with the police and the tow truck to give their statements.
Marie Jenning stood for a while watching the pond. At first she expected him to swim up and the fear knotted her insides. Slowly she relaxed, realizing that he could do no harm anymore. The knowledge dawned that it was finally, truly over and the weight and the fear tying her down was lifted and carried away from her. She slowly turned and started walking up the road. Her feet made no marks on the dirt and stirred no dust in their passing. She smiled a beautiful, happy smile. I’m coming home, Dad, she thought.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The mood was grim back at the station. To have been so close and to have lost him again were beyond frustration. They searched the house an
d surrounding area for a while before giving up and going back in. The state police and the helicopters were gone and Annie, Jamison, Tina, and James all sat glumly in the office. Hailey was coloring and visiting out at Susan’s desk, the occasional giggle drifted in. Johnson had been called out to investigate a car accident and Smithers had gone along.
“We were so close,” Jamison said angrily. “The coffee pot was still warm.”
“Do you think someone tipped him off?” Tina asked.
He shrugged tiredly. “Who knows?”
There was a long moment’s silence. Annie stared into her coffee cup that she hadn’t touched.
“So what now?” James asked.
Jamison’s cell phone rang and he walked over to the window with it.
“Yeah,” he said gruffly.
It was Johnson. “You’re not gonna believe this boss,” he said.
Annie went home the next day as planned. She drove out to the house to say goodbye and hugged each of them in turn. As she drove away to go home and see her family, she looked back to see the three of them standing together watching her go, arms around each other. It made her happy to see them together as a family. Not many of her cases turned out that well. When she walked in the door at home her son flew to meet her as he always did and she scooped him up and held him tight, smelling his shampoo and feeling his arms tight around her neck. Her husband came next and the three of them hugged in the doorway with her suitcase sitting outside the door where she had dropped it.
The church was packed the following Sunday in spite of earlier predictions that no one would ever go there again. The media buzzed about, high on the thrilling end of the Reverend’s reign, interviewing anyone that would talk to them. The new minister was a homely young man, wise beyond his years who understood what the town had been through and met it head on. He talked frankly about the evil in the world and how it could be anywhere and in anyone. He talked about the power of faith being the only true weapon against it and he talked of new beginnings. Half the congregation was in tears by the time he was done. It was a small group that met that Sunday but the group grew steadily over the coming months as people fought to regain their faith. Within six months the congregation was back to full force and within a year it had almost doubled and plans were in progress to build a new, bigger church. The Hanson family sat at the back, sneaking in late to avoid attention. They were honestly tired of attention. They went to church for Hailey’s sake, to help her through the ordeal that she was still overcoming every day. Tina and James were both surprised to realize they actually wanted to go, too. It seemed like the final way to refute the Reverend’s hold on the town. Besides Tina feeling a chill when walking up the steps of the church, they felt like they were where they should be. Tina found out five weeks later that she was pregnant. It was a boy.
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