The man who had stolen the DVD from the Baptist Church in Christmas Beach had been arrested. This man had gotten caught by bragging about it and posting it on You Tube.
The pastor of the church didn't have much to say about the tape. He denied releasing the tape or having anything to do with it being a You Tube but didn't deny knowing about its existence. The tape was never shown because Mark's parents were very prominent people and gave a lot of money to the church. It would make Mark look very bad. The people that originally made the tape had no idea that Mark Quinn was in it. That was before he was famous.
Originally the tape was supposed to be about the downfall of America and examples of this downfall. It was a political action committee, one that Mark's parents gave large sums of money to and supported. The last thing that group would want to do would be to upset one of its highest donors. Lila Archer was the perfect poster child. Had the guy in the video been someone other than Mark or someone who was considered an outcast, the DVD would have been shown. The tape then was put away in the pastor's office where it had been forgotten about for nearly 10 years.
Whoever had made the video had done a lot of research on Lila Archer and her family. There was a clip of Lila's grandfather in 1969 when he was arrested for protesting the Vietnam War at City Hall. With him was Lila's mother who was 13 at the time.
A reporter from CNN investigating the matter found out those taxpayer dollars in Florida had been used to make this DVD, especially since the DVD was not shown or sold.
Since there wasn't much else to report, this was the main news of the day.
Mark Quinn was at home with his wife of six months watching this all unfold. Although it wasn't shown much on the TV, the clip of him and Lula at the church had received the most hits on You Tube. . Thankfully his children who were toddlers were too young to know about this. He didn't have to explain to them anything, yet. Trying to take the video down didn't help much. It came back up over and over again.
He could just imagine what his parents who were still alive would be thinking. They had contributed large sums of money to this group. Once Mark became famous, they criticized the types of movies he was in, movies where there was a lot of cursing, sexual activity outside of marriage, violence and drug and alcohol addiction. His family although not crazy about some of the movies he was in, defended him.
The final straw came when individuals from this same political action committee attacked Mark's fiancé for having a child out of wedlock a couple of years later. In Mark's mind, this was none of their business but was a private matter. His family had a similar opinion and had expressed to him that they hoped that marriage was in the future for them and left it at that. Mark parents were furious when someone from this group talked about a private conversation that they had had about this. In their mind, this was a private conversation, not to be discussed on TV. They never gave another dime to this organization. Someone in the organization who was angry about it decided to get back at them. This person hired someone to go to the town to find out dirt about Mark. It wasn't that difficult. But it went beyond Mark.
The same political action committee was angry with Spencer Reid because he told Hotch that a case that they had presented to them wasn't criminal and was a waste of resources. Hotch agreed with Reid on this matter.
A man had been stalking Reid for several weeks. Reid wasn't really aware of it until Hannah had come for a weekend. Hannah told him that she kept seeing the same man hanging around when they went out to dinner and when they were playing chess at the chess park. The man was also seen by several neighbors of Reid hanging around the apartment complex. Reid told Hotch but apparently the man was tipped off as he was never seen again until Reid saw him being arrested on TV.
Ella Woods was half African-American, and half white. Her white father had given her the home he lived in prior to his death. Back 50 years ago, the house was out in the middle of nowhere (undeveloped beach property) north of Ormond Beach, Florida.
In the mid 1960's people from the mid-west and other parts of the country started to buy up land in that 13 mile stretch of land. By 1970 there were about 250 people who lived in Christmas Beach. By 2010 there were about 500 people. It had been kept small by various laws on the books that it made it difficult for development.
Residents from Christmas Beach had seen the man around the beginning of the year. He lived next door. Ella Woods who had lived in the house for nearly 50 years had died about 4 days after New Years, the year before. Lila found her sitting on the front porch. She had died shortly after her daily one hour of singing which was usually one hour before sunset. She would sing rain or shine. Cold weather didn't stop her either. She had done this for so long that no one could remember a time when she didn't sing.
Usually after singing, she would go in her house and retire for the evening. It was almost dark and Lila noticed that she was still sitting in her chair. She thought she might have fallen asleep. She went over to her to see if she was okay and touched her. She was cold to the touch. Lila got her cell phone out and called 911.
Ella had no children. Her nephew had sold the house shortly after she died. Reid had seriously considered buying the home but someone else offered to pay a larger sum for the house. House values had gone down considerably and the person who bought it paid $5,000 more than it was worth. The person he sold it to wasn't officially on this political action committee but had ties to it.
There was something about this new neighbor that Lila didn't trust. Couldn't put a finger on it but something about him was not right. Why he would move to Christmas Beach seemed odd. He wasn't friendly towards anyone except her and seemed to be interested in her. He always seemed to be out on his porch watching who was coming and going but he seemed particularly interested in her comings and going.
Ella was 90 years old when she died. Lila wished she was still here. At the Christmas tour of homes, it was the first time since they started doing the tours that her house was not open. Very sad and it brought tears to Lila's eyes when she thought about it.
During the tour of homes people who weren't participating in the Tour of Homes would come outside and socialize with the people that came. The man who lived next door to Lila went inside and refused to socialize with anyone.
This man knew that Lila had two large German Shepherds who looked like Wolf Dogs. He didn't know that there slept in the room which was by the front door. He came up on her porch (it was about 5:00 a.m.) and the dogs went nuts. Lila turned on the outside light. He made some stupid excuse as to why he was there and then left. For several days after that, Lila was very uneasy. She debated over telling police about this but when the reporter was arrested for being in her home, she told the Police Chief about it.
The Police Chief looked at footage taken when he arrested the trespasser. He noticed that the man next door wasn't anywhere around. The house was dark except for a porch light and his car was gone. The man was not at the Christmas dinner. Only 4 other people from the town weren't there and three of them were elderly who were very ill and the other person was out of town due to a death in the family. This is how he figured out who broke into the Baptist Church. He had a suspect but couldn't do anything until he had proof. Shortly thereafter he had proof with the suspect bragging about what he did.
When the FBI later searched his house they found all this evidence. He was trying to get information about Mark from the church his parents attended. Another person had started going to the church Lula went to trying to get information.
Hotch just shook his head when he read all this. He was surprised that the group didn't know about the film he destroyed of Reid and Lila making out in the swimming pool. The group did get one film of Reid and Lila together at the zoo with Hannah. The parents strolling along with Hannah in tow. Hannah was 4 years old at the time. . Hannah pointing at the animals. The trio eating ice cream at a picnic bench.
A pair of Lions decided that they were going to mate. Reid's face turned as red as a beet. He tried not to look at them. It looked like he was starting to say something but the look on Lila face said Be Quiet. Hannah burst into hysterical laughter.
This political action committee had been secret and had gotten away with things for years. The last couple of years they had become more brazen but they step on the wrong toes this time. Ella's nephew was also being investigated as well. This involved a dispute regarding an old civil rights case going back to the 1960's. Her nephew had unknowingly sold her home to his political enemies.
Mark Quinn wrote Lila a long letter apologizing to what he had done over 10 years ago. She wrote him back accepting her apology. Both had made peace with it.
