Chapter Six
It took less than an hour for Kevin to get his answer. Yes, Ruthie and Peter said, they were willing to help ring in Henderson. All they needed to know was when and how. They then spent the rest of the day babysitting Jennifer and Charles back at the Camdens, including giving them the bath that Ruthie promised to her sister.
Meanwhile, Lucy was in her father's study. She had been ordained a little more than a year ago, and the deacons at Glen Oak Community Church quickly hired her as an Associate Minister alongside Chandler. Her contract required her to write a sermon at least once every four weeks - 13 during the year - as well as filling in when neither Eric nor Chandler were available.
Lucy usually had a self-imposed deadline of Friday night before her allotted Sundays. In fact, she had finished her sermon for the next day but her chat with her sister that morning had given her food for thought. After attempting to revise it a few times, she just threw it out and started fresh. She pulled out Eric's huge reference Bible off the shelf, which had four Bible versions in side-by-side column form: the King James or "Authorized" Version, the Good News, the Grail and the New Revised Standard Version.
She liked this volume because it allowed her not only to pick out a verse or verses on which to reflect on, but also a translation that best amplified her point. She knew that there were many radio and television preachers and even some members of the congregation she co-shepherded who said that the King James Bible of 1611 was the only valid and true Word of God for the English-language world "in these end times" and that all other versions that succeeded it were, in their words, "perverted."
Lucy, who had studied online versions of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the other manuscripts found at Qumran while at divinity school, knew better. The King James Version was actually based on earlier English translations, and poor ones at that. As Eric had told her one night when she asked him and Richard (Matt's father-in-law, and a rabbi) for help with a difficult passage of the Torah/Pentateuch in Ancient Hebrew: "It's usually best to go further back in time to more ancient manuscripts if they are available, because when you translate a translation over many generations, something does get lost."
"Not only that," added Rabbi Glass, "but in many places the Authorized Version violates the most basic rules of Hebrew poetry; many chapters of the Old Testament were written in doublets, and the second clause always reflects in some way back to the first."
Discoveries of the last fifty or sixty years resulted in some of the most accurate Bibles yet published to date. Besides, anyone who said they knew the time of the end was wrong: to date, the batting average of the doomsday prophets was 0.000.
The deacons and the other ministers had fully backed her up on that issue, as well as her desire to put more lively music into the Sunday services. She was criticized at first for that, too, but she managed to get the congregation to change its mind when she said from the pulpit, "If it takes Rock and Roll to bring people to the Rock of Ages, let's do that!" She really longed to live in the sixties, when a lot of popular music wove religious themes and even entire Bible chapters into their lyrics: "Turn, Turn, Turn;" "There is Love;" "One Tin Soldier." And so forth.
These two minor changes actually succeeded in getting more people into the pews, which of course meant more money for the church coffers for various community projects. Her only regret was that with the exception of Detective Michaels and a few other black families, hers and her father's congregation was still mostly white.
She spoke about this on her last sermon four weeks ago, expressing regret that even the Christian music industry was so divided that it was segregated into "Contemporary Christian" or "White" gospel music, while what was traditionally considered "gospel" was nearly monopolized by the black community. It had reached the point that both communities had separate annual awards shows, which by a bizarre coincidence were BOTH held at Nashville's Grand Ol' Opry. "United we stand, divided we fall," she told the congregation. "We may be legally integrated; but when it comes to matters of the heart and of faith, we are as segregated as ever, and we only have ourselves to blame for that."
She flipped through the text, and finally found what she was looking for. Two verses she had been reflecting on ever since she found out she was with child once more. She had no idea that she was about to step into the minefield that Peter and Ruthie now found themselves in. She opened up Eric's laptop and started typing her new sermon, proofreading it and printing the final draft in less than an hour.
The church was filled to the rafters whenever Lucy was going to take the pulpit. So it was the next morning, a Sunday. The Camdens filled their usual pew, with Chandler flanking one side and Peter the other besides Ruthie. They were dressed semi-formally and were holding Kevin and Lucy's children in their laps: Peter had Jennifer; Ruthie, Charles. Roxie had recently reconciled with Chandler after nearly two years and were going steady again, but she was busy today working on she told Lucy was "a top secret file" with Kevin.
The choir opened the service by leading the congregation in singing one of Lucy's favorite hymns, Melody Green's "There is a Redeemer." Lucy then took the pulpit and led the congregation in reciting the Lord's Prayer. After everyone sat down, Lucy adjusted the microphone and began to speak.
"Brothers and sisters in Christ, we gather here today this fantastic morning. I see a lot of you are still in shorts and t-shirts. That's okay, we've never imposed a dress code here and with the weird weather we've had the last few days, I almost felt like taking this robe off and dressing down too." Everyone laughed. "But I do want to begin with personal news. Kevin and I are happy to announce that we are expecting another baby, our third, sometime in April."
The worshippers applauded. Kevin rose from his place, and waved to the members of the flock - as a Catholic, he still wasn't technically a member of this church although he and his brother had always been welcome from day one.
"Having children in this world," continued Lucy, as Kevin sat back down and the applause faded, "is a real challenge. I'm only 22 years old, and on top of helping Dad to run the church I have two families to answer too. The one Kevin and I have, and the one I still belong to by way of my parents. Kevin and I get really worried at times, and I'm sure Ruthie and our Mom and Dad do too, when we hear of parents who abrogate their responsibilities and allow their children to become victimized through neglect or abuse. They either abuse their kids or fail to monitor those whom we entrust our children to. The parents always respond by citing Exodus 20:12: 'Honor thy father and thy mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving unto you.'
"What these parents don't realize is that respect is a two-way street. Jesus scolded his disciples when they tried to stop little children from being prayed for and having hands laid on them by the Man from Galilee. As we read in Matthew 19:14: 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.'
"'Suffer, little children.' That's my topic for today."
There was a huge commotion in the sanctuary. Kevin suddenly rose up, told Ruthie and Peter to keep an eye on the Kinkirk twins, and ran out the side door towards the church office. So did Detective Michaels and a couple of other police officers. A number of parents got up, took their children by their hands, and stormed out. After less than a minute, the church was still filled, but everyone who had been standing had managed to find seats among those that had been vacated; as screeching tires could be heard from the parking lot.
Lucy wasn't sure what had just happened. If she had meant to ruffle feathers, she had succeeded. Undeterred, she spoke for the next fifteen minutes on why she believed the Ten Commandments did not excuse parents from caring for their children responsibly, just as God's granting of "dominion" to the human race over the earth and its creatures didn't give man carte blanche to engage in environmental degradation.
As she stepped down and let Chandler handle the rest of the readings, Michaels waved her into the church office. He also signaled to Ruthie and Peter to come in as well. They took Jennifer and Charles by the hand and followed Lucy. They closed the door behind them and found seats across from the minister's desk and sat down with Ruthie's niece and nephew on their laps. Lucy took the minister's chair, while Michaels and Kevin remained standing, flanking opposite sides of the desk.
"What's going on?" asked Lucy.
"Reverend Kinkirk, has Kevin talked to you about what's been going on at work the last few days?" asked Michaels.
"No," said Lucy. "He's only said there's just some top secret file that he and Roxie are working on."
"Is that true, Kinkirk?" Michaels asked the cop.
"Of course," said Kevin angrily. "C'mon, Detective, you know me better!"
"Peter, Ruthie?"
"We'd be the last people to jeopardize a police investigation, Detective," said Ruthie. "You know that!"
"Ditto," echoed Peter.
"Will someone tell me what's going on?" demanded Lucy.
"A high school teacher at the high school where your aunt teaches, Theodore Roosevelt, is under investigation for official misconduct," said Michaels. "Those parents you saw storm out are the siblings of that teacher and their respective families. How did you find out about it?"
"This is the first I've heard of it," said Lucy in total surprise. "I had no idea. I can swear to that on a stack of Bibles. My God, is that what it is?"
"Yes, Reverend Kinkirk," said Michaels.
"It's Lucy, Detective. I may be a minister now, but you can still call me by my first name just as you do my father."
"Of course, Lucy," said Michaels.
"By official misconduct, you mean, what? Oh no, you mean - oh man, anything but that!"
"You've stepped in a minefield, Lucy," said Michaels. "Unintentionally, I'm certain. But we were hoping to keep this quiet until we could get enough evidence to charge Frank Henderson. Now, young people who might have been encouraged to speak up are going to stay silent. By tonight, it will be the top story on the five o'clock news."
Lucy sank down and put her head on the minister's desk, the desk that a Dr. Bergman, who preceded Eric, had returned to the church when Eric reached twenty years as the minister of Glen Oak Community Church. She started to cry. It was nearly five minutes before she sat back up again. Her eyes were now bloodshot.
"Well, the damage is done, I guess," she finally said. "What do you want me to do now?"
"Well, there's not much right now, but if someone comes to you confiding he or she's been abused by Henderson, I want you to report it directly to Roxanne or me right away. Don't even bother with Child and Family Services, because they've now given us direct authority on this investigation. Since yesterday morning, we've received 30 more complaints: 20 males and 10 females. We now have at least a dozen officers sorting through the allegations."
Ruthie and Peter felt like they were going to gag at any moment. This guy really was sick!
"Of course I would report anything," said Lucy. "It's the law, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is, Lucy, and I'm glad you're willing to cooperate. But there are some other housekeeping items to take care of. First things first, we're going to put a wiretap on your phone at home and the one here at the church," said Michaels. "If anyone tries to threaten you or Ruthie or Peter, we'll get them right away. Second, Kinkirk, I'm taking you off the case. You're in a conflict of interest now, and there's no point in endangering you further. In fact, I'm reassigning you to another officer until this matter is turned over to the DA. When it is, I'll pair you up with Richardson again."
"No problem," said Kevin.
"And us?" said Ruthie.
"Since Peter's mother isn't due back till the end of the week, I'll have extra patrols watching his house. I'll do the same with the parsonage. In the meantime, you two might want to stay out of school for a few days. I'll have the teachers send over the assignments over to the parsonage, and you can work on them there - or at his place, depending on your preference."
"What if any students want to get in touch with us to tell their stories?" asked Peter.
"You've got a cell phone now, don't you Peter?" inquired Ruthie. "Do you use text messaging?"
"Sure. Oh, I got it. Send a message to Helen over at TR and have the other complainants send messages back to her. They forward them to me, and I pass them on to Roxie. It'll have to be after hours though, since we can't use them during school hours except for emergencies."
"Great. Thank you all," said Michaels. "Well, I think it's your turn back up at the pulpit, Lucy."
"Right," she said. The group left the office and returned to the sanctuary. As Chandler gave the oversized Bible back to Lucy, she was shuddering. What if Peter and Ruthie were next on Henderson's hit list? She looked down, and saw the two lovebirds. They were both looking blankly towards the minister's pulpit, as if their true love didn't even exist. Lucy then looked out to the rest of the congregation. Only one other parishioner had that same look on her face, and that was their schoolmate, Rhiannon. Then it dawned upon Lucy. They found out about what Henderson did to Rhiannon the very day the two lost their virginity. It had to be afterwards, because if the woman had told them beforehand, they both would have sworn off the idea of sex for the rest of their lives.
With a shaking voice, she shook the thought out of her mind as she closed the service with the Aaronic blessing.
It took less than an hour for Kevin to get his answer. Yes, Ruthie and Peter said, they were willing to help ring in Henderson. All they needed to know was when and how. They then spent the rest of the day babysitting Jennifer and Charles back at the Camdens, including giving them the bath that Ruthie promised to her sister.
Meanwhile, Lucy was in her father's study. She had been ordained a little more than a year ago, and the deacons at Glen Oak Community Church quickly hired her as an Associate Minister alongside Chandler. Her contract required her to write a sermon at least once every four weeks - 13 during the year - as well as filling in when neither Eric nor Chandler were available.
Lucy usually had a self-imposed deadline of Friday night before her allotted Sundays. In fact, she had finished her sermon for the next day but her chat with her sister that morning had given her food for thought. After attempting to revise it a few times, she just threw it out and started fresh. She pulled out Eric's huge reference Bible off the shelf, which had four Bible versions in side-by-side column form: the King James or "Authorized" Version, the Good News, the Grail and the New Revised Standard Version.
She liked this volume because it allowed her not only to pick out a verse or verses on which to reflect on, but also a translation that best amplified her point. She knew that there were many radio and television preachers and even some members of the congregation she co-shepherded who said that the King James Bible of 1611 was the only valid and true Word of God for the English-language world "in these end times" and that all other versions that succeeded it were, in their words, "perverted."
Lucy, who had studied online versions of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the other manuscripts found at Qumran while at divinity school, knew better. The King James Version was actually based on earlier English translations, and poor ones at that. As Eric had told her one night when she asked him and Richard (Matt's father-in-law, and a rabbi) for help with a difficult passage of the Torah/Pentateuch in Ancient Hebrew: "It's usually best to go further back in time to more ancient manuscripts if they are available, because when you translate a translation over many generations, something does get lost."
"Not only that," added Rabbi Glass, "but in many places the Authorized Version violates the most basic rules of Hebrew poetry; many chapters of the Old Testament were written in doublets, and the second clause always reflects in some way back to the first."
Discoveries of the last fifty or sixty years resulted in some of the most accurate Bibles yet published to date. Besides, anyone who said they knew the time of the end was wrong: to date, the batting average of the doomsday prophets was 0.000.
The deacons and the other ministers had fully backed her up on that issue, as well as her desire to put more lively music into the Sunday services. She was criticized at first for that, too, but she managed to get the congregation to change its mind when she said from the pulpit, "If it takes Rock and Roll to bring people to the Rock of Ages, let's do that!" She really longed to live in the sixties, when a lot of popular music wove religious themes and even entire Bible chapters into their lyrics: "Turn, Turn, Turn;" "There is Love;" "One Tin Soldier." And so forth.
These two minor changes actually succeeded in getting more people into the pews, which of course meant more money for the church coffers for various community projects. Her only regret was that with the exception of Detective Michaels and a few other black families, hers and her father's congregation was still mostly white.
She spoke about this on her last sermon four weeks ago, expressing regret that even the Christian music industry was so divided that it was segregated into "Contemporary Christian" or "White" gospel music, while what was traditionally considered "gospel" was nearly monopolized by the black community. It had reached the point that both communities had separate annual awards shows, which by a bizarre coincidence were BOTH held at Nashville's Grand Ol' Opry. "United we stand, divided we fall," she told the congregation. "We may be legally integrated; but when it comes to matters of the heart and of faith, we are as segregated as ever, and we only have ourselves to blame for that."
She flipped through the text, and finally found what she was looking for. Two verses she had been reflecting on ever since she found out she was with child once more. She had no idea that she was about to step into the minefield that Peter and Ruthie now found themselves in. She opened up Eric's laptop and started typing her new sermon, proofreading it and printing the final draft in less than an hour.
The church was filled to the rafters whenever Lucy was going to take the pulpit. So it was the next morning, a Sunday. The Camdens filled their usual pew, with Chandler flanking one side and Peter the other besides Ruthie. They were dressed semi-formally and were holding Kevin and Lucy's children in their laps: Peter had Jennifer; Ruthie, Charles. Roxie had recently reconciled with Chandler after nearly two years and were going steady again, but she was busy today working on she told Lucy was "a top secret file" with Kevin.
The choir opened the service by leading the congregation in singing one of Lucy's favorite hymns, Melody Green's "There is a Redeemer." Lucy then took the pulpit and led the congregation in reciting the Lord's Prayer. After everyone sat down, Lucy adjusted the microphone and began to speak.
"Brothers and sisters in Christ, we gather here today this fantastic morning. I see a lot of you are still in shorts and t-shirts. That's okay, we've never imposed a dress code here and with the weird weather we've had the last few days, I almost felt like taking this robe off and dressing down too." Everyone laughed. "But I do want to begin with personal news. Kevin and I are happy to announce that we are expecting another baby, our third, sometime in April."
The worshippers applauded. Kevin rose from his place, and waved to the members of the flock - as a Catholic, he still wasn't technically a member of this church although he and his brother had always been welcome from day one.
"Having children in this world," continued Lucy, as Kevin sat back down and the applause faded, "is a real challenge. I'm only 22 years old, and on top of helping Dad to run the church I have two families to answer too. The one Kevin and I have, and the one I still belong to by way of my parents. Kevin and I get really worried at times, and I'm sure Ruthie and our Mom and Dad do too, when we hear of parents who abrogate their responsibilities and allow their children to become victimized through neglect or abuse. They either abuse their kids or fail to monitor those whom we entrust our children to. The parents always respond by citing Exodus 20:12: 'Honor thy father and thy mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving unto you.'
"What these parents don't realize is that respect is a two-way street. Jesus scolded his disciples when they tried to stop little children from being prayed for and having hands laid on them by the Man from Galilee. As we read in Matthew 19:14: 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.'
"'Suffer, little children.' That's my topic for today."
There was a huge commotion in the sanctuary. Kevin suddenly rose up, told Ruthie and Peter to keep an eye on the Kinkirk twins, and ran out the side door towards the church office. So did Detective Michaels and a couple of other police officers. A number of parents got up, took their children by their hands, and stormed out. After less than a minute, the church was still filled, but everyone who had been standing had managed to find seats among those that had been vacated; as screeching tires could be heard from the parking lot.
Lucy wasn't sure what had just happened. If she had meant to ruffle feathers, she had succeeded. Undeterred, she spoke for the next fifteen minutes on why she believed the Ten Commandments did not excuse parents from caring for their children responsibly, just as God's granting of "dominion" to the human race over the earth and its creatures didn't give man carte blanche to engage in environmental degradation.
As she stepped down and let Chandler handle the rest of the readings, Michaels waved her into the church office. He also signaled to Ruthie and Peter to come in as well. They took Jennifer and Charles by the hand and followed Lucy. They closed the door behind them and found seats across from the minister's desk and sat down with Ruthie's niece and nephew on their laps. Lucy took the minister's chair, while Michaels and Kevin remained standing, flanking opposite sides of the desk.
"What's going on?" asked Lucy.
"Reverend Kinkirk, has Kevin talked to you about what's been going on at work the last few days?" asked Michaels.
"No," said Lucy. "He's only said there's just some top secret file that he and Roxie are working on."
"Is that true, Kinkirk?" Michaels asked the cop.
"Of course," said Kevin angrily. "C'mon, Detective, you know me better!"
"Peter, Ruthie?"
"We'd be the last people to jeopardize a police investigation, Detective," said Ruthie. "You know that!"
"Ditto," echoed Peter.
"Will someone tell me what's going on?" demanded Lucy.
"A high school teacher at the high school where your aunt teaches, Theodore Roosevelt, is under investigation for official misconduct," said Michaels. "Those parents you saw storm out are the siblings of that teacher and their respective families. How did you find out about it?"
"This is the first I've heard of it," said Lucy in total surprise. "I had no idea. I can swear to that on a stack of Bibles. My God, is that what it is?"
"Yes, Reverend Kinkirk," said Michaels.
"It's Lucy, Detective. I may be a minister now, but you can still call me by my first name just as you do my father."
"Of course, Lucy," said Michaels.
"By official misconduct, you mean, what? Oh no, you mean - oh man, anything but that!"
"You've stepped in a minefield, Lucy," said Michaels. "Unintentionally, I'm certain. But we were hoping to keep this quiet until we could get enough evidence to charge Frank Henderson. Now, young people who might have been encouraged to speak up are going to stay silent. By tonight, it will be the top story on the five o'clock news."
Lucy sank down and put her head on the minister's desk, the desk that a Dr. Bergman, who preceded Eric, had returned to the church when Eric reached twenty years as the minister of Glen Oak Community Church. She started to cry. It was nearly five minutes before she sat back up again. Her eyes were now bloodshot.
"Well, the damage is done, I guess," she finally said. "What do you want me to do now?"
"Well, there's not much right now, but if someone comes to you confiding he or she's been abused by Henderson, I want you to report it directly to Roxanne or me right away. Don't even bother with Child and Family Services, because they've now given us direct authority on this investigation. Since yesterday morning, we've received 30 more complaints: 20 males and 10 females. We now have at least a dozen officers sorting through the allegations."
Ruthie and Peter felt like they were going to gag at any moment. This guy really was sick!
"Of course I would report anything," said Lucy. "It's the law, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is, Lucy, and I'm glad you're willing to cooperate. But there are some other housekeeping items to take care of. First things first, we're going to put a wiretap on your phone at home and the one here at the church," said Michaels. "If anyone tries to threaten you or Ruthie or Peter, we'll get them right away. Second, Kinkirk, I'm taking you off the case. You're in a conflict of interest now, and there's no point in endangering you further. In fact, I'm reassigning you to another officer until this matter is turned over to the DA. When it is, I'll pair you up with Richardson again."
"No problem," said Kevin.
"And us?" said Ruthie.
"Since Peter's mother isn't due back till the end of the week, I'll have extra patrols watching his house. I'll do the same with the parsonage. In the meantime, you two might want to stay out of school for a few days. I'll have the teachers send over the assignments over to the parsonage, and you can work on them there - or at his place, depending on your preference."
"What if any students want to get in touch with us to tell their stories?" asked Peter.
"You've got a cell phone now, don't you Peter?" inquired Ruthie. "Do you use text messaging?"
"Sure. Oh, I got it. Send a message to Helen over at TR and have the other complainants send messages back to her. They forward them to me, and I pass them on to Roxie. It'll have to be after hours though, since we can't use them during school hours except for emergencies."
"Great. Thank you all," said Michaels. "Well, I think it's your turn back up at the pulpit, Lucy."
"Right," she said. The group left the office and returned to the sanctuary. As Chandler gave the oversized Bible back to Lucy, she was shuddering. What if Peter and Ruthie were next on Henderson's hit list? She looked down, and saw the two lovebirds. They were both looking blankly towards the minister's pulpit, as if their true love didn't even exist. Lucy then looked out to the rest of the congregation. Only one other parishioner had that same look on her face, and that was their schoolmate, Rhiannon. Then it dawned upon Lucy. They found out about what Henderson did to Rhiannon the very day the two lost their virginity. It had to be afterwards, because if the woman had told them beforehand, they both would have sworn off the idea of sex for the rest of their lives.
With a shaking voice, she shook the thought out of her mind as she closed the service with the Aaronic blessing.