It was the regular Saturday board meeting. For the first time, Rita was part of the proceedings. At her suggestion, Charlotte was also invited. The ministers didn't know why at first. But then Rita spoke up.
"Guys," she said, "the other day, you asked me to look into something. The petition demanding a special meeting of the congregation to determine your fates. Well, Charlotte and I have been pouring over the paperwork, and we found something quite odd."
"Like what?" asked Ruthie. She and Hope were days away from officially adopting Rita, after getting special clearance from child protective services that would normally take months.
"Bottom line," said Charlotte, "a lot of these signatures are forgeries. Enough to make the 'three percent' petition totally invalid!"
"Really?" Felicity's countenance turned into joy. "How can you be sure?"
"Well, Rita's late mother and my Dad are both handwriting experts, and we learned a few tricks from them respectively. We'll show you a few examples."
At this point, Charlotte opened up her briefcase and pulled out the petition. At various points in the stack, she stuck in arrow-pointed sticky notes.
"I've colour coded these so you can see what Rita and I are talking about," she said. "For example, most people when they write their autographs will have a continuous stroke for their family names. About five percent will write the initial letter then cross it with the second onwards. Nothing wrong with that, we all sign our names our own way ... but we found that in thirteen percent of the signatures, well above the population median. Now, look at the signatures we've marked with the blue sticks. Fourteen of them. All crossed the exact same way, even though they're different names."
Peter and Hope - who during the past year had become best friends - examined the evidence. They couldn't believe it. It was as the girls had said.
"The red tabs," said Rita. "The way the double-L is looped. Twelve. Orange: a circle above a lower case I rather than a dot. Nineteen. And it goes from there. In total, we've found three hundred twenty six fake signatures. That leaves five hundred seventy nine legit ones. Your jobs are safe."
The ministers heaved a huge sigh of relief. But Ashleigh had a question, as she rubbed her ever growing tummy. Her daughter, Harriet Lane, seemed eager to enter the real world.
"It takes a lot of nerve faking something like this and leaving us on pins and needles for weeks," she snapped. "Is this really about the ministers' choices of lifestyles?"
"I doubt it," said Charlotte. "You'd need a bigger gripe than that to try to pull this off. Otherwise, I would have been driven out of the congregation a long time ago - just because I'm a girl in a boy's body."
"Then who's behind this?" asked Hope. "I don't think it's Mom anymore. She was in solitary all that time. It couldn't have been one of her agents - the ministry is being dismantled as well as it should be."
"Damned if I know, pal," said Peter. "Ruthie?"
"Oh, yeah, like I would know that," Ruthie told her ex-husband. "If my wife doesn't know, then Patrick wouldn't and neither would Tammy."
"Then that leaves Shelby and Rod," said Charlotte. "Guys ... you're ex-spies. If anyone would know, it'd be you two."
"Actually, Charlotte, that's why we asked you and Rita to do this," said Shelby. "There has to be a clue in the stack of signatures. One of the legit ones, that is."
"Is there anyone going to this church who is against the LGBT community?"
"That's about ten percent. Three thousand ... about, say, twelve hundred adults. No one who supports the cause would sign that petition. So you're left with the six hundred give or take."
"Can you help us narrow it down? If you were still doing counter-surveillance, how would you go about it?"
"Well," said Rod, "I'd look at the attendance records of the parishioners going from the time Peter married Felicity. That was a huge shock to many here - I don't think Hope and Ruthie coming out topped that. No disrespect, ladies."
"None taken," said the wives.
"What about it?" asked Charlotte.
"Who actually was in church, and who just signed attendance cards," replied Rod.
"But Peter already said you keep track of attendance cards only - not those who entered the church."
"But the cameras in the lobby do check who comes in - and we have facial recognition."
"How long will it take to come up with a short list?" asked Rita.
"A week," said Rod. "I know that's a lot of time, but I think we can get it down to about twenty or so."
"Then what?" asked Heather. "We find the guy or gal. We just confront him or her?"
"No," said Peter. "This is fraud. We turn it over to the police."
"Let's hope it works," said Charlotte and Rhiannon together. Charlotte hugged Rita, who then turned and kissed Rhiannon.
"Now that's out of the way," said Samantha, rubbing her belly containing Abigail and Ryan, "we need to ask you guys a question. Ashleigh and I."
"What's that?" asked Tammy.
"We have the galleys, proofs as it were, of volume one of our bible commentary," said Ashleigh. "It's pretty much what we wrote, well, it's exactly what we wrote, but in going over it we're wondering if we've gotten a few things ... wrong. We don't want to lead people astray, like Hope's and Patrick's parents did."
"We've made some minor corrections, for spelling," said Samantha. "But we're wondering if you guys can look over it. See if we're on the ball or not."
"We're glad to help in any way, girls," said Hope happily. "I already told you you're geniuses, but if it makes you feel better ..."
"We want our babies knowing their mothers are in the right about the Bible," said Ashleigh.
"You want us to split it up?" offered Maighread. "Those of us doing Sunday school classes will take some of the parts, our parents the rest. When do the publishers need it back?"
"Two weeks."
"You'll get it in one."
"Wait ... you kids want to help us too? Isn't this an adult thing, really?"
"Ashe," said Rhiannon, holding onto Rita's hand tightly, "we love Jesus, so much. We don't want to let him down. We'll do this for you. If we're not sure about something, we'll ask the big guys here. But we'll all help you make it right."
"Can I help too?" asked Charlotte. "My Mom teaches religious studies at one of the universities in town."
"The more the merrier," agreed Samantha. She and Ashleigh split up the galleys into roughly equal parts and handed them across the table.
One week later, they were returned. About twenty grammatical errors were found and polished, but only four major changes to the sisters' thesis (due to non-deliberate doctrinal errors) were made - two each by Felicity and Hope, who handed back the finished product.
"We take that as a vote of confidence," said Samantha gratefully. "Hopefully, this will hit the shelves just when my sis and I are due."
The phone then rang. It was Hope's lawyer. Her father was rapidly declining and his doctors were saying he might not survive for another two weeks.
"If you want to make peace with your father, now's the time," the lawyer urged.
Patrick, who heard this, shook his head. He wanted nothing to do with the man who molested him. But Hope knew she had to clear the air with her father about his role - or lack thereof - when she was raped by Ed.
"I'm on the next flight out," she said.
Ashleigh and Samantha were shocked, and dropped the galleys on the floor. Were the proofs not wrapped up by an elastic band, they would have flown all over the floor.