The wedding of Lisa Lumby and Brigitte Dalrymple had been postponed to the end of summer, with the women's agreement, so that the three expecting ministers could complete their pregnancies without any interruptions.
As God had told the women, they would have their deliveries on the same day. It turned out to be June 27 which was the same day as a Sunday service. Sure enough, Felicity, Ruthie and Shelby all went into labor within minutes of each other. "Must be contagious!" joked Hope while she was at the pulpit, to laughter from the congregation.
Three ambulances pulled up to the church. They each went with one woman. The married women were accompanied by their husbands, while Ruthie rode along with Patrick (with gratitude, since she had the most difficult time walking out of the sanctuary and it was Patrick who quickly wrangled a wheelchair for her).
For the first time ever, Hope finally had a platform that was entirely her own, and solo. She decided to focus on The Rapture. She began by saying it was up to the congregants to made their own minds about it. But she spent nearly forty minutes tearing the concept down - that in her opinion, and unlike her parents, she thought it was a heresy. She could feel the Holy Spirit driving her to go on, and she got more excited as she went along like her parents might, but she was able to stay in control.
In wrapping up she said, "It seems that God would want to test our faith by allowing the Antichrist to come to power first and see which of we actually would take The Mark and which of us would endure and refuse to give in against all odds, rather than scoop us all up so we wouldn't face the disaster. And, for the sake of argument, if there was going to be one, who would rise up? The dead shall rise first, after all. What next? Will it just us evangelicals? Do Catholics get left behind? Those from the mainline churches? Those from the Eastern Churches? And what about non-Christians who have led the good life? We start excluding people, we may as well exclude ourselves.
"My parents and all the televangelists can say all they want, but the truth is this: The Rapture is nothing more than an over excited notion by a Scottish lass in 1830. Good hearted, but empty headed and totally wrong headed. Read in a scripture's whole context, selective reading becomes a futile exercise. So when my brothers and sisters and I say, 'Read Your Bible,' we mean read it for yourselves - the whole book, not just a few verses - and draw your own conclusions. When my sisters return from mat leave, we shall return to this subject. And rather than wait for an elusive promise, we will instead talk about building the City of God, here on earth!"
Hope got a standing ovation. It was the first time since the Crusade that she had one, but the first that was all for herself, and she started crying in appreciation. When she called for the collection, nearly a hundred thousand dollars came in, double the usual weekly take.
"I didn't set my brothers and sisters on fire, God, you did," she said in gratitude. "But thanks for giving me the words."
"You're welcome, daughter," she heard God reply.
To everyone's relief the deliveries went well. For Felicity, it was overwhelming joy as she had become a mother for the first time. As she held Isaac and Rebecca in her arms, she thanked God for them as well as Peter.
After giving her a huge kiss, and ensuring his wife was okay, Peter then ran into the Ruthie's room. Several minutes later, Ruthie gave birth to Randall and Jane. She had done this before, but she was still ecstatic and thanked Peter for the gifts of their babies even if they weren't a couple anymore.
"I said we'll always be a family. And with Felicity and her kids, we're now going to be one heck of a family!" He kissed Ruthie on the cheek.
James and Heather were thrilled. They hugged their mother first, then ran into Felicity's room, and for the first time, they called her "Mom".
Meanwhile, Shelby and Rod welcomed Danielle and Theodore into the world. While it was also a repeat performance for them, their joy, too, was still immeasurable. Their daughters were in absolute glee, and they started crying tears of thanksgiving.
After two days, the families finally managed to find time together in the same lounge. Maighread and Rhiannon were holding Danielle and Theodore close to them, while James and Heather held Isaac and Rebecca. The older siblings were thrilled knowing it wasn't just any kid they were babysitting but their own brothers and sisters.
Hope and Patrick were also on hand, holding onto Randall and Jane for Ruthie. While neither were their children, the siblings felt an intimate connection to the newborns that only true friends can have.
It was then that Peter's phone rang. It was someone on Skype. It was Jimmy Moon.
"Jimmy, what the hell?" asked Peter. "I thought I told you that the period to July 4th was no contact. The women here need time to settle with their babies!"
"I'm sorry, Pete," said Jimmy. "First of all - you got this on speaker? Because this is important and urgent."
Peter turned on the hands-free. "We're listening."
"Okay, first of all - Reverends, congratulations. Especially the new mothers. I wish all of you the best."
"Thanks Jimmy," said Ruthie, Shelby and Felicity together.
"Now, listen carefully. It turns out I'm a paid FBI informant, too. I was doing some scouting in Brussels - not related to your file, by the way. I happened to run into Lisa and Brigitte - Lisa is on my Facebook because she and I play online chess and backgammon. They were doing some cross-border shopping for their family. Out of nowhere, three thugs jump out of a car and drag the women into it and the thing just sped away! The plates were from the Netherlands, but that's all I saw. With the open borders, they could be half way across Europe by now."
One could hear a pin drop. Finally, Ruthie broke the silence.
"Any motive, Jimmy?"
"What else could it be, Ruthie, other than they're lesbians, they're getting married, by you no less and I know that because Lisa told me - and whoever did this doesn't like either one. This happened mid-day here today. There's no way the kidnappers could have known about you guys. That's what I thought at first, until someone looking up on Facebook saw Lisa as a friend of you, Ruthie. Not very smart if you're doing covert - but that doesn't matter now. But through some digging they figured out that Ruthie is Peter's ex, Peter, is married to Felicity and all of you are friends of mine. So I was the unlucky one, to get a ransom note faxed to me one hour ago with instructions to pass the message on to you - since none of you can be contacted right now - with the demand for money, from your church."
"How much?" asked Shelby.
"Two million euros - about two million six in our money."
The church had huge reserves, but ...
"There's no guarantee they'll deliver if we pay up. So no deal, period." said Felicity. She was in no way connected to Lisa and Brigitte but still felt a connection regardless
"These aren't ones to negotiate, Reverend Hunter," replied Jimmy deferentially. "The kidnappers claim that they're with Jackson Whirry's so called 'church'."
"Jimmy, just because I'm a minister now, doesn't mean you have to stop calling me by my first name! We're buddies, remember?"
"Thanks, Felicity."
"Well ... how would the bandits know about the wedding? We've all been keeping it under wraps!" said Rod.
"No, actually, Lisa and Brigitte haven't. They announced their engagement on Facebook a long time ago, several months before Ruthie met Lisa for their liaison. The women hold each other's hands whenever they go out. And one day, one of them was spotted going into a bridal salon and the other into another salon a mile down the road an hour later. You figure it out. I think they've been followed for weeks, if not months."
"Wait a minute," said Peter. "If Whirry ordered this, then it means he knows about the investigation - which means, someone's betrayed us. And that's how he knows about Lisa and Brigitte, too."
"Very likely," conceded Jimmy. "I'll be faxing over the letter so you can read it, but the bandits are clear they don't want any police involvement. That includes the military police, Rod and Shelby."
"Absolutely not!" snapped Shelby. "These women are our friends, and they need our help. Their respective children, too! You don't mess with a mother, and we three mothers are in. Ruthie, call Kevin. Felicity, call the FBI. Hope, we need your help too so call your friend at Europol to liaise with the Brussels Police. As soon as this call is over, I'm calling JAG. If Whirry had anything to do with this, he needs to be brought in now."
"That's one question I'm wondering about, Reverend Connor," inquired Jimmy. "Um ... Shelby. When the sting went down, why wasn't Whirry with them?"
"According to our sources," Shelby replied, "most of their money is parked in Guernsey and a tax haven in Italy called Livigno. The Italians are cooperating with the SEC, of course, but ... well, put it this way. The relationship between Britain and the Channel Islands, is like that of China and Hong Kong. It's the same country, but they have separate governments and basically operate as if they were separate nations. Since Guernsey is technically outside of the European Union, even though it's part of the free trade zone, it doesn't have to comply with money-laundering treaties. While it does has its own laws about 'Smurfing' and other forms of dirty money, they're almost never enforced. And even if Britain tried to nudge the dependency to open the books as an act of goodwill, they probably wouldn't. Bank secrecy laws, remember. Until it gets its act together and does cooperate, Whirry can and will get away with it."
"How much money?"
"God knows. But based on the Italian numbers we do know, which is about seventy five mill, we're figuring about half a billion of stolen money."
"Well ... Good luck guys," said Jimmy. "I'll work my sources about the women, as well as the money, and if I find out anything about either I'll let you know."
"Keep us posted, Jimmy ... please!" said Peter. He ended the connection.
"What do we do now, guys?" said Hope. "These were the best three days we've had in a long time. Now we've got this on our plate. Any ideas?"
There was complete silence. Even the children who could talk were stumped. Finally, Heather spoke up.
"It's a long shot ... but maybe we need to call our friends in New York. Shana, Heather, Connie and Cheryl. Matt's ex-girlfriends. The private eyes. If anyone can find Lisa and Brigitte, they can."
"They're not doing it for free this time - matter of fact they're going to charge us an arm and leg - but they may be our only hope," admitted Ruthie. She reached for her cell phone and looked up the speed dial for the Greenwich Chicks Detective Agency in Manhattan.