Three

Matt encouraged a group of people to shuffle to the center of the pew. Then he directed an elderly couple to take the now-vacant spaces on the aisle seat. He smiled, expressed his best wishes that they would enjoy the service, and returned to his position at the center entrance to the sanctuary.

He’d arrived earlier than usual today. Normally, he kept an eye on things Sunday mornings when he was ushering, but this time he’d been more diligent in watching the crowd.

Today, he was looking for a young family whose names were Gwen, Lionel, and Jessica. He didn’t know what they looked like because he hadn’t had time to browse through the church photo directory, but he did know the baby would be approximately two months old. He didn’t intend to say anything to them if he did manage to identify them. He was only curious because they were Sarah’s friends.

As Matt watched, a young lady entered the building. By the way she looked around the building, it was obvious that she’d never been there before.

He smiled as she approached him. She wore a modest pink dress topped by a light, waist-length jacket. Her shoes were the exact same pink as the dress. In her hair, she wore some kind of matching fluffy fabric adornment.

Overall, she was feminine and pretty. Her light brown hair was shoulder length and framed her face nicely, even if it was a bit unruly. As she came even closer, he was drawn by the color of her eyes—a unique shade of green that was quite uncommon, yet he’d seen those eyes recently. He tried hard to remember where. Since it obviously wasn’t at church, the next place he could think of was at the bank, although he usually used the drive-thru bank machine.

He ran through a mental checklist of the cashiers at the supermarket as he continued to study her, trying not to make it obvious that he was watching.

He thought he was doing well until she turned and looked straight at him.

Suddenly, Matt stiffened from head to toe.

The pointy little chin. The delicate cheeks. Judging from the height of her heels, she was five feet, five inches tall.

She stopped and studied him. Her eyes widened even more. He did know those eyes. He saw them once a week, sometimes twice if he was lucky. However, he’d never seen her in “real” clothes and without her hair pulled back. He’d never seen her wear make-up, but today she wore just enough to highlight her best features, especially those unusual eyes.

She gave him a bright, warm smile. “I see I came to the right place.”

“Sarah? What are you doing here?” He shook his head and forced himself to smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I’m glad you came. Would you like to have a seat?”

She stepped forward a couple of feet into the sanctuary and stopped. Moving only her head, she scanned the large room, which seated nine hundred people on an average Sunday morning.

“That would be nice. Where are you sitting?” Suddenly her face turned beet red, and she covered her cheeks with her palms. “I’m so sorry. If you’re already sitting with someone else. . .your family. . .” Her voice trailed off.

Matt thought of his mother and father, who were attending their own church back in Toronto, where he had been born and raised. “No, my family lives in. . .” He let his own voice trail off as it dawned on him what she meant. He felt his own cheeks heat up, probably matching hers. “I’m here alone. I’m not married. We can sit together if you’d like.”

“Are you sure? I can go sit with Gwen and Lionel.” She turned her head and scanned the growing crowd already seated in the sanctuary. “They don’t know I’m coming, but they’ve got to be here somewhere. I really wanted to talk to you, though. Can I ask you something after the service? There’s something I’m not sure of, and I didn’t know how to get in touch with you through the police station.” She fidgeted with her purse, studying it intently as she did so. “I don’t mean to intrude on your time off.” She turned her head to look at the door. Matt wondered if she were about to bolt.

Matt held his hands out. “It’s okay, Sarah. How about if we go out for lunch after the service, and you can tell me then what’s on your mind.”

She smiled so sweetly that her relief was almost tangible. “Thank you, Constable Walker. That’s perfect.”

He grinned. “Please, my name is Matt. I’m not on duty now.” He ran his hand down his tie, then smoothed the lapel of his suit.

Behind him, he could hear the door open and close. Sarah looked behind him. “You may not be on duty, but you are ushering. I should leave you alone. More people just walked in.”

Matt turned. He smiled and nodded at the newcomers. “Hi Brad, Selina.”

“Hi, Matt.” Brad and Selina glanced briefly at Sarah, smiled and nodded at her, and walked past them into the sanctuary.

“Not everyone needs to be escorted in. But this is your first time here, so you do. Since I’m ushering, I’ll be standing near the door until about ten minutes after the start of the service. If you like, you can sit here, at the end of the last pew. I can join you after everything gets started.”

Their eyes met. She smiled at him, her face the picture of sweetness.

Matt’s throat went dry. The same friendly face from the donut shop was smiling at him, but everything else had changed. She looked so different out of the unisex, shapeless blue smock of the donut shop. At Donnie’s Donuts, she looked like just another clerk, not unlike anyone else working in any donut shop in town. Today, in the setting of his church, she was an attractive woman, a real person among his friends and Christian brothers and sisters.

“I’ll just sit down now, and I’ll see you again when you’re done.”

Without waiting for him to move, Sarah picked a bulletin out of the pile in his hand, sidestepped around him, and sat in the closest empty aisle seat. Once seated, she looked back at him over her shoulder, waved, and faced the front.

Matt stared at the back of her head. He doubted it was a coincidence that her presence at church immediately followed his admission that he attended regularly. At the time, she’d commented that she knew people who went to the same church as he did, but she didn’t say that she attended regularly elsewhere. The omission made him nervous. She’d already admitted that she wanted to talk to him about something, confirming that she wasn’t there to seek God. She was there to seek him.

He’d been down that road before with a woman, and he wouldn’t do it again.

Regardless, he had promised to take her out for lunch, and since he wasn’t completely sure about her faith, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

For the remainder of the time until the service started, he greeted people at the door and escorted many to their seats as required. When the lights dimmed and the stream of people dwindled, he quietly walked into the foyer and to one of the other entrances to the sanctuary.

“Dave, I need a favor.”

Dave smiled. “Sure. What’s up?”

“Someone I wasn’t expecting came today, and I want to sit with her. Can you check the halls for me and keep an eye on things?”

“No problem. Enjoy the service.”

Matt smiled, but he wasn’t sure he would. He knew he would be distracted. Whenever it was his turn to usher, he kept an eye on the hallways during the service. Sometimes opportunistic thieves wandered into the church midway through the service hoping to find an unlocked and unoccupied room full of things to steal while everyone’s attention was elsewhere.

Matt stood at the rear of his designated aisle until the ushers were called forward to take up the offering. When everything was done, he made his way to the sound room with the other ushers, where they put all the bags into the safe. After he made sure the door was locked properly, he walked back into the sanctuary. Instead of taking up his usual position, he sat beside Sarah.

She shifted to make room for him and smiled as he tucked his Bible under his seat. He then joined in with the congregation as everyone sang a couple more worship songs.

Most of the time he could make the adjustment from the security in the hallway to focusing his thoughts and heart on the Lord, but not today.

Today, he could concentrate only on Sarah. While he often saw people who didn’t sing much or at all, it was rather obvious that Sarah didn’t know any of the songs. Even though Matt suspected her only reason for being there was because of him, Matt said a quick prayer for her. If Sarah wasn’t at that moment a believer, he prayed that she would be moved by the words, which were about God’s love and forgiveness.

The sermon centered on the same topic, which Matt thought perfect for a non-believer to hear. He didn’t know if she owned a Bible, but since she hadn’t brought one, he shared his, pointing to the text when the pastor began to read.

Her eyebrows rose as he paged to the next passage. She leaned closer to him and whispered. “You’ve written stuff in your Bible. In pen. Is that allowed?”

Matt smiled. “If I make notes on the backs of the weekly bulletins, it’s too much like filing my reports. I’ll remember some, but I could never remember everything, especially once it’s filed. If Pastor Colin says something that really hits me, I write it in my Bible so I’ll see it again the next time I’m reading on that page. It’s kind of like tapping myself on the shoulder. Other times, the notes help clarify the meaning of a section, so I’ll understand it the way it was meant next time I read it.”

“Oh. That’s a good idea. I guess.”

As the sermon progressed, Matt thought Sarah seemed quite receptive to the pastor’s words. Whether she would take it to heart, only God knew. He had to trust that things would happen in God’s timing and not his own.

At the close of the service, he didn’t take up his usual position at the door when he was ushering. Instead, he quietly left with Sarah. They agreed on a restaurant not usually frequented by the church crowd, and soon they were seated at a fairly private table beside the window.

Matt folded his hands on the table in front of him, making direct eye contact when he spoke. “What’s on your mind?”

Sarah glanced from side to side, then met his gaze. “I think something bad is happening at Donnie’s Donuts.” She leaned toward him and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Something illegal.”

He quirked one eyebrow. “Can you be a little more specific?”

Her eyes grew round and she leaned closer to him, her voice lowered even more. “I saw Donnie in his office when he didn’t know I could see him. He had a gun.”

“Lots of people have guns, Sarah. What kind of gun was it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see it that well. I was on the floor of the closet, looking through the vent.”

“Was the gun properly stored?”

“Stored?”

“Was it in a locked cabinet?”

“I saw him lock the drawer, so I guess so.”

“What was he doing with it? Did he fire it or aim it at something?”

“No. But he did check it for bullets before he put it back in the drawer.”

“Was it loaded?”

“I couldn’t tell. But he checked the gun right after someone came in. I don’t know the guy’s name, but I’ve seen him visiting Donnie before. I heard them on the phone before he got there. They made sure you and Constable Edwards were gone before he came in. He gave Donnie a briefcase, which Donnie locked in the safe really fast.”

“While that does sound suspicious, that’s not illegal either, Sarah. It’s a good idea for any business that handles cash to have a safe and to keep valuables adequately protected.”

“But Donnie asked him if he ‘had it all’. What if it was dirty money in there? What if they’re laundering money through the donut shop? I’ve heard about stuff like that happening. Or what if it was credit card scams? I hear that’s a really hot crime right now. Or what if it’s stolen goods?” Her voice lowered even more. “Or drugs.”

Matt sighed. “You mean you don’t know what was in the briefcase?”

“No. But the whole thing just looked so. . .wrong. That guy was really evil looking. He gave me the creeps. He threatened Donnie too.”

Matt tensed. “Now you’ve got something we can use. What exactly did he say? Can you describe him?”

One eye narrowed. “I know I’ve seen him before, but I never really paid attention. I can’t describe him other than he’s got brown hair. I couldn’t see his eyes or even his face, really, from where I was on the floor of the closet. I mostly saw just his back. Next time he comes in, I’ll get a better look at him. But he said Donnie had better meet his side of the bargain.”

Matt waited for her to say more, but all she did was stare at him. “And then what?”

“And then he left.”

Matt dragged one palm down his face. “It’s not a threat to say that you expect someone to meet the terms of their agreement. Did you hear what the bargain was?”

“No. But I could tell it was something bad. Donnie looked really defensive.”

All he could do was stare at her. “Defensive. . . Sarah, I wish there was something I could do or say, but you really haven’t got anything I can follow up on. I can’t arrest someone for looking creepy. You have no proof, or even reasonable grounds that something illegal is going on. We can’t spend the manpower to investigate why a business owner would put a briefcase into a safe, or why he would have a gun in a locked drawer if he’s the registered owner. But if you really can say for sure something definable is happening, then the proper thing to do is to go down to the station and file a complaint or fill out a suspicious persons report if you can identify the perpetrator.”

“I can’t do that. That’s why I came to you. I wanted to know what to do.”

“Unfortunately, you can’t report a crime until it happens. There’s nothing you can do except keep an eye on things. When something happens, then please report it, by all means. Or do the same as you just did. Talk to me when you see something unusual. I’ll do my best to help. If you need something checked out, I can do that. First, I can check and see if Donnie has a gun registered to his name. Even if he doesn’t, before I can do anything, I’d need to get a search warrant. I’d need a good reason to do that, and then he’d find out you were watching him. You don’t want that. For all you know, if you didn’t see it that well, it may not have been a gun at all. He could have been changing the battery in his cell phone. You’d be surprised what people think they see in situations like what you just experienced. Would you be able to identify that specific gun if we lined up three or four pistols in a row?”

Her eyebrows rose. “I doubt it. I didn’t see it that well.”

“Until we can ascertain what’s happening, all you can do is keep quiet and be careful. It could be nothing. For all we know, it could be a family heirloom in that briefcase, and the only bargain is Donnie agreed to keep it locked up.”

“I had a bad feeling you were going to say that. I’m glad I asked you before I went into the police station and made a fool of myself.”

Strangely, at that moment he felt proud of her, that she was thinking of making a report, even though she had nothing concrete to stand on. If more citizens reported suspicious activity when there was something worthwhile to follow up, then the police would have a better chance at catching the bad guys. Too many people turned a blind eye when they saw something wrong. Yet, those were the same people who blamed the police for doing nothing and being caught unaware when something major happened and no one saw it coming.

In this instance, in his gut, he suspected Sarah was probably right. In his experience, when an employee had a bad feeling something funny was going on behind the scenes, there usually was. However, since Sarah hadn’t witnessed anything concrete, and since they had no evidence of a criminal act, she was best to stay in the background—watching.

Since she still appeared nervous, Matt thought it a good time to change the subject to something less threatening. What he really wanted was to gauge her reaction to the service and to see where she sat spiritually, but this wasn’t the right timing because her mind was obviously on other things.

For the rest of their afternoon together, he changed the subject to distract her from being frightened. He gave her some tips on playing guitar and recommended a few beginner books when he found out she only owned one so far.

Once they were finished eating and ready to leave, Matt escorted her to her car. He stepped close, wishing he could do something to prove her fears were not unfounded and find something on which the force could begin a genuine investigation. Yet he was bound by rules and regulations. For now, all he could do was give her advice, and he wasn’t comfortable with that. She was different from the average civilian. She was. . .Sarah.

“Remember, if you see or hear anything, no matter how small, and even if it seems insignificant, talk to me about it. I’ll be able to tell you when it’s time to file a report. Just be careful and don’t do anything foolish.” He grinned and splayed one hand over the center of his chest. “That’s my job.”

She smiled and reached to him, resting her hand on his arm. “Thank you, Matt. It feels so funny after all this time to call you by your first name. I’ll do that. I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Especially, thank you for buying my lunch. I owe you one.”

He smiled back. “No problem. I’ll see you in a few nights. Until then, stay safe.”