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(Jehovah’s Valley, Oregon, 2 a.m. Thursday, October 2, 2013)
Stephen listened to Naomi’s soft-spoken story, and told her to sit with the Preacher, who appeared to be sleeping in his recliner as he often did these days. Stephen wasn’t sure if it was because the half-seated position eased his breathing, or because he hated sleeping alone in the bed he and Mary had shared for 30 years or more.
He went into the second bedroom, now unused unless there were guests visiting the community, and made sure his kids were sleeping. The third bedroom, once his, was Timothy’s. He remembered when Mrs. Brooks—even now at 37, he had a hard time thinking of her by her first name, Roberta—had driven out and met with his parents. He and Andrew were still in high school. Janet’s room had been repainted and refurnished, not something the Valley did lightly, and Andrew had moved into it. Stephen had refused to take it. He was furious his sister was gone, and everyone acted as if she never existed. Andrew had always been more pragmatic: Janet was away at college like she wanted; he had a bedroom of his own like he wanted.
Mrs. Brooks had a baby with her. And after she left, his parents had introduced them to their new baby brother Timothy, a six-month-old who needed a family.
Stephen had accosted Mrs. Brooks in her homeroom the following morning. “Is he Janet’s son?” he had demanded.
She looked at him silently. Then sighed. “You’re old enough to ask hard questions, and to get straight answers,” she said. “Be sure you want the answer to that one.”
“I need to know,” he said.
“Yes. Janet cannot raise him. Eli Andrews is missing in action in Iraq. She’s 18 years old and in college. Her aunt is too old to help by herself. So, she thought it best that he be raised in the Valley as she was.”
Stephen had been unsure what her frown meant, and he’d used up all of his courage in asking that much. He’d nodded and left.
In hindsight, he wished he’d asked why she frowned. And he also wished he’d asked who Timothy’s father was. Given Preacher’s comments tonight, he feared he knew.
He shook his head, chasing the memories away, and unlocked the gun safe his father kept in Andrew’s old room. He pulled out an old model 22 pistol and eyed it uncertainly, but his father took good care of his weapons—military training, he supposed. He loaded it and stuck it in the back of his trousers. He pulled down the shotgun, grabbed some shells, and loaded it. The extras he stashed in his pockets.
He turned around to find Naomi watching him.
“Are you going to shoot my dad?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t think it will come to that,” he said. He prayed he wasn’t lying to her and headed out the door.
“Brother Stephen?” she called.
He stopped.
“John Junior is out tonight. And he’s got a rifle with him too.”
“Do you know why?”
“He and Dad said Army of God would be returning tonight. I think he’s up at the gate doing guard duty.”
“Andy with him?” His nephew seemed to follow John Junior around a lot.
“No, Brother Andrew wouldn’t let Andy go out. Not on a school night.”
Stephen wondered how she knew. Eavesdropping, he supposed. If he was in her shoes, he would too. “Thank you, Naomi,” he said with real gratitude. “Stay here. Don’t leave Dad alone, no matter who tells you to, unless it’s my wife. Not even your father, alright?”
“Yes, sir,” she whispered.
Stephen was halfway across the open center of the Valley when headlights headed down from the gate. Four black pickups. He swallowed. Adam was back. He needed to get his sister out of that cabin before Adam saw her, because he would know immediately that Janet would never live as John’s wife. Even if John was crazy enough to think so, Adam wasn’t. And he’d kill her. Adam wasn’t crazy about this scheme anyway, even though his boss had approved it. It made Steven think more of Adam’s intelligence—and less of his boss’s. He picked up his pace, not quite a run because it was too dark for that. As he veered closer to the barn, he heard a woman’s voice call his name.
He stopped, thinking it was Paula, but the woman standing in the shadows was too tall to be his wife. “Sis? How did you get out of the Cabin?” he hissed, heading toward her.
“Never mind that now,” she said, nodding toward the pickups. “Army of God, right? Why are they here?”
He filled her in briefly on their mission in Seattle. “They’ll sleep here, regroup, and head out after breakfast,” he said.
“They firebombed the Planned Parenthood Clinics?” she whispered appalled.
He considered her reaction, realizing she didn’t see it as he or the other men of the Valley saw it. For the first time, he wondered what Paula would think if she knew. “That was their plan when they left here,” he said.
“Stephen,” she said, stopped. “Look, this is dangerous for the Valley. You all know what they look like. You knew of their plans. Do you really think they’re going to be OK with that? Do you think the police won’t make the connection? That they won’t come here?”
It wouldn’t be the first time the police had come looking for evidence of Army of God, Stephen thought but was smart enough not to say. This might be his sister, but he didn’t know her, not anymore. No enough to confess accessory to murder to her.
“Especially when they realize I’m loose,” she muttered. The pickups were pulling up next to the Welch’s house. She looked at them thoughtfully as five men piled out. Lean, fit men dressed in dark clothing, and packing duffle bags. She’d seen Mac carry a duffle bag exactly like those. Ex-military, at least some of them, she thought. Weapons in those bags.
The women were still singing in the church. First, protect the innocents, she thought.
Second, contain the bad guys.
And third, well, vengeance seemed appropriate.
Coming to a decision, she looked at her younger brother. “You with me, or with them?” she asked bluntly.
Stephen met her eyes. “I’m with this Valley,” he said straight-forward. “Mine to protect.”
Janet nodded. “Good enough. Then you need to send word around and get everyone to the church for an all-night prayer meeting. The women have already gotten it started, but you need everyone there who will go. And then stay there.”
“What are you going to do?” he said. “You can’t take them on by yourself.”
She smiled grimly. “I don’t have to. I just need to stay missing for a few more hours.” She reached over and took the shotgun from him. He let her have it.
“And what happens then?” he called to her as she headed up the hill to the pasture beyond the Cabin.
“Remember Mac? If he’s more than a couple of hours behind them, I don’t know my reporter.”
“Mac? The writer that visited Dad? He’s your reporter?” Stephen turned that over in his head. “Wait, Janet!”
She stopped. Stephen handed her the two letters. “Dad asked me to give these to you.”
She took them reluctantly. “What are they?”
“A letter Mom wrote you before she died, and one from Dad. I suspect they wanted to explain things to you.”
She shook her head. “No time to be dealing with old family drama,” she muttered, shoving the letters into her pockets.
Stephen watched as she disappeared into the dark. Then he turned and went back to the parsonage. No one like two pre-teens to spread the word of an all-night prayer meeting.
He watched his two children heading to the houses along the main road, and then turned to the church. Just steps away from the church, he was confronted by Adam and John Junior.
“Brother Stephen,” Adam said courteously. “Do you know where Brother John is?”
Stephen feigned surprise. He looked at John Junior. “He’s not at home?”
“No,” John Junior said. “He was when I left to guard the gate and let Adam in. But he’s not there now. Naomi’s gone too.”
Stephen shrugged. “Naomi’s sitting with my father. But I haven’t seen Brother John.” He nodded at the church. “I take it he’s not in there?”
“No, apparently he stopped in earlier,” Adam said, in that still courteous voice. But Stephen could tell he wasn’t happy about the missing man.
“Then the only other place he’d be is the Penitent Cabin,” Stephen said slowly. Just how had Janet gotten out? “Did you go up there?”
One of Adam’s men appeared beside him. “That the cabin John had us put his wife in?” Stephen didn’t know his name, but he’d been one of the men who had driven Janet out earlier—yesterday now, he supposed.
“He had you put his wife in the Penitent Cabin,” Adam repeated slowly, looking up at the small log cabin on the hill that overlooked the settlement in the valley. “Why?”
The man shrugged. “She screamed at him, told him he was mad, that she’d never be his wife,” he told Adam. “Brother John...,” the man hesitated, looked at Adam, and then at Stephen. Stephen kept a blank face. He wasn’t going to get any help from him. “Brother John grew very angry,” he said at last. “Then he said to put her in there and let her think about her choices. He padlocked it.”
Adam sighed. “I told them this was not going to end well,” he muttered.
The men walked silently up the hill to the Cabin. It was still padlocked.
“Who has the key,” Adam asked.
“Brother John had it,” Stephen replied. He looked at John Junior. “Do you know where he keeps it?”
John Junior shook his head. “He had it with him, last I knew,” he said. “He gave it to Naomi when we brought Janet dinner. But Dad made Naomi give it back.”
“And that’s the only key?” Adam asked the young man.
“Might be another somewhere, but I don’t know where.”
“Quiet in there,” Adam’s second observed.
“She was singing earlier,” John Junior said. “Maybe she’s asleep.”
Adam grunted. “A problem for later.” He looked at the four men who were with him. “Spread out. We need to find John Welch. It’s too dark for him to have gone far. He’s here somewhere. Use caution.”
The men nodded and briefly discussed a grid for their search before heading out. They had flashlights. Stephen was almost envious. It was a dark night, just a bare first-quarter moon. He felt like he was stumbling around in the dark, both figuratively and literally. John Junior decided to go with them.
Adam looked down the hill to see people streaming toward the church. “Odd time for a church service,” he observed.
Stephen nodded. “Sometimes we are called by God to worship him for a night of praise,” he said truthfully. Although usually with a bit more planning than this night. But never with more need.
“Janet Andrews. She’s a newspaper editor, right?”
“Yes,” Stephen said cautiously, sensing a trap ahead.
“She have a reporter who is ex-military?”
Stephen had a sinking feeling as he saw the pieces fit together. Never had he felt more like swearing. “Son of a....”
“Yes?”
Stephen sighed. “Dad had a visitor recently. A writer, he said. I didn’t make the connection until now. I knew he looked familiar.”
“Janet’s reporter has been out here?” Adam’s voice was sharp. “Why would he look familiar?”
Stephen began walking toward the barn, more because he needed to move than because he needed to be at the barn. Besides, if he was right about where John was, getting Adam away from the Cabin was a good idea.
“Remember the reporter who wrote about Howard Parker last year? The man nominated for National Security Advisor?”
“That’s the reporter?”
“Yeah. Mac Davis.”
Both men were silent as they absorbed the implications of that. “Why are you asking about the reporter?” Stephen asked.
“Had an encounter with him at one of the Clinics. He captured one of my men, hauled him off to the police.” Adam chewed on his lower lip. “He’s going to be coming after us. He’s going to look here for Janet. He’s figured out that she’s alive.”
Stephen said nothing, trying to decide if that would be helpful for the Valley or would turn this place into a battle zone. He thought about the impressions he’d gotten from Mac when he visited. He sighed.
“Yes?” Adam asked.
“Just thinking about what he was like when he was here,” Stephen said, deciding not to mention John’s attack. Adam was already beginning to see John was unstable. He’d report that to Army of God leadership. And then Army of God would take over Jehovah’s Valley.
“How persistent do you think he is?”
Stephen snorted.
“Yeah. That’s what I think too.”
Stephen headed to the potbellied stove and chairs in one corner of the barn. They were there for whomever was on maternity duty with the cows, horses, or sheep. But the men often found them an escape from family life as well. He pulled the pistol out of the back of his trousers and sank down into one. Adam looked at the weapon but said nothing as he took another chair. Stephen assumed he was armed as well.
“So,” Adam said conversationally. “Do you know where John is?”
Stephen shook his head. “No. I know he’s not at the church—or he wasn’t just before you got here. He’s not with Dad, because that’s where I was. And unless he circled around us, he’s not at his house.”
“What are the chances he’s locked himself in with Janet?” Adam asked. Then he shook his head. “I guess he couldn’t do that, with the padlock on the outside of the door.”
“No.” Stephen agreed.
Adam was silent, but he tapped his fingers on his knee. He sighed.
“I see two options. We gear up for a fight here, because that reporter —Mac? — is probably only a couple of hours behind me, and we’ve already wasted some time. Or, we leave now, and by the time he gets here, we’re at the Boise airport.”
“Probably easier for us to deal with him if you’re not here,” Stephen suggested. Please God, he thought.
“Yeah, that would be my first choice,” Adam agreed. “But I’m not the one who is going to make that decision. I’ll have to call in.”
Shit, Stephen thought. He felt guilty at even thinking the word, but it truly seemed justified. Shit.
Adam pulled out his cell phone, looked at the bars, and frowned.
“No reception in the Valley,” Stephen said. “Come to the house. It’s empty; you can use the house phone.”
Seeing him hesitate, Stephen added, “Or you can drive into North Powder. It’s six miles, but it has cell coverage, I’m told.”
Adam sighed. “I’ll use your phone.”
The two men walked silently to the house. Stephen deliberately avoided looking around the barn as they left. He’d spotted Janet briefly, eavesdropping on their conversation. He didn’t think that Adam, more used to lights than the dark of the night, would see her, but he didn’t want to call attention to her anyway. What had she done to John Welch? He was pretty sure he was locked up in the Penitent Cabin, but he wasn’t sure if he was alive. He hadn’t made any sounds when they were talking outside the door. If Janet had killed him? Well, who was he to judge? He himself had blood on his hands by association.
He would always feel guilty about the death of the FBI agent. He could have stopped it somehow, he thought. He wasn’t sure how. But, somehow.
He opened the back door to his home and gestured Adam inside. Adam looked around the kitchen and smiled. “Nice,” he said.
Stephen nodded, and then pointed to the phone on the wall. His mother had insisted on phone lines as soon as the Valley could afford them. She had feared an accident of some kind and not being able to call an ambulance, or the fire department, or whoever was necessary. He was grateful.
Adam dialed a number. When his boss picked up, he explained the situation concisely. The man on the other end asked a question.
Adam looked at Stephen. “He wants to know if the Valley supports John Welch as their next leader. Even without your father’s blessing.”
Stephen thought about that. What was the truth? And what answer would protect the Valley the best? He didn’t know.
“Dad doesn’t see anyone else capable of leading,” Stephen answered slowly. “Neither I nor my brother are the least bit interested, and we’re the only other two he sees as possible.”
“Do you agree with that?”
Stephen waved his hand back and forth. “Yes, although we could probably establish a board of deacons, if John wasn’t available.”
Adam listened to his boss.
“Is John Welch sane.” He made it more of a statement than a question.
Stephen hesitated, which really was the answer, wasn’t it? he thought grimly.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I don’t know.”
Adam listened again. He argued that he and the other men should leave the Valley to its own devices. They wouldn’t be coming back in this direction until the manhunt died down anyway. That would give the Valley time to sort out its own leadership.
He sighed.
“Can the Valley survive financially without Army of God money?”
Stephen shook his head. “I think so, but only John and maybe my father would know the answer to that. We needed you in the past. But we’ve made changes. People work outside the Valley now. I think we’re solid.”
If it would get Army of God out of their lives, and John Welch out of the leadership role, he’d see to it that they were financially solid.
Adam listened again. He looked like he wanted to protest, but he didn’t. He said his goodbyes and hung up.
“He says we’re to stay here, until we find John and until we can wrap up the situation with the reporter.”
“What does that mean exactly? Wrap up the situation with the reporter?”
Adam looked at him steadily and didn’t answer.
