When Love Comes Home by Arlene James

Author:Arlene James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2007-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Over the course of the next month, Grady took so many meals at Paige’s house that he felt like one of the family, and while he didn’t seem any closer to really getting to know Vaughn, at least the kid wasn’t rude. All in all, he considered that he was making progress, especially as Paige seemed to count on him more and more. They attended every scrimmage and hockey game together, but Grady continued to transport Vaughn to and from practices on his own, bringing in dinner as often as not.

Over the past few weeks Grady had interviewed Paige’s pastor, Richard Haynes, as well as several of the members of his church, and they were honest, perfectly harmless, everyday folk whose faith, so far as Grady could tell, was genuine. Pastor Haynes was a slight, soft-spoken, middle-aged man with thinning hair and pale, friendly gray eyes. From the outset he had expressed the determination to protect his church and help Paige in any way possible, so Grady wasn’t particularly surprised to walk into Paige’s house one Thursday evening in the middle of March to find the man waiting for him.

After surrendering a family pack of fried chicken to Matthias and Vaughn, who carried the containers into the kitchen, Grady shook hands with the pastor and got right down to business. “Have you been in touch with FFROC?”

The Foundation For Research On Cults was the entity Nolan’s attorney had sicced on the church. Once a fully credible organization, it had largely devolved into what trial attorneys often referred to as a “hired gun.” In other words, its experts tended to tailor their reports to the needs of those who paid them, but Grady hoped that they were still serious enough about their research to want to actually do some when the opportunity presented itself. Haynes had promised to contact those investigators and answer their questions over the phone as they had originally requested.

The pastor nodded. “I’ve spoken to them all right, but they no longer want to interview me over the phone. Now they want to come to the church.”

“And bring cameras,” Paige added significantly.

Pleased, Grady shrugged. “Let ’em. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

Haynes smiled and relaxed. “My thoughts exactly. We’re set up for the end of April.”

Paige glanced toward the kitchen door, reminding them to keep their voices down so Vaughn wouldn’t overhear. “Does this mean we can knock down their claims about the church at least?” she asked Grady.

“I hope so. They’ll try to twist everything to their advantage, though, so we have to get them on record.”

“How do we do that?” Pastor Haynes wanted to know.

“Number of ways, but the most obvious is to tape the interviews yourself.”

Haynes seemed vaguely troubled by that, but he didn’t protest. “I don’t suppose there’s any privacy or confidentiality issue in something like this.”

“None,” Grady confirmed, “but I have to tell you here and now, that I’m going to want the tapes.”

Haynes nodded thoughtfully and suggested that they pray about the matter, starting that very moment.

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