CHURCH LADY P.I. Part # 17
(EPILOGUE: FACTS & LIFE)
After learning about Ginnette, Sarah was brought to me within the hour. We held each other for a very long time. There didn't seem to be anything else to do. Marc stayed with us for a while but then ultimately left the two of us alone. She crawled into my hospital bed and fell asleep in my arms.
The details of the case made newspaper headlines all across the country. In fact, as you've been reading these events they may have seemed vaguely familiar to you.
Bert had gotten to the police station in record time, but convincing them to drive out to the old Mount Zion Christian Camp in the middle of the night took a bit of doing because the local police were quite familiar with Bert and his conspiracy theories. So Bert decided to approach it differently and tell them that it was my "investigation" that had led us to the camp. But since my theories involved "stuffed bunnies" that didn't help him much. Finally I think the police started driving towards the camp simply because they didn't like the idea of us poking around there in the middle of the night. But when they saw the explosion and a "piece of the camp" actually landed in the road directly in front of one of their vehicles, they decided to make some haste. However their delay in believing Bert may have actually saved their lives, because in the very last tally, parts of the camp were actually found on the outskirts of the town itself.
It didn't take long for the FBI to show up and take over. Then, second only to God's ultimate Judgement Day, the real investigators arrived. The "Internal Revenue Service" descended from "on high" and "books were opened". And everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) who had more than two nickels to rub together were investigated and audited. But it wasn't actually that many people. Do you remember how I stated that it seemed the town was lacking a "middle class"? There were actually very few rich people in this town at all. And those who did have money were actually involved in the "Bunny Shop", as the press dubbed it.
When the explosion hit, the two 'sentries' that were chasing Marc around had just gone for a dunking into a river that ran through a small but deep valley, which kept them from all harm. Although, it did cause High School coach Fabre to re-examine his life and come to the conclusion that God had shown him much more mercy than he had coming to him.
The other man, the one Marc wasn't familiar with, ended up being a relative new comer to this small town. As an interesting side note, do you remember me mentioning that during my first service at the "Cathedral" church I noticed "two men who were both fidgeting fiercely" in their seats? It was the exact same two men. I suppose what I had witnessed was their consciences bothering them while they sat in church.
They were both given jail sentences worthy of kidnapping a little girl. But while my new found Christian brother, Douglas Fabre, was in the middle of his trial he decided to "come clean" completely and admitted to abusing several of the young boys that had been on the basketball team through the years. (Bert and his "High school prostitution ring" was right again). It increased the Coach's jail time considerably, but it began to set free several of the young men who had been entrusted to him to coach and instead had suffered greatly by his actions. He's now the unofficial but very busy Chaplain at the prison which will remain his home throughout his earthly lifetime. And, although I've never heard him preach, I'm told nobody can talk about God's forgiveness and the power it has to change a life as earnestly as he can.
As to the "good" Reverend Wright, one minute his name was everywhere and then it was nowhere. After he and his church were investigated by the FBI and audited by the IRS he looked destined for jail. Then he was suddenly nowhere to be found. The rumors were that the CIA became involved and the Reverend had some interesting information about national and international weapons smuggling he was willing to trade. But with a rumor who can know?
As to Mrs. Wright, the only thing she seemed to be guilty of was a "love of money", which is actually no little thing. The ultimate irony being that while she was taking offense that someone would suggest that her precious diamonds were cubic zirconia, they ended up being worth even less. Except for a couple pieces of jewelry received from Reverend Wright when they were courting, the rest of her jewels contained more paste than you will find in the toy box of a thousand kindergartners.
Without her husband and with no job and no money, Mrs. Wright fell back on her training as a nurse (which nobody even knew she had). I heard she became a missionary, sold the few jewels that were actually real and used them to purchase clean water wells for poor people in a village in Africa, before returning to Marc's small town to eventually get remarried and settle down with 7 children she adopted from that same village. But as I said, who can believe a rumor? People can invent the silliest things.
For example, it's also rumored she is so paranoid about her past with Reverend Wright that she has a "high tech artificial intelligence" that guards her home and her children. Her neighbors assure me they've see lights going on and off at all sorts of strange hours of the day and night and her front door opens "automatically" with only a coded knock. But I've actually been to her house and I've seen no artificial intelligence there.
They postponed Ginnette's "Celebration of Life" until after I got out of the hospital and I was the one who gave her eulogy. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But I recounted the last brief words we exchanged that night at the campground:
"I don't know how I'll ever thank all of you."
"Thank us when we are all home safe and celebrating because your precious daughter is back in your arms again."
"Oh, and what a celebration that's 'gonna' be!"
Yes. What a celebration when we are all safely Home and Parent and precious child are reunited!
Then people started spontaneously singing the "Mount Zion" song that Ginnette had played over and over in church as a secret code and I knew it was Jesus redeeming that wonderful hymn directly out of the hands of evil men and using it for His glory once again.
LINK to Next Part # 18 "Epilogue: Love"
FINALLY FINISHED: Church Lady P.I. from Laura-Lee Was Here Blog (Companion Post)
CHURCH LADY P.I.: Introduction
Copyright 2015 "The characters and events in this story are not meant to represent any persons living or dead and are entirely a product of the imagination of the writer." LR
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