Promises Pt. 02

Just then the owner and the Chef came out of the kitchen. They shook hands with Frank and Michael and both of them gave Joan an enthusiastic hug. "Good luck! We all hope that you nail the sanctimonious bastard! Do you know that just last week he was in here for dinner and the woman that he was cosying up to wasn't his wife. We recognized her on TV this evening, she was standing right behind him hanging off his every word."

"Very interesting." Michael said as they walked towards their cars. "I think I might do a little investigating, this just might be something that we can use to hang him out to dry."

CC Jones had not stayed in his hotel room as he said that he would. He sat in the living area of his $1000 per night suite going over his impressions of this meeting with the Shining Light crew. Mayotte he liked, Mayotte had the qualities that made for a successful Senior Pastor, a man from a sales background who had charisma, who could sell the product called church.

Fenton was a different kettle of fish entirely; while Mayotte was the showman Fenton was the teacher. But Fenton had an agenda of his own, he wanted the church, but if he took over, the church would wither away and eventually die unless he brought people in who could do what Mayotte was now doing. The message on its own wasn't enough. Fenton also had designs on Cynthia Mayotte; he wanted to usurp Mayotte on both counts. He probably knew about Mayotte and Janine and was prepared to reveal all to Cynthia when the time came. Fenton needed to be taught a lesson.

Having decided that something needed to be done, CC Jones left the hotel. He walked the streets of the city looking for one thing, a group of Harley Davidsons that he knew would lead him to what he needed. He found them appropriately enough outside a former church that was now a nightclub. As he stood admiring the gleaming motor cycles two large men dressed in the colours of the Hells Angels walked over and stood beside him. "These your hogs?"

"You sound as if you know them."

"Hell boy, I had my legs over one of these babies before your Pappy had thrown his leg over your Mommy. I got me an Electra-glide tucked away in my garage back home."

The conversation moved on from there and CC soon found himself seated at the bar of a nearby house drinking straight bourbon with the two men, Spike and The Toecutter, and a couple of girls.

He regaled them with tales of the motorcycle journeys that he made over the years right across the US and up into Canada and down to Mexico. He inferred that the runs into Mexico were to run drugs into the US. "Those Customs boys on the Mexican border are some dumb sumbitches. You'd think they'd know to look in the gas tank of a hog comin' back across the border, but they just waved us on through. It might have been different if'n I had a 'Greaser' on the pillion."

"We don't have that problem here. We can run weed and ice clear across the country, and unless the driver gets pulled over or has an accident, the profits are huge. If we lose a driver or a car here and there it's no big deal, what we make on the other runs more than covers it."

"Do you have any problems with the other tribes?"

"Not normally, we have fairly strict boundaries and unless someone is stupid enough to cross those boundaries it is quiet. We tend to mind our own patches."

"If you have any problems, what sort of firepower can you muster?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"I might just need to borrow a hog and a weapon for a little job I have to do. It has nothing to do with you or any of the other gangs, it's a private matter."

"We have a gunsmith that is able to put together a really good working copy of a Glock 19, the beauty is that there will be no serial number on it."

"Is it reliable?"

"It's as good, if not better than the original."

"Any chance of a silencer to go with it?"

"You don't want much, and I suppose you want that yesterday as well?"

"No, tomorrow will be fine. Also, do you have someone that can make me a good Passport?"

"I suppose you also want that yesterday?"

"No, tomorrow is soon enough. Tomorrow afternoon."

"This is going to cost you big time."

"Name it. By the way, I will be bringing the hog and the shooter back."

"A grand for the hire of the gun and bike, the passport will cost you five grand."

"Done. Where can I pick them up?"

"At the church where we met you, at five. Is that soon enough?"

"Sure."

"We need a name for the passport."

"How about Harlan Sanders."

"Okay. Next we need a picture of you for the Passport. Susie will you get the camera from our room?"

One of the girls got up and went down the hallway, they heard her rummaging through some stuff to emerge with a small digital camera. CC stood against the wall as she took several head shots of him.

"We'll see you tomorrow then." Spike said as CC left.

CC was back in his room by 11:00. By 11:30 he was no longer alone, a quiet word to the concierge and a young lady who was prepared to attend to his every desire had arrived along with a case of leather and studded paraphernalia. CC was about to enjoy himself immensely.

An hour of discipline left CC with bright red welts over his back and buttocks, he was then able to perform sexually for a further thirty minutes. As his dominatrix was packing her bag to leave, CC asked her what she was doing for the next day. "For a price I am yours for as long as you need me, I'll just need to clear it with the agency in the morning."

"What's your price?"

"A thousand dollars per day and for that you can have whatever perversion your heart desires."

"Well Honey my heart desires a little shut-eye, I've been on the go for the last thirty hours straight and I'm pooped."

"Do you want me to stay or go and come back in the morning?"

"Stay Honey, I don't like sleeping alone."

At another time, and in another place, Janine was ringing the doorbell of Michael Henderson's house. It partly opened and the head of Michael poked around the door. "Now this is a surprise. Won't you come in?" Janine entered and followed Michael into the Living room where she sat in the seat he indicated. "What can I do for you?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know?"

"Let me guess. Someone, and my choice would be Calvin Coolidge Jones, that larger than life leader of the Shining Light Christian Church in America, and I guess worldwide, asked you to come here to see me, and maybe to seduce me so that someone from the church, who has followed you here, can burst in and obtain some incriminating evidence that they can use to blackmail me into withdrawing from this case. Am I right?"

"Yes, but how did you know all of that?"

"We were aware of the arrival of CC Jones and we put two and two together and came up with this scenario. It's something that the Americans think they do well but in fact manage to stuff up just about every time. Having sorted that out what are we going to do until the troops arrive?"

"I could leave."

"But you don't want to do that. You have something else on your mind."

"Yes I do. What I want you to do is to go easy on Matthew. He's a genuine guy, he wears his heart on his sleeve and he really does believe that he is doing good work in the name of God."

"I would like to help him, but this has gone too far for us to back out now. I'm sorry, I know how much you care for him."

"Do you?"

"Yes. I know for a fact that he 'rescued' you from a life of sex and exploitation, and for that you would do anything for him, but I think that it goes beyond that, I think the relationship has moved to a higher plain. You really love him don't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"I noticed it but I don't know how many other people have. Look you're obviously a nice girl and you have a lot of life ahead of you if you take care, take care not to get mixed up with the wrong crowd, not to let anyone mislead you. I'm not saying that you should distrust everyone, just be very careful who you place your trust in." His meaning was obvious; he was warning her about staying involved with Mayotte and the Shining Light Christian Church.

"I can't work you out. In court you come across as cynical, aggressive and, at times, abusive, yet here you are, a kind man, caring about someone that you hardly know, why?"

"Because I like you. I look at you and see someone who has so much to give, but who has been taken advantage of all her life. You were probably the prettiest girl in your class at school and the envy of all the other girls. There were probably rumours going around from an early age that you were easy and had sex with just about anyone. But that wasn't the real you and you were hurt by all that. After you started work, probably in a supermarket or Fast Food outlet you were able to let your real personality emerge because, once the customer had left that relationship was over. You had become afraid of relationships, afraid of commitment."

"Then you made a decision that was going to haunt you, you allowed a man to talk you into stripping as a way of making a lot of money quickly. From there it progressed to other things, and with each of these other things you became more and more repulsed by what you had become. Then along came Pastor Mayotte, your knight in shining armour. He took a shine to you, he befriended you, and it bothers me little if he was a client or not, and he encouraged you to leave that life behind you. It took a while, and probably a bad experience for you to finally make the decision that saved you, and you have been thankful for that."

"How can you know so much about people without meeting them?"

"In this job I have to be able to see through the facade that people hide behind to find the real person, otherwise I would be taken advantage of. If I were to listen to most of my clients they were pure as the driven snow and they could not possibly be guilty of the crime that they are being charged with. By seeing through the facade I can cut through the bullshit and get down to the real job at hand, finding the best possible defence under the circumstances."

"I have a lot to thank him for, he's a good man."

"He may well be a good man, but he's a good man in a great deal of trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a rat in the ranks. Someone within the church who has given us information that could destroy him. Now the only person and the only reason that I can see for this person doing this, is Pastor Fenton. He's grown tired of playing second fiddle, hasn't he?"

"That's no secret. What is the information that he has given you?"

"I don't know if it was him, but he's my prime suspect. What do you know of Matthew's son Matthew Junior?"

"That's a sad case. He has always been very sick. He is very sick, and is not expected to live for very much longer unless our prayers are answered and he gets a miracle healing."

"There's one planned."

"What? Oh no, you're not suggesting that this is a lie?"

"I'm afraid so. There's a traitor in the ranks, someone has been feeding us information. At first we didn't believe what we saw but, when we investigated for ourselves, we found it to be true. Someone in your church wants Mayotte to fail, and my money is on Fenton. The information that we received includes appointment pages from the hospital where he was supposed to have been receiving treatment for, he says, cancer. He has never had an appointment on those days. He's been there on those days, but he just sat about for several hours and went home. Our information is that he has never been diagnosed with any form of cancer, and that a medical report will be produced from an Oncologist, not the one who is supposed to be treating him, that there is no trace of cancer in his body. We have been given galley proofs of a proposed book on the subject and it is filled with allegedly faked test results showing cancer in his body, probably doctored from real patient records. It's not a literary masterpiece by any means, but to those who want to believe in miracles, it gives them ample evidence of what can be achieve with prayer. The fact that it's a lie will mean nothing to those who have faith in its truth, and this is what this church is all about. This book will be ready for release as soon as possible after the miracle cure is announced, at least that's the plan, but I think the whistle will be blown before that happens."

"But that will destroy Matthew, and everything that he has worked for. This is terrible, who would do such a thing?"

"My money is still on Fenton. Look, I have a lot of sympathy for your Matthew, he is a good man, misguided maybe but beneath it all a good man. I don't want to see him hurt any more than necessary, and while I might use this information, I'll try to minimise the impact so that he is not seen as personally to blame, but that it is people around him that are." Henderson couldn't, and wouldn't tell her that he knew that Mayotte was fully aware of the Scripture, and had been aware for years, that young Matt had used feigned illness to gain the attention from his father that he wanted so badly. This latest 'illness' was a progression of that.

"Where do we, I mean I, go from here?"

"Do you want to wait for the troops to arrive, do you want to sneak off before they get here, or do you want to stay here and discuss your situation some more, if you do I'll tell them you've left."

"I don't want to face them, and I don't want to go home at any time soon, so I guess I hide here until they've gone. But they know that I'm here, and if they don't see me leave they'll that I'm still here."

"Look, the best thing is for you to stay here until they arrive, we'll confront them openly, we haven't done anything wrong, and send them packing."

"If you think that's best."

"Good. Now what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I have this problem that is going to make this very messy for me, and Matthew."

"Let me guess, you're pregnant and he's the father."

Janine looked at Henderson in amazement, and then she suddenly realized just how he had managed to be able to manipulate Mayotte. "Yes. I feel so ashamed because if this ever gets out it will ruin him."

"Janine, it's time that you got real. Firstly it takes two to tango, and I assume that he was a willing participant in the impregnation scenario."

"Yes."

"Well then, like it or not, he has to shoulder his responsibilities. I suppose an abortion is out of the question?"

"Yes for two reasons, one, I can't afford it and two, he won't let me have one."

"Then if he won't let you have an abortion he's going to have to support the child."

"I could have one without telling him."

"That would be deceitful, don't you think?"

"But if people knew that I was pregnant and he was the father of the baby he'd be ruined as a Pastor."

"Do you think that he was thinking about that when he made love to you? Who initiated it by the way?"

"It just happened, I was giving him a massage and the next I knew we were making love." She couldn't tell him that it wasn't the first time that they had made love.

"So what do we do now? The troops must be close by waiting for their opportunity to catch us at it, but I don't think we should allow that to happen, do you?"

"I'd rather not, but how can we avoid it?"

"I have an idea." Henderson went over to his home theatre system and selected a DVD. When the screen burst into life what was revealed was definitely rated XXX. "Before you ask, I had to view this for a case I worked on recently and the owner didn't want it back, so I sort of hung on to it." He set the volume and blacked out the screen so that there was no tell-tale blue light and anyone outside the door would be forgiven for thinking that a night of unbridled passion was in progress. "It's your last chance to leave before they arrive."

"I don't want to go home, it seems so empty, pretty much like my life right now. The person who I placed so much faith in, is turning out to be not the man I thought he was."

"So where should I take you?"

"Can't I stay with you, I'll sleep on the couch."

"But what about when the troops arrive?"

"If we are sitting down having a cup of coffee, fully clothed, what can they say?"

"That you've jumped ship and gone over to the other side."

"Believe me I've thought about doing that. I could tell you some of the things that go on in that place. Did you know that Pastor Fenton has the hots for Cynthia Mayotte?"

"I didn't know that, but from what I have observed, he is just waiting for the opportunity to take over the church, and this seems to be as good a time as any."

The door bell rang and while Janine went to open it Henderson turned off the home theatre system. He heard Janine at the door. "We were just having a cup of coffee and discussing the day's events, won't you join us?"

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Oh, I think you know what this is about." Henderson replied, "You can put that camera away for a start. Janine here was supposed to seduce me, and you would come charging in and catch us at it, and use the 'evidence' as leverage to force me to ease up on the worthy Pastor Mayotte. Unfortunately for you two things happened, the first was that I saw through your plan straight away, and secondly, Janine is a much more honourable person than you give her credit for. So we thought that we would wait for you to arrive so that we could tell you to go back to that bumbling fool CC Jones and tell him that we Australians don't always fall for the crap that the Americans dish up."

A dejected group left. "Now where are you going to sleep I wonder? Oh I know, you can use the bed in my room and I'll use the spare bed."

"No, you sleep in your bed, you must be used to it by now, I'll take the spare bed. This is really big, isn't it?"

"You have no idea just how big this is. At the local level it would seem to be just a couple of religious entrepreneurs riding on the shirt-tails of a global phenomena, but when you combine all of the small local franchises within the worldwide organization, it is humungous. By operating as a rather loose association under the banner of the Assemblies of God, they hope to avoid close scrutiny. Each franchise has autonomy to do its own thing, so that if it goes pear shaped the franchisor, in this case the AOG, can do the Pontius Pilate thing and wash its hands, claiming it to be a local decision. However, having said that, while how it's delivered is a local decision, doctrinal decisions are made at the top level."

"How will this court case affect that?"

"If we are successful, and we will be, we hope that other people in other places will follow our precedent and sue their local church. That way the wave of resistance will, like cream, rise to the top in much the same way as Martin Luther's Reformation affected the operations of Catholicism. The grassroots groundswell can be extraordinarily powerful. We must make these people accountable for the harm that they have caused. At the moment they believe that they are powerful enough to ride the storm."

"I thought Matthew was passionate about what he was doing, but he has nothing on you."

"Getting back to more pressing issues, what would you like for breakfast?"

"You really know how to catch people by surprise don't you? You don't have to go to all that bother, a cup of coffee will be fine."

Sometime during the night Janine crawled into bed beside Michael and snuggled up beside him. He held her until she went back to sleep, relishing the closeness of her body in a non-sexual way.