9. Nicolette #2
Pastor Blackwell moved methodically down the aisle toward me. I scanned the eyes in the room where everyone sat enrapt with his words. Heads bobbed. Guttural noises of agreement popped up. Everyone looked so... content. At peace. The sense of belonging here was palpable, and I envied it.
Eyes turned toward me when Pastor Blackwell finished his sermon and planted one hand on my shoulder with fatherly affection. The congregation’s eyes fell on me, and I heard muttering through the room.
“Katie is going to start passing around the collection plate. If you feel called to donate whatever amount you can spare, please do so responsibly. Thank you all for coming, feel free to stay for the potluck downstairs in the function room. I believe Ms. Plainbottom also has a few community announcements if you could give her your attention, please.”
The collection plate moved through the congregation.
Every single person pulled out money or checks and placed them into the plate.
My eyes landed on the man I recognized from the night before who had almost urinated on the Center’s floor.
He pulled out a few crumpled dollar bills and coins and placed them in the basket.
My eyes turned to the podium where a petite brunette was barking into a microphone, failing to command anyone’s attention. As people started chatting and getting up to leave, she grew more flustered.
Katie Plainbottom, the girl that the woman on the bench mentioned in relation to Riot. Were they dating?
I eyed her up and down with suspicion. Riot had said I wasn’t his type.
Was she his type? Still clad in one of those dumb headbands, she hadn’t changed much.
She was a slight thing with a floral dress buttoned up to her chin.
I couldn’t picture her with Riot’s scruffy, overgrown face.
A stab of something I couldn’t put my finger on echoed in my gut.
As people shuffled out, I stood to face Pastor Blackwell. He shook hands with congregation members but moved toward me, his arms outstretched.
“Nicolette Parker!”He beamed at me, and I embraced his hug with a quick pat.“I was so thrilled to hear you were back in town. More so to see you join us today.”
I smiled.“It’s good to be back. I saw that Jeremy works for the police department now.”
“Deputy Chief.”He beamed. Wow. This family really had a grip on this town.“Are you staying for the potluck?”
“Well, I was hoping to schedule a time to sit down with you.”
“Of course, anything for Jeremy’s favorite prom date. ” He winked at me and my stomach turned.
Elias Blackwell’s office was surprisingly drab. I had expected ornate, granite furniture with walls lined with bookshelves and religious relics. But it was a small room with fluorescent lighting and a chipped oak desk.
I sat across from him.
“What brings you to town, Miss Parker?”
“Chimera,”I said. I waited but Pastor Blackwell just blinked.“It sounds like a pretty vicious drug.”
His head bobbed.“It is. I lead a support group at least once a week but I’m afraid nearly the entire Valley has been consumed by it.”I studied his face. Sincerity was etched all over his downcast expression.
“You lead support groups at the Center?”
“Mm,” he nodded.
“You also fund it, don’t you?”
“Oh, I don’t,” he corrected. “The church does. I am but its humble servant.”He smiled, and it looked genuine, but I noted it could very well be his way of alleviating responsibility.“Yes, it’s just one of the great works the church does.”
I nodded.“Yeah, it’s quite the operation,”I scrunched my face.“That has to be quite the heavy financial commitment.”I finished my sentence and sat in silence waiting for him to fill it.
His smile faltered briefly. He blinked at me.“We do what we can.”He pulled my move and sat in silence with a thin-lipped smile. I had underestimated him. He wasn’t fooled by my playing dumb. He knew I was after information, and he was going to make me work for it. Time to try something new.
I dropped my facade and sat straighter in my chair putting my elbows on his desk.“Where does all that money come from, Pastor Blackwell?”I tilted my head.
He examined me and I studied his face.
Watching Pastor Blackwell maintain his thin-lipped smile, the Gotchya Moment was subtle, but it was there. I tried to suppress a smile. He broke our stare down and leaned back in his chair.
“Did you know I’m not originally from Godot?”he asked.
“I did not. ”
He nodded.“I was born in DC. My parents were military, and we moved around a lot before landing in Baltimore.”He paused, studying me.
“I’ve seen a lot of this world, Nicolette.
Some might say more than I cared to.”A genuine sadness passed over his eyes.
“What I hope you’ll understand is that when I moved here from Baltimore thirty years ago, I had a much more worldly view than…
most. And I knew the town was going to need more support. ”
I’m not the dumb, Bible-thumping redneck you think I am, girl.
“So, you’re funding all these projects out of your own pocket?”
He smiled and shook his head.“No, not exactly. In the beginning, yes, but then the need grew too great, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the resources demanded more than I could give. We needed a steadier source of income.”
I nodded.“The mine.”He hummed in assent.“So why outsource it?”
“The mine was profitable in the early years. But its profitability waned when the health problems arose. I can’t say which came first but by then I couldn’t very well ask these people to keep going into those mines day in and day out.
The money was irrelevant; it was producing itself by then anyhow.
”His eyes darted around the room before landing on me.
“Producing itself?”My head tilted and Pastor Blackwell studied me before blowing out a sigh.
“The day I was elected Board President and senior clergyman over twenty-five years ago, I knew this town needed more than it could feasibly support on its own. I took a careful look at the finances. I brought in some chosen experts, and we began... investing. Everything we could spare. Into properties and businesses. Eventually low-risk hedge funds. Housing and healthcare. The only two consistencies people will always need. ” His tone mimicked whomever had first spoon-fed him that phrase.
I pictured the man from the Center handing over crumpled dollar bills.
“That’s what you’re doing with their donations,”I said out loud, more to myself. Elias shifted in his seat.“So, all the money that funds the Center... all the money you spent rebuilding the Valley… It’s their money. ”
“It’s legally the church’s money,”he corrected.“They give to the church because the church gives back to them. But make no mistake, they don’t have enough money to make the kind of difference that’s needed here.”He waved his arms as if describing the town.
“So, you invest it into hedge funds. And that’s enough to pay for the entire Center and the entire Valley being rebuilt?”
“Some years the market is kinder to us than others, but gosh darn it, if my advisors weren’t right about housing and healthcare.”He paused as if considering something.“Well, we were in the lucky few who shifted their investments out of the housing market before it collapsed in 2008.”He shrugged.
I sat back. That was the big secret? He invested poor people’s money to make more money to pay for the town that was too sick to work and too broke to afford healthcare?
Not much of an exposé there.
“Do they know? Do you tell them where their money goes? How much it yields, where the profits go?”
Blackwell frowned and almost looked ashamed.
“Nicolette… I am not blind to the ignorance you think you see here. I know you are a woman of the world and you’ve seen more of this planet, the good and the ugly than that entire congregation might ever see combined.
There is a certain… skepticism surrounding things that aren’t easily understood.
And hedge funds?“He shook his head with a frown.“Aren’t easily understood. Heck, I don’t even totally understand them.
But if I told them their money was going to Wall Street, they’d stop giving and then we would no longer be able to help.
And within five years this entire town would look like the Valley.
”He ran a hand over his chin, a forlorn expression decorating his features.
“Don’t you think they have a right to know where the money goes?”
He bit the corner of his mouth and looked down before nodding.“Yes, they probably do. I know that. But sometimes, as leaders, we have to make decisions for the better of our community when they can’t make those choices themselves. ”
My head swam. His words made sense; perfect, logical, infuriating sense. But I still sat unsettled. I stood up and thanked him for his time.
“Miss Parker,”he said before I exited.“I tell you these things out of respect for you and your time. You are a bright young woman, and you have a choice. Now, I can’t, and I won’t stop you from making any of this information public.
That is a matter you will have to settle for yourself.
But I hope you’ll consider what the future might look like either way.
Think about the people who will have to live in it.
And if you decide that candor is the more important route…
” He looked away and the momentary look of hopelessness on his face stabbed me with hesitation. “Well, I respect your decision.”
I held my breath, needing to get fresh air before digesting any of this. I nodded and turned but when I opened the door, I smacked right into Katie Plainbottom.
“Oh, gosh! I’m so sorry!”She scanned me up and down.
“Oh, Nicolette, I heard you were back.”Her smile was sweet but there was a tightness to it.
She breezed past me, not waiting for a reply and she already rubbed me the wrong way.
“Pastor Blackwell, I wanted to let you know that we’re still down a body on the marketing committee but I’m confident I can fill Mrs. Coleman’s place as the chair. ”
Blackwell sighed.“I appreciate that Katie. I can’t tell you how important this year’s Field Days are for winning that tourist grant from the state.”His eyes darted to me. Katie turned around as if surprised I was still standing there.
“Do you… need some help in marketing?”I asked.
Katie’s patronizing smile was like sandpaper against my eyeballs.
“Oh, Nicolette, that’s okay, we really need someone who we know will be here through the Field Days on Memorial Day Weekend.
I’m sure your busy schedule wouldn’t lend itself to the demands of the job.
” I opened my mouth to protest, but she went on.
“I mean it as a good thing, honey. You’re just so successful, I mean…
You’re way too big for Godot now.” She flitted her eyes over me, and I blanched.
“I don’t know,”Pastor Blackwell offered.“I think Miss Parker’s resumé might lend itself very well to contributing some new ideas.”Something in me warmed at his fatherly defense of my honor.
Katie spoke through gritted teeth.“Well, yes, but if you remember, Pastor Blackwell, Nicolette was never much of a joiner—”
“I’ll do it,”I quipped, jolted with instant regret. I needed more distractions like I needed a hole in the head. But the way she told me what I was or wasn’t irritated the shit out of me.
“Great!”Blackwell clapped and beamed at Katie.“That settles it, you have your full committee! If you’ll excuse me, I’m starved. I think I’ll see what’s left at the potluck.”
He breezed out, and I gave Katie a quick, overzealous smile. She shoved a piece of paper in my hands with the committee details.
It was a pink paper with strict agenda items and too many smiley faces.
Ugh, what had I gotten myself into?