Nothing Sacred

Yes.

Martha was still looking at him. Her eyes had dried, but shone with an emotion he’d never seen there before.

“I still can’t stay here,” he said. “Shelley knows. Whitney or someone else who puts it all together could come here at any time. I can’t stay without telling them the truth.”

“Yes, well…”

David wasn’t listening to any more optimistic possibilities.

“I have to tell them,” he told Martha, his voice as stern as the look he gave her. “They deserve to know. And then I have to go.”

“Why’s that?”

“Come on, Martha! You and I have been through a lot together. I helped your family and you feel grateful. Grateful enough to overlook the fact that I so grossly misrepresented myself by not telling the truth about my past. That doesn’t mean everyone else will feel the same way. A pastor has to be above reproach to do his job well. And this community, especially after Edwards, needs and deserves a pastor who can be that for them.”

“Can I ask you something?”

He nodded. Anything. He couldn’t keep secrets from her anymore.

“How did you get from being part of a prostitution ring, albeit unknowingly, to applying for the seminary?”

David gave a small smile, thinking of the man who was sitting in a jail cell in Phoenix. “Years ago, Shane’s little brother, Jimmy, was the brains behind all the Shane business empires while big brother was the charmer.”

“The politician,” Martha added.

“Yes, well, big brother made a couple of critical mistakes, blowing the cover Jimmy had worked so hard to set up. He’d talked up a couple of undercover cops while drunk at a party one night. He didn’t give them enough to move on, but he’d brought them smelling around. Jimmy stopped by my office one night on his way out of the country. He was the one who set me up with Whitney, so I figured I was safe, I guess. He told me the medical supply business had been sold and then he told me why. He said they were shutting down the prostitution ring, which—until that point—I’d had no idea I was even involved with. He told me then that I was different. That I wasn’t like him. That I had a higher purpose in life and I should get as far away from this whole sordid existence as I could. He mentioned a preacher he’d known as a kid on the street—said I reminded him of the guy.”

She nodded encouragingly.

“It took me a while to recover from losing the job—and from knowing I’d narrowly escaped going to jail—and then I joined the seminary.”

Martha got to her feet. He was glad, at least, that she understood, although he wouldn’t have minded having her put up a little bit of a fight.

But, it was better this way. Easier.

“One more question,” she said.

“What?”

“Did you go to the seminary to avoid investigation?”

“I went because I’d been thinking about it since I was a kid. The preacher in my mother’s church was the closest thing in my life to any kind of father figure. His view of me gave me hope that I might have what it takes. When Jimmy talked to me that last night, it all just clicked. And as soon as I was ordained, I asked for the inner city church he’d mentioned…”

“The one where you met Jeb?”

He nodded.

Martha touched his arm. “Come outside.”

“What?”

“I have something to show you.”

He frowned. “We’re in the middle of a fairly serious conversation here.”

“I know.” She nodded, held out her hand. “And we’ll get ba

ck to it.”