My father came through the door at the same time he always did, six-fifteen on the dot. I watched him come inside and take the bags of fast food into the kitchen, unload them on the counter. Then he headed into his bedroom to change out of the suit and tie he always wore to the office. I followed, doing something I’d never done in all my life: I forced my way into his private room and took his arm, dragging him silently into the bathroom.

He watched as I turned on all the faucets, understanding warming his eyes.

With the door closed and the faucets running, I was confident that anyone listening to a bug wouldn’t be able to hear us. My father seemed to think so, too, because he immediately launched into a speech.

“You have no idea how big this thing goes, Matthew. I’m so sorry for dragging you into it! When your sister ran off with that Stone guy, I was angry, but I was also so relieved! At least she was out, gone off to Memphis. I hadn’t expected that idiot to bring her back here!”

“This is her home. She wanted to come back.”

He shook his head. “She should have stayed as far from here as possible.”

“We’re working to stop this, Father. But there are things we don’t know that we need in order to stop what’s about to happen. Do you understand?”

My father nodded, his eyes bright with something I’d never seen there. Pride.

“We need to know the name of the man who’s behind all this.”

“I don’t know his name. I know he’s an acquaintance of Todd Lawson. They met when he was in college, years and years ago. I guess they were roommates, or something, who liked to indulge in theological discussions.”

“What school?”

My father shook his head. “I don’t know. I think it was in California. Stanford, maybe?”

“Is this how this got started? With Todd Lawson?”

“Sort of. A lot of church leaders were discouraged with the violence going on in the south part of town. Do you remember that carjacking back three, four years ago? Those things aren’t supposed to happen in a place like Ellaville.”

“But welcoming people like Gerald Smythe and Briggs Thomas into town isn’t a solution.”

“I know that now. But, back then, all I was thinking about was what if that had been your mother? Or Ruth? Or you?”

I nodded. I understood. It had been a particularly vicious attack. The driver of the car was a thirty-year-old man who’d been on his way to a party at a friend’s. A kid came up to his door and shot him through the window, hitting him in the temple. But that didn’t frighten the kid away. He simply pulled the man out of the car and drove off, joyriding in the car with the victim’s blood and brain matter still dripping from the steering wheel.

It was horrible. But all crime was horrible.

“The sheriff wasn’t doing his job effectively enough. The mayor had no answers for us. We had to take things into our own hands, and the idea of an army made up of devout Christians appealed to us. And it seemed to work, at first.”

“But when things began to get out of hand—”

“I don’t think the congregation really knows how out of hand things have gotten.”

I frowned, not sure what he meant by that.

“Todd Lawson took the power too far. He thinks that God has given him the right to decide who should be allowed to live and who shouldn’t. He’s made a list of people here in town that he wants to see die.” My father’s face twisted into a dark grimace. “You saw it. He put his own daughter’s name on the list!”

“I know.”

“And your sister and her husband. I can’t sit back and watch that happen, Matthew.”

“I know. But we need more. We need proof of what they’re planning.”

“That’s why I left that file out for you.”

“And I gave the information to Jack. But we need more. We need proof of the war Tucker’s planning.”

“What war?”

I stared at him, not sure if he was being insincere, or if he really didn’t know what I was talking about.

“He arranged a delivery of assault rifles to the Guardians last night. A whole truck full. And he told me there’s more for other Guardian groups coming from out of town.”

“No!” My father’s mouth fell open, his eyes wide with fear. “Are you sure?”

“I was there. I wanted to get video of it with my phone, but he was watching me. He would have seen.”

My father hesitated a moment. “I might have a solution for that.”

“Yeah?”

He didn’t elaborate. But it was clear the wheels in his head were spinning. To be honest, I was relieved. He seemed willing to help, and that made me feel better about his role in all this. Maybe things weren’t quite as bad as I’d thought they were.

“We need to get the word out. We need to tell people at the church what their leaders are doing.”

My father frowned. “How do we do that?”

I was about to say that I had no clue, but then I remembered that it was nearly October. The church always held a fall festival on the first of October to celebrate the coming of the holiday season. If we could find someone to make a speech at the festival, someone the people would trust, someone who could do it without Lawson and his cronies finding out…

“You could give a speech at the Fall Festival.”

“Me?”

“It would be perfect. People trust you. They know you. I can’t think of anyone better to do it.”

“What about Pastor Ryan?”

“Can we trust him?”

Doubt filled his eyes without his words having to roll off his tongue.

“It has to be you.”

“If Lawson finds out, he’ll put me on his hit list.”

“Then we’ll have Jack take you to Memphis with Mom and Ruth.”

“That would make you a target, son.”

I shrugged. “I’m already a target. There are bugs in our house.”

“That was Tucker. He said that if you were working for Jack, this would be the best way to find you out.”

“Yeah, well, I’m smarter than that.”

“Thank goodness!”

My father stood and pulled me into his arms, surprising me with a very uncharacteristic hug. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess, son.”

“It’s not your fault. I would have gotten involved one way or the other anyway.”

“But I did this. I stood with Lawson, insisted we needed the Guardians. I urged you to check them out when the idea was first presented at church. I pushed you to go back to them.”

“You were being blackmailed.”

He stepped back, his eyes falling to the floor. “That didn’t begin until Ruth began spending time with Jack Stone. The pictures showed up in the mailbox and on my desk at the office anonymously, but I knew who was behind it. I knew the photograph.”

“Who was it?”

His eyes came up to mine. “Bishop Truesdale.”

My eyebrows rose. “But he’s gone now.”

“Yes, well, he might have done it, but he did it under orders, I’m sure. Probably Lawson. But that picture…Truesdale took it on the steps of the church because he was taking pictures of everyone for the new directory for the church. Do you remember that?”

“I do now.”

“I know it was him. I even confronted him over it once. He told me to keep my mouth shut, that I didn’t understand how big this was.” He was quiet for a second. “I do now.”

“We’re going to end it. I promise.”

I’d made a lot of promises on this day. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep them all, but I was going to do my best.

Now that I knew Lawson was behind this, it was time for another visit to see his daughter.