RUNAWAY TWINS (Runaway Twins series #1) (11 page)

“Well, all of you get up front with me. It’s cold out here.”

After listening for fifteen minutes, the driver had heard enough to know that he wasn’t about to return the young people to the camp; so he continued on to Missoula with the kids chattering in his ear, sometimes individually, sometimes all at once. When at last they arrived at the outskirts, he said, “You three are amazing. What a story. What an adventure. I can’t wait till the movie comes out.”

“Don’t you believe us?” asked Janie.

He blew out his breath. “It’s too wild a tale to be anything but true….Where to now?”

“The FBI,” said Justin.

“Too late—they’ll be closed, but I promise you the Missoula Police on Ryman Street will call the FBI for you.”

Helena
Independent Record
:

MONTANA ATTORNEY GENERAL WILL PERSONALLY PROSECUTE CULT LEADER

Andrew Bowers (AG) has announced today that he will personally present evidence to First District Court Judge Morrie West in a hearing to determine whether or not John Joseph Flack should be sent to trial for multiple counts of felony accomplice rape for his part in arranging extralegal marriages between adult members of his Sheba Hill Temple and underaged girls. He is also facing multiple charges of sexual misconduct with minors for his own marriages to child-brides. Judge West will…

Helena
Independent Record:

TEMPLE LEADER BOUND OVER FOR TRIAL

District Court Judge Morrie West today ruled that there was indeed enough evidence to send John Joseph Flack to trial for forcing girls as young as thirteen years old into marriage with his adult male followers. He will also be facing charges of sexual assault on minors for his own multiple marriages to underaged girls. Flack, who is considered the Priest, Prophet, and Revelator of the Sheba Hill Assembly (as well as its CEO) was granted bail in the amount of $500,000, which he promptly posted, stating that…

Helena
Independent Record:

TEMPLE LEADER DISAPPEARS—J.J. FLACK ON THE RUN

John Joseph Flack today forfeited a half million dollars in bail by failing to appear in the First Judicial District Court of the County of Lewis and Clark to stand trial for…

Helena
Independent Record:

CULT LEADER CAPTURED IN TEXAS

Texas Rangers today arrested John Joseph Flack on a fugitive warrant. Flack was a passenger in an SUV laden with guns and cash. It is believed Flack was on his way to his Texas facility where he intended to set up a fortress-like barricade should law enforcement authorities discover his whereabouts. Also in the vehicle were two members of the Aryan Brotherhood who offered some resistance to arrest, but who were quickly subdued. As to why Flack would associate himself with the brotherhood, it must be remembered that for years he has publicly denigrated the black race as the “devil’s vessels.” Flack will be returned to Montana where he will be under the jurisdiction of…

Helena
Independent Record:

TRIAL BEGINS IN SHEBA HILL CASE

The trial of cult leader John J. Flack began today in the First District Court, County of Lewis and Clark, Helena, Montana—District Judge Morrie West presiding. The State has now expanded the original indictment to include one additional count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. If convicted on all counts, Flack could face…

Somehow the Prophet managed to look bewildered as he was led into the courtroom, as if he had no idea where he was or under what circumstances. He was a lamb among carnivores, an innocent among worldlings. He shouldn’t be in this place, and anyone who thought differently was far from God and spiritually naïve.

“He thinks he’s Mother Teresa,” whispered Justin to Rachel, Janie, and Gert who were all sitting with him on a hard bench at the back of the courtroom. Also on the bench on the far side of Gert, was Justin’s Aunt Ruby, who had come to her senses and had left Elder Tate and had stopped the transfer of her Alaskan property to the Temple. She smiled at the four young people and was about to lean out and respond to Justin’s comment, when the sheriff’s deputy standing by the double doors put his fingers to his lips to indicate that the back row should settle down.

While the charges against him were being read, Flack sat motionless, as if the slightest movement would cause him severe pain. He kept his black eyes focused on a spot somewhere above the judge’s head, and maintained a calm, peaceful expression on his long hatchet face. He sustained this demeanor for one day, but on the second day when Rachel Lemon took the stand, he became visibly agitated. His control vanished completely and he jumped to his feet and cried, “A wife can’t testify against her husband!”

“I’m not your wife,” said Rachel coldly.

He refused to resume his seat, even when one of his attorneys tugged on his jacket. “In our beliefs, a man’s betrothed is the same thing as his wife. This woman cannot testify against me!”

“I’m not a woman yet,” said Rachel. “I hope to be a woman soon, but right now I’m still a girl.”

Both of Flack’s attorneys grimaced at the interchange, and both looked hurriedly at the jury to see how the six men and six women had reacted to their client’s outburst. Most of the juror’s faces were impassive, but a few were nodding their heads at Rachel’s declaration.

Over the next three and a half weeks, a procession of prosecution and defense witnesses marched to the stand, including nearly all of the Sheba Hill elders, who testified that their leader’s decisions were sacred, since he was God’s personal representative on the planet.

“Even when his decisions are contrary to the laws of Montana?” asked the attorney general.

“Even then.”

“But wouldn’t such an attitude lead to anarchy?”

“We ought to obey God, rather than man.”

Seth and Esther Lemon, Janie and Rachel’s parents, testified on behalf of the Prophet, even though the twins had told them the full story of Bitterroot Camp. When answering questions about Mary Lemon, Rachel and Janie’s older sister, Seth told the court that the Prophet was devastated when Mary died at fourteen after only a year of marriage.

“Don’t you think being forced into a marriage with John Flack at the age of thirteen might have contributed to her death?”

“Of course not. She considered it a privilege to help continue the Prophet’s bloodlines that go all the way back to King Solomon.”

Sheba
Observer:

PROPHET FLACK PERSECUTED FOR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The trial in Helena of J.J. Flack, seer, and revelator of the Sheba Hill Temple, is nothing more than a witch-hunt, a violation of the Prophet’s First Amendment rights. Though he has tried many times during the course of the trial to explain the tenets of his church to the courts, he has been continually ignored and ridiculed, until his only solace is the sure knowledge that God hears and understands.

The support for the Prophet in the spectators’ gallery has been overwhelming, reinforced by the presence of almost all of the senior elders of the Sheba Hill assembly. These church officials have vowed to protest vehemently if the verdict…

Missoulian.com:

MURDER CHARGES AWAIT CULT LEADER

The Missoula Police Department and the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department, in cooperation with special agents from the FBI announced today they will be filing murder charges against John Joseph Flack in conjunction with multiple corpses found in an abandoned mine near the sect’s Bitterroot Camp retraining center. More bodies were discovered in the mountains nearby, and those deaths are currently under investigation. Already charged in the case is Stephen R. Mobly, director of the camp. Mobly was arrested in Helena and taken to Missoula to be arraigned. The task force stated that charges against Flack himself will not be made until the conclusion of his present trial.

Helena
Independent Record:

FLACK GUILTY

Judge Morrie West has sentenced convicted felon John Joseph Flack to five years to life on each of eleven counts of felony accomplice rape and other charges; and Judge West has ordered that the sentences run consecutively. The verdict and the sentencing caused an uproar in the courtroom by senior officials of Flack’s church. But the disturbance was quelled when Lewis and Clark County sheriff’s deputies circulated through the crowd serving arrest warrants for sexual assault against minors on most of the Sheba Hill Assembly’s older males who were present in the gallery. Led off in handcuffs were: Elder Henry R. Biggars; Elder Seth T. Lemon; Elder Randall L. Riggs; and Elder Jonathan C. Tate. A warrant in the name of Elder Stephen R. Mobly was also on hand but not served, since Mobly is in Missoula awaiting trial for murder. At this point John Joseph Flack was rearrested and charged with murder. Just when he will go to trial on these new charges is unknown at this time. Flack was defiant to the end, screaming that he was being martyred for his religious convictions and that he will be vindicated—if not in this world, then in the next.

“Consecutive sentences?” asked Janie. “What does that mean?”

“One right after another,” said Rachel, “and it means he’ll be a very old man before he’ll be able to ruin another girl like Mary.”

“If he gets out at all,” said Justin. “He’s still got murder charges against him in Missoula.”

“I hated to see Father arrested,” said Janie.

“Me, too,” said Rachel, “but he made his choices and now he’s living with them.”

Esther Lemon, the twins’ mother
, had never been mentally healthy, even in the best of times; and the collapse of the Sheba Hill society and the incarceration of her husband aggravated her instability to the point that she had to be placed in an institution for what promised to be an extended period of time.

Justin’s Aunt Ruby, who had regained all of her former strength and common sense, invited Rachel and Janie to live with her and Justin in Alaska; and the twins readily accepted.

It was now winter again, and the three thirteen year olds were standing beside a bronze memorial to Justin’s father and to Justin’s Uncle Garth. The area that the two men had been surveying when the landslide caught them was now a ski resort, and Justin looked around and shook his head. “Hard to believe it happened right here.” His voice cracked and he stumbled slightly as he spoke.

Both girls responded at the same moment, embracing him until it was clear he had regained control of his emotions.

“Sorry,” he said.

“No need to be sorry,” said Janie. “It’s good for us all to be reminded there are men like your father and your uncle in this world. We’ve seen men at their worst, and now we’re standing beside a monument to men at their best.”

It was as if Janie had been given words from some outside source, and all three teenagers burst into tears simultaneously. Several passersby stopped to stare, but the three friends ignored them, crying softly without shame.

Rachel broke the spell. “It’s cold out here. Justin, do you still have that bow and drill you used to make fire in the Bitterroots?”

He pulled out a book of matches. “I always carry one of these now—just in case.”

Janie said, “If the wind kicks up and we get hungry we could snare a squirrel and build a tree-pit shelter.”

Justin motioned down the hill. “Better to head for the rec center and get some cheeseburgers, don’t you think?”