Chapter 86: The Penny Drops

It stayed very quiet in the boardroom of the Redsands First Congregational Church for what seemed like an eternity. Everyone could here the clock on the wall ticking away the seconds while Don Weasley collected his thoughts and finally composed himself enough to answer. His voice sounded just ever so slightly shaky but he did manage to come out clearly with...

“Glenda, I’ve known you for a long time. I was great friends with your husband too all those years ago and may I congratulate you again on your recent re-marrying to our ... umm ... to our new reverend. But ... but ... let’s not come to blows over this incident. I am just simply trying to follow protocol for ... for everyone’s benefit and we just want to know why our new choirmaster violated a very clear directive from ... from our Head Office. Whether or not there is another way into this building still remains immaterial.”

At that point Don Weasley looked at the Area Elder and asked, “Don’t you agree, Rufus?”

When Jessie Harper heard the Area Elder referred to as ‘Rufus’ she had to quickly turn away to suppress a small giggle as she mumbled that name quietly into her hand.

When she had composed herself again she turned back to the table only to see Bryce Unsworth producing a pile of papers from a briefcase down at his side. Rufus, the Area Elder, was about to reply but Jessie’s step-father cut him off.

“I have a pile of documents here, Rufus...”

Bryce put a special emphasis on the name ‘Rufus’ as he carried on with, “ ... documents that include plans and correspondence all to do with the building extensions this church underwent some time ago now. The one thing all these papers have in common is a name and these documents and that one name will answer very clearly the question I have already posed for Don Weasley to answer. And, as my wonderful wife has already pointed out, the answer to that question is vital to establishing what is going on here. So, Don can either answer the question or I can table all these documents for us to look at allowing us all to come to our own conclusion ... and a very, very definite conclusion too, I should think!”

Don Weasley looked hard at the Area Elder looking for some kind of support. Next he looked at the other elders but they just shrugged and indicated their own interest at seeing what ‘secrets’ those documents might hold.

Eventually Don Weasley came out with a mumbled sentiment that surprised everyone in the room just a little bit. It was that sentiment that suddenly caused a penny to drop in both Jessie Harper’s mind and that of Bryce Unsworth’s. Almost instantaneously they both saw just so clearly what was going on here.