Mountain Top(52)
“I’m Larry Fletchall,” he said.
After he shook Mike’s hand, Larry turned to Sam.
“We got here early so we could pray for you.”
Mike couldn’t help staring. The room was similar to the one in his dream, but the men he saw in the night were white, not black.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked him.
“Huh? Yeah.”
Sam spoke to the other men. “Jesse Lavare, Bob Gordon, John Franklin. Good to see you again.”
“Don’t, Sam,” Larry said. “We’ve been trying to pray through on this situation for over an hour. We agreed to meet with you and your lawyer, but you betrayed our trust. We can’t pretend nothing happened.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” Sam started, then stopped. “I’d better let Mike speak for me.”
The men rose from their knees, their faces serious. They were working-class men dressed in clean pants and open-collared shirts.
“Could we all sit down?” Mike asked.
They sat around the table. As in Mike’s dream, the lights in the room were dim. One of the bulbs in the overhead fixture must have burned out.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” Mike began. “Part of my job is to find out what happened.”
He put a legal pad on the table.
“No notes,” the oldest of the men said. “We don’t want you trying to twist our words if this thing goes to court.”
Mike placed his pen on the pad. “All right. I won’t write down anything unless you give me permission; however, it might be helpful to record a name or phone number if that comes up.”
Larry nodded. “We’ll see.”
Mike continued. “First, I’m a minister who used to be a lawyer. I don’t want to do anything that would embarrass you or hurt your church. My job is simply to investigate the charges against Sam. To do that, I need to ask you some questions. I’m not going to try to trick you, and if you don’t want to answer, that’s fine.”
Mike gave a reassuring smile, but no one reciprocated. He suspected his natural charm wasn’t going to create an atmosphere of trust.
“I’ll get right to the point. How many bank accounts does the church have?”
“Two,” Larry answered. “An operating account and a building fund.”
“Who has access to the accounts? Who can sign checks?”
“All the deacons are on the operating account,” Larry answered. “Jesse, Bob, and I signed the card for the building fund account.”
“What about former deacons?”
“They’re removed from all accounts when they stop serving on the board.”
“How long have you been without a pastor?”
“About a year.”
“Was your former pastor on either bank account?”
Larry looked at the older man. “Bob, was Brother Mark able to sign checks?”
“No,” Bob replied. “It hasn’t been that way since Brother Tyner was here.”
“How long ago was that?” Mike asked.
“Over twenty years,” Bob answered.
“Was Sam given authority to sign checks?”
“No,” Larry replied. “But when we went to the bank, the man showed us the checks Sam filled out and put in his account.”
“Who did you talk to at the bank?”
Larry reached into his pocket and took out a business card.
“Brian Dressler and another man who didn’t give us his card.”
Mike knew Dressler, a vice president at the bank.
“How many checks were there and for what amounts?” Mike asked.
“Two, one for $10,000 and another for $95,000.”
“Who signed the checks?”
“They had Jesse’s signature on the bottom, but they went into Sam’s account.”
Mike turned toward Jesse. “Did you sign checks in those amounts?”
Jesse, a large man with powerful arms and a deep voice, jumped up from his seat. “No! And don’t you come in here accusing me—”
“Wait, calm down,” Mike interrupted. “I only meant, did you sign checks in that amount for a legitimate building fund purpose? Did you have construction bills to pay?”
Jesse continued to glare at Mike.
“No,” Larry responded. “There weren’t any bills to pay.”
“Do you recall the dates on the checks?”
Larry looked at Jesse. “Do you remember?”
Jesse sat down, but there was still anger in his voice. “They were two days apart. It was during the time Sam was preaching for us. He forged my signature on the first one, and when it went through decided to do another one. It was most of the money we’d saved over the past five years for our building fund.”