This remark caused a collective gasp from the audience, and Sherry hung her head, then looked up, took a deep breath, and made brave eye contact with the crowd. Keith sensed that none of this was an act — the woman was truly humiliated, frightened, and courageous. He could only guess at her motives for exposing herself like this in public, but he guessed it had less to do with civic duty than with revenge. But what difference did it make?

Keith had heard enough, and he made his way through the crowd as Sherry began a somewhat graphic description of what followed.

He passed through the narthex where the crowd was straining to hear, and out the doors and down the steps into the cool air.

He noticed that there were men moving among the vehicles, shining flashlights, and, as he got closer, he saw they were policemen. They were taking down the license plate numbers of the parked vehicles. This didn't surprise him on one level, yet he found it hard to believe it was happening. He approached one of the policemen, who happened to be a deputy sheriff rather than a Spencerville city cop. Keith said to him, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The man seemed embarrassed, which was a hopeful sign. He replied, "Just following orders."

"Whose orders?"

"Can't say."

"Who's in charge here?"

The man looked around. "Nobody, really. No bosses here."

Keith spotted a policeman wearing the uniform of a Spencerville cop and went over to him and saw it was the cop who'd been at the high school. Keith said to him, "Officer Schenley, do you realize you're breaking the law?"

Schenley looked around and called out to two other cops. "Hey, Kevin. Pete. Over here."

The two cops approached, and Keith saw they were the same ones who had been harassing Billy Marlon in the park. There were only about fifteen cops on the Spencerville force, and Keith had the feeling he'd know them all if he stayed around. The name tags on these two read Ward and Krug. Ward, the one who'd been hitting Billy on the soles of his shoes, said, "Well, well, look who's here. You're like cow shit, aren't you? Always getting underfoot. Take a hike while you can."

Keith addressed them by name and said, "Officer Ward, Officer Krug, and Officer Schenley, this is a lawful assembly, protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in case you didn't know. If you don't leave now, I'm calling the state police, and I'll have you all arrested."

The three cops looked at one another, then back at Keith. Ward asked him, "You crazy or what?"

"I'm pissed off. You get the hell out of here now."

"Whoa! Whoa! You take it easy, fella."

"You've got sixty seconds to clear out, or I'm going back inside that church, and I'll get everybody out here."

There was a long moment of silence, during which all the other cops, seven of them, joined the other three. Ward said to them, "This guy says he's going to call the cops on us."

There were a few tentative laughs, but none of them seemed happy.

Keith added, "And I'll assemble that meeting out here."

Clearly, none of the police wanted to confront their friends and neighbors under these circumstances, but neither did they want to be run off by a single irate citizen. It was sort of a standoff, and Keith wondered if he should give them a graceful way out, then decided they didn't deserve it. He said, "You have about ten seconds to get out of here."

Officer Ward retorted, "You got less than that before I cuff you."

"Five seconds." No one moved.

Keith turned to go into the church but realized he was surrounded, and, to get through the cordon, he'd have to push or jostle one of the cops, which is what they wanted. He said, "Get out of my way." They didn't.

Keith approached the policemen blocking his way to the church. They drew their nightsticks and extended their arms and legs.

Keith considered bucking through the line, fullback style, but the defensive line in this case had clubs and guns. Obviously, he was in as difficult a situation as they were, and no one wanted to make the first move.

Ward, behind him, said, "You're an asshole. You're also stupid."

Keith turned and stepped up to Ward. "Where's Baxter tonight? Getting another honor at the Elks Lodge?"

Ward said, "None of your business."

"I'll bet he's at the city council meeting covering his ass while you're out here putting your jobs on the line. And where are your sergeants? What a bunch of ball-less wonders you've got commanding you. Tell Baxter I said that."

Clearly, Keith had hit a nerve, because no one said anything, but then Ward felt obligated to reply and said, "You can tell him yourself, smart guy, when we bring you in."

"Then bring me in. Arrest me, or get out of my way." But they seemed inclined to do neither. Keith wondered how long that meeting was going to last.

After a few minutes of standoff, Keith decided to go for it. He turned toward the church and was about to buck the blue line when a voice called out, "What's going on here?"

From the direction of the small parsonage, a man approached, walking with a cane. As he got closer, Keith saw he was very old and finally recognized him as Pastor Wilkes.

The pastor, dressed in slacks, sport shirt, and tweed jacket, said again, "What's going on?"

Officer Ward replied, "It's under control, sir."

"That's not what I asked. What's going on?"

Ward didn't have a specific answer and didn't reply.

Pastor Wilkes walked through the cordon and stopped in front of Keith. "Who are you?"

"Keith Landry."

"Name sounds familiar. You with the group inside?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why are these policemen here?"

"You should ask them."

Pastor Wilkes turned to Officer Ward. "Did anyone call you here?"

"No, sir."

"Then why are you here?"

"To... provide protection and security."

"Sounds like hogwash to me, son. Please get off my property."

Ward looked at the other men and cocked his head toward the police cars. They walked off, but Ward stepped up to Keith and he said, "If I were you, I'd get my butt back to Washington. Fast."

"Don't forget to tell Baxter what I said."

"You can count on that, smart guy." Ward turned and left.

So, Keith thought, they knew he'd come from Washington, which was no surprise. He wondered what else they knew about him. But it didn't really matter, if he was leaving, though Cliff Baxter was inadvertently going out of his way to keep Keith Landry from doing that.

Pastor Wilkes said, "Do you have a minute?"

Keith considered, then said, "Yes."

Wilkes motioned Keith to follow him, and they walked toward the parsonage. Keith recalled that the last time he'd been in the parsonage, when he was eighteen, he'd gotten a lecture from Pastor Wilkes on the temptations of the world outside Spencer County, specifically the temptations of alcohol and sex at college. A lot of good it did him.