The Heaven Trilogy (103 page)

Jan scanned the street, saw no sign of the police, and stepped onto the sidewalk. He buried his hands in his pockets and walked with his head lowered. The employees should all have gone home by now, but there was always a chance that someone from the neighborhood would recognize him.

Jan had left Helen and Ivena at Joey's cottage nearly three hours ago. He'd made a pass by his street, hoping to retrieve a fresh change of clothes for he and Helen, but the police cruiser parked across the road had changed his mind. Ivena's house was also being watched. He'd opted for Woolworth's instead. Helen would have to live with the white dress he'd selected. It was a size five and the salesclerk had assured him that five was a good size for a small woman. He bought himself nothing.

He glanced up. The street was clear of cars. Evidently the police were more concerned with the houses than the ministry. Or perhaps it was the late hour.

Jan veered into the alley adjacent to the ministry building and walked for a steel fire door. “Don't let me down, Roald,” he muttered. “Please not now.”

He pulled the handle and the door swung out. A chill of relief washed down his back. He entered the dark hall, felt his way to the stairwell, and took the stairs two at a time. Red exit signs showed the way, but eight floors winded him and he paused at the top landing to catch his breath.

He pushed his way into the familiar office suite. He heard the voices immediately and knew that Roald had come through. He had not seen their cars, which meant they'd parked on the back street as he'd requested.

The conference room door was open and Jan walked in.

They were all there, and they looked at him as one. Roald, Karen, and Betty. Frank and Barney Givens, as well. He'd asked Roald for the council's attendance if possible; whether Frank and Barney had flown in or happened to be in the city, Jan did not know. Two of the four were here. And Betty was here as a representative from the ministry. The employees would want to know the truth once it hit the street, and he intended they receive it through Betty.

“Good evening, my friends,” Jan said with a slight smile.

Roald sat at the head of the long table, frowning, his glasses riding the end of his nose. Beside him Karen leaned back with folded arms. Frank and Barney sat stoically to the left and Betty smiled warmly on his right.

“You'd better sit, Jan,” Roald said.

“Hello, Roald. It's a pleasure to see you as well.” A voice of caution whispered through Jan's mind. They were not reacting with the concern he'd imagined. Betty was smiling, but the others were not even cordial. “I was under the impression that I called this meeting. Why do I feel like I've walked into a snake pit here?” Jan asked, still standing.

“Oh, no, Jan,” Betty said. She glanced around nervously. “How could you say—”

“You have something to say, say your piece,” Roald interrupted.

Jan glared at him. “Thanks, Betty. Okay, Roald, I will.” He pulled a chair out on Betty's side and sat. “Thank you for coming, Frank and Barney. Karen.” They nodded in turn but offered no formal greeting.

“By your stiff lips I gather you've heard about the incident yesterday.”

No reaction.

“I'll take that as a yes. I also know that from the beginning you haven't understood my relationship with Helen. No, let me rephrase that—from the beginning most of you have detested my relationship with Helen. Well, now the balance has shifted, because now I've been forced to do some things I'm not proud of. Something you may think will tarnish my image. But if you will just open your minds for a few minutes, I sincerely believe that you'll see things differently.”

They sat and stared at him without responding.

Jan shifted his eyes from Roald. “Frank, three months ago you and Barney and the others from the council warned me about the delicate nature of my image as a church spokesman, and I will say that I questioned your judgment at the time. But I see some truth in your assessment now. ‘To whom much is given, much is required,' I believe that was your quote. There were greater concerns at stake besides my own issues, you said. Concerns of the church. The ministry, for example.
The Dance of the Dead
. An opportunity to reach millions with a message of God's love. You wanted me to subordinate my own needs to the greater good of the church, isn't that right?”

Frank's eyes flickered and Jan spoke on.

“Well now perhaps there is an opportunity for you, all of you”—he glanced about the table—“to subordinate your own issues to the greater concerns of the church. To
The Dance of the Dead
. Perhaps now it's time for you to support me and my ministry, because, believe me, no one else will. What you've heard is true. I shot this madman Glenn Lutz in his hands, with his own gun, but only because he threatened to kill Ivena. Only because he's a monster of unearthly magnitude. And if you really knew—”

“We know more than you think we know,” Roald interrupted.

“Meaning what?” A spike of anger rode Jan's spine.

“Are you finished?”

This was not going as planned. He had intended on laying out the whole scenario as he knew it to be. He'd come confident that they would hear him out and rally to his defense. But Roald did not seem to possess a soft bone in his body. Which seemed beyond even Jan. Karen had hardly moved since his entrance. Not that he expected any huge favors from her. Betty was the only one who showed a sympathetic spirit, but Betty did not possess the power these others did.

“No, I'm not finished. But you're obviously not understanding my point here, so why don't you go ahead and tell me what's on your mind, Roald.” He bit down hard and suppressed an urge to walk over there and knock his head against the wall.

“Fine, I will. While you've been busy hiding from the police, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of, we've been busy trying to salvage your career. This goes much deeper than you realize, my naive friend. You have some problems, and now by association we have some problems.”

“You think I don't know this? What—”

“The contract we signed with Dreamscape has some problems.”

“The contract? What does the contract have to do with this? I thought they said it was virtually identical to the old one.”

“Virtually, yes. But not exactly. It has a clause relating to morality that has come to our attention.”

“Morality. And how does morality affect us in this contract?”

“That depends. It contains a clause that gives Dreamscape the right to pull the plug in the event that the moral character of the story's subject comes under question at any time before the movie's release date. The subject of the picture is you, Jan.”

The statement dropped in Jan's mind like a small bomb. He blinked. “
My
moral integrity? What does that mean? They're already taking exception to my mistake yesterday? Or is it you, who are making more—”

“Not the shooting, you idiot! Stupid as that was—”

“Please don't interrupt me, Roald!” Jan said. “At least give me that courtesy.”

“Of course.”

“And if it's not the shooting, then what?”

Roald didn't respond. Frank did. “It's the woman, Jan. You were warned about her, weren't you?”

Jan's mind swam, too stunned to piece their reason together.

“I told you she was a risk,” Roald snapped. Karen still hadn't spoken. She simply rocked back in her chair, arms still folded. Roald continued. “The studio is putting millions on the table, producing a picture that views the world through an exceptional lens—the eye of Jan Jovic, a man who has learned of love through the brutal lessons of war. And now they discover their
hero
is living with a . . . an unseemly woman. I told you she was a bad idea, didn't I? I sat right here and told you that this junkie of yours could ruin everything. And did you listen? No. Instead you go off and marry her, of all things!”

“And you know nothing, Roald!”

“No, of course I don't. That's why you ignored my advice to begin with. Because I know nothing. And you, the white crusader, know everything.”

“Okay, guys,” Karen said. “We're still on the same side here.”

“Are we?” Roald shot back. “I'm on the side of getting this movie made, of getting this message out. And frankly I don't know what side Jan's on anymore.”

“I'm on the side of love,” Jan said. “The same side you were on at one time. It's the heart and soul of my story.”

“Well, now your love is going to get
The Dance of the Dead
canceled. Your relationship with Helen undermines your moral authority.”

The notion felt like a sick joke to Jan. “We're married, for heaven's sake! How could morality be an issue in marriage?”

Roald shook his head. “You really should have listened to me. It's the appearance of evil that matters, Jan. How are they going to sell a movie about one man's discovery of God and morality when his morals are in question? Isn't that what I told you?”

“And I'm asking you how my morality is in question!”

“Because appearances do matter, Jan. And your . . .
wife
does not give off the best appearances!”

Jan wanted to strike the man with his fist. He rose and stood against the conference table, shaking with rage.

“Now you want to shoot me like you did Mr. Lutz?” Roald asked.

“Okay, Roald,” Karen said. “You've made your point.” She turned to Jan and her eyes were emotionless. “Sit down, Jan.”

Jan forced himself back into his chair. Frank and Barney sat side by side, like a jury studying the cross-examination.

“Dreamscape has given us a condition for continuance,” she said. “They won't make the movie with a questionable moral dilemma hanging over your head.”

“That's utterly ridiculous! And what's ‘questionable' supposed to mean anyway?”

“It means,” Roald said, “that either the woman goes or the movie goes. That's what it means.”

“That's absurd! They want me to divorce? And they see that as moral? No studio could be so stupid! Someone else will buy the movie rights!”

“No they won't. Dreamscape has already made it clear that they won't sell the rights. Not as long as there's an adulterous relationship in the mix.”

“I am
not
in an adulterous relationship! Who would make such a claim?”

Karen spoke. “They didn't say you were committing adultery—they claim that Helen's still seeing Glenn Lutz.”

The room fell to silence. A sweat broke out on Jan's forehead. “The movie is about me, not Helen. And how would Dreamscape know of Glenn?”

“You are married to Helen. It looks bad,” Roald answered, holding his eyes on Jan. “And Dreamscape would know about Glenn because for all practical purposes, Dreamscape is Glenn.”

Dreamscape was Glenn? But how?

Then Jan knew how. Glenn had set this up for one purpose and one purpose only. The man would stop at nothing to get Helen back!

“So, Glenn acquires
The Dance of the Dead
through Dreamscape and he tells you that unless I end my relationship with Helen,
his
lover, then he won't make the picture. Is that about it?” Jan knew that a tremble accompanied his words, but he no longer cared. “And that doesn't sound odd to you? This pig is the devil himself and you don't see it, do you? It seems that I have grounds to sue him for manipulating the terms of the contract!”

“It doesn't matter how it sounds to us, Jan,” Karen said. “He paid for the rights to the movie and we signed a contract that gives him the technical right to cancel the movie on these grounds. And now that you've assaulted him, he no doubt has other grounds.”

“And he assaulted me. When the world discovers that, Glenn won't have a leg to stand on.”

“So you say, but he has a voice as well. And either way he'll probably sue for all moneys already paid. Am I right, Roald?”

“Yes. That's right.”

Jan faced the man. “So you talked to him yourself, Roald? You plotted behind my back with this devil?”

“Yes, I spoke to him. He called me. What did you want me to do? Refuse a call from the man behind our futures?”

“Your future, perhaps, but not mine. I'll
never
give in to a monster like Glenn.”

“You will refuse, then? You'll kiss off seven million dollars and this entire ministry and everything you've lived for? Over this one lousy woman?”

Jan slammed his hand on the table and they all jumped. “She is
not
one lousy woman! She is everything! I have lived my life preparing to love her. And nothing— not seven million dollars, not a hundred million dollars—nothing will come between us! Do you understand this, or do I need to stamp it on your forehead?”

Roald's face flushed red. “You're throwing everything away! Everything!”

“Not Helen. I will not throw Helen away.
She
is everything! Nothing else matters!” Jan sat back and breathed heavily. “How can you sit there and suggest that I divorce my wife so that you can line your pockets with gold?”

Roald's face turned red and for a moment Jan thought he might leap over the table and attempt to remove his head.

“I don't think that's what Roald had in mind,” Karen said with an apologetic smile. “I think he's genuinely concerned with the bigger picture here—”

“Is that what you think?” Jan interrupted. “And what did you have in mind, Karen? That somehow in this mess you would be vindicated?”

She appeared to have been slapped. Karen pulled herself up to the table. “Now you listen to me, you meathead. First of all, you must know that if this deal falls through it will be the end of the ministry. You ever think of that? The book will be canceled, the tours, everything will go away without the movie. A million lives will be impacted. You must see that. And the fact that you're living with—or married to—a woman who's in an adulterous affair with another man does give you right of divorce, doesn't it? In many circles it would be the only moral thing to do. What Roald's suggesting isn't that unreasonable.”