The Secret of the Stones (31 page)

Chapter
47

Southeastern
Tennessee

Finding
the Beacon Tabernacle proved to be easy enough thanks to the Hummer’s
navigational system.
 
Fifteen
minutes after leaving the state park, Big Guard whipped the SUV into the
parking lot of the church.
 
There
must have been a thousand words to describe what the men in the car were
thinking as they stared at the monstrous building.
 
But silent awe was all that was projected.

The
Beacon Tabernacle was situated in a valley of rolling hills right on the crest
of a slight rise.
 
From the parking
area, the view of the surrounding mountains and hillsides was serenely
beautiful.
 
Patches of orange, red,
and yellow forest dotted the landscape, the trees’ leaves on fire for the
season. In between the dense cropping of woods, a few small farms dotted the
land.

Tommy
looked around at the scenery.
 
“They sure picked a nice spot,” he whispered to himself.
 
No words had been spoken since they had
left the museum.
 
He was still in
disbelief at the brutal manner in which Ulrich had killed the innocent parks
worker.
 

Still,
something about the Indian seemed as if he had been prepared, almost looking
forward to the whole thing, like it was part of a bigger plan.
 
 

Ulrich
and the two guards exited the SUV and also took a brief glance around.
 
Their reason for looking was more to
make sure no one had followed, rather than to appreciate the stunning visuals.

A
solitary, gray pickup truck sat quietly outside the entrance.
 
He assumed the vehicle belonged to the
church’s sexton.
 
Most churches
didn’t require a person to work the facility during the week, due, mostly, to
the small number of people using it.
 
This building, though, boasted more than three thousand patrons.
 
Despite its large seating capacity, the
church was forced to offer three services during the mornings just to
accommodate everyone.
 

The
four men cautiously approached the building.
 
Unlike many churches in the South and Northeast that were
essentially boxes that angled up to a point in the roof with a steeple at the
front; The Beacon Tabernacle was most certainly a unique piece of
architecture.
 
Not cathedral-like
either, its roof gradually rose to one side of the building and, then, dropped
off dramatically.
 
And there was no
steeple, only three steel beams of varying heights precariously placed off to
the side of the entrance on a separate patch of landscaping.
 

Another
interesting point of note was the lack of crosses.
 
Most Christian churches he’d seen had several crucifixes
decorating windows, doorways, pretty much everything.
 
It seemed odd that there were none at this location.
 
In fact, the building seemed to be
missing many stereotypical decorative items of Christianity.
 
Two rows of slender stained-glass
windows decorated the pale brick walls of the exterior.
 
But even though the sheer size of the
place was impressive, the design itself seemed somewhat simple, almost made to
look plain.
 

The
shorter guard reached the large wooden doors of the church first and grabbed
the brass handle.
 
Apparently, the
door weighed more than he expected and the jerking motion pulled him off
balance for a second.
 
Slightly embarrassed,
he held the door for the other three to walk in first.
 

Upon
entering, the four men found themselves in something that completely offset the
outside of the building.
 
Just past
the second set of large doors, the ceiling dramatically vaulted up into a
five-story-high angled glass roof that extended the length of the room.
 
On the other end of the vast atrium, a
tiled staircase extended upwards in front of elevator doors.
 

Even
the usually stoic guards seemed impressed.
 
The dumbfounded looks on their faces spoke to the fact that
they had never seen anything quite like it.
 
The church’s lobby wasn’t more amazing than the Sistine
Chapel or any of the other great Cathedrals of the world, but the striking
beauty of the inside, when compared to the ordinary exterior of the building,
truly was an amazing contrast.
 

As
they stepped further into the giant room, they saw an older man at the other
end of the mezzanine with a white head of hair behind a welcome desk.
 
He must have heard them enter because
he was in the process of folding up his newspaper.
 

Ulrich’s
patience with allowing Tommy to ask the questions had seemed to wear thin and
he spoke directly to the church worker.
 
“We are from out of town and heard of your church from our friend
here.
 
Would it be possible for us
to look around?”
 

It
was unbelievable.
 
Was this the
same man who had just gunned down an innocent park ranger not half an hour
ago?
 
Now his demeanor had done a
complete 180.
 
He spoke smoothly
and politely to the old man and did not appear to have any desire to hurt him
at all, like a snake waiting quietly in the grass.

“Certainly,”
the sexton replied.
 
“Feel free to
take a look around.
 
The rooms and
offices across the way there are closed for the day,” his skin and bones hand
extended towards the place about which he was speaking.
 
“But you can go up the elevator to see
the balcony and you may take a look around in the main floor of the sanctuary
as well.”
 
Thin lips pursed into a
welcoming smile.

“Thank
you,” was all that Ulrich offered.
 

Five
sets of stairs led into the main sanctuary.
 
Above, a small chapel was situated on the second floor, the
outside wall of which was covered by a spectacular painting of multiple scenes
from Jesus’ ministry. The pictorial history climaxed emotionally at the top
with a depiction of the second coming.
 
The canvas alone was at least fifteen feet in length and another eight
feet wide.
 

Hurriedly,
the four men moved toward the first set of stairs going into the inner lobby of
the church.
 
Once inside, several
sets of windows allowed the faithful to see into the colossal main worship hall,
probably to help the church members decide on a place to sit before actually
walking through one of the four sets of wooden doors.
 

At
the very front of the great auditorium, behind the pulpit, was one of the most
impressive sights that Tommy had ever seen.
 
The group slightly slowed their pace and passed through one
of the doors on the left.
 
Almost
reverently, the group eased down the aisle toward a gigantic pipe organ that
reached from the floor of the elevated stage to nearly three stories up to the
wooden plank ceiling.
 

Its
enormity wasn’t the only thing that made the instrument so impressive,
though.
 
Intricate wooden carvings
decorated the beast from top to bottom.
 
Trees, vines, flowers, birds, and other animals looked almost as if they
could come to life from the wood in which they were carved.

Above
them, the sanctuary opened up like a huge airplane-hanger.
 
The angled roof soared to its apex near
the left wall, then dropped off to a much lower point on the right.
 
In the very back, the church balcony
loomed with an additional several hundred seats and the control center for the
sound and video systems.

Tommy’s
attention went back to the side walls of the church and the stained glass
windows.
 
From outside the facility,
the windows looked very dark, not quite black and the colors were much
duller.
 
This made it difficult to
really see the details of the panes.
 
But from the inside the colors showed much more brilliantly.
 
There were especially a lot of blues
and reds used in the mosaic of jagged glasswork.
 
And in each individual window, there were what seemed to be
random white dots interspersed through the darker colors.
 

He
let his eyes gaze at several of them before making his way, almost
unconsciously, towards the stage and up its front steps.
 
At a closer position, the organ was
even larger than he’d thought, with ladders and small platforms built up inside
so maintenance workers could have easy access to the necessary spots.
 

Tommy
turned to Ulrich, his mind leaving the instrument for a moment.
 
“What do you expect to find here?”

Ulrich
cocked his head, “That’s why you are here, Mr. Schultz.”

“I
don’t even know what to look for.”
 
He’d become exasperated.
 
The events of the last few days had taken their toll, and his brain hurt
from the emotional and mental roller coaster.

“Try.”
 

Minutes
went by.
 
Tommy scanned the entire
chamber searching for something that could possibly be a clue.
 
He could find nothing.
 
No pictures, no words, not even any
symbols that could be translated were to be found anywhere.
 
And there was certainly nothing of any
Indian influence to be seen.
 

Out
of nowhere, the sexton appeared in a doorway near the base of the large
stage.
 
“Do you gentlemen have any
questions or need help with anything?”
 

“Actually
sir,” Tommy answered, “I do have a couple of questions.”

“Yes?”
 
The man looked happy to be able to
help.

“I
was curious about the size of this church.
 
It seems fairly large for an area with such a small
population.
 
How did that happen?”
 

The
old man smiled with his reply, “Originally, this church only had a dozen
members or so.
 
That was back in
the mid 1800s.
 
Shortly after the
church was organized, the founding pastor came into a great deal of money.
 
No one really knows where it came
from.
 
He claimed that the money
had come from a generous donor who believed in the ministry of the church, but
who wanted to stay anonymous.
 
Down
through the years, the church has been remodeled and expanded many times to
accommodate the growing numbers of members.
 
Where you stand now is the result of the final renovation in
the 1950s.
 
Down in the basement
areas, the original flooring and foundation still exist to this day.”

“Would
it be possible to get down there and see some of the original structure?”

A
slight chuckle ensued.
 
“Oh my,
no.
 
There is only one door that
leads down into that area and it is completely sealed off.
 
Quite impossible to get down there.”

“Why
is it sealed off?”

“I
have no idea.
 
It seems to me that
it would be an interesting part of the church’s history to include that as part
of the tour, but for some reason, it was closed up long ago, before this final
version of the building was ever completed.
 
If I had to guess, I would say there must be some kind of
safety or insurance concern with having people in that area.”

The
answer seemed an honest one.
 
Still, the mysterious origin of where the church got its money was never
made clear.

“That
organ,” the sexton went on, “is the largest bellows driven pipe organ in the
eastern half of the United States and one of the biggest in the entire
world.”
 
He must have noticed
Ulrich and the two guards pretending to admire the massive instrument.
 
They all gave the man a blank stare of
disinterest.

“If
I may,” Tommy went back to the issue in his mind, “you said that nobody knew
where the money originally came from?”

“That
is correct sir.
 
Of course, now,
the church has a rather large number of members on its books so money comes in
regularly from tithes and offerings.”

There
was something suspicious about the story they were being told.
 
Tommy believed the church worker was
mostly telling the truth, but it seemed like the connection between the dead
park ranger’s story earlier and the way that this church seemed to thrive so
quickly was more than just a mere coincidence.
 
His eyes once again searched the room, trying to find
something that would tip him as to how.