Page 111 of Never Flinch

“Coverage should be five bars all the way. I checked.”

Holly’s admiration for Corrie continues to go up.

“Make your points and move on. ‘They’re trying to muzzle me, to flush my First Amendment rights, let the people decide if they want to go, quit the bullpucky.’ Hammer on those. Don’t get sidetracked. Every time I poke you in the arm, wind it up.”

Kate looks at Holly. “When I’m Madam President, this woman is going to be my chief of staff.”

Corrie blushes. “I just want to protect your tour.”

“Ourtour. The Three Female Musketeers. Right, Holly?”

“True, Boo,” Holly says.

Corrie: “We’re still registered at the Garden City Plaza.”

Kate: “And still in my name?”

“Yes. Holly said it would be best, given what’s happened, if you don’t look like you’re ducking and covering.”

“Goddam right.”

“You can do the rest of the calls from there.” Corrie shakes her fists in the air. “This could work.”

Kate takes Corrie’s list and starts making calls. Her energy seems unabated. Holly goes back to her own room, takes three minutes to finish packing, then starts going through Jerome’s list of activist churches. He’s added more details overnight. Kate’s stalker may not be here, but she might well be.

Jerome writes that some of these churches have organized under the collective banner of AOG, standing for the Army of God. Three of them—two churches in Tennessee and the one in Alabama—warranted police involvement because of FACE violations, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances. Protesting was fine; shouting insults at the women entering was also fine (although in Holly’s opinion it shouldn’t be); pictures of dismembered fetuses were okay; blocking the entrances and showers of blood, fake or otherwise, were not. Following various links embedded in the news stories, Holly discovers that sinceDobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, those three clinics have been shuttered anyway, so she supposes the pro-lifers can chalk that up as a win.

In Idaho, members of Christ the Everlasting Redeemer lay down in front of a drag parade, while other members “blessed” the parade marchers with seltzer water. Instead of calling the seltzer water “blessings,” the judge called it “third-degree assault.” Also in Idaho, just a month later, members of the same little church were arrested for vandalizing a library that was rumored to be a meeting place for pedophiles belonging to the Q organization. In upstate New York, a women’s clinic was firebombed. No one died, but two patients and a nurse were badly burned. The investigation ongoing, so far no arrests made.

Jerome’s note about the Wisconsin church is brief:Real Christ Holy, Baraboo Junction, Wisconsin. Google Brenda’s Bitches. Because Kate is still on her third call—Holly can hear her through the open door—she does just that.

The most informative article Holly finds is on a website calledReligion Good & Bad. The story concerns a melee involving twenty orso demonstrators from Real Christ Holy, and a dozen or so women—Brenda’s Bitches—who counter-protested on motor scooters. Holly notes that, although Real Christ Holy is based in northern Wisconsin, the protest occurred in Pennsylvania. Holly’s deduction is that the church either has a wealthy patron or a number of rich congregants.

TheDaily Kosarticle she goes to next has a jaded “this is the right-wing America we live in” tone that Holly doesn’t care for. She starts to turn her iPad off, then decides to google the Real Christ Holy Church of Baraboo Junction a little further. She getsbeaucouphits, starting with Wikipedia.

It turns out that the unaffiliated church was bankrolled by Harold Stewart, the late president of Hot Flash Electronics and holder of several valuable patents. Those patents are now the property of Real Christ Holy, an AOG-affiliated church. The members of Real Christ Holy have protested in plenty of states on Stewart’s money, not just Pennsylvania. In one case, four members of the churchwerearrested and charged with assault while protesting at a clinic in Florida. This was a year before the kerfuffle with Brenda’s Bitches. Holly finds an article about it in thePensacola News Journal. There’s a paywall, but the headline is enough for her to cough up $6.99 for the introductory offer.

4 CHARGED IN FAKE ACID ATTACK AT SARA WATERS CLINIC

She mutters a very un-Holly-like “Holy shit.”

Before reading the article, she looks at the accompanying photograph. It shows three men and one woman, arms linked in solidarity, mounting the courthouse steps, and looking defiantly up at the photographer. Two of the men are identified as Pastor James Mellors and First Deacon Andrew Fallowes, of the Real Christ Holy Church. The woman is Denise Mellors, the pastor’s wife. The third man, much younger, is Christopher Stewart. The article doesn’t say he’s Harold Stewart’s son, but Holly thinks it likely; he’s certainly the right age.

Kate’s voice goes away. Thoughts of the next stop—her own hometown—go away. She’s having one of those moments she livesfor: the hard click of things coming together.It was a woman in Reno, not a man, but… what did Corrie say? “Bright red hair that couldn’t be natural.” And later the police found the wig.

Corrie pokes her head in the door. “Kate’s finished. With this round, at least. Are you ready to go?”

“What exactly did the woman in Reno say to you? Can you remember?”

“I’ll never forget it because I thought I’d be blind for the rest of my life. She said, ‘Here’s what you have coming.’ Then something from the Bible about not usurping the authority of the man.”

“Come here a second.”

“She’s waiting, Holly, we really have to—”

“This is important. Come here.”

Corrie comes. Holly shows her the article. “This crime in Florida—felony assault downgraded to a misdemeanor—fits the MO of the woman who threw fake acid at you. If itwasa woman.” She spreads her fingers to make the photo of the quartet going up the courthouse steps bigger. She taps Christopher Stewart. “Could this be the person who attacked you in Reno?”

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