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confessed, that police found the poison in her garbage can. But that wasn’t his reaction at all.
    “Half the people in this congregation don’t think she did it,” he said.
    Aubrey apparently wasn’t as surprised by his confession as I was. “Who do they think did?” she asked.
    Gates smiled a little. “People here try to mind their Christian P’s and Q’s.”
    Aubrey smiled back. “But—”
    “Well, who else. The boyfriend.” By
the boyfriend
he meant, of course, Tim Bandicoot, Buddy Wing’s one-time heir-apparent. Tim had grown up in the church—the Clean Collar Club and all that—and the childless Wing had carefully groomed him to run the whole show someday. He even paid Tim’s Bible college tuition. But when Tim started questioning his penchant for speaking in tongues, Wing very publicly threw him out of the congregation, along with Tim’s wife, Annie, and two hundred of Tim’s supporters. It happened about six years ago. There was a big debate in the newsroom about how to play the story. Some editors thought it was interesting but inconsequential church stuff that should be held until Saturday and run on the Faith & Family pages, or maybe during the week as a human interest feature in the Living section. Others insisted it was hard news—trouble right here in Hallelujah City and all that.
    Hard news won. The story ran below the fold on Page One. What a headline:
    TONGUE LASHING
Buddy Wing, protégé split over strange church practice
     
    “But Tim Bandicoot is such an obvious suspect, isn’t he?” said Aubrey, sliding down in her chair and propping her knees on Gates’ desk, the way she did at her own desk.
    Gates’ eyes locked on Aubrey’s knees and pretty much stayed there the rest of the interview. “What’s obvious is that Tim really hated Pastor Wing,” he said.
    Up to now I’d just sat there like a bump on a log, but I remembered that whole story so well. “Enough to kill him and frame his own girlfriend?” I squeaked.
    Gates’ face started to twitch like a boiling sauce pan of Cream of Wheat. “Tim is an immoral man. Wife, two young sons, and a girlfriend on the side. He stole a big chunk of our congregation.”
    “He didn’t exactly steal them,” I pointed out. “They merely agreed that your church could draw a bigger audience if Wing stopped speaking in tongues. And when Bandicoot was given the boot, they followed him. And as far as him having a girlfriend on the side—”
    I was way out of line and Aubrey’s eyebrows were telling me to shut up. But Gates answered me politely, as if I was a real reporter, and not just a librarian out on a Saturday snoop. “The very fact that Tim thought speaking in tongues was something Pastor Wing could stop, tells you right up front that he didn’t belong in this ministry. Tongues isn’t some cheap theatrical device to get people excited. It’s a gift God gives to the truly saved.” Gates grabbed his eyes and squeezed them together. He started reciting scripture: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” He blinked and grinned. “Acts 2:4. Praise God.”
    “Do you speak in tongues?” Aubrey asked him.
    “Am I truly saved? Yes, I am. How about the two of you?”
    Aubrey squirmed. I suppose I squirmed a little myself. “Right now,” Aubrey said, “we’re only interested in saving Sissy James from spending the rest of her life in prison. Assuming she doesn’t belong there.”
    “We love her whether she does or doesn’t,” Gates said. “I hope you understand that.”
    “And I hope you understand that we’re not trying to do either God’s work or the police department’s work,” Aubrey answered. “If Sissy James is innocent, that’s a great story.”
    It was the pastor’s turn to be uncomfortable. “I hope you’re not going to make a lot of good people look silly.”
    Aubrey closed her notebook and slowly slid it in her coat