A Change of Heart by Philip Gulley

was backing her Lincoln Town Car out of the driveway and heading toward home.
    The following day was a Tuesday. Deena left for the Legal Grounds after breakfast, the Gardner boys in tow. As they rounded the corner in front of the hardware store, Bob Miles spied them and watched as Deena unlocked the door of the Legal Grounds, raised the blinds, and turned the sign from Closed to Open. Bob began to type. Good news for all you coffee lovers, Deena Morrison is back to work at the Legal Grounds with two new helpers.
    As for Deena, she was inordinately pleased. She’d scarcely been married a month and had already trumped her mother-in-law. Now she just had to whip her husband into shape and she’d be set.
    Somewhere, Bob knew, there was a story. Though not one he’d ever hear. The town’s more interesting stories seldom find their way into the Herald. At one time, Bob had dreams of stumbling upon a big story and splashing it across the front page. But now his knees hurt, so he prefers to sit at his desk and let the news come to him.
    Recently, however, he’d summoned the energy to snoop around. The month before, he’d seen Ralph and Sandy Hodge walk past the Herald building on their way to Owen Stout’s office. Bob had graduated with Ralph, but he wouldn’t have recognized him if it hadn’t been for the Hodge duckfoot. Bob had first noticed it in the third grade, when he and Ralph had lined up alphabetically to walk to the lunchroom. It was a small class; there were no I’s, J’s, K’s, or L’s. You watch a kid duckfoot his way down two flights of stairs and a hallway every weekday for nine months and it’s lodged in your mind forever.
    The Hodges had stayed in Owen Stout’s office forty-five minutes. He’d timed them. After that, he saw them around town from time to time, back at Owen’s office, at the Dairy Queen one evening, turning into the tourist cabins, and once at the Kroger.
    He’d tried to weasel information out of Owen Stout at their next Odd Fellows meeting, but Owen wasn’t talking. Then he’d phoned Ellis to see what was going on, but had been told, in no uncertain terms, to mind his own business, which he had no intention of doing.
    On the hunch that pastors knew a lot of secrets, Bob had dropped by the meetinghouse to visit Sam, but he was gone, out of town with his wife, Frank the secretary informed him. “And what a shame that is. Just when you wanted to get right with the Lord for all the lies you’ve printed, the pastor’s gone. I hope you don’t die before he gets back. I’d hate to see a man have to stand before St. Pete with your load of sin.”
    “No, it’s nothing like that,” Bob said. “Say, maybe you could help me. Have Ralph and Sandy Hodge been coming to church?”
    “Yes, but not this one. The secretary at the Harmony Worship Center told me they’ve been going there.”
    Frank was plugged into the town’s church secretary network and consequently had the dirt on everyone.
    Curiouser and curiouser, Bob thought. The Harmony Worship Center. Then it dawned on him. Maybe they were religious fanatics who kidnapped children. He’d heard about this happening in California, where they had all the cults. Who would have thought it? Little duckfooted Ralphie Hodge had gone off the deep end. Now that he thought about it, Ralph had lived in California. Ellis had told him so himself when Amanda had come to live with him and Miriam.
    Now they were back, hanging out at the Harmony Worship Center and up to no good.
    He phoned Ellis as soon as he’d figured it out. “You better watch out for that brother of yours. He’s come back to kidnap Amanda. He was a member of a cult back there in California. They steal kids and brainwash them.”
    Ellis wasn’t the least bit surprised.
    He and Miriam had put off inviting Ralph and Sandy over for dinner, even though they’d promised Amanda they would. Unbeknownst to them, she’d been meeting with them on Saturday mornings. It had started