Chapter 2
Ann angrily paced the small cell. Where were Bill and Stacy? She had gone to the
cell door when she first arrived and yelled to them through what she hoped was a
small crack. No one had responded. It had all happened very quickly. She had
been speaking with the daughter of one of the congregation about next Sunday's
church school when the police arrived.
They had grabbed her along with Stacy and thrown her into a military police van.
Several minutes later, Bill and Pastor Reyes were shoved into the van. The drive
to the police station had taken over an hour. When Bill tried to talk to her
during the ride, the military policeman had shoved his rifle in Bill's face and
shouted "No Talk".
During the ride, Ann had kept her arm around Stacy. Once they reached the police
station, they forcibly separated her from Bill and Stacy. Bill had quickly been
taken in a different direction; perhaps the jail had separate sections for men
and women. When they reached a corridor of cells, two guards pulled Stacy away
from her mother. Another two guards pulled the screaming Ann away toward another
block of cells. The guards had to struggle with Ann. Ann taught several
different styles of aerobics at the church and was much stronger than her size
would indicate.
Once inside the cell, the guard had turned her around and shoved Ann up against
the wall face first. His gun was pointed at her head. He pushed her hard enough
that her forehead slammed into the brick wall, dazing her slightly. She felt the
guard lifting the back of her skirt. She was too terrified to move. Tears began
to slowly fall on her cheeks. She felt a hand on her panties feeling her bottom.
She tried to turn around but the guard pushed her face first into the wall
banging her nose this time. She felt the guards hand slide inside her pants onto
the bare skin of her butt. "My God, they are going to rape me," thought Ann.
The hand was sliding between her butt cheeks when suddenly there was a loud
commanding voice nearby. Ann did not understand the rapid Spanish. The hand was
jerked away. The police slammed her cell door shut and left her alone.
Ann thought about Stacy. The thought of policeman putting their hands on her
daughter was almost too much to bear. Lately, Stacy had been a handful but she
was still just a fourteen-year girl. Bill kept telling Ann that Stacy was just
going through a difficult age. Difficult age was an understatement. Bill
idolized his daughter and Ann had been reluctant to make him understand what was
really going on. Ann had not told Bill about catching Stacy with Mark
Stanwood's hand up her dress. The dress also happened to be completely
unbuttoned down the front. There was no doubt that Mark had gotten to third base
and might have hit a home run if Ann had not wondered into the den looking for a
book she left there.
When Ann confronted Stacy after Mark had run off, Stacy had been defiant. She
had accused her mother of spying on her. Ann had reminded Stacy that as the
minister's daughter of the largest and most prominent evangelical church in
Nashville, she was supposed to set an example. Stacy responded that she was only
doing what the other girls were doing and that Ann's teaching and workshops on
abstinence and chastity until marriage were a laughingstock to the teenagers.
Stacy's remarks had hurt Ann and she had cried alone in her room afterward.
Ann found Stacy's behavior almost inexplicable. Ann was the daughter of the one
of the senior leaders of the Southern Baptist Church. Her father was known
throughout the South for his powerful preaching against godlessness especially
immoral sexual behavior. If Ann's father ever found out that his granddaughter
was allowing boys to touch her, he would blame Ann. The real reason she had
agreed to go on the mission to Chiapas was to get Stacy away from temptation.
She also realized after thinking it through that this would be good for Bill's
career. Bill had the potential to be as influential as Bill Graham but he needed
someone like Ann to guide his career. First hand experience with foreign
missions would increase Bill's prestige with other religious leaders. Bill was
going places with Ann's help. She just needed to keep that daughter of theirs
from becoming an embarrassment. How would it look if the preacher's daughter
were sleeping with boys while her father and mother were preaching abstinence
before marriage? Ann could envision what everyone would say.
Ann recalled the feel of the guards hands on her bottom. As soon as he left, she
had pushed her panties back in place. When Bill got in touch with the consulate,
these people would be punished for fondling the wife of Bill Tompkins, Minister
of Brentwood First Christian.
