I contacted Angela and got her and Lacey looking into it.

A text message from DeYoung informed me that he would be bringing the senator up in a few minutes.

I decided to spend the time nailing down which questions to ask him—and how to do so tactfully.

Which was going to be a challenge, considering the topics I would be addressing.

69

Christie knocked lightly on the door to Dr. Calvin Werjonic’s hospital room.

He enjoined her to come in, and she introduced herself. “Dr. Werjonic, I’m Christie Ellis, Pat’s wife.”

“Ah. Yes! Please. Have a seat.”

Though he looked frail lying there in bed, he had a distinguished air about him.

“I brought you a card,” she said somewhat awkwardly.

He accepted it, read it, then warmly thanked her and positioned it on the stand beside his bed next to a pile of paperwork that she noticed had his signature at the bottom.

“Patrick has told me so much about you,” Calvin said, “about how thankful he is to have found you.”

“I’m thankful too.”

“I understand that fate brought you two together under an umbrella in April?”

“Well, yes . . . but I like to think it was more than fate.”

“He mentioned that you’re a spiritual person. So, part of a divine plan, perhaps? The two of you meeting the way you did?”

“I guess I just don’t believe that there are such things as coincidences. Fate isn’t a big enough explanation to me to account for the blessings that come into our lives.”

But, Christie, what about the things that aren’t blessings?

Who brings those into your life?

Is pain, is suffering part of the divine plan too?

“And in that belief,” Calvin noted, “you share a common bond with your husband. He believes that apparent coincidences are simply clues to a deeper truth in an investigation, and you see that deeper truth at play as well—in all of life.”

“I suppose so.”

“Brilliant. Perhaps you’re both right! And truth lies at the center of both perspectives, which I am always glad to see. When he was in my classes, I taught him the principle that truth is the greatest scalpel of all.”

She wasn’t exactly sure how they’d gotten to this philosophical point so soon in their conversation—talk of fate and truth and divine plans—but Calvin didn’t appear to be someone who was much interested in small talk. “How is truth a scalpel?” she asked.

“Most of us layer on lie after lie until our hearts are thick with them. And nothing slices through misconceptions and distorted beliefs as effectively as the impartial blade of truth.”

Christie thought of the Scripture verse in Hebrews that talks about how God’s word is sharper than any two-edged sword and how it divides soul and spirit, judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Word of Truth.

The Sword of the Spirit.