That seemed to strike a chord. Many of the members nodded and whispered to each other.

“And if we don’t want to leave?” Joshua demanded.

“Do you really want to stay?” Gideon countered. “You don’t have fresh water or food. You don’t have sanitary toilet facilities or real medical help. Sister Coleen did her best, but many of you need trained doctors, not merely a person who wants to be helpful but gets all of her medical know-how from books and the computer.”

“When is she coming back?” Joshua demanded.

Tom thought they should tell the truth, but Molina had been afraid of a riot. Apparently, she had changed her mind. Probably because of the agents standing behind her.

“She’s not,” Molina said, and the murmurs grew to irate cries.

“You’ve arrested her?” Joshua shouted, and the tension ratcheted up tenfold.

Many of these people had been brainwashed as to the evils of the government for thirty years. Tom marveled that Amos had adjusted so well.

“No,” Molina said, holding up a hand for order. “She was killed by DJ Belmont.”

“That’s a lie!” Joshua cried. “Why would he do that?”

Mercy stepped forward, her face drawn and pale. “Probably because Coleen found out about me. That I survived. That DJ lied when he said I’d died trying to escape. He shot my mother in cold blood. She did die. But he was interrupted when he was trying to kill me.”

“That. Is. A. Lie,” Joshua repeated.

“Listen to it with your own ears,” Molina said. She produced a cell phone and one of the agents hooked it up to a speaker. “The hospital where Pastor was staying provided computer devices to all the patients and their families. They can be used as cameras and tape recorders. We think Coleen was recording Mr. Belmont in an attempt to prove to Pastor what she’d learned. She was suffocated and there were bruises around her neck where Mr. Belmont grabbed her locket chain and twisted.”

Tom noticed several women in the gathered crowd put their hands to their throats, their expressions indicating that they had also been controlled by their locket chain.

Molina tapped her phone and DJ’s voice could be heard.

“Where is he?”

“Back in the solarium after his nap,” Coleen replied.

“What did he do while he was there?”

“He met a little girl earlier, and they chatted. He wanted to feel the sun on his face, so I took him back and left him with his nurse. I wanted to talk to you.”

“What did they chat about? And who’s with him now?”

“They chatted about all kinds of things. His kids, you know, his real kids. Bo and Bernie.”

“That doesn’t hurt me like you think it does,” DJ said. “I never wanted to be his kid.”

That drew a gasp from the crowd.

“How did they get that tape?” Liza asked Tom in a whisper.

“Someone in billing finally clicked on the link in my e-mail. I got into the security network and downloaded this file while Croft and I were driving to you. Sunnyside uploaded everything the patients and families did on the devices.”