The well lit sign advertising for Mt. Zion Baptist church appeared to look desolate in the late hours of the night. Some punk teenager had removed the letter "T" from the sign so it now read "In God we rust". Stupid, stupid kids.
Mark felt pretty scared sitting in his silver colored PT Cruiser parked in the middle of the vacant parking lot and letting the heater run. How much trouble could he be in if he was caught aiding and abetting a high profile serial killer? He couldn't back out now because Vincent was his one and only son. And he sure loved him dearly. They were wrong for unlawfully incarcerating Vinny for 10 years and jeopardizing his life. Vincent should've stayed teaching at St. Mary's Catholic school where the students adored him. But as the old saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished". Vinny's only crime was trying to educate some rejected hoodlums that society just didn't care about.
These thoughts ran through Mark's cloudy mind as he looked at the digital clock on the car stereo. 11:58pm. Mark knew that Vinny was always punctual. The parking lot was very dark and kind of spooky looking. Mt. Zion church was poorly lit and the stained glass windows casted an eerie glow. It was strange how such a large building would only be occupied for a few hours one day out of the week.
Mark heard his wristwatch beep. He knew it was midnight but where was Vinny? He didn't see anyone enter the parking lot. He had parked right in the middle just as Vinny had asked. Then in the blink of an eye the passenger's side door opened and Vinny got in the car and tossed a black back pack into the back seat along with Mark's luggage.
Mark tried to catch his breath. He was sure he had surveilled every inch of the parking lot and all he could deduce was Vinny must've been hiding underneath his tires for quite sometime. He didn't. He was the Gadget Man, he could do anything.
Vinny buckled his seatbelt and pretended as if everything was hunky-dory. He even sounded in a good mood.
"How ya doing pops?" He said finally looking around to make sure they weren't being watched.
Mark tried to answer but choked on his words until they finally came out. "It's, it's...uh...it's good to see you son." He said inspecting his boy, "You didn't kill anyone else did you?"
Vinny chuckled and looked out his side window. He thought about the mail bomb he just dropped of in the blue drop box that was getting mailed to his prosecutor Lisa Jenks. "Of course not. Just business to attend to. Come on dad let's get going." He said reassuringly.
Mark carefully flicked the gear shifter into drive and eased out of the church parking lot taking a deep breath as he thought what his new life would be like in Costa Rica. They reached a stop sign at the end of the parking lot. Mark stopped and put on his right turn signal.
While he waited for traffic to clear so he could pull out his father's words came into his mind from when he himself was a kid. As Mark made the right hand turn to start their long journey he let out a deep breath. He felt obligated to say something to break the eerie silence and show that he could handle this.
He pushed on the gas pedal and finally broke a smile.
"Just like your Pop Pop used to say Vinny, we're off like a herd of turtles."