Are Jekyll and Hyde Ever Seen Together?

I thought my years in law enforcement had pretty well exposed me to con artists and wheeler-dealers, but I have never encountered the likes of Rick Altman before or since my brief stint at Trinity. Charisma is difficult to define, but it is very obvious when it is present. Rick had the ability to cast spells that easily seduced those around him, me included. His adeptness for name dropping was truly remarkable. Rick had me (and many others) believing that he was personally acquainted with higher powers in the UM church, as well as prominent figures in Las Vegas. I’ve already mentioned Don Smith’s passive/aggressive nature, and Rick perfectly complemented this personality by essentially acting as the church administrator on Don’s behalf. The parsonage renovation project had been “assigned” to Rick prior to our arrival from Nebraska, and he was almost manic in his pursuit of subcontractors for carpeting, painting, etc. The remodeling became so ambitious that it was taking much longer than Preston Howard had imagined it would, and that’s how we ended up in one of those rent-by-the-month apartments (again, arranged by Rick). Our belongings had to be put into storage and then moved again when the house was finally finished, and it was at this point that I began to wonder about Rick’s apparent carte blanche with regard to church funds. No one seemed to be keeping track of his expenditures except him, and his cavalier attitude about spending would have been very foreign to any congregations I had been a part of up to that point. If pressed, Rick would simply say that he was doing Don’s bidding. And if you asked Don, well, he would just say that Rick was doing what he was supposed to.