The White Lily

by Susanne Matthews

  “Exactly,” Trevor said. “It fits with the news I got yesterday from CPS, too. Mrs. Douglass is rather upset. It seems one of her data entry people has gone missing. The young man didn’t show up for work at the end of his vacation, and according to his landlord, he’s flown the coop. She made us jump through hoops, yet critical information was leaked because she didn’t do a background check on a part-timer she hired. He had access to the entire system. Finding those kids probably didn’t even take him ten minutes.” He shook his head. “Two people are dead and three children are missing because of it. Let’s hope it isn’t four.” He turned to Tom. “Call up Langley. I need those satellites in the air again, and look through country records for places within a 500-mile radius for property that changed hands around the same time as Slocum. Look in Vermont, too.”

  Jacob shook his head. “That’s a hell of a lot of real estate to cover.”

  “Not as much as you think,” Tom answered. “We can eliminate a lot of places right off the bat. The location has to be big enough to house thirty or forty people, so we’re looking at farms, schools, vacant industrial complexes. They have to be able to make meals, take care of their personal needs, and come and go without attracting too much attention, so the place will be isolated. The satellite will read heat signatures, and we can match the two lists.”

  “I don’t care how many structures we end up with,” Trevor said. “We’ll check out every damn one of them. Have we heard from the Hershey police yet?”

  “Yes. Still no answer from April Watters. Yesterday, they canvassed the neighborhood. Apparently April hasn’t been seen in a month, so they think she’s on an extended vacation. At my insistence, they’re getting a court order to go inside the house to see if they can figure out where she’s gone.”

  “Does she live alone?”

  “Yup. Just her and the little one.”

  “Lilith, you have the medical IDs to get you into the jail. I suggest you get going. The sooner we know if this will work, the better I like it. Your car was picked up last night, but get another one from the car pool. From now on, we’ll rotate the vehicles daily so no one will be driving the same one. I’ll add an extra officer down there to watch them. Call me if you need anything. Jacob, your badge is on my desk. Pick it up on the way out.”

  Jacob nodded. “Thanks.”

  After making the quick stop, they crossed the bullpen, and Lilith pressed the call button for the elevator.

  “You know, Rob’s right. You can’t blame yourself for that detective’s death.”

  “Why can’t I? Because from where I sit, it’s my bloody fault he’s dead.”

  She ignored his anger. “You don’t know that. Private eyes make lots of enemies. He could’ve peeped in the wrong window, and a cheating husband who lost everything might’ve been the one to toss him in the harbor.”

  “Or Pierce or whoever killed Eloise saw him when they met and decided Eloise was giving him information or running off with him, consorting with demons, or some other blasted, stupid reason and killed him.”

  “I know how hard this is, but you have to let it go. We’ve got a job to do, and I need your head in the game for this to work.”

  The doors opened and, standing in uneasy silence, Lilith watched the floor indicator lights as the elevator descended to the parking level. Crossing to the motor pool officer, she collected the keys for a red sedan, unlocked the passenger door, and went around to the driver’s side.

  “I’d offer to let you drive, but ...”

  “Not to worry; I’d probably wrap us around a tree. I’m sorry for being such an ass. I should’ve expected something had happened to the man when I couldn’t reach him. It seems the bodies keep piling up, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I feel powerless, and it isn’t something I’m used to.”

  She could understand that. Given all of his responsibilities in Australia, no doubt he was accustomed to being in control.

  “As for your driving,” Jacob continued, “you did an excellent job last night. I don’t mind being chauffeured by a beautiful woman. I’d want more practice on the open road before I tried to navigate these streets. Since we’re supposed to stay together at all times, perhaps after we do some shopping this weekend, we can go for a drive in the countryside and I can practice. Or would you rather spend your weekend in your room alone under police protection?”

  Lilith shook her head. “God, no! I’ll go stir crazy, but I expect we’ll still be working this weekend. We’ve only got two weeks until the Harvester strikes again. If he is going to stab someone, we have to figure out who and where. Since it’s a plague, bystanders will be at risk, too. Instead of giving the Prophet his people, we’re moving them out of his reach, and when he discovers that they’ve vanished, he’s going to be pissed. As for driving, I’ve always considered myself pretty good, but I still get messed up with all the one-way streets.”

  “I’ll offer to buy you a pair of shoes if that’ll help.”

  Lilith chuckled—it was the first time she’d laughed about her fetish. “I’ll hold you to that.” Sobering, she turned to look at him.

  “How will you approach the brethren, as Faye called them? Now that you know the dynamics of the cult, how are you going to do this?”

  “I’ll meet with the older men and women first. They’re the ones most likely to remember me, and if I can get them to accept me, that should sway the younger ones. From that manifesto, blind obedience seems to be a common thing. I’m pretty sure we’re looking at Stockholm syndrome here. I did some research on it last night while I watched you on the telly.”

  “What do you mean you watched me?” She wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or concerned. She hadn’t noticed any cameras, but then, she’d been rather lost in thought. The last thing she needed was more public exposure. She started the car and headed toward Nashua Street.

  “Yeah. The local channel was broadcasting from a helicopter. I saw you go into the building and the look on your face when you came out. I figured it was bad, but I hadn’t anticipated my uncle was behind it. Is there no end to the man’s depravity?”

  “What we see as depraved, he sees as a holy crusade, and I’m afraid it’s only going to end one way.”

  “I agree. What’s the expression? Suicide by cop?”

  “Yes, and he leaves the earth a martyr, which is what we want to prevent at all costs. What if you don’t recognize any of the cult members or they don’t recognize you? There’s a lot resting on being able to find your uncle before the Great Burning.”

  “The numbers Tom mentioned bother me. When I left New Horizon, there were barely three dozen people there. Now, you think he has seven times that many. My uncle may have had an influx of members from other cults, as well as the usual stragglers who added to our ranks when I was young. What if they’re the ones who corrupted him?”

  “You aren’t going to make excuses for him, are you?” She was stunned. Had she been wrong about Jacob? Acid pooled in her stomach.

  “Good God, no. You’ve misunderstood. What I meant is what if that’s where he got some of his crazier ideas and adapted them to suit himself, knowing he’d have believers on hand to support him. He may be able to sell sand to the Bedouins in the Sahara, but if he’s got a shill in the audience, it works even better.”

  “That makes sense. How did you come up with that?”

  “From what Faye said about Peter’s foursome. She said they acted as if the polygamy, the shackles, and all the rest of it were normal. What if polygamy came from their particular cult?

  “Go on.” She was intrigued with the way he’d taken the information and looked beyond it. Rob had suggested Faye often did something similar.

  “You read the manifesto on the position of women: ‘that they were created from men to be subservient and obedient to men in all things. She is supposed to live a life of leisure, doing nothing beyond making her master happy, providing him with children as required, and focusing all her energy on serving him
in all manners.’ That doesn’t sound like anything I remember from my youth, but it sounds a lot like the nonsense I hear shouted by repressive religious tyrants. Opening New Horizons to others and assimilating their beliefs into his makes a lot of sense, and he can put whatever spin he wants on it.”

  She stopped for a red light. The FFOW had believed Rivers was the son of God, but they’d also had crazy ideas about women and their positions in the order of things. As she recalled, a woman could own no property beyond what her master gave her. She shivered. There was that word again.

  Call me master and tell me who sent you, and I’ll let you go ... When a woman obeys her master, she glimpses Eden at his hands ... I can take you to Paradise.

  “Lilith, are you okay? The light’s green.”

  Jacob’s words startled her, and she bit her lip to keep it from trembling.

  “I’m fine,” she lied. “What you said has merit. What will you do if you don’t know any of them?”

  “I’m not sure what I’ll do. We need the information they have, but I can’t send them to Australia unless I think it’s safe. What worries me are the sister cults Faye mentioned, the ones that may have joined or split from New Horizon and are following the same code of behavior. You didn’t mention those earlier.”

  “I didn’t know about them. It didn’t even occur to me. I’ve had some contact with cults, but I’ve never seen more than one together. I’m going to go through the file later and see if we missed something else. It makes sense, of course. With polygamy, the chance of incest increases unless your gene pool is large. I remember Ruby-Ann saying that members from another group had joined them once. I tried so hard to remember the name she’d used, thinking if I found it, I’d find Rose, but if she ever said it, the name went in one ear and out the other.”

  “Well, either way, it increases the possibility that cult members could be staying in established communes until they can complete the exodus to the Promised Land. But it poses another question. Even if we stop my uncle, how can we be sure one of the others won’t take over the Great Burning?”

  “I don’t know, and that scares the bejesus out of me.”

  “Do you think we can get topographical maps of the Rockies? Maybe if Faye saw one, she’d recognize her valley.”

  “I can ask. If there aren’t any, maybe some military satellites can be diverted to make a few. I mean, if the Internet can do it, why can’t we?”

  He chuckled. “Is there anything that can’t be done online these days? People meet friends, find partners, run businesses all from the comfort of their home.”

  “They also stalk and bully people, steal their identities, and ruin them. For every good thing we’ve managed to do, someone has subverted and perverted it.”

  “Like New Horizon. It used to be a good place filled with kind, loving, generous people. Look at it now.”

  They drove the rest of the way in silence, Lilith praying she could get through this without another flashback. She really needed to go shopping for shoes after this.

  • • •

  Jacob stared through the observation room glass at the four people in the interrogation room next door. The people he remembered at New Horizon had believed cleanliness was next to godliness, and right now, he could think of a few swaggies near Alice Springs who were cleaner than they were.

  “What the hell? Why are they in such bad shape?” he asked the guard standing with them. “They don’t look as if they’ve bathed since they got here.”

  “They haven’t. It isn’t our fault,” the man answered defensively. “We’ve offered them showers and clean clothing, but they’ve refused. They even sleep in their clothes. If it weren’t considered brutality, we’d take them outside and hose them down, but it’s as if they have to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

  “Did you know about this?” he asked Lilith.

  “No. I haven’t been here before. I knew the people had been uncooperative, but I hadn’t expected this ...”

  Jacob nodded. “You’re coming in with me, right?”

  “Of course. I said I would,” she answered, although she looked like she’d rather be anywhere else. “It may not smell too good in there, but it can’t be worse than the morgue, right?”

  “I don’t know—nine weeks in the same shirt ...”

  The guard chuckled humorlessly. “Some are more potent than others. The women did accept feminine hygiene needs, so it could’ve been worse. Agent Clark says I’m to let the two of you go in alone. I’ll stay in here in case you have trouble. I have the intercom on, so if you need anything, just ask for it. You know, Mr. Andrews, we have tried to make things as pleasant for them as we can. The women and men are segregated as far as the cells go, but we let them mix for meals and exercise and have kept them away from the others as we’ve been ordered to do. We’ve given them recreational opportunities, movies, television, but they won’t talk to us. Hell, they barely talk to one another.”

  “What kind of clothing have you offered them?”

  “All we have are the pants and tops we normally offer or the jumpsuits. One of the female guards suggested we might have more luck with the women if we offered dresses, but so far we haven’t been able to find anything suitable. One of guards has suggested calling a convent.”

  “That’s not a bad idea, but we have to acclimatize them for their new home,” Jacob said. “Lilith, can you call Trevor and see if he can get a bunch of hospital scrubs here in different sizes? Loose cotton pants and tops will be comfortable enough. Dresses won’t be practical for the women to wear working in the greenhouses or the kitchens, and I do want them to be at ease. Make sure he sends bright colors and patterned tops—no black, brown, or gray. As for the men, I want khakis and brightly colored t-shirts. Australia isn’t a penal colony, and I don’t want them to feel like it is. I want them to be happy there. Get the necessary undergarments and other stuff, too.” He glanced down at the prisoners’ slip-on canvas shoes. “We need shoe sizes before we can get proper footwear for them.”

  “You’ve got it.” She pulled out her cell phone and made the call while he watched the cult members inside the small interrogation room. Whereas he’d been shackled to the floor and table, these people stood in silence, apart from one another, men on one side of the room, women on the other. All of them seemed inordinately interested in their own feet.

  “Trevor’s on it, and we should have about fifty sets of clothing for them to choose from within the hour. I’ve asked for long, cotton nightgowns for the women and pajama bottoms and white t-shirts for the men. They shouldn’t be sleeping in their clothing, and that’s probably the first bad habit we should break.” She turned to the guards. “I assume you have hairbrushes, combs, deodorant, toothpaste, and the like?”

  “We do. The only things they’ve accepted are toothbrushes, toothpaste, and the shoes. They had no choice on those since theirs all had laces and were taken away. I’ll have the staff get everything organized on the off chance you have better luck than we do. Before you go in there, I need your weapons.”

  “Of course.” Lilith handed him her Glock, and Jacob surrendered his, too.

  “Do you recognize any of them?” she asked.

  “Yes.” He pointed through the glass. “The white-haired woman is Ellie Miller, Seth’s wife—I mean, widow—and the man in the brown shirt is Reuben Jones. He was my father’s best friend. The other woman looks familiar, but I can’t quite place her yet. The second man I’ve never seen before.”

  “I’d hoped for better odds, but two to one will have to do. Let’s hope one of them remembers you, and we can build on that.”

  Jacob led the way out of the observation room and into the hall with Lilith by his side. He’d love to hold her hand for courage but wasn’t sure she’d appreciate the gesture. He admired the courage it took to rise above your fears like that. She was right about not wallowing in guilt. He hadn’t killed that detective. Pierce or another one of his uncle’s henchmen probably had.
He couldn’t help the dead. He needed to focus his energy on the living and preventing more deaths.

  “Here goes nothing,” he said. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jacob stepped into the room with Lilith at his side and almost gagged. The pungent aroma of sweat filled the air, and he heard Lilith’s quickly indrawn breath.

  How can they stand themselves, let alone one another?

  He could use one of those camphor masks Amos had provided at the morgue. The four people in question kept their eyes focused on the floor. Had any of them made eye contact with anyone since coming here?

  Based on what he’d learned of the cult’s hierarchy, he had to speak to the man first. “Hello, Reuben.”

  At the sound of his name, the man looked up, curiosity on his face quickly replaced by awe.

  “Master James,” he said haltingly. “I thought you were dead.”

  “I’m Jacob, not James,” he said. “James is dead, as are several others.”

  Ellie gasped.

  “You can’t be Jacob,” she said, clasping her hand over her mouth when Reuben glared at her.

  Jacob frowned. “I know who I am. Why do you doubt me? Speak freely, Ellie. Women and men are equal in my eyes and the eyes of the law.” He’d spoken curtly, almost harshly, making sure to use formal speech and keep his Aussie slang out of it. From what he’d read in the manifesto, he knew she’d obey a direct order. He needed the strangers to hear his story from someone they trusted, since he had no leverage over them.

  She slowly lowered her hand, her gaze fixed solidly on him. The other two were also staring at him now. Well, at least he had eye contact. It wasn’t much, but it was a first step.

  “You know my name,” Ellie said softly, her voice barely above a whisper, like she hadn’t used it in a long time. “But whoever you are, you can’t be Jacob. He died in the flash flood in the desert. I saw the tree impale him and carry him away ... Seth and I went looking for him when we heard the rains were coming, but he wasn’t where we were told he been left, so we searched the area from high ground. There was nothing we could do to help him.”