“I think I know what might work,” Vi said. “Come with me, Connie. No, Liss. You stay here.”
Connie was weaving a bit as they headed into the hallway that led to the living room and the front door. When Liss heard them climb the stairs to the second floor, she got up and busied herself clearing away the teacups and starting a pot of coffee. Even if no one else wanted any, she was in desperate need of a jolt of caffeine to stimulate her brain cells. She had no idea what her mother was up to, but at this point she welcomed anything that would put an end to Connie’s pitiful weeping.
When they returned, Connie’s eyes were dry and she was smiling. Well, why not? For the first time in years, she was wearing something other than Pilgrim-sanctioned attire. Liss’s sweatpants were a little snug on her but one of her sweatshirts—moss green in color with flowers on the front—fit perfectly. Then Liss noticed what else had changed.
“You cut your hair,” she blurted.
At Pilgrim Farm those gray-streaked brown locks had been pulled back into a tight bun. Now they were short and sassy, framing her face in a way that flattered her features.
“Your mother did it. She . . . freed me.”
Vi looked smug.
“I suppose you have questions,” Connie said, taking a seat, “but if it’s Jasper’s death you want to know about, I’m not sure how much help I can be. I never left the farm that day.”
“Someone did. She was seen in town.” Liss filled three mugs with coffee and carried them to the table.
The bewildered expression on Connie’s face convinced Liss that she didn’t have a clue who it might have been. “Only the men were permitted to take part in the demonstration.”
“You didn’t notice that one of the other women was missing for a while?”
“We all had chores that kept us busy.”
Liss let that aspect of the mystery go . . . for the moment. “When Jasper didn’t come home with the other men, didn’t anyone think that was strange?”
“He usually came in last. It was his responsibility to do the final check on the livestock and make certain the perimeter was secure.”
“You make Pilgrim Farm sound like an armed camp.”
When Connie didn’t respond to that comment, Liss felt a chill streak up her spine.
She cleared her throat. “I don’t know how many vehicles you have, but to transport eight men you’d need more than one. Didn’t the others who shared a ride with Jasper wonder where he was?”
Connie shook her head. “Most of the men rode in the back of the truck. Jasper took the old Beetle. It barely runs, but it would have gotten him there and back again.”
Riding in an open truck bed was not the safest way to travel. Liss wasn’t even sure it was legal, but that was beside the point. “So no one had any idea that there was anything wrong until the police arrived to notify Miranda that Hadley had been murdered and they discovered that he was alive and Jasper was missing?”
Connie’s mug landed with a thump on the table, sloshing coffee over the side. Her face drained of color. “I don’t understand. Are you telling me that they thought the murdered man was Hadley?”
“You didn’t know?”
Connie shook her head, a lost look in her eyes.
“Connie. Connie!” Liss waited until the other woman focused on her once more. “This is important. It’s likely Jasper was killed because someone mistook him for Hadley. Who would want Hadley dead?”
“Anyone who knew him!” She clapped both hands over her mouth. Above them, wide, terrified eyes stared at Liss and her mother.
“Why do you say that?” Vi asked in a coaxing tone of voice.
“He . . . he . . . oh, I can’t explain it. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try us,” Liss suggested. “Go back to the beginning. How did you end up married to George?”
“We met at the Common Ground Fair.”
Liss nodded encouragement. The annual event featured crafters, livestock, and old-time fair attractions—no Ferris wheels or bumper cars need apply.
“I was into all that back-to-the-land stuff. I’d even taught myself how to weave. When George described the lifestyle at Pilgrim Farm, it sounded ideal, and when I met Mr. Spinner—Hadley—I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven.”
Liss stared at her, convinced that she was serious but unable to believe that anyone could be taken in by such a blowhard.
“Oh, I know what you’re thinking.” A faint smile made the corners of Connie’s mouth turn up. “Look at him now. But back then he was a different man. He was . . . inspirational. His enthusiasm carried you along, even if you weren’t too certain what it was he was talking about. When he suggested George and I marry, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to agree. I wasn’t giving up my freedom. I was becoming part of a greater whole.”
“Didn’t the small-mindedness turn you off? The man’s a bigot.”
“His preaching was more inclusive back then. The change to what he’s like now came gradually.” She gave a short, humorless laugh. “So gradually that we didn’t notice, not at first. Not for a long time. The rules got stricter. Mr. Spinner’s suspicion of outsiders grew stronger. The New Age Pilgrims had been set up as a religion for the tax advantages, but there was never much preaching, not at the beginning. Then Mr. Spinner started reading the Bible and picking out verses that went along with what he wanted us to believe. He had his own interpretation of them, and that’s the one we had to accept. That’s when I started to get worried. And just lately, there have been numerous occasions when he’s spouted opinions that make no sense. That’s what makes me wonder if he could be suffering from some sort of mental disorder.”
“Is anyone else worried about the same thing?” Liss asked.
“If they are, they haven’t dared speak of it. Over the last year or so, Mr. Spinner’s control over every aspect of our lives has gotten tighter and tighter. Early on, I welcomed having someone else make decisions for me. I liked that there were rules. I felt looked after. Loved. But lately . . .”
As her voice trailed off, an aura of despair seemed to settle over her. A single tear rolled down one cheek.
“You’ve been afraid,” Vi said in her most sympathetic voice, one Liss had rarely heard from her mother, “but today you took the risk and ran away. Why?”
“It was what you said to Mistress Spinner. About Susan.”
When she fell silent again, Liss moved to kneel beside Connie’s chair. She took both of her hands in her own. “My aunt, Margaret Boyd, was Susan’s friend. She told us that Susan spoke of you, and also of Diana and George. Were you the one who encouraged her to leave?”
Looking more sunk in misery than ever, Connie nodded. “She tried to leave and she died.”
Liss felt her stomach muscles clench. “Died how?”
“Drowned.”
“Did she . . . have help?”
“She took her own life,” Connie whispered. “Mr. Spinner said the devil tempted her, first to run away and then to do herself harm.”
Even twelve years ago, Hadley Spinner had been twisting Scripture to his own ends. The paranoia and the vindictiveness might be more recent manifestations of his ego, but it sounded to Liss as if the man’s personality had always been warped. Whatever charisma he’d possessed hadn’t been the harmless, crush-on-a-rock-star variety. He’d deliberately set out to create his own little kingdom full of devoted subjects.
Liss hardly considered herself an expert on mesmerism or brainwashing or Stockholm syndrome, but she’d bet good money that Spinner was. Combine that with a natural talent for manipulating others and he’d have all the tools he needed to convince his followers to let him make all their decisions for them, especially if they came from troubled backgrounds, or had issues with self-esteem, or, like Connie, had already been trying to escape from the modern world.
She squeezed Connie’s hands. “Do you believe that? That Susan took her own life rather than simply walk away from life at Pilgrim
Farm?”
“It’s hard to leave when you have nowhere to go.”
“Susan had people willing to help her. She could have left. What pulled her back?”
Connie fell silent.
“She was afraid of Hadley Spinner, wasn’t she? Afraid of what he’d do if he caught up with her.” And in a sudden burst of certainty, Liss added, “Afraid of what he might do to those who helped her?”
“He took her back,” Connie whispered.
“And what happens if Spinner finds you here?” Vi asked.
Connie’s voice shook as she answered, but she sounded certain that she spoke the truth. “He’ll take me back.”
“And then? Would you be . . . punished?”
Connie began to weep again, quietly this time. Her answer came out in fits and starts mingled with tears. “It’s the shame I wouldn’t be able to bear. The shunning. I think I might end up killing myself, just as Susan did.”
A thunderous knocking at the front door interrupted them before either Liss or Vi could react to Connie’s admission. Vi’s hand went to her heart. Connie blanched. Liss was halfway to her feet when the second barrage began, this time accompanied by a shouted demand.
“Come out, Mistress Gerard!” Hadley Spinner bellowed. “I am here to take you home.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Is the door locked?” Vi whispered.
Momentarily stunned into silence, Liss could only nod. How did Spinner know Connie was with them?
The scrape of a chair being pushed away from the table jerked her attention back to her guest. Connie was already on her feet. “I have to obey. It will be worse for everyone if I don’t. You don’t deserve his wrath for helping me.”
By the time she stopped speaking, her voice was shaking so badly that her final words were difficult to understand, but Liss caught the gist of what she was saying and was appalled.
“Don’t go. He can’t force you to return.”
Now that Connie’s tears had all been spent, she seemed to have gained a new strength of purpose, but it was directed in what Liss considered to be the entirely wrong direction. She’d reached the entrance to the hall when the rattle of Dan’s key at the back door made all three women jump.
He burst into the room, the expression on his face so fierce that even Liss felt a moment’s anxiety. Connie shrieked and brought up her arms to protect her face, giving Vi the chance to catch up with her. She was too petite to forcibly restrain the other woman, but she could slip past Connie to block her path to the hallway.
Dan tucked the cell phone he carried in one hand back into his pocket before turning to lock the door behind him. Then, ignoring everyone else, he went straight to Liss’s side and placed both hands on her upper arms, holding her a little apart, as if to assure himself she was unharmed. The touch of his fingers, even through layers of cloth, instantly made her feel more secure.
“I called Sherri,” he said. “She should be here any minute.”
“How did you—?”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on Spinner since you left the workshop. A couple of minutes ago, he got a phone call.”
“Spinner has a cell phone? So much for living by that ‘old things are best’ rule.”
“Focus, Liss. Someone tipped him off about your visit to Pilgrim Farm and the fact that one of the lavender ladies was missing. It didn’t take him long to put two and two together.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mother urge Connie to sit, but the other woman looked ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. She plucked at her borrowed clothing and fussed with her shorn locks, clearly regretting these acts of rebellion.
The pounding at the front door had let up just after Dan’s arrival, but it now resumed with greater force.
“How strong is that wood?” Liss asked.
“Strong enough.” The lines around Dan’s molasses-colored eyes crinkled as he flashed her a quick grin. “Aren’t you glad you married a master carpenter?”
At the sound of glass shattering, they broke apart.
Liss gasped as her mother reached for her tote bag and calmly pulled out the pink gun. “Put that away!”
Vi huffed out an exasperated breath. She returned the weapon to the tote, but she kept the bag close at hand.
“Stay here,” Dan ordered, and started toward the front of the house.
“Not a chance.” She was right at his heels when he reached the living room.
It was a window that had been broken. Spinner had thrust one hand through the jagged hole and was fumbling for the catch, trying to open it.
“Get off my porch, Spinner,” Dan shouted. “You’re the one who’s trespassing now.”
The hand abruptly withdrew, leaving behind a smear of blood that made Liss’s stomach twist. Then she got her first good look at Hadley Spinner’s face. With a gasp of alarm, she recoiled.
His eyes were wide and wild. Spittle clung to the corners of his mouth. His beard was snarled, and the hair on his head stood up in tufts, as if he’d been tugging on it. He looked demented and his words made him seem even more so.
“Send her out!” Spinner bellowed. “You’ve no call to keep that woman against her will!”
“Your grasp on reality is slipping, Spinner,” Dan said. “You’re the one she’s trying to escape.”
“Lies! All lies!” He took a threatening step toward the window, making Liss fear that he meant to throw himself through it.
When Dan tensed in preparation for advancing on the intruder, Liss grabbed his arm in an attempt to hold him back. She was in favor of defending their home, but she was not at all certain he could win a fistfight with a madman.
Before anyone could make another move, two uniformed officers, one in the blue of the local police department and the other wearing a deputy sheriff’s brown, appeared at the foot of the porch steps.
“That’s enough, Mr. Spinner,” Sherri said. “You’re already in enough trouble.”
With excruciating slowness, Spinner turned away from the window.
Ignoring the broken glass that crunched under her feet, Liss stepped closer, anxious not to miss anything. Sherri stood with her hands on hips—the right one close enough to her holster to draw her gun. She was armed with a Taser, too, and pepper spray. She could make use of whatever degree of force the situation called for.
The deputy beside her was her husband and if the fierce scowl on Pete Campbell’s face was anything to go by, he’d tackle Spinner in a heartbeat if he tried anything funny. The Pilgrim leader was burly and hardened by farm work, but Pete had the build of a linebacker and was not only younger but had kept himself in shape by competing in the highland games.
Spinner drew himself up to his full height, towering over Sherri as she approached him, but he was wily enough to know that the odds were against him. He abandoned the tactic of shouting belligerently and instead asked a question in a voice that sounded nearly normal. “Is there a problem, Officer?”
Even viewed from the back, even with his hair wild and his clothes disheveled, Spinner’s body language sent the message that here was a man who was humble yet compelling. A hint of that charisma everyone kept talking about came through, muted and dulled by age and by Liss’s awareness of the kind of man he really was, but still surprisingly potent. If he’d been thirty years younger and hadn’t just tried to break into her house, she might almost believe him capable of sweet-talking Sherri into letting him off with a warning.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” the chief of police ordered.
Pete backed up Sherri’s authority by giving Spinner a little shove when he was slow to obey. The clink of the handcuffs as he snapped them closed had Liss breathing easier, but her relief was short-lived.
Since Spinner was once more facing the window, she found herself staring directly into eyes that blazed with hatred. She hastily backed away. Dan did the same, slinging a protective arm around her shoulders as he did so.
It should have calmed
her to watch Pete lead Spinner away. Instead the sight brought home to her just how much danger they’d been in. They might not be out of the woods yet. Spinner had followers. And what would happen when he got out of jail?
Sherri leaned in to examine the damage to the windowpane. Peering through the hole, she called out to them, “Everyone okay?”
Liss nodded. Dan muttered something profane.
“Uh-huh. I don’t think I’ll quote you on that. Do you want to press charges?”
“Damned straight I do.” Dan vibrated with barely suppressed anger.
Turning in his arms, Liss brought one hand up to his cheek. “That might make things worse.”
He sent her an incredulous look.
“He didn’t insist that you be arrested for attacking him,” Liss reminded him, “but he could change his mind.”
“Liss—”
Her fingers moved to his lips. “No. Listen to me. We need to think about Connie’s safety, too.”
“She’s safest with him in jail.”
“And when he gets out?”
“Uh, guys?” Sherri still stood on the other side of the window. “You want to let me in? I need to take statements from you two and anyone else in the house. I have a feeling that there’s a lot about this situation that I don’t know.”
“Can you still lock him up if I don’t press charges?” Dan asked.
“Sure. For a little while. Disturbing the peace will work. I can throw in vandalism for good measure.”
Liss managed a faint smile. “Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll get the door.”
* * *
Once Sherri had made arrangements for Pete to take Spinner to the county jail in Fallstown, she came inside and was introduced to Connie Gerard. The runaway Pilgrim listened without comment while Liss, Dan, and Vi brought Sherri up to speed on the reason Spinner had been trying to break into the house.
“I take it you don’t want to return to Pilgrim Farm?” Sherri asked.
Connie answered with a vigorous negative shake of her head.
“Okay, then. Hadley Spinner can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. Neither can anyone else.”
“Hadley’s the one she’s afraid of,” Vi put in. She’d been surprisingly quiet, remaining seated at the kitchen table with Connie. The pink gun was nowhere in sight.
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