by Joan Hess
"Guess I'm in charge," I said.
Corporal Robarts pulled off his hat and slammed it down. "You said last night that this was my jurisdiction!"
"And you said you'd had your badge for all of one month. Have you ever investigated anything?"
"Milton Higgleton called the other day and said he was hearing voices in his attic. I investigated that. Chief Panknine said I did real fine."
"International drug smugglers or squirrels?"
He looked away. "Squirrels."
"This may be more complicated," I said tactfully. "You, Les, and I are going to question the Daughters of the Moon. Bonita, you lucky girl, you get to stay here and wait until Duluth gets desperate enough to escape Brother Verber's counsel that he'll tell you why he came here."
"That's not fair," she shot back. "Sheriff Dorfer sent me down to investigate a murder, not baby-sit some pathetic drunk. I need it for my resume."
So she could get on with her life, while I grew zucchini and whittled balsa wood ducks that ultimately resembled toothpicks.
"I sympathize," I said, "but at this point he may be a suspect. He has no legitimate reason to be here. Once we rescue him from Brother Verber's suffocating holier-than-thou sentiments, maybe he'll talk to you. I'll make sure you receive credit in the report."
Bonita was not buying it. "Who do you think these women are more likely to open up to-you and me or Les and Corporal Robarts? They didn't take up this lifestyle because they're all that fond of men. Think about it, Chief Hanks," she concluded with the very faintest prick of sarcasm.
I could almost see her sitting on the bench, staring down lawyers with three-piece suits and paternalistic smirks. "Can we find this place without you?" I asked Corporal Robarts. "Please bear in mind that if you say we can't, and it turns out to be fairly simple, then Sheriff Dorfer will hear all about it. It isn't nice to lie to the head of the investigating team, you know."
Robarts's expression darkened, but he managed to keep his temper under control. "There's a dirt road not too far past the convenience store that goes into the backside of Camp Pearly Gates. The Beamers are living in two cabins at the top of the hill. Last I was there, laundry was hanging on a line and there was a garden. They don't know you, though. More likely than not, they won't talk to you."
"Oh, I think they will," I said grimly.
9
Hammet didn't much enjoy the evening in the closet, clamping his nose to hold in sneezes and trying not to squawk when a bug took to crawling up his pants. Jim Bob had stomped around for a long while, making it clear that he was real unhappy that Sonya and Tonya had left him high and dry. Not that he'd been dry, of course. From the way he kept popping open beer cans, Hammet figured Hizzhonor'd worked through a couple of six packs.
Finally, he'd gone to bed and Hammet had dashed outside to piss off the edge of the porch afore he exploded like a water balloon. Afterward, he'd crept back inside, opened the refrigerator, and taken a carton of orange juice back to the closet. The coats had made a soft bed, and he'd slept pretty well, considering where he was and what he was doing. His foster ma'd been reading the Bible to him most days, and he couldn't remember anything that said, "Thou shalt not sleep in thine enemy's coat closet."
Hammet didn't have a clue what time it was when he awoke to hear banging in the kitchen. Jim Bob cussed a blue streak when he couldn't find the orange juice, and just as much when he couldn't figure out how to operate the coffeepot. Hammer thought briefly about his foster pa, who always made breakfast on Sunday. It was kinda hard to know just what guys was supposed to be able to do, besides work on transmissions, untangle fishing line, and mow the yard. He had a feeling Jim Bob couldn't do none of that, neither.
Once the back door slammed, he eased open the door and listened real hard. The sound of a truck going down the driveway convinced him that the house was his, at least for the time being. It could be that Jim Bob was jest going to the supermarket to pick up a box of powdered doughnuts and a cup of coffee, and that he'd be back in a matter of minutes. Or mebbe he'd gone to work and wouldn't be back for the rest of the day.
Hammet knew he was gonna hafta take some risks if he was to live in the closet for the week. He took the empty lasagna pan to the kitchen. Keeping an eye on the driveway, he crammed it into the back of a cabinet with other pans that looked sorta the same.
A nasty smell was following him like he'd brought home a baby skunk, and he finally decided he was the one stinkin' things up. When he was living up on the ridge, he hadn't ever noticed such things, but after having been forced to bathe on a regular basis, he'd forgotten what he used to smell like when his clothes were dirty and his hair was so sour it could have curdled milk.
He ate a couple of pieces of bread while he watched out the kitchen window. If Jim Bob was fixin' to come right back, he'd do it pretty damn quick. After fifteen minutes, Hammet decided, or at least hoped, that the house was safe for the rest of the day. He went upstairs and opened Jim Bob's closet. He took out a shirt but left the trousers, since there weren't no way he could keep them up. He found some underwear and socks in a drawer, then went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. If he got caught, then so be it. He'd put up a helluva fight, punch Jim Bob in the gut, and run down the stairs and out the back door, whooping all the way like a wild Injun. Weren't no way anyone could catch him once he got to the grass and headed for the trees.
He leaned forward to peer at his face in the mirror. Yep, that was definitely a whisker on his chin. Another week or two, and he'd have to shave it off.
Bonita was quiet as we drove toward the cabins. I wasn't sure if she was feeling self-satisfied for having gotten her way, or alarmed because she had.
"Sheriff Dorfer seems to think you've got a career ahead of you," I said, sounding like my mother. If I didn't watch myself, I'd be asking if she had a boyfriend and what his parents did for a living.
"I'm saving my money for law school. I'll have to borrow and beg, and I don't know how long it'll take me to pay it back. But you just watch for me, Chief Hanks-I'll be a senator from Arkansas one of these days. Maybe the first woman vice-president. Maybe the first woman president. If that doesn't happen, I'll be putting on a robe with the rest of the Supreme Court justices."
"Not gonna mess around, huh?"
"We all have to start somewhere."
I might have been a bit worried about her sanity if she hadn't been so matter-of-fact. She, at twenty-three or so, knew exactly where she intended to go with the rest of her life. I was destined to be the Tomato Mama of Maggody.
"This ought to be it," I said as I turned onto a dirt road.
"According to the directions."
Feeling rather idiotic, I forced a smile as we bumped down a muddy road. "Now when we get there-"
"You're in charge. I understand that."
My smile tightened. "I was going to say that both of us need to tread carefully. I'll conduct the official questioning, but you watch for anyone who might want to confide in you. Take off that hat, Bonita, and undo the top button on your shirt. Admire their garden. Ask to see the schoolroom. Do your best to talk to the children."
"What do you think's going on, Chief Hanks?"
"I wish I knew. We're going to have to pressure them for an ID so that her next-of-kin can be notified. If she brought children with her, then it's going to be a bureaucratic nightmare. The law dictates that they'll have to go with social services until proper custody can be established. I can't leave them with their 'aunties,' no matter how moonstruck they may be. I doubt I'm going to be the Beamer postergirl." I took a deep breath as I navigated down the road. "And call me Arly, okay? This is not a good time for formality."
I may have expected some small token of reciprocity, but she merely glanced at me and said, "Good idea. We don't want to come in like a couple of storm troopers."
The first cabin we came to was bleak, clearly uninhabited. The next two, however, had clotheslines as Corporal Robarts had predicted, along with picni
c tables and well-tended gardens. Three children of indeterminate age spotted the station wagon and darted into the woods. A fourth, too young to do much of anything, eyed us as he sucked his finger, his discolored diaper threatening to slide off his hips.
"We're low-key," I said to Bonita.
"Oh, yeah," she said as I parked beside the cabin. "Maybe they'll think we're Avon ladies."
Bonita wasn't quite as cool when one of the women emerged from the cabin, her robe trailing in the mud. Shaved head, as I expected, along with a pasty white face and a serious lipstick addiction. It could have been Rachael, or the clone of the woman whose body we'd found the previous night. It could have been Mrs. Jim Bob, for that matter, had she been kidnapped and indoctrinated into the cult while I was at the PD in Dunkicker.
"Yes?" she said.
"I'm Arly," I said, flashing my badge, "and this is Bonita. We need to talk to you."
"And why would that be?"
"Because of what happened late yesterday afternoon," Bonita said before I could respond. "One of your group was found, and she was real dead."
"Anthony told us about Ruth," the woman replied levelly. "It was unfortunate."
"That she was found, or that she was dead?" I said. "We need some information about her. Are you Deborah?"
"Deborah is not here. I am Judith. There is very little I can tell you about that woman. Ruth arrived only a few weeks ago. She was assigned to assist at the hot-meal program at the church in Dunkicker in order to make her contribution, but she claimed to have migraines that kept her in bed almost every other day. While she complained incessantly, we fed her children, clothed them, and provided for them. I believe these days she'd be called a 'slacker.' This was not the right place for her. I doubt she would have been allowed to stay much longer. This is a religious community, not a shelter for the dysfunctional."
"You're sure that it was Ruth?"
"I know that everyone else was accounted for this morning. We're waiting for official confirmation before we tell her children."
"Can you give me her real name?" I asked.
Judith stared at me. "When a woman arrives here, she is given a new name, as are her children. We do what we can to eliminate the negative influences of the secular world in order to devote ourselves to observing the purity that is the Daughters of the Moon. Last night was stormy, obscured with savagery and malevolence, but tonight you can gaze in wonder at the moonlight on the lake. You will see God's fingers rippling the surface of the water. The sky will be filled with an infinite number of diamonds. All you have to do is look, Arly, with your eyes and with your heart."
"I most likely will," I said, "but in the meantime, I need to know what happened to Ruth."
Bonita whipped out the pad that was apt to have been issued to her in cop school. "Before she got rewarded with this new name, who was she?"
Judith's lips curled downward. "I have no idea. We do not demand passports."
"Why did she come here?" I asked.
"Again, I have no idea. Deborah could tell you more, but as I said, she's not here."
"How many women are living here?"
She paused. "Five as of yesterday. I suppose we're down to four now that Ruth is no longer with us. It's not much of a loss."
I was taken aback at her attitude. "She was murdered not too far from here. Doesn't that bother you?"
"I suppose it should, but all she did was whine and demand to be waited on. Everyone is expected to contribute. Some sisters work in town, others school the children, tend to the garden, and prepare meals. Once a month we make our own soap and herbal remedies."
"When the moon's full?"
Bonita edged around me, her pen poised as though she was hot on the trail of a late-breaking story for a tabloid. "Then Ruth brought children? How many and how old? Where are they now?"
"I don't think she ever specified. They're with the other children, all of whom are quite frightened by this intrusion. Naomi has taken them to the schoolhouse to study the Book of the Revelation in order to help them come to grips with what has happened. Under no circumstances can they be interrogated."
I bumped Bonita out of the way. "I need to examine whatever this woman called Ruth brought with her."
"You won't find anything. Her instructions were to dispose of any personal items that might identify her."
"Instructions from whom?" I demanded.
"Deborah, of course."
I wasn't sure if all this was silly, surreal, or supernatural. Most likely, all and none of the above. "Just show me her things, okay?"
"As you wish," Judith said, heading for the nearer cabin. "The women sleep here, and the children in the other cabin. Unlike most families these days, the older ones have learned to share responsibility for the younger ones."
I whispered at Bonita to locate the children, then went inside. The iron bunk beds were much the same as we'd found farther down the hill. Attempts had been made to create a cheerier decor, with potted plants on the windowsills and drawings taped to the walls.
"Quite a comedown from the lodge," I said. "You must have been annoyed when the church groups began to arrive."
"One might think that, but we celebrate all demonstrations of faith. We've accepted the fact we'll be living here until fall. After that, Deborah is confident we can return to the lodge, where we will be warm and dry."
"Mrs. Robarts said you do community service in Dunkicker in exchange for being allowed to live here."
Judith looked back at me. "Is that a question?"
It was a struggle not to imagine her with normal hair and makeup; she might have been a reasonably attractive fortyish woman, working as a real estate agent or moving up the corporate ladder at a bank. I glanced at her feet to make sure she wasn't wearing pantyhose beneath her robe.
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"Since God called me to serve as a Daughter of the Moon. I have erased all memories of my former life, as have the other women. We have dedicated ourselves to prayer and good deeds. When the skies explode and the earth splits apart with fiery fissures, we shall be prepared to cast aside our physical shells and ascend to heaven."
"No men allowed, huh?"
"If one is to purify her soul, she must denounce all pleasures of the flesh and focus on her inner spirit." She produced a fleeting smile. "So, as you said, no men allowed."
"Corporal Robarts comes here."
"Anthony hardly qualifies, does he? Here is Ruth's bunk. Her possessions are in a suitcase under it. I will leave you now."
I waited until I had the cabin to myself. The suitcase contained nothing much more than dingy cotton underwear. Beneath that layer was a crumpled sundress and platform sandals, which she must have been wearing when she arrived. No purse or wallet, however, or so much as an envelope.
I took out everything to examine it more carefully. A few hairs on the dress indicated she'd been blonde before receiving her buzz cut, but the darker hue on one end suggested her coloring had come from the beauty aids aisle of a discount store.
I put it all back, replaced the suitcase, and pulled a similar bag from beneath the next bunk. It too held mostly underwear, but this Beamer had arrived in jeans and a faded T-shirt. I checked the pockets of the jeans. This time I did better, finding half a pack of flattened cigarettes and a matchbook from a glitzy bingo establishment just across the state line in Oklahoma. I found no other evidence that might help me identify the owner of the suitcase.
I was having no better luck with a third suitcase when Bonita came limping into the cabin. Her pants were torn and splattered with mud, and one elbow was bloodied. Dried leaves clung to her hair. Her face was scratched, her lower lip already swollen, her nostrils discolored with congealing blood. I could see she was going to have an impressive black eye within an hour.
"Are you all right?" I asked as I helped her to the nearest bunk. "What happened? Did they attack you?"
"Might as well have, the little shits. I finally found the s
o-called schoolhouse along a path behind the cabin just below us. I went on in. It's hard to say how many children were there. A few were in diapers, but most of them appeared to be between six and fifteen. All scruffy looking, with clothing that didn't fit well and bad haircuts."
"Take a guess at how many."
"I don't know-maybe a dozen. Naomi, who looks just like the other spooks, herded the smaller ones into a corner and somehow managed to keep them still. I told the older ones that I wanted to talk to them. They bolted out the door and into the woods. I was so pissed that I went after them, thinking I could catch at least one of them. Well, it seems like one of their homework assignments was to boobytrap the woods. Holes, hidden by twigs covered with leaves. Vines stretched between trees. Branches tied back with trip wires. I could hear them whooping every time I fell, which made me all the madder."
"And then you lost them. Stay here." I went into the bathroom and found a washcloth. I dampened it and took it back to her. "Police work's not as glamorous as they make it out to be in the movies."
"Where were you when I decided to enroll in the academy?"
"Start talking loudly if you see any of the Beamers heading this way. I doubt it'll do any good, but I might as well search the rest of the suitcases."
I found nothing more incriminating than a romance novel in one and a half-eaten chocolate bar in another. Deborah's dictum had been observed, with only a few misdemeanors.
I pushed the last suitcase back where I'd found it and stood up. The washcloth Bonita had been holding to her elbow was bright with blood. "We'd better get that seen to," I said. "Surely there's a local doctor who can put a few stitches in it."
"Don't rush off on my account. It's not like I'm bleeding to death."
"Poor choice of words," I said as I gestured to her to follow me out the door. I took her to the station wagon, put her in the passenger's side, and made her promise to stay there for a few more minutes.