by Tracy Sharp
I nodded. “We’ll do that.”
Lucas nodded slowly and moved a hand over his jaw. He was bothered by something.
“What?” I asked him. “What else?”
“Okay,” Lucas said. “This, you’re really not going to like.”
“How could it get much worse?” Jack said. “Lay it on us.”
Lucas sat forward in his chair. “There’s a young woman you should talk to. She’s at St. Clare’s hospital.”
“Okay,” Jack said.
“She’s been there for two days, wouldn’t speak a word. She started talking this morning. She escaped what sounds an awful lot like a cult. A religious sect out in Hornsby, apparently on several acres of land and run by a guy who goes by the name Gabriel Messiah.”
“Sounds original,” I said. “Jesus, how do these fruit loops end up with a following? How does that happen? Just that name alone tells you what a nut-job he is.”
“You’d be surprised. You take the troubled, grieving, poor who have a chip on their shoulder about the socioeconomic gap in society. People who come from money, that have a bone to pick about wealth for whatever reason. People who are looking for someone to believe in, and here comes a charismatic guy promising the moon. He understands them, shares their rage. He’s going to change the world and make it a fair place, a better place.” Lucas spread his hands. “Utopia.”
“And people buy what he’s selling,” I said. “You’re kidding.”
“They do,” Lucas said. “Ever hear of a guy named Hitler? How about David Koresh? Jim Jones? The list goes on.”
“Oh I’ve heard of them. I just have a hard time grasping that people will follow these guys who are obviously off their nut,” I said.
Lucas tilted his head a fraction. “Maybe you’ve never been desperate or down enough to be susceptible to the charms of somebody like this.”
He had no clue how down and desperate I’d been, not so long ago. I held his gaze. “I guess not.”
“Well, this girl was,” Lucas said. “And she has a story to tell.”
***
Her name was Noel Rogerson, but Gabriel had decided that within the “family” she would be known as number five.
“What would you like to be called?” I asked her.
She was sitting up in bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. I could tell she was a pretty girl with delicate features, but they were obscured by the two shiners and broken nose she was sporting. The middle finger of her left hand was splinted, and those were only the injuries we could actually see. “Noel, that’s my name.”
“Would you tell us what happened?” I asked her, keeping my voice soft.
She took a deep, shuddering breath and moved a lock of sandy blonde hair from her eyes. “I wasn’t acting like a proper, obeying wife.”
“Really,” Jack said. “And so you think you deserved a beating to correct your behavior?”
“Gabriel did, some of the others, too. They said I wasn’t acting properly. That I should feel honored that I was one of the lucky ones who Gabriel chose to be one of his wives.”
“Ah. Yeah. We can see how lucky you are.” Jack leaned forward in his chair.
“Is the beating the reason you escaped?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “No.”
Jack and I waited for her to continue, but she said nothing for a long time.
Finally her eyes misted over and her chin trembled. “Lina is the reason I left.”
“Who is Lina, Noel?” It was my turn to lean forward.
“My daughter.”
I blinked. “Where is Lina?”
“Dead,” she said her voice high and tight.
Jack and I were silent. The seconds ticked by as the horror of a dead baby girl sank in and paralyzed us. Finally I spoke, “Noel. What happened to her?”
“She was dead when within moments of being born. That’s what Gabriel said. But I felt her moving that day. How could she have died? She was fine.” She looked at us with shining green eyes. She gave a barely perceptible shake of her head. “She was fine.”
“The hospital said she’d died within minutes?” I asked her.
She looked at me, confusion in her eyes. Then she shook her head quickly. “I wasn’t at a hospital.”
“Where was your baby delivered?” I knew where this was going, and I didn’t like it. My chest grew tight and I tried to slow my breathing.
“At the compound,” her voice was flat, her face devoid of emotion.
“The compound,” Jack repeated. “Is that what they call the place you called home?
“Yes. We have a few midwives there. Holly, number seventeen, delivered the baby. Gabriel was there. A few others were there to help.”
“Did you hear your baby crying?” Jack asked. “Did you see her moving?”
“Yes. But they took her away. Said they needed to do something to take care of her, that she didn’t look good.”
“They took her out of the room then and never brought her back?” I felt a dark sadness fall over me, and a rage that boiled white hot began to bubble in my blood.
She wiped away tears with both hands, the splinted finger standing straight up as her other fingers bent. “I never even got to hold her.”
“Noel,” I said. “What do you think happened to your baby?”
She stared into space for a few moments. “I don’t know. But I’m not the only one this happened to.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It happened to another girl two months ago, Nita. Her baby supposedly died. He was taken during the night. Gabriel said it was crib death. But he never woke Nita up. She just got up to check on him and he was gone.”
“You think they’re taking the babies?” Jack asked her, point blank.
“I know there’s something not right. He said my Lina died, but I feel her. I feel in my heart that she is alive somewhere.” She looked up at us, her gaze intense. “I need your help.”
Jack placed a hand on her arm. “We’ll do whatever we can.”
“That’s not all. My twin sister is there.” Noel looked down at her splinted finger. “She’s pregnant too.”
***
Noel was well enough to be released. We took her to a shelter run by a friend of Jack’s. She took in women in trouble and gave them a place to stay, food, helped them find jobs and get on their feet.
“Don’t tell a soul you’re here, Noel,” Jack said. “I have a feeling that if Gabriel knows where you are, he’ll come after you.”
“Oh I know he will. He’ll try to convince me to go back, and when I refuse, he’ll send a couple of family members to get rid of me. I know how he works.” She gazed out the window at the slowly falling snow. The branches of pine trees were gathering white, drooping only slightly with the weight of it. It looked like a snapshot from a Christmas card.
“One of the sisters left the compound a couple of years ago. We don’t have television, but I saw her picture on a missing person’s poster when we went into town to get groceries.”
“What was her name?” Jack asked her.
“Lydia MacMillan.” Noel nibbled on a fingernail, still looking out the window.
Jack looked at me, incredulous. “Holy shit, remember when she went missing? It was right after the holidays, January. Young girl, she was only about seventeen.”
“Yeah,” I did remember. A wholesome looking girl with an oval shaped face and brown hair. There had been film footage all over the news of her high school graduation. Of her posing in a beautiful blue dress on the arm of a handsome boy. I could still see her smile. “Why did she leave her family?”
“She was heartbroken. She and her boyfriend were engaged but he suddenly called off the engagement. He was from a wealthy family. She wasn’t. His family had another girl in mind, a friend of the family. If he married Lydia, the family money would’ve been cut off, his tuition for med school, everything.”
“So he chose the other girl,” I said.
; Noel nodded. “He did. She was devastated. Wanted to forget, wanted something to help her forget.”
“And along came Gabriel,” I said.
“He saw her sitting alone at the mall, looking sad.”
Jack’s face grew hard. His eyes narrowed. “How nice for him. Easy pickings.”
I thought back a little. “They never found her.”
“They won’t.” Noel looked away from the window, her face expressionless. “Please get my sister out of there.”
***
Noel’s twin sister’s name was Julia. Apparently Julia was eight months pregnant. “This guy Gabriel sure loves to share the love, doesn’t he?” Jack said.
“It’s about power and ownership. These girls are not people to him. They are property. That’s one of the reasons they’re in such danger.” I was feeling pissed off and mean. “These guys are narcissists. It’s all about them, another asshole with a God complex, much like Dr. Garrett Clemmons.”
“Seems to be a lot of them around,” Jack said. “Okay, Kicks. Where do we go first, to talk to the girl who was lured to the motel to buy baby clothes or to Gabriel Messiah’s compound?”
“Gee, so hard to choose.” The thought of talking to Gabriel Messiah made my skin feel too tight. Or more accurately, made me want to jump out of my skin. “Let’s talk to the girl. I’m not in the mood for the new Messiah just yet.”
As we drove to the young woman’s house, I marveled at how life could change in just a few seconds. One minute I was sitting in a bar about to get myself into trouble, the next I’d been dragged into a case that was doing a better job at sabotaging my relationship than I could do on my own.
The young woman lived in an older Colonial house in the city. It was an area most populated by students, and the rent wasn’t outrageous. Although a single mother would find it difficult to make ends meet.
Mary Wilcox opened the door with a smile, carrying a rosy-cheeked baby boy with bright red curls. “Leah and Jack?”
“That’s us,” Jack said.
“Come in.” She led us to a kitchen, nicely kept with country plaid curtains and prints of sunflowers on the walls. Sunflower placemats adorned the small table.
Jack and I took a seat at the table while Mary placed the baby in a jumperoo decked out with jungle toys. He pulled at a knob and cheerful tune filled the air, along with tropical bird chirping and monkey sounds.
“Hey, you got the best seat in the house,” Jack said, grinning at the baby. “What’s his name?”
“Russell. After his dad.” She watched Russell jump to his heart’s content, a wide grin on his face. “He was killed in Iraq.”
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
Jack shook his head slowly. “That is really too bad. He’ll miss out on this little guy.”
“Oh, he’s watching, from somewhere,” Mary said. “I know he is.”
I smiled. “You’re probably right. I would be too.”
She turned to us. “I have herbal tea and bottled water.”
“Not for me, thanks,” I said.
“I’m fine. Thanks,” Jack said. “So what happened with this woman who was advertising baby clothes online?”
“She said she had baby clothes for both boys and girls ranging from newborn to twenty-four months. She was selling the entire lot for forty bucks. That’s a steal. You wouldn’t believe how obscenely expensive baby clothes are. It’s insane.” She sat down at the table. “So I emailed her at the email address provided by the site, asking if I could take a look at them. She gave me a cell number, which the police later said was the number for a prepaid cell phone which is no longer in service, and I spoke with her over the phone. She told me that she was from out of town and staying in a hotel room until her apartment was ready, that the previous tenants were taking longer to leave than they should’ve been.
So I drove up there, and as soon as I got into the parking lot I got a really creepy feeling. I saw the curtain move. She was watching me. I could see her hand motioning for me to come up to the door. But I just couldn’t move. Something was telling me to get the hell out of there. She didn’t come outside. I thought she might. Instead she just stood there, peeking out at me from behind the drapes.”
“Did you get a look at her? Anything at all,” Jack asked her.
“Just a white hand, she was in shadow, it was all really weird. And now all the news stories about the missing pregnant women.” Mary shivered, then got up and scooped Russell into her arms, holding him close to her. “I know in my bones that if I had gone into that room I wouldn’t have come out again. Do you ever just know something?”
More times that I could ever count. I nodded. “Yeah.”
“It’s called instinct,” Jack said. “Thank God you listened to yours.”
Chapter Four
We drove out to the ranch, surprised that there were rifle toting men at the gate. I think it hit both of us at the same time that it was incredibly stupid to think we could just drive in. We stopped about twenty feet from the gate.
“This was a really dumb idea.” Jack watched as both men headed toward the truck.
“Just go, Jack. Back the hell out of here.” I had the willies, bad. We were out in the middle of nowhere and people disappeared from this place.
Jack looked at me a little surprised.
“Instinct, Jack. Go.” I sat forward, my body rigid.
The two men were only a few feet away from the truck when Jack put the truck in reverse and backed out.
“Wrong place,” He waved cheerfully as he drove us away.
The two men looked at us suspiciously, but didn’t make a move to follow. They just watched as we drove away.
“What’s going on, Kicks?” He said as he looked in his mirrors, making sure that nobody was following us.
“I don’t know…Might be just that I know this is a cult and that these people are really not right. You know?”
He didn’t argue. He’d pulled me into a case that seemed to be growing tentacles, and I think he knew we’d be in for a boatload of grief before we’d solved anything. If I needed to stand back a little bit, he was willing to indulge me.
But I also knew that there would come a time, in the not too distance future, that I wouldn’t be able to stand back. If I’d lost my nerve and I didn’t get it back really soon, I might as well just quit. Because I’d end up getting both of our tickets cancelled.
“Let’s go talk to Lucas about this little situation,” Jack said. “I’m sure he’ll have some ideas. In fact, you’re right, Kicks. We really shouldn’t go in there half-cocked. You know?”
Jack is a hard-ass. He will never, ever back down. But he is also one of the kindest people I know.
***
“That was really stupid,” Lucas said. “Both of you could’ve been killed.”
“Don’t keep it inside, Luke,” Jack said. “Just tell us how you really feel.”
Lucas was pacing. “You two have to start thinking a little more instead of just reacting. There is a time for busting in, guns blazing, and that time will come. Believe me. But this is not it. Not yet.”
“Okay. Point taken,” I said. “Now what do we do?”
Lucas continued to pace around his office. “You’re not going to just walk in there and persuade Julia to come with you. If her twin, after having her baby taken from her, takes off and she doesn’t go with her, knowing that her baby may mysteriously die too? She isn’t going anywhere. Not of her own volition.”
“What do we do? Kidnap her?” Jack said.
“Yes. That’s exactly what you do.” Lucas stopped pacing and faced us. “You need to speak with a friend of mine. Declan Manning. He’s a deprogrammer. I can tell you how Gabriel is going to react, but he’s the expert. He’s worked a ton of these cases.”
“Okay,” I said. I was starting to feel better about things. Starting to get my bearings.
“There’s only one problem,” Lucas said, peering at us from over his tortoise shell, squar
e glasses.
“Christ,” Jack muttered under his breath. “Of course there is. Lay it on us.”
“He quit, hasn’t done deprogramming work in about two years. He says he’s finished.”
“Swell,” I said. “So not only do we have to kidnap Julia from a cultist compound, we have to convince a former deprogrammer to help us.”
“There must be other deprogrammers out there. Why don’t we just use somebody else?” Jack said.
“Because, Declan is the best, if anyone can do it, he can.”
“Why did he quit?” I asked.
“Because the last person he deprogrammed killed himself. An eighteen year old kid. Came from a really strict religious home. Daddy was a televangelist.”
“Oh, my God. I remember that. Daniel Wainwright. The famous televangelist.” I remembered when the news reported the death of his son.
Lucas nodded. “He paid through the nose for Declan’s services, not that he didn’t have the cash.”
Jack snorted. “Right. How many cars does he have? What his mansion look like? I wonder how many little old ladies sign over their social security checks to him so that he can keep doing God’s work.”
I was feeling squirmy inside. So much for my bearings. “What happened?”
“Declan did what he does best. But he took the one thing away from the kid that was keeping him from killing himself.”
“His faith,” I said.
Lucas nodded. “Belief in something other than the faith his dad preached. A faith he’d lost. He hated his dad. When Declan deprogrammed him, he had nothing to grasp onto.”