Reverend Coulter strode onto his backyard deck and surveyed his property. He owned the whole damn town and he commanded respect and generated fear. The story of the founding of Casa Spirito was legendary. And he was instrumental in perpetuating that legend. As head of the Board of Trustees for the Casa Spirito Spiritualist Society, he was a tough governor of the unincorporated community of spiritually-minded people. He owned all the land and buildings in the town, including the Casa Spirito Hotel, the Coulter Memorial Temple, the Healing Center, Bookstore, and Welcome Center, and he retained the huge fees and profits generated by the Society because of its federal tax-exempt status.
Anything that got done in this town had to go through him. Anything he wanted was his for the taking. All those innocent runaways, lost and searching, who came to his town were greeted by him with open arms, welcomed into his flock, woven into his web of influence, and eventually, and without much coaxing, wooed into his bed.
Just like Juliette, or whatever her real name had been before she came to Casa Spirito. He had sensed immediately that she was a strong psychic and spiritual healer, and he had taken the beautiful but naïve girl of seventeen under his expansive wing. Back then she had considered him charming. After all these years, apparently the charm had worn off.
He was married, with a family, when he’d first laid eyes on Juliette, but he knew he had to have her. The pull was magnetic. She was reluctant at first, but he had taken his time with her. He recognized her talent right away, and he convinced her they were kindred spirits, destined to be united, or some such nonsense about soul mates.
She was riveted when he’d spun the tale that his spiritual guide had led him to his destiny in Casa Spirito. And that she was his destiny, a destiny that could not be denied.
She was his Juliette. He was her Romeo, stuck in a loveless marriage. Star-crossed lovers. She had no money, no family to speak of. No doubt she was running from something or someone. He didn’t probe or ask questions. Frankly, he wasn’t interested in her past, just her future and what she could do, for him and to him. He’d generously set her up rent-free in an attractive house and shop on the town’s main street, a house with several spacious bedrooms on the second story—their love nest. And she had been eternally grateful. His investment had paid off. Psychic Juliette’s was one of the most popular and profitable establishments in town. And he got a healthy cut of her profits.
Their first coupling had been mind-blowing. So much so that he had forgotten to use protection. He craved her body and he had to have her again and again. He had never had another woman like Juliette before or since. Her innocence had excited him, and under his tutelage she had blossomed as a medium and as a lover. They had been happy until the day she had come to him and told him about the baby.
He still remembered that day. How could a seer of such talent be so irresponsible? Could she not have foreseen what was about to happen? How could she have allowed it? Her carelessness was inexcusable.
Amid a stream of tears and protests that she refused to give up her child, he fabricated a story that his spirit guide had warned him during a séance that danger would be the child’s destiny if they kept her. In the end, he convinced Juliette to give the baby up for adoption. He secretly arranged for the child to be sold to an Atlanta couple, Katherine’s adoptive parents, who couldn’t have a child of their own. The price was a hefty sum and a promise of silence. The father had been an attorney and, later, a respected federal judge. The judge’s career had been monitored closely over the years.
He had exacted the same promise of silence from Katherine’s real mother, because if it were discovered that he was nothing but a lecherous trance medium who had gotten an underage girl pregnant, his reputation would be ruined and the flow of money would abruptly stop. He had become too accustomed to luxury and high living to be run out of town penniless or worse.
If his congregants discovered that their leader, who claimed to adhere to the life-guiding Principles of Spiritualism, which preach eternal life and cleanliness of the soul, had, over the years, seduced and indoctrinated many of the young girls who wandered into the community, he would be ruined. And he would not allow that to happen.
He recalled watching Juliette nurse the baby for the very last time, the tiny hand clutching at her mother’s breast while she sucked furiously, before he snatched the newborn from Juliette’s nipple and tore her out of her mother’s arms.
“Mustn’t get too attached to Mommy,” he’d crooned, wiping his finger across Juliette’s milky breast and sucking the sticky substance off his finger as he cuddled the child. “Save some for Daddy.” It still made him hot every time he thought of it. It was at that moment he’d conceived his noble vision of propagating his own stable of psychics in his image.
Juliette never discovered what had happened to her baby, but he knew she continued to long for the girl. The only reason she stayed in Casa Spirito was in hopes he would eventually reveal the location of her baby. He’d teased her with hints of the whereabouts of the child, taunted her with scraps of meaningless information, strung her along magnificently over the years. Was she in San Francisco? Or Chicago? Or was she in New York?
He had warned Tyler Crystal repeatedly to keep the girl’s identity hidden from the world or he’d disclose to the authorities how the judge had bought his own child. And what did the man do? He’d allowed her to get tangled up in a high-profile news story, the crash of the Rivers jet, and then the case of the Sydney Strangler. Things had gone along so smoothly for so many years, and now Ty Crystal and his wife had allowed their daughter’s identity to be revealed.
If Juliette saw the papers, she’d know. Anyone in Casa Spirito with two eyes and half a brain, seeing the girl’s photo, would know who her real mother was, and then Juliette would put the pieces together and start snooping around. He’d had no choice but to tie up loose ends.
Now that he’d gotten a closer look at his daughter and was certain she was truly as talented as her mother, as the newspapers indicated, maybe there was a way he could use her. Reunite her with her “true” family, the family she’d never known. He could easily manipulate her. After all, she was just a woman, and women were naturally drawn to him.
Reverend Coulter went back into the kitchen and crumpled the newspaper pages in his fist. He was still exhausted just thinking about the long drive to Georgia and back.
It was a dirty business, but it was taken care of. There was no trace of his presence anywhere near the Crystals’ lake house. No airplane ticket, no hotel stay, no use of credit cards to give him away.
He walked into the library, poured himself a brandy, and replayed the events of the past weeks in his head. Endless hours in the car, tracking down the judge’s property. Not difficult with that tacky sign Crystal Lake House leading him right to their door. Then there was the matter of tampering with the brakes. Trailing the car around hairpin curves until he witnessed the judge’s car careening off a mountain road. The screams amid the burning debris—the judge and his wife had both survived the crash, barely, until the police arrived, led there by an anonymous 9-1-1 tip from a good Samaritan. Never let it be said he wasn’t a concerned citizen. He watched the couple being pulled out of the wreckage with the Jaws of Life.
His earlier warning to the judge must not have gotten through. He’d made a phone call, disguising his voice, “Crystal is fragile and easily broken.” Still, Crystal Ball Kate remained in Australia and in the headlines.
They’d had an agreement, and the Crystals had broken their end of the bargain. It was as simple as that. The reverend didn’t believe in second chances.
The brandy burned, sliding down his throat, settling his nerves. He reached for the bottle to pour another glass. Hands still shaking, he downed a third, until he regained control.
All he needed was a little sleep and he’d be in tiptop shape. The adoption episode was put to bed forever. His reputation and his considerable fortune remained intact.
Contemplating how
he had gotten rid of the Crystals was making him hot. Too much adrenalin in his system to sleep now. Power always made him run hot. Maybe there was time to stop by Juliette’s and tempt her with his sudden vision that their daughter would soon be coming for a visit. Or maybe a short rendezvous with one of the younger devotees who was always willing and craving his attention. Or maybe both.
Chapter Sixteen
Jack and Katherine watched the sleek black Bentley careen out of the driveway and onto the road. The handcrafted motor car was driven by none other than the reverend. Jack waited a minute and followed.
“What if he sees us?” Katherine asked.
“He won’t. I’m a professional, and he’s not expecting us to follow him. We had a standoff and he thinks he’s won. So let’s see where the not-so-good reverend goes.”
Within minutes, the reverend pulled up to a storefront occupied by one Psychic Juliette.
“That’s the woman we met with,” Katherine said. “She’s involved somehow, and we need to find out why.”
“Drop me off around the corner. Then take the car back to the hotel. I’m going to see what I can find out,” Jack ordered.
“I’m coming with you.”
“It’s too dangerous. This guy is packing, and I don’t think he’s afraid to use his firepower.”
“This is about me, and I’m going to be there when it happens.” Katherine stood firm.
Jack shrugged. He parked the car on the next block, and he and Katherine walked back to Psychic Juliette’s place. When they arrived, they heard raised voices in the anteroom behind the blue curtain where Juliette had conducted their session earlier that morning. The reverend and the psychic were having an argument. Jack raised a finger to his lips and with his other hand ushered Kate along. They tiptoed farther into the shop and listened.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Juliette’s voice. “It’s my daughter.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That beautiful girl. She came to my shop. After all these years. I knew her. I felt it. Anyone can see she’s mine. Katherine Crystal is my daughter.”
“You’re hallucinating, Juliette, and if they come snooping around here again, I want you to send them away.”
“I won’t. I’ve stayed here thirty years waiting—waiting for some word, waiting for you to tell me what you did with her. Now she’s come back to me. Of course I’m not going to turn her away.”
Katherine’s hand flew to her throat and she shifted away, but Jack held her close, wrapping his arms tightly around her so she couldn’t move. She was shaking and crying silently, and he tapped her lips softly and shook his head. Don’t talk, he was saying.
Don’t talk? That woman just said that Katherine Crystal was her daughter, which meant that her beautiful mother was not really her mother. That she, Katherine, was not really who she thought she was. Then who was she?
Reverend Carter Coulter had grabbed Juliette and was shaking her.
“You will do exactly as I say, or I will make sure you never see the girl again.”
“But she’s your daughter too. Don’t you even want to know her?”
Kate shuddered. This man, this evil man was her father? Impossible. But documents don’t lie.
Jack held her tighter.
“We agreed thirty years ago that it was best for the girl if she didn’t remain here with us. Remember, I told you I had a vision that great harm would come to her if she stayed here. We gave her up for her own safety and well-being.”
“That was when I believed in you, when I was in love with you. Now that I know your true nature, I know you never loved her. And you never loved me. You never had a vision. You sold our child for money. How much did Katherine’s father give you? When you ripped her from my arms, you ripped out my heart and killed any feelings I had for you.”
“If you think I’m so evil, then why did you stay with me all these years? Why did you warm my bed?”
“You used me, you seduced me. I was barely a woman. You made me love you and then you stole my child. And being here, near you, was the only way I knew to get her back. You told me, you swore that you loved me, but you’ve stayed married to someone else. You promised you’d tell me, one day, what happened to my daughter. And I was foolish enough to believe you.”
“I did love you.”
“And what about all the other unfortunate young girls, those innocents who have wandered into Casa Spirito? Yes, I know about all the other women you seduced, Carter. And you fed them the same lies. Did you love them, too?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Juliette.”
“Look up and down the street. All these women, drawn here by your evil spell, forced to stay because you pay their way, set them up in business, seduce them and sell their children.”
Kate struggled to get free. Jack held on tighter and refused to release her. He clamped his hand over her mouth.
“You can’t prove a thing.”
“All the while you grow richer and more powerful. You hide your wealth from the community. You need to be exposed.”
“Bitch!”
Reverend Coulter spat out the word as the sound and sting of his slap against Juliette’s tender flesh reverberated around the shop.
Katherine recoiled at Juliette’s outcry, but Jack never loosened his grip on her body.
“I thought you had learned your lesson. You can’t survive without me. I am the leader of this church and this community—and your master.”
Juliette planted her feet firmly on the carpet, her bleeding lip protruding.
“You’re just jealous,” Reverend Coulter said, stroking Juliette’s face. “You’re jealous because you’ve seen your daughter, and you know what I see in her. I see you, the you who used to attract me, the you who has become a tired, sad, bitter old woman. And if you don’t keep quiet, I will have to handle Katherine. She’s really very bewitching, don’t you agree? She is a major talent. I’ve been following her progress in the newspapers all these years. She has our blood and she has surpassed us. Outshone us. I will keep her here, with me, tutoring her, until I find a proper use for her powers. Imagine what I could do with her knowledge of the future. I could rule the world.”
“I won’t let you. I’ll tell your wife. I’ll go to the council. And to the police.”
“And you think they’ll believe you? If you expose me, I will take it out on our daughter. I know you don’t want that.”
Katherine saw Juliette sag against the back of the loveseat.
“Perhaps once more, for old time’s sake?” The reverend moved toward Juliette. His hand fondled her breast. She bit him and he pulled back.
“You’ll pay for that, you little hellcat. You’re nothing but a used-up whore, and I will have you brought up in front of the council for punishment.”
The reverend bared his teeth and turned to exit. Juliette began to whimper.
“Jack,” Kate whispered. “You have to do something.”
Jack rubbed her back.
“Now is not the time. We’re going to have to gather some more evidence.”
The reverend turned back toward Juliette. “You’ve been warned. If you think I’m making empty threats, then you don’t know me at all. Katherine’s parents proved an impediment, an impediment that had to be removed.”
“What did you do to them?” Juliette demanded.
“They had a little accident. And the same will happen to you, if you’re not obedient. A shame, about the judge. Now that money source has dried up. I’ll be back to check on you after you’ve come to your senses and stopped your sniveling. You’ve put me in a mood, Juliette. I think I’ll pop in on Psychic Serena. She’s so young and naïve, with such a beautiful body. A body made for loving. Reminds me a lot of you when you first came to town.”
“Jack, did you hear what he said?” Kate whispered harshly. “He killed my parents.”
“It sounds that way.”
“I want to go to Juliette.”
Kate hated to hear Juliette’s tears. Her birth mother’s tears. But Jack made a lot of sense.
When they got out into the sunlight, Kate threw up all over the sidewalk. She saw the reverend’s dark car parked outside Psychic Serena’s shop. The Closed sign was hanging at an angle in the window. That poor young woman might be a fortune reader, but she was out of luck.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Jack said, a disgusted look on his face.
“Jack, I can’t believe this. That woman, Juliette, is my real mother and that evil man is my father? All those years, and I never suspected anything.”
“You’re nothing like him, Kate. We’re going to get him for fraud, for murder, for bribing a federal judge, for whatever other charges we can make stick. That sick bastard’s been hiding out here in this quiet little community, building his evil empire, hiding behind his religion, while all the time he was seducing young women and selling their children. And I could kill him for what he said about you. That he was going to—”
Jack couldn’t say the words. His breathing was ragged, his face red. “His own daughter.”
Kate placed her arm on his shoulder. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For stopping me. I was going to attack him. I would have confronted him, and you could have gotten hurt.”
“Or you. I couldn’t take that chance with your safety.”
“But he has to pay for what he’s done.”
“He will. I promise you, he will.”
Chapter Seventeen
While the randy reverend, Katherine’s real father, was otherwise occupied in some horizontal hocus pocus with Psychic Serena, Jack and Kate retraced their steps and raced back in Jack’s car to the reverend’s house. When they arrived, Jack veered the car off the driveway and wound around to the back of the property.
Sixth Sense (A Psychic Crystal Mystery) Page 14