by Lowe, Sheila
Ryder squinted at them through drying blood. “I just remember—Erin Powers came back with Brother Johnson. She was fighting with that Brennan woman. Why were they—”
“Erin and Kelly are sisters,” Claudia said. “Was Kylie with Erin?”
Ryder’s eyes clouded with confusion. “Kylie? The baby? No. Not with Erin.”
“With who, then? Was Kylie there?”
“Brother Stedman took her. Erin . . . wanted to go and dress Kylie for the con—consecration, but the other one was yelling.”
“What about Jermaine Johnson?” Jovanic asked. Claudia crossed her fingers and hoped that Kelly hadn’t gone after him with a tire iron. She had a sick feeling that to Johnson a tire iron in Kelly’s hands would be about as effective as a toothpick.
“Brother Stedman sent Brother Johnson to help . . .” Lynn’s eyes suddenly opened wide. “I have to go! The end of time—I have to—”
“You can’t go anywhere,” Claudia said. “What about the end of time? What’s going on, Lynn?”
“It’s time. I have to tell my—” Her hand flew up and covered her mouth. “Oh God, what do I do?”
Jovanic got in her face and he looked convincing: “Ms. Ryder, Lynn, listen to me. I’m a police officer.” He took out his badge wallet and showed her his ID. “I want you to tell me what you know about what’s going on tonight, and it has to be right now.”
“You’re a cop?” She grabbed his arm with both hands, holding on as if he were offering her a life jacket. “What time is it? Tell me! What time is it?”
He checked his watch. “Eleven twenty-five.”
“Oh, no.” For a moment, Lynn looked more like a freaked-out kid than the head of security for the Ark compound. Then her voice grew stronger. “You’ve got to help me. I need to call someone, get them over here.”
“Who do you want to call?”
“My—my aunt and uncle. The phone in Rita’s office, you can—”
Claudia stared at her, thinking she had to be concussed. “We’ll call them for you after we find Kylie. Do you know where Stedman took her?”
“No! I have to call them now. You’ve gotta let me—” She let go of Jovanic’s arm and tried to push herself up; fell back on the pillow, groaning.
Claudia hurried into the bathroom and wet some paper towels. The wound was above the hairline, hard to see in the black hair. She dabbed away the blood from Lynn’s face and assessed the damage. She would have one hell of a shiner by tomorrow.
“Lynn, we’ll come back as soon as we find Kylie, and you can call your aunt and uncle then. Right now, you have to stay here and take it easy.”
“I can’t, I’ve gotta go—gotta tell—”
She was growing more agitated, having trouble getting the words out. Jovanic narrowed his eyes in speculation. “Your aunt and uncle—are they your handlers?”
It didn’t seem possible, but Lynn’s face paled even further. Her eyes darted from him to Claudia. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“We just want to find Kylie,” Claudia said. “Did Stedman take her to the sanctuary?”
“They were going to Erin’s house to get her ready. Please—”
“Which house is the Powerses’?” Jovanic asked.
“Bethlehem. But—”
He started for the door. “We’ll come back for you as soon as we can. Stay here until then.”
They exited the building and started moving fast toward the village.
“What was that all about?” Claudia asked. “What did you mean, ‘her handlers’?”
Jovanic shot her a look. “She’s the FBI operative.”
“What?”
“It was a guess, but her reaction confirmed it. She’s the one. Those people in town, her ‘aunt and uncle,’ are agents. They’re posing as her relatives.”
“So, the times she went to see them she was actually reporting in?”
“That, plus an important part of their job would be to keep her deprogrammed, make sure she stayed as psychologically healthy as possible while she was working for them.”
“Being undercover for long periods of time has got to be extremely stressful.”
“Especially for someone who’s just acting as an informant, not an official agent who’s trained for it.”
“Rita mentioned that sometimes some of the members went with Lynn and helped clean their house because her ‘uncle’ was in a wheelchair.”
“The Feds would have spent a lot of time and effort setting the whole thing up before recruiting her from the group, or sending her in—whichever way they did it—especially considering how paranoid Stedman is.”
Claudia thought about it as they jogged along the path together. She remembered remarking to Agent Oziel during her debriefing with him about the irony in the chief of security being the one person whose handwriting indicated lack of honesty. He must have been laughing behind that poker face, aware of the biggest irony of all: that the chief of security was acting as an informant, working with the FBI. Small wonder Lynn’s handwriting had showed tension. Small wonder that she had been so upset when she caught Claudia examining her application essay.
Beyond the infirmary, the other common buildings were unlit and the grounds dark. Jovanic carried the Maglite and they ran as fast as the bouncing puddle of light on the path ahead allowed. Claudia could hear small creatures scuttling through the shrubs, and she remembered Stedman’s warning about coyotes and other predators. Those night creatures were not the ones that concerned her.
Lights up ahead. A building rose out of the darkness, its interior lights shining like a row of peeping eyes in the night. Jovanic switched off the light. “What’s that place?”
“The dining hall.” Claudia slowed her steps. “What’s with all the lights? Joel, this isn’t right. They eat early here. After what Lynn said—” She broke off, not wanting to give voice to her fears.
They were only a few feet away now. Together, they approached the open dining hall door with caution. Then Jovanic moved in front of her and went to look inside. When he turned back, Claudia tried unsuccessfully to read the expression on his face. She pushed past him and stared at the scene inside with bewilderment.
Chapter 28
Row after row of deserted tables. Plates of half consumed food. Seats left unoccupied mid-meal. The rancid odor of tilapia left out too long in the hot room made Claudia’s stomach churn.
A slight movement caught the corner of her eye. She swung around. A gray raccoon the size of a small spaniel crouched on one of the far tables, gorging on someone’s abandoned fish dinner. Its robber’s mask seemed oddly appropriate as it looked up and gave her and Jovanic the once-over before finding them unworthy of further consideration and returning to its meal.
Jovanic caught Claudia’s eyes and held them. Neither needed to ask the question aloud: What the hell is going on here?
“This is nuts,” Claudia muttered. “This is weird.” She edged nearer to him, wrapping an arm around his waist, drawing comfort from the bulk of his physical presence and his strength. “I’m scared, Joel. Lynn said Stedman has Kylie; she said it’s the end of time. What are we going to do?”
“According to Rod, the altar would be in the sanctuary behind the church. If they’ve decided to move the ceremony up, as Lynn said, to after midnight tonight, everyone is probably gathered there.”
“Still, to leave in the middle of dinner—” She left it unfinished. “I haven’t been to the church yet, but I think if we just keep following the path we’ll come to it.”
Jovanic consulted Rodney’s hand-drawn map. “You’re right. The main path is the key. Look, it winds around the houses. Then there’s some empty space, then the church. Let’s go.”
A few minutes later they reached the outskirts of the group of homes the TBL members referred to as the village. Like the dining hall, lights burned through unshaded windows of virtually every home they passed.
“Which one is Bethlehem?” Jovanic asked.
“I have no idea. But it’s interesting that the Powers family lives in a house with that name, with Stedman calling Kylie the Chosen One.”
Jovanic looked at her with skepticism. “You mean he’s equating Kylie with Jesus? That’s pretty far out, even for this bunch.”
“Honey, you don’t know this bunch. Nothing is too far out for them.” She pointed out Emmanuel, the Diehl house, where she had visited Oka. Jovanic swung the Maglite over the door, illuminating a black ribbon that had been tacked up, announcing the elderly woman’s death.
They moved quickly from one house to the next, looking for the one named Bethlehem. Each house bore an engraved brass nameplate above its knocker, and on each door a small bound bundle of silvery dried leaves had been tacked up.
“Sage,” Claudia informed Jovanic after making a brief detour to check out one of the bundles.
“Why would they put sage on the door?”
She shrugged. “Usually, it’s used for smudging.”
“Would you like to put that in English?”
“It’s a Native American ceremony that’s gone mainstream among New Agers. It’s for cleaning and purifying a home. You burn sage when you want to get rid of negative energies or entities. But this just feels creepy. It makes me think of the Angel of Death passing over the homes of the Hebrews in the Bible.”
“Except that the Hebrews put the blood of the lamb on the door, not sage.”
And that made her think of Kylie in the hands of Harold Stedman.
They had nearly reached the end of the row of houses when an anguished cry tore through the night.
For the space of a millisecond Claudia wondered whether she had imagined that the sound had a human origin. Maybe they’d heard a coyote. But she knew better.
In the same instant, Jovanic had the Beretta in his hand. Together, they ran toward the sound.
Someone was coming toward them with a stumbling gait. Rodney Powers. About fifty yards from them he collapsed on the path. Harrowing sobs racked him, but Claudia ran past. She ran toward the building he had come from. It had no spire, no stained glass windows, but she knew instinctively that it was the church.
“Claudia, wait!” Jovanic called to her. “Don’t go in there.”
“Kylie—”
He caught up with her and grabbed her arms, forced her to face him. “Listen to me. You saw Rod back there. Do you think there’s anything you can do to help Kylie? I’ll go. Let me check it out first. Stay here.”
She nodded, watched him go, wanting to call him back—as if she could turn back the clock by keeping him from walking into the church. As if she could change whatever had happened.
Jovanic entered the church and Claudia began counting off the seconds. Twenty. Thirty. Forty-five. Sixty. What is he finding in there? Seventy-five. Ninety.
His shadow appeared in the doorway. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.
Claudia’s heart was thumping fiercely as she watched him emerge from the building. He had taken off his outer shirt and rolled it into a bundle to cover his nose and mouth. Dropping the shirt to the ground, Jovanic leaned over and put his hands on his knees. He gulped a deep inhale, filling his lungs with fresh air, and she knew he had been holding his breath the entire time he was inside.
When he straightened he was breathing hard, as if he’d run a long way. He stared at her, horror darkening his gray eyes.
“They’re dead. All of them. The place is filled with people—families, old people, kids. All dead.”
The impact of his words made it impossible to take in the reality of what they meant. But some part of her must have understood because suddenly she was shaking all over. Every cell in her body was being hit with its own little earthquake. She tried to speak, couldn’t get the words out. “Wha—how—?”
Jovanic grabbed her in his arms and held on to her, and she could feel him trembling, too. His voice was scarcely above a whisper. “I don’t know how. No visible signs. Maybe drugged. Maybe—I’ve never seen anything like this.” He kept talking, as if doing so would stave off the reality that he would have to face with silence. “Not CO2 poisoning, their coloring would show it; their faces would be—”
Claudia finally found her vocal cords. “Stop! I don’t want to know.” She closed her eyes. “What about Kylie? Erin?” Then she realized that he had never seen Kylie or Erin, would not recognize them if he had come across their bodies in the church. “Kelly. Omigod, Kelly . . .”
Jovanic was already regaining control of his emotions. His face had gone hard and expressionless, the way he’d learned to do as a detective when he needed to protect himself.
“I didn’t see Kelly, but I just looked to see if anyone was moving. I couldn’t hold my breath anymore. If she was in there it’s too late for her. I’m sorry, babe, but until we know what it is we’re dealing with, we can’t go back in there. Let’s get back to the main house and find a phone.”
Claudia sagged against him, choking back the lump of emotion in her throat. “We found them, but we failed.” Jovanic didn’t answer, but he kept his arm tight around her as they started walking back.
Rodney raised his head and saw them coming. He pulled himself to his feet and wailed, “James—everyone—they’re gone, they’re all gone. They left without me.”
Chapter 29
Claudia went over and took Rodney’s trembling hands in her own. They might as well have been blocks of ice. Stress did that, and there was no greater stressor than what lay beyond the doors of the church. She had no words of comfort to offer. What meaning would sympathetic words have to a man who has just lost everyone he held dear?
She stood there quietly with him until he gathered himself. When he spoke, his voice was thick with emotion. “We’ve got to find Kylie and Erin.”
“I’m sorry, Rod, but we can’t go in there,” Jovanic said. He put out a warning hand as the other man started forward. “Until we know what killed them—”
Rodney looked at him as if he had grown an extra head. “The gas won’t affect us. Fentanyl dissipates fast and they’ve probably been in there for hours.”
“How do you know that—what you said about the gas?” Claudia asked sharply.
He turned the look on her. “We all know. We’ve known for a long time how we would travel to the other side. Fentanyl is quick and easy.”
“That’s what the Russians used a few years ago against the Chechen rebels,” Jovanic said roughly. “Only they didn’t intend to kill anyone. You’re saying this is a mass suicide that’s been planned?”
“Our departure has been planned, but it’s not suicide, it’s a passage to a wonderful new life. Everyone gives their agreement when they join TBL.”
Claudia shoved him, nearly knocking him off his feet. “If this new life is so wonderful, why were you so hot to rescue Kylie from it? Jesus Christ, Rod, what the hell’s wrong with you?”
Rodney’s head dropped and he started sobbing again. “James was right, I was weak. I couldn’t stand the thought of never seeing her again. And then, it’s just—the last few months, Brother Stedman hasn’t been himself. Some of the things he’s been saying—I was afraid something wasn’t right. And when James called me in the mountains and told me what he’d heard Brother talking about—” He put his hands up to his face and pressed them against his eyes as if to shut out what he had seen. His left eye, swollen after his encounter with Jermaine Johnson, was now rimmed in purple. “I don’t want him to hurt her. We’ve got to find them. Please!”
Suddenly, Claudia understood what he was saying. “They’re not inside the church with all the others? They’re not dead yet?”
“No, they’re not in there. The congregation had to go first, to prepare the way for the governing board and the Chosen One—my baby Kylie. They’re ‘over there’ now, waiting for her.”
Claudia was beginning to think she had gone through a worm hole to some other universe. Maybe all the shocks of the evening had made her hearing suspect.
Jovanic stepped
in front of her and grabbed Rodney by the front of his shirt. They were about the same height, but Jovanic’s anger made him seem immense. “Do you know where Kylie and Stedman are? If you do, you’d better tell me now, goddamn it, so maybe, just maybe we can save your daughter’s life.”
Rodney took a step backward, half stumbling as he pulled away from Jovanic’s grasp. “I was thinking they might be in the sanctuary, but they’re not; I looked there. They’re not at my house, either. I don’t know where else they could be.”
Overhead, the sky suddenly lit up like day and a deafening crack of thunder startled them all. Then came the smell of rain and the clouds opened, unleashing a furious downpour.
Claudia had to raise her voice over the noise. “The bomb shelter.”
“Those buildings are always kept locked,” Rodney shouted back at her. “But Sister Ryder might have a key. She keeps them with her all the time.”
Warm rain beat on their heads and ran in rivulets down their faces, soaking their clothing. Thunder boomed again and colossal forks of lightning sent blue-white branches into the sky. Jovanic bent his head against the onslaught. “Claudia and I are going to the infirmary to get the keys. You go to the bomb shelter and wait for us there.”
“But—”
“Don’t give me any bullshit, Rod. I’m not in the mood. Right now you’re a liability. You can’t run, you can barely walk. You can’t even see with that left eye. Now, do as I fucking told you and we’ll meet you in a few minutes.”
The rain stopped as suddenly as it began and the air was a sticky blanket once again. By the time Claudia and Jovanic reached the infirmary, their wet clothing was clinging to their bodies like Saran Wrap.
They found Lynn Ryder sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning forward; holding on to the bed railing for support. When she saw them come through the door, she tried to stand. “The phone. I have to call—”