Detective Ellison was standing by with Hunter and Roger Dawson.
“Nice guy, huh? Bet he gets all the girls,” he said.
“If he gets them, it’s because he serves the Divine Leader so well,” Hunter said. He looked over at Dawson. “That language. This is something based on Brother William and the People’s Paradise,” he said. “Ethan Morrison’s father had to have been the missing Darryl. Here’s what bothers me. Maclamara is small—population around two hundred, maybe? With the People’s Paradise, Brother William found land that he could sweep up in the valley, some ‘bequeathed’ from followers he found when he began his quest. He brought people in. Somehow, he—I’m going to say it’s Morrison, because I truly believe it was Morrison—came into town and took over. Small town, good religious people—but probably with a tendency to white supremacy and a dislike for any immigrants. And then Morrison settled in, taking over. But even in a community this small, there would be someone who disagreed.” He looked at Amy. “I think that you nailed it in your conversation with him. But what bothers me now is not just what is going on and how we stop it, but what happened to those who didn’t fall into his fold?”
“You think that he murdered anyone who disagreed?” she asked.
“Dawson?” Hunter turned to his mentor.
“It seems likely,” Dawson agreed.
Amy remembered that very few people knew that Hunter hadn’t been born with the name he now carried.
Ellison muttered beneath his breath, “And this has happened in my county.”
“Detective, it’s so subtle sometimes, so hard to see—until a takeover is complete. But I still believe that the Divine Leader has an agenda. And that this is only the beginning.”
“Where do we go from here?” Ellison asked.
Before anyone could answer him, a well-dressed man with slick dark hair and wearing an expensive suit came walking toward the interrogation room.
“This is laughable. You’re laughable. And on top of a ridiculous arrest, you’ve been interrogating my client without his lawyer present.”
“Your client didn’t request an attorney until about two minutes ago,” Ellison told him.
“Trumped-up charge. I’ll have him out of here in another two minutes,” the attorney said.
Amy couldn’t help herself. “I’m impressed. Mr. Harrison can afford an attorney with an Armani suit!”
The man ignored her. “I will see my client now.”
Ellison opened the door for him. “Knock yourself out.”
“I’ll have your badges,” the attorney said.
“You don’t really want them. They would play havoc with that suit,” Amy said.
He went in, pulling the door firmly behind him.
“What now?” Ellison asked.
“Hold him for the time that you can, pending charges. If he wants his freedom by claiming that he’s working for Ethan Morrison, we’re going to want a paper trail for it,” Hunter said. “You hold on to him, and we’ll get back to the drawing board.”
Amy thought that they were ready to leave, but Hunter hesitated and turned back to Ellison. “If they were getting rid of people who didn’t fall into their fold, they won’t have buried them on their private land. They would have been killed in a way that could appear natural—something like a fall, being crushed by a felled tree. Or they’d have simply disappeared. If you can think of any state or federal land where we might find remains, well, there could be a connection there. Or any unresolved missing persons files. Anyway, we’ll keep all information circulating. I’m convinced that they are holding at least one other woman hostage. We have to find a way to save her life, because she’s going to be next.”
“My entire force is here for you.”
Amy, Hunter and Roger left the building, heading out to their vehicles.
“What now?” Roger asked.
“Back to the drawing board,” Hunter said. He grinned at Amy. “But you nailed it. Phin Harrison couldn’t possibly afford the lawyer who just went in to see him. His arrest must have been reported to the Divine Leader, who might have been the man in the robes. We need to find out if Morrison will claim to have appointed Phin Harrison as his property manager. If he does, I’m sure that Phin will walk out of that police station. And we need to know who is paying for that lawyer. I want the paperwork. If Morrison disowns Phin, well, the man might be ready to talk.” He hesitated. “I’m going to have Garza get into a few conversations with Amy’s superior in Florida and with the county department down here. I think that there are going to be some bones in the woods. If Ethan Morrison learned all that he knows from his father and Brother William, then he knew to get rid of dissenters during his takeover.”
“Back to the inn?” Roger said.
“Back to the inn,” Hunter agreed.
“This is all so unbelievable,” Amy said when they were in the car. “I mean...it’s really hard to understand. How do people allow their friends or neighbors to be murdered?”
“They don’t think of it as murder,” Hunter said. He was looking ahead as he added, “Do you think that the regular citizen in 1939 Germany really wanted to see an entire part of their population gassed to death? The regime sure as hell didn’t start out by saying they’d fix everything with mass murder. No, you seep in, and you take charge. You blame misfortune on others, and then you turn those others into scapegoats. Rationality may remain, but by then, fear is such a factor that the moral people remaining are terrified to speak up. They know what will happen to them if they voice disagreement.”
“Politics and religion. They can both go too far.” She was thoughtful for a moment. “You do realize that, even if with all you know, we’re still not sure what we’re looking for? I’ve read the King James version of Revelation, the People’s Bible version and a few others.”
He nodded. “Here’s what we have that they all share. Four Horsemen. Exactly how all the methods of death align, we don’t know. But I think that the Divine Leader is seeing the fall of the People’s Paradise as the breaking of the Fourth Seal. The rest...well, he’s playing by ear. We could see them imitate something that is a death by a ‘beast,’ or in a way to simulate disease, or even by starvation.”
“Starvation takes a long time.”
“Not if—”
“What?”
His brow furrowed into a pained frown.
“Not if you remove a victim’s stomach.”
Amy winced, shaking her head. “You think that—”