“A religious group that lived or still lives deep in the bayous,” Lottie said. “I mean, so deep that only their own people know where to find them. Most of what we heard about them was rumor because only one or two of them were allowed to come into town when they had to conduct business, and it was mostly always men. A woman only came twice that I heard of, and it was to buy women’s supplies—material and women’s products. I heard she didn’t speak a word either time.”
“Sounds like a cult,” I said.
Lottie nodded. “That’s what most people thought, which only made them more interesting to young people. I can’t tell you how many times everyone headed out in their boats for a search-and-rescue over young people who thought they were going to find the Brethren and got turned around deep in the swamp.”
“We had some of that in Sinful too,” Gertie said. “It came and went like a fad. For a couple years, it was all the rage, then it would die off and people wouldn’t even talk about it. Then someone would tell a story to one of their kids and they’d get a group all fired up again.”
“Did anyone ever find them?” I asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Gertie said.
“You mean to tell me that somewhere out in the bayou, there’s an entire village of people, and no one knows where to find them?”
“Probably more than one,” Lottie said. “But the Brethren is the only one I’ve ever heard of around these parts.”
I shook my head. “That’s incredible. And you think Maya might have been part of that group? Why?”
“Her clothes, for one thing. They were several years behind current fashion. And before you say, maybe she was too poor to afford new clothes, that’s exactly what I thought as well. Maybe they were hand-me-downs or purchased at Goodwill or the like, but the fabric was newer patterns and colors—it was just the style that was off. And that’s when I realized they were all homemade. One of the first things Maya did after she started working was buy bolts of fabric and she’d sit out back in one of my lawn chairs and sew every evening. Made clothes for her and Lara completely by hand and beautifully done. And they were all current style.”
I nodded, understanding her point. “So if she’d been kept away from society, she would have continued crafting clothes to match the last things she’d seen. When she was back among people, she brought their clothes up to current specs. You really are an excellent observer, Lottie.”
She flushed a bit. “Always thought I would have made a good detective. Of course, women didn’t do such jobs back when I was a girl.” She nodded at Ida Belle and Gertie. “When these two and Marge went off to Vietnam, I thought hard on it for a bit. If those women could go to war, why couldn’t I be police, especially as there was a shortage of able-bodied men at the time?”
“So why didn’t you?”
“They say life is what happens while you’re making other plans. I’d just married, and my husband was about to be deployed. I realized I was pregnant right before he left. That shifted everything.”
“That would. So do you think the Brethren are still out there in the bayou?”
“No one’s seen any in a decade or more that I’m aware of, but then, things along the bayou have grown up. They’ve got other options for shopping besides Mudbug. And I’m guessing they figured out that all they needed to do was head to a bigger city for the things they couldn’t make for themselves, and no one would even look twice at them, which cut down on all that schoolboy hunting nonsense.”
“That would mean they’d have transportation,” Gertie said. “Can’t take a boat everywhere. And what about gas for the boats and parts?”
Lottie nodded. “All good questions and things I’ve asked myself. But my momma insisted the Brethren were real and so did her friends. My nephew worked at the General Store here in Mudbug years ago and said he used to pack up boatloads of supplies for them a couple times a year. And that included a lot of cans of gas.”
“What else did they buy?” Ida Belle asked.
“Stuff for sewing, medicine, tools…the kind of things you can’t find out in the bayou. You know what the second thing I noticed about Maya was? Right after I locked in on her clothes?”
“What?” I asked.
“That she didn’t have a cell phone. Maybe she couldn’t afford it, but a young woman on her own with a young child usually sprang for one as soon as she could, even twenty years ago.”
“So how did she rent the place? If she was part of the Brethren, she couldn’t have had much money, unless she took it when she left.”
“Had cash. Didn’t look like she had much, but I wasn’t charging much either, especially after I laid eyes on her. I would have offered her the place for free, but I knew she wouldn’t go for it. Probably would have just made her wonder what I was up to. I wanted her safe, so I rented for half what I was asking, but then she’d never seen the ad in the paper, so she didn’t know any better. Stopped because she saw the sign in my front yard.”
“She might have stolen it,” Gertie said.
I nodded. “Might have been the only way to get her hands on money.”
“She got a job as a housekeeper at the hotel right away,” Lottie said. “They were always shorthanded and she was a good worker, even repaired a lot of their drapes so you couldn’t even tell they’d been torn. People talk about such things.”
“And neither her nor Lara ever talked about family or where they lived before?”
“Not a peep. And plenty of people tried to get it out of her. Not me, mind you. I already had my own ideas and didn’t want to spook the girl. I have to say, I was happy when she took up with Andy. He was a good man, and I figured she needed some extra looking out for and couldn’t do better than a cop. Still feel bad for him the way things turned out. I’ve never seen a person so wrecked as he was when they disappeared, and given I’ve lived through my share of wars, that’s saying a lot.”
“Did you tell him what you just told me?”
She frowned. “No. I considered on it long and hard, but if that girl had left a bad situation and then ended up going back to it, sending Andy after her would have just made matters worse for the both of them. I did my best to help save her and obviously it wasn’t enough. I didn’t want him lost to whatever she was involved in as well. Those cults don’t take kindly to people trying to help members walk away.”
“Especially the women,” Ida Belle said dryly, “who are expected to be servants.”
Lottie looked out her kitchen window and sighed. “There’s not been a day go by since then that I haven’t wondered if I did the right thing.”
Gertie reached over and squeezed her arm. “Even if you’d told him, the chances of him finding the Brethren would have been slim. And if he’d gotten obsessed—and seems like he would have—he’d have spent all his time in the bayous, neglecting his work, friends, and family. There’s no doubt he still loves her, but he managed to make a life for himself. If he’d believed she was out in the bayou, just a boat ride away, he’d have never moved on.”