Part 45 (1/2)
”Yeah. But she didn't give up her curling iron. Just have her call me. I've left messages on the machine up there but, h.e.l.l, maybe she's p.i.s.sed off about something. Who knows?”
I clicked off and looked at the clock. Twelve-fifteen. I tried Montreal. Harry didn't answer, so I left another message. As I lay in the dark my mind positioned itself for cross-examination.
Why hadn't hadn't I checked out ILE? I checked out ILE?
Because there was no reason to do so. She took the course through a legitimate inst.i.tution, and there was no cause for alarm. Besides, to research each of Harry's schemes would take a full-time investigator.
Tomorrow. I'll make some calls tomorrow. Not tonight. I shut down the inquisition.
I mounted the stairs, stripped, and slid under the covers. I needed sleep. I needed a respite from the turmoil that dominated my conscious thought.
Overhead, the ceiling fan hummed softly. I thought of Dom Owens' parlor, and, though I fought them, the names drifted back.
Brian. Heidi. Brian and Heidi were students.
Jennifer Cannon was a student.
Anna Goyette.
My stomach turned over.
Harry.
Harry had registered for her first seminar at the North Harris County Community College. Harry was a student.
The others had been killed or had disappeared while in Quebec.
My sister was in Quebec.
Or was she?
Where the h.e.l.l was Ryan?
When he finally called my trepidation escalated to real fear.
28.
”GONE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, GONE GONE?”
I'd slept fitfully, and when Ryan woke me at dawn, I felt headachy and out of sorts.
”When we arrived with the warrant the place was deserted.”
”Twenty-six people just vanished?”
”Owens and a female companion ga.s.sed up the vans around seven yesterday morning. The attendant remembered because it wasn't their normal routine. Baker and I got to the commune around five P.M. P.M. Sometime in between the padre and his disciples took the big powder.” Sometime in between the padre and his disciples took the big powder.”
”They just drove off?”
”Baker's put out an APB, but so far the vans haven't been spotted.”
”For G.o.d's sake.” I wasn't believing this.
”Actually, it's worse.”
I waited.
”Another eighteen people have vanished in Texas.”
I felt myself go cold.
”Turns out there was another little band on the Guillion property out there. The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department has been monitoring them for several years and weren't all that adverse to taking a closer look. Unfortunately, when the team showed up, the brethren had split. They bagged one old man and a c.o.c.ker spaniel hiding under the porch.”
”What's his story?”
”The guy's in custody, but he's either senile or feebleminded and hasn't given much up.”
”Or cagey as h.e.l.l.”
I watched the gray outside my window lighten.
”Now what?”
”Now we toss the Saint Helena compound and hope the state boys can discover where Owens has led the faithful.”
I glanced at the clock. Seven-ten and already I was at the thumbnail.
”How's your end?”
I told Ryan about the tooth marks on the bones, and about my suspicions concerning Carole Comptois.
”Not the right MO.”
”What MO? Simonnet was shot, Heidi and her family were slashed and stabbed, and we don't know how the two in the upstairs bedroom died. Cannon and Comptois were both attacked by animals and knives. That's not a common occurrence.”
”Comptois was killed in Montreal. Cannon and friend were found twelve hundred miles south of there. Did this dog catch a shuttle?”
”I'm not saying it's the same dog. Just the same pattern.”
”Why?”
I'd been asking myself that question all night. And who?