The Children of Eli

by Mike Cranny

  He bent down and placed the pistol on the floor. The gun was close enough for Archie to grab. He moved a little. Streya turned and fired a shot into the floor near his feet. She motioned him back with her free hand as her attention switched back to her brother. Archie stayed where he was.

  “If you only knew,” she said. “The terrible things I have done for this person. I never failed him, not ever, ever. But he has failed me. ”

  She was very angry and she voiced feelings obviously suppressed for years. She scolded Pared, told him how much she hated him, how much she hated their father and mother, how much she longed to leave the Children of Eli. Her tone was strident and her voice rose and fell. Her voice changed too — two people in one. Then she stopped, seemingly exhausted. She raised her gun and pointed it at Pared’s heart, ready to fire, hesitated and began to weep. Pared, watching her intently, seemed ready to exploit any vulnerable moment.

  “I made a mistake, baby sister. Let me make it up to you. The Kydd woman means nothing to me. I just use women like her for fun, and then they’re gone. I make them disappear. I can change my ways. Whatever you want, I’ll do.”

  For a moment, Archie thought that Pared might get his way. But Streya surprised him.

  “You betrayed me,” she said. “You lied to me, older brother — lover.”

  She reset her stance, pointed her gun at Pared’s head. Her shoulders were shaking and she mouthed incoherent words. Her eyes closed; she pulled the trigger. Even with the small gun, the sound of the shot in that confined space was deafening. The room filled with smoke. But her brother was not where the bullet went. He had dodged to one side and she had missed. The echoes from the shot subsided. Pared tried to get the pistol from her but she held onto it.

  “It’s time we were gone, baby,” he said. “It’s not safe here anymore. It will be all right, I promise.”

  She was crying. She moved in to him and put her head on his chest. Archie, watching, felt light-headed. He eased toward the Glock, trying to keep his mind focussed, trying to keep his leg from seizing up. He saw Patsy shift position, ready to back him up. The siblings seemed completely focussed on each other, on what had just happened. Pared whispered some endearment, perhaps, in Streya’s ear.

  Suddenly, she shifted her position very slightly, stepped back, raised her automatic and fired two shots into him. Pared stopped, a look of surprise on his face. He looked down at the spreading pattern on the front of his shirt. Angrily, he tried to brush off the blood. Then he wavered.

  “Damn you, Streya,” he said. “I had plans for you and me. We would rule a new star kingdom with new disciples. You’ve ruined it, you stupid girl. Your jealousy has destroyed us.”

  Then he sighed and dropped to his knees. Streya, tears streaming down her face, bent down and brushed her brother’s face with her fingers. And then her mood shifted. She pointed her gun at Archie and Patsy and motioned them out of the room with it.

  “Get out of here — now!” she said. “I have things to do.”

  “Wait, Streya,” Archie said, his lips barely able to form the words.

  “Leave or I’ll kill you, both of you.”

  She pointed the pistol at him. He stumbled and Patsy caught him, helped him stay on his feet. Suddenly, John Robbie appeared in the doorway. He looked at Streya and at the pistol in her hand; he even nodded a greeting to her. Streya seemed surprised to see him and swung the automatic to point in his direction. For a moment, it seemed certain that she would pull the trigger.

  “We’re going, Streya,” Robbie said. “We’re going.”

  She was on the verge of a breakdown. She waved them all away, shooing them out. Archie pulled away from Patsy and tried to cross the floor to Streya but John Robbie grabbed him and held him back. In his weakened state, Archie couldn’t resist. Together Robbie and Patsy dragged him out through the front door and out. Archie couldn’t seem to do anything to stop them; to go back into the house and help Streya seemed impossible.

  They were just off the porch when searchlights snapped on. Police cars roared and skidded down the access road and into the parking area — a half dozen or more of them. Lights flashed from the seaside too, illuminating the house from every angle. A SWAT team captain appeared and yelled out orders. Black-clad officers forced Archie and Patsy to the ground; others took up positions around the house, pointing their weapons at windows and doors. Fricke appeared out of the bright lights. Through dimming eyes, Archie saw other Harsley cops. Fricke shot John Robbie a fearsome look but then he shrugged. He waved the SWAT officers away.

  “These are my detectives,” he said. “I’m taking command here.”

  With Fricke’s help, Archie found his feet, his attention again on the house. He heard crashing sounds coming from inside as if someone was moving furniture and then he saw the flickering of flames through the windows. The front door opened. Streya stood framed by the sash and silhouetted by the fire that was rapidly claiming the building. Flames punched out windows and raced up the sides of the building. Desperately, Archie called to Streya, tried to go to her but his weakness, and his friends, would not allow it.

  Streya looked his way, complete madness in that look. She put her fingers to her lips as if telling Archie to stay quiet. He watched her hair smolder and catch fire. She did not seem to notice. She waved, turned away from him, walked back into the house and closed the door behind her. Archie tried to struggle against Fricke and the others but they held him fast. It was too late anyway. Flames blew out the front windows and shot out from under the roof beams. A few minutes later, the whole structure collapsed.

  CHAPTER 45

  Archie had made a promise that he had been reluctant to keep. He was still having nightmares, after all. He had said he would give Lee his first-hand account of the Brother Eli matter and the time had come. Both men were still recovering from gunshot wounds too — Archie at home and Lee up in Rochville. But things were getting better. When Lee called and asked Archie to set a date, Archie picked one. They went to the Weather Glass, a popular pub near the waterfront, which was Lee’s choice.

  Archie parked Lee’s wheelchair close to the fire, hung up Lee’s coat and creaked his own way into a chair. He ordered fish and chips­ for himself. Lee got a specialized concoction that seemed to consist entirely of leaves and shrimp. Lee, still pale, was in good spirits and happy to be out of his convalescence imprisonment — as he called it. They talked about many things but Archie postponed their discussion of the case as long as he could. Lee seemed very much at ease. He wore a new mauve blazer he’d just bought and seemed to like the attention they received. Many people waved or nodded in a friendly way in their direction.

  Archie was less happy. For one thing, he wasn’t comfortable being out in public, not with the attention he’d recently got from the media over the case. Still, Thomas Lee was good company and Archie had spent far too much time in his condo. Besides, Archie had healed faster than he had thought he would and no infection had set in — that seemed remarkable to him. But he still had many sleepless nights over Streya, tormented by visions of her turning back into the flames.

  With effort he pushed the terrible image from his mind. He had avoided the Weather Glass in the past; he hadn’t felt comfortable there. Now he felt more at ease. He ordered another diet cola from the waitress and another pint of craft beer for Lee.

  Lee was entertaining him with a funny story about a holiday he and Philip had made to Key West when Archie saw Patsy Kydd arrive. She was with the young cop, Tracy Gillot. Archie wondered at that. In spite of his advice, Gillot had gone for the gold ring and his confidence had obviously paid off. Archie felt a twinge of disappointment, not sure why. Patsy saw them, waved in their direction and smiled, and then she and Gillot went to a table in a corner on the other side of the busy room.

  Lee saw Archie’s look, Archie’s eyes following the couple. Lee harrumphed, said something like “all wrong for her.” Then he asked Archie if he’d read the article about the Children of E
li in the daily paper.

  “If you mean the thing in the Coast Pilot and Guardian, then I did.”

  “What did you think?”

  “It was okay. They left my heritage out of it this time.”

  “I don’t know what you mean. You’ve got nothing but good press since the event.”

  “I guess so, but sometimes it seems patronizing to me.”

  “You’re too sensitive, my friend.”

  “Maybe, I am. It’s too hard to tell what people really think.”

  But it was true that the press had been kind to him. Surprisingly, Jameson had called him to ask how he was and had seemed genuinely concerned.

  Since the destruction at the farm, Archie had had to fend off questions about the escape of Wes Means and Lisa Wainright. The press focussed on the fact that Brother Eli’s gold had not been recovered. The death of Jim Stone was treated as an unsolved murder relating, the department speculated, to Stoney’s involvement with the criminal activities of the Children. Archie did not disabuse them. He had faced some probing questions from Cal Fricke, but Fricke had not pursued the matter too far. The important thing, he said, was that Archie had done his job; he had destroyed a group of serial killing drug runners and had shattered their criminal conspiracy.

  Archie’s attention drifted to Patsy Kydd across the room, still deep in conversation with Gillot.

  “John Robbie?”

  Lee’s voice interrupted Archie’s reverie. He turned to see Lee looking at him, a query there that Archie had missed. Lee had finished his meal and had the look of a sleek, if somewhat pale, cat that had just eaten a particularly plump canary.

  “Pardon?”

  “When did you stop thinking that John Robbie murdered Nick Donaldson?”

  “That happened right away,” Archie said. “I knew Robbie from the old days and I couldn’t imagine a circumstance in which he would cut his partner’s throat that way. He wouldn’t have snuck up on him for one thing. Robbie’s the kind of guy who loses his temper but wants to have it out with whoever he’s got a beef with face to face. They would have had a fight and Donaldson’s face would have registered that — Robbie’s more so. And Donaldson would have won a fight. And then there was the whole business with the computer. Why would Robbie take Nick’s computer and why would he have taken the trouble to erase the hard drive? Like I say — I know the guy. He can hardly turn on a computer. So I more or less eliminated Robbie from the start.”

  “How did you figure out Tran was involved?”

  “I thought about it. I figured Nick had to be involved with dealing drugs. I’d heard stories. Tran was the obvious first place to look. Nick owed money but nothing that would get his throat cut, not like that anyway. That wasn’t Tran’s style. Tran had visited Nick that night. His boys beat Nick up and recovered their cocaine but somebody else killed him.”

  “So you figured it was the Children of Eli.”

  “Not right away, but I came round to the idea. I thought that maybe they still met, a headhunting cult, almost extinct — like a bunch of homicidal Elks. Then I wondered how they made a living. After that it all seemed almost obvious. I figured that they saw Nick diving near Cat’s Cradle Island and got worried about that. I didn’t know for sure about Pared being Eli’s son until I found your tablet. Stoney and Means were both complete surprises. I know now that they had all been fostered out to others in the cult, to the less important members, and changed their names as kids, as you discovered at the archives. The old lady was always a presence. I guess Emile saw an opportunity to make a break with the original group. The siblings were going to take the gold and set up a new Temple.”

  “So you figured out what Emile intended?”

  “Not right away. Not until later. It started with a hunch. But then again I’m probably just flattering myself. Robbie was the wild card in all this.”

  Lee was obviously pleased that Archie acknowledged his contribution.

  “And so Pared killed Bonnie Tran to motivate Bill Tran to attack the cult members while they were meeting.”

  “Maybe — but Pared, or maybe Lisa, thought Robbie had told Bonnie about the coins Nick had found. Nick had found the wreck of the yacht Brother Eli had pretended to escape on. The Children decided to eliminate him. They also wanted to get rid of Tran, a major competitor. Plus they wanted the old guard of the Children gone. The siblings set the whole thing up. Most of the ritual murders were group projects, except for what Emile did on the side.”

  “Then there was the whole incest thing.”

  Archie didn’t say anything to that, just shrugged. Across the room, Patsy was standing. She seemed to be upset with Gillot. Gillot seemed to be trying to convince her of something. After a moment or two, she sat back down.

  “They tell me that Patsy did well.”

  “She did good work and she saved my life. I owe her a lot and I owe John Robbie too. He got to Pete and Walter and they called in the troops.”

  “It still freaks me out how much a part of the town these people were, and for so long too.”

  “That was the strategy from the beginning. Eli infiltrated the police force and the local government back when. He would have gone on from there if he hadn’t been arrested. He pretended to escape on his yacht but scuttled her. After that he ruled from hiding — ran an empire based on bootleg booze, cigarettes, then drugs.”

  “So they mummified him when he died and kept up their sacrifices.”

  Archie nodded. He took a drink from his diet cola. A band called the Pickled Walnuts was setting up their equipment. Their leader, String Johansen, arrived, his mane of hair jammed into his fedora. He was an old acquaintance of Archie’s. He saw Archie, raised his hat as if in homage and bowed; his hair blossomed out like an exotic weed. Archie grinned, bowed his head in return.

  But he was ready to go, to get out of the Glass before more people arrived. His attention drifted back to Patsy and Gillot; he saw her saying something to him, animated and intense. Gillot said something in turn, but then he seemed distracted by the pretty barmaid who was hovering near their table. Archie inwardly shrugged, decided to let it go. What Patsy did on her time was her own business. He let Thomas know that he wanted to get out of there.

  “I’m tired. Plus I’ve got a year or two’s worth of paperwork and trials ahead of us, plus the half dozen unsolved homicides we think the Children of Eli were responsible for. Anyway — I think I’m going to head out.

  Lee nodded. Across the room, Tracy Gillot stood up and threw some bills on the table; Patsy stayed seated. Archie felt a moment of something like relief but then Patsy got up like she was ready to leave with Gillot after all. Archie forced himself to look somewhere else, to the band setting up. Lee had been watching him. Archie tried to ignore him.

  “What do you really think?” Lee said.

  “About what?”

  “You know about what.”

  “She’s got her own life. If she wants to try to spend time with a kid like Gillot, it’s no business of mine.”

  “You should be honest with her.”

  “And where would that get me? It’s impossible, Thomas. I’m her boss — a good, professional, working relationship is the best I can get from this.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Archie wanted to change the subject, to get out of the place. When the waitress came by, he ordered a round of Winter Ale for the band. When they had been delivered, String lifted his glass in Archie’s direction. Archie responded by raising his cola.

  “I owed them that. I lost a bet with String — bet on the Canucks because of Walter George.”

  “She likes you,” Lee said. He wasn’t about to let it go.

  “What do you want me to say, Thomas? That I’m jealous?”

  “Are you?”

  “I’d rather that she was with me instead of Gillot — maybe.”

  “I knew it.”

  “Let’s drop it. I’m not going to do anything about it and, obviously, neither is she. We should ge
t going. I’m done here.”

  Lee shrugged and settled back into his wheelchair.

  “I’ll just say that he who hesitates, loses. If you want her, let her know. Also, I’d like to stay a little while longer.”

  Archie resigned himself to more society than he felt like.

  “I don’t expect you to stick around, Archie.”

  “You’ll need a ride home.”

  “Not me — first time I’ve been out, really out, for weeks. Philip is coming to take me home.”

  Seeing Patsy with Gillot had unsettled Archie more than he liked to admit.

  “Then I’ll be gone, Thomas. I’m glad you’re on the mend.”

  Lee nodded. Then he leaned back in his chair, watching Archie grimace his way to his feet, and smiled.

  “Ditto.”

  Archie nodded, gritted his teeth and shrugged on his jacket. The Walnuts were warming up with “Five Long Years”. Archie lifted a hand in a wave as he went by the stage. The Walnuts raised their glasses again. Outside, the night was clear and cold, and stars had started to come out. Across the harbour, Galliano Street was busy with shoppers taking advantage of late opening hours.

  Archie looked down the street and then cursed his sense of timing. A hundred yards away, Patsy and Tracy Gillot were standing by her car talking, their heads close together. He couldn’t tear his gaze away. He saw Gillot move to kiss her. Archie held his breath until he saw her turn her head away. He wanted to be anyplace else but where he was — at the same time, he was morbidly fascinated. He could hear their voices.

  “How about coming to my place?” Gillot said.

  She hesitated, looked like she was going to accept his invitation.

  “Not tonight, Tracy.”

  “You don’t have to stay late.”

  “Not tonight. Thanks for dinner.”

  Gillot shrugged and walked away down the street. Patsy got into her car and started the engine. Archie felt a huge sense of relief and was surprised by it. He tried to back away, tried his damnedest to make himself invisible but she saw him and smiled warmly. Then she waved, ground the shifter into gear and drove off.