Initiations (Carpenter/Harding Book 5)

by Barbara Winkes

  “Why? Did Raphael rebel against it? He did have some feelings for her after all?”

  “I’m not sure if he has real feelings for anyone.” Lilah shrugged. “In any case, it will not be easy. But it’s important. Yes, there are others like that, but if we could shut down Jeremiah and his crew, it would be a big step.”

  “For sure. And you couldn’t find anyone willing to testify against them?”

  “The case A.D.A. Esposito mentioned, it fell apart quickly. They have their intimidation tactics—but that’s the problem, it’s all rumors and innuendo. We need this break badly.”

  “You know that my ex was dating him for a while. Certainly we can’t send her in, but I could try to talk to him,” Ellie mused. “We didn’t understand it right away when she told us about him. Now it makes sense—he was trying to influence her, change her hair and clothes. Maybe he thought he could save her.” She couldn’t help the shudder, thinking of what Deane’s efforts had done to Jennifer Beaumont.

  “Yeah, it’s a good thing he didn’t get to try,” Lilah said, sensing where Ellie’s thoughts had been going. “It’s worth a shot. Let’s ask Dr. Roberts when we’re done here.”

  At least someone around here was open to her ideas.

  Chapter Three

  Jordan wasn’t too happy about Bethany’s disclosures to Ellie, but none of that mattered at the moment. No matter how many times they talked to Raphael Deane’s friends, Dawyne, Ellen and Rhonda Marks, they always got the same answers. He was a bit weird. Judging women on the way they dressed all the time. He didn’t talk about his family, ever. They remembered hearing something about the Prophets in the news a long time ago, but it was all very vague.

  When they decided to take a break for a moment, Jordan got herself a coffee and, on second thought, brought one for Bethany. There was no need for high school antics. They were all grown-ups. They were all better off now.

  She understood Bethany’s frustration better than anyone else, after barely escaping with her life from a man who thought he had the right and the calling to teach women “morals.” When Bethany had involved Ellie in the case after her abduction, it had helped her, and for that, Jordan was grateful.

  That was a lot of justification for a cup of coffee, she reflected.

  Bethany accepted the cup with a wistful smile.

  “Thanks. It’s not all that bad here. I think your coffee is one of the reasons I like to come back—it’s certainly not for the welcome, or the amazing progress. Damn. I need this to work.”

  “We all hope it will. It’s going to be hard to prove their involvement with those cold cases though.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” Bethany sighed. “It’s ironic, isn’t it, you, me, Esposito on this case.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Hey, I’m sorry. I was sure Ellie knew about her. It seemed to me that you were pretty honest with her, and very quickly. I thought by now you’d have planned your wedding.” She laughed, putting her cup on the window sill. “No, I’m not as bitter as this sounds. I’ve had my time to mourn, and resent you both for a while. Besides, I might not be in town for much longer.”

  “What does that mean? You’re going to sell the condo?”

  “Possibly. There might be an opportunity, but I know this case has to pan out for The Powers That Be to even consider me. I really want this.”

  “I think we all want for these people to be held accountable. You can be sure everyone’s on your side.”

  “Yeah, except for your partner. He still hates me.”

  “Derek hates very few people, and believe me, you’re not one of them.” That might stretch the truth a bit, Jordan was aware.

  “Thanks for trying. I need you guys on this as long as possible. I know they murdered these women. If we can’t prove it, all I have is a bunch of jerks getting off on their patriarchal fantasies, and women who indulge them. If they are coerced, we can never prove that. I’m not willing to accept that, and neither is Agent Strickland.”

  “She’s young. Does she have the experience to pull this off?”

  “You’re asking me because Harding offered herself? I’m sure she could do it though. She’s cute enough for them to think she’s harmless, and her record so far is pretty impressive.”

  “Don’t go there. Ever.”

  “Well, at this moment, no one’s going anywhere, unfortunately, but to answer your question: Yes. Strickland has what it takes, and we need to find a way to get her on the inside. She is our best bet.”

  Jordan had detected something else in Bethany’s tone, and her expression must have shown her surprise.

  “Okay, now get your mind out of the gutter. I’m not a cradle robber. Besides, she has a husband and a young child…and, I’m seeing someone. My age.”

  “Good for you. I’m sorry for assuming—”

  There was a knock on the door, preceding Ellie and Agent Strickland walking into the room.

  “Did you find anything?” Bethany asked.

  “I’m afraid there’s nothing of use on their websites,” Strickland said. “Officer Harding had an idea that’s worth listening to, I think.”

  * * * *

  While Jordan was still fairly uneasy about the idea, she had to admit that it was worth a try. A monitored conversation with Deane was far from what Ellie had suggested earlier.

  Ellie seemed relieved about her lack of protest. She walked into the interrogation room with a confidence that shouldn’t have surprised Jordan, but it did, and she felt instantly bad about it. She and Bethany stayed in the observation area with Agent Strickland.

  “What is this now? You’re going to try to get me to testify against my people too? Pathetic.”

  “I’m here about Rhonda. I’m a friend of hers.”

  “What about Rhonda?” he asked.

  “She wanted to know how you are doing. She can’t visit you at the moment, so she asked me to see you.”

  “Why would she care? She was never that interested in my opinion anyway.”

  “Maybe because she didn’t understand. You were very critical of her, but she thinks you might have had a point. That you wanted to help her. She misses you.”

  “I tried to help her all right, but you wouldn’t understand.”

  “Well…I’m on my break now, so I have some time. Why don’t you try?”

  “Rhonda didn’t understand the first thing about modesty. Why would you? You think you can walk down the street in your short skirts and high heels, exposing your bodies, and there will be no consequences?”

  “Did you ever talk to her about consequences? What are they anyway? You harass women? Rape them?”

  “Those are the choices they make!” he yelled.

  Ellie flinched slightly, but she didn’t shrink back.

  “Her ex was really lucky,” Bethany said, and Jordan nodded, still both intrigued and spooked by seeing this side of Ellie. She’d been right. She had to find her own path, and Jordan couldn’t hold her back while dealing with her own issues. They had agreed not to go too fast, but at the moment, Bethany’s remark in mind, Jordan wondered if they had slowed down their progress for no good reason. They still had separate apartments.

  “So that’s why you killed Jennifer, because you didn’t like the choices she made? Who told you that those were bad choices? I think Rhonda will be interested in that answer too.”

  He looked around, appearing nervous all of a sudden. “Is she here? Can she hear this? That was something completely different. I would have never touched her. Rhonda shut up and didn’t ask questions when I told her not to. Don’t you get it? Jenny was going to drag all of us into the dirt, smear our names. She was going to write a book full of lies. Somebody had to stop her. I didn’t know what else to do!”

  Jordan saw the startled look on Ellie’s face when he started to cry.

  “You know, moments like this, I can almost completely forgive her,” Bethany said. “Look what she just did. No one ever said anything a
bout a book. Now follow up on that, girl.”

  “I don’t think you mentioned a book before,” Ellie said as if she’d been able to hear her. “How did you know about it?”

  “I found it on her computer. I deleted it, but she laughed at me, saying there would be more copies.”

  “There are no copies,” Bethany muttered. “You guys have been through her phone, tablet, laptop…right?”

  “There was nothing,” Jordan said. She, too, felt a lot more hopeful about the case with this turn of events. “If such a copy still exists, it has probably names, dates…pretty much everything you dream of.”

  “Oh, I don’t plan on just dreaming. We’re going to nail him and the rest of this sorry bunch.”

  “You want to go in?”

  “No. Let’s give her a few more minutes. This ex sure has been helpful for our cause.”

  They turned their attention back to the scene behind the two-way mirror.

  “Where would those be?” Ellie asked. “Did she mention anything, a safe deposit box maybe?”

  “If I knew, do you think I’d tell you? Those were all lies. Fiction. I didn’t want anyone to find them, but now that no one will, I don’t see the harm in telling you. You can pass that on to Rhonda.”

  “I will tell her. Thanks for talking to me, Raphael. I appreciate it.”

  “Could you do me a favor?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure about that, but it depends. What is it?”

  “Could you check if someone else tried to see me? I don’t trust the other cops, or this sad excuse for a lawyer.”

  “I’ll check that and let you know,” Ellie said.

  “Wow, she’s really good,” Lilah Strickland commented.

  “Yes, she is,” Bethany confirmed, leaving Jordan with the uncomfortable feeling that this wasn’t the last time Ellie got to have a conversation with Jennifer Beaumont’s murderer.

  She knew exactly how it felt—exhilarating when you realized you had them, tricked them into making a connection. That same connection could make you feel like crap afterwards, because if you built a good rapport with a killer, what did that make you?

  She had to stop thinking like this, be more supportive of Ellie’s career, when she certainly made no compromises in her own. It wouldn’t be easy when at the same time, she wanted to protect her.

  * * * *

  “Good job,” Bethany commented when Ellie emerged from the interrogation room. Jordan gave her an appreciative nod too, just in case Ellie needed it from another source.

  “We still don’t know where that book is—or if it exists at all.”

  “You did good.” Bethany wasn’t convinced otherwise. “I’m sure he told the truth about the book—I’m less sure that he doesn’t know where it is. Let him stew a little, go back later today and tell him that no one asked for him. He’ll have to come to terms with the fact that no one will, so maybe he’ll be inclined to tell us more. Jordan, you’re up to date with the cold cases?”

  “I am.”

  Those files made for a chilling read.

  Delilah James and Eileen Yates had little in common at first sight: Delilah had been twenty-one when she disappeared, a wife, a mother of a young child. Eileen Yates was a thirteen-year-old runaway who had exchanged the foster home for the streets.

  Then, the lines of their stories seemed to cross with one man, the founder of the Prophets of Better Days: Jeremiah Deane’s family had gone to the same church as Delilah James, before he and his brothers Daniel—Raphael’s father—and John created their own. The last sign of life from Eileen had been when she showed up at a mission connected to said church. This was where Jeremiah had worked prior to calling himself a prophet, and he had been questioned. He admitted to knowing Delilah from church and, half a year later, having seen Eileen, fifteen at the time, at the mission. He had criticized the latter in colorful terms.

  “I don’t think they prided themselves in rescuing a young woman off the street,” Jordan said, referring to Eileen’s file. “The language he used for her was pretty awful.”

  “No, that wasn’t their intention at all. They needed young women to start their cult.”

  Jordan had had the same thoughts, though it sounded chillingly dystopian when put into words like that. It had been sixteen, respectively seventeen years ago that these women vanished. To think of what might have happened to them, and possibly others...Those were the days on the edge of a moment when she wanted to quit, let someone else deal with the ugliness, but she never would. She had to accept that Ellie was the same.

  “Why Delilah, though? She had a family.”

  “She was also dating Jeremiah’s oldest son before she got married. From what I understand, he was never questioned, because he was out of the country at the time of her disappearance and didn’t come back until years after.”

  “So they just kidnap women at random, and then what?” Ellie asked. “I can’t believe this is still happening. How did they pull this off?”

  “Once you pull the wool over people’s eyes, slap the label of religion on something, there are many, too many people who are willing to look the other way. They are a tightly-knit group, and they allow no straying from the herd. This is why Raphael is without one of their high-priced lawyers now—he might have done exactly what they asked him for, but I assume this is still punishment for trying to break away in the first place. He must have had a reason, and if we find it, everything will unravel. Ellie, I need you to be his friend. His very good friend. Can you do that?”

  Without a second of hesitation, Ellie nodded.

  Jordan suppressed a sigh.

  At least the end game hadn’t changed: Getting Lilah Strickland on the inside. Ellie having conversations with Raphael in a safe controlled environment was as far as this would go.

  * * * *

  The next step was a visit to Daniel Deane’s compound. The family was skittish about having the police, or any outsider, for that matter, on their premises.

  Daniel had come to the station once to answer questions regarding his son, and there had never been enough ties to Raphael’s actions to justify a warrant. They still didn’t have that warrant, but there was enough reason to have another conversation and see what the family would do about Raphael’s impending conviction.

  Bethany talked strategy to their small group, making it clear that this wasn’t an ordinary interview.

  “When you talk to Daniel Deane, make it clear that these are follow-up questions about Raphael. I don’t want him to think we might be on to them. Jordan, I want you to take the lead on this, but I’ll go with you. A couple of officers. Like I said, low-key.”

  At this point, Jordan felt like she just couldn’t do right by Ellie and keep her out of the line of fire at the same time. She’d take the risk.

  “McCarthy and Marshall.”

  “Sure.” Bethany nodded, ignoring Ellie’s disappointed look. “Harding, you can go back to your work with Agent Strickland. We’ll fill you in on anything you need to know regarding Raphael.”

  “Will do,” Ellie said curtly. “Just a question.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Four people, how is that low-key? Won’t they suspect anything?”

  “Believe me, between us and them, this is low-key. We’ll talk to you later. Let’s go.”

  Outside the room, Jordan hesitated, wondering if she owed Ellie an explanation. Kate McCarthy had been on this case from the very beginning. Besides, they couldn’t afford this to look like she was doing her girlfriend any favors, right? She might be able to blame this on Bethany.

  As they were walking along the hall to the elevator, Bethany said, “Don’t worry. She understands chain of command—and I want her to stay with Lilah.”

  Jordan almost said thank you, but she knew that Bethany liked meddling far too much, so she remained silent instead, pondering the new developments. What had started out as a murder case, was part of something bigger—and worse, happening right here under their noses
.

  The drive was almost an hour, cityscapes and streets giving way to endlessly stretching fields, farms and roads. Libby Marshall and Kate McCarthy rode in the squad car behind them.

  Bethany didn’t seem interested in small talk, so Jordan took the time to take stock of the situation, mentally preparing herself for the interview with a man whose lifestyle she despised. Even if Daniel Deane wasn’t involved in Jennifer’s death, their ideology was enough to make her stomach churn. Men who thought it was their God-given right to control and punish women. Bad always inspired worse.

  In the midst of all this she had to make sure Ellie didn’t misunderstand a single thing about the current work situation, which included Bethany, and Valerie Esposito.

  For Jordan, it meant a regular confrontation with past mistakes made. For Ellie, it didn’t have to mean anything. Maybe she needed to make that even clearer.

  There were a couple of cars parked on the side of the road, a small group of men halting their conversation, openly watching as they drove past. Some of them carried rifles.

  “And so it begins,” Bethany commented.

  “You’ve had a lot of dealings with the rest of the family before—personally, I mean?”

  “Some. A really pleasant bunch. You’ll see.”

  They changed onto the driveway leading up to the gate, and from here, Jordan could see the vast expanse of land, and the several buildings arranged in a half circle at the center. Daniel Deane had been to the station once after his son was arrested for murder. He claimed to be devastated that his son had tied their family name to a hideous crime. Apparently, he had decided that his involvement stopped there. He hadn’t visited Raphael or gone to any of his court dates.

  Jordan reminded herself that the premise had changed—but he wasn’t supposed to know.

  A man in his early thirties, one of the sons, Samuel, greeted them at the door.