Initiations (Carpenter/Harding Book 5)

by Barbara Winkes

  “All right,” Bethany began. “We know that Daddy is not going to send any lawyers, and neither will any of the uncles. Ellie, I want you to communicate this clearly to Raphael: He’s on his own. The book angle is still a good one, but it hasn’t gotten us very far yet. I don’t want you to do your best. I want you to do better.”

  No pressure.

  Ellie was far past being intimidated by her. She wanted to get the job done, and she appreciated every moment she got to learn from more experienced colleagues, especially women. It was nevertheless an awkward situation, all of them on the same case, Lilah, of course, being oblivious. There was always a bigger picture to consider.

  “Will do. Did you ask any of them if they knew about the book? Daniel, or the others?”

  “Not yet. We don’t want to tip them off, let them know we are aware of it.” Jordan explained.

  “Okay, I understand. Let’s do this.”

  Ellie wasn’t scared to be in the same room with Raphael Deane, though his sickening attitude did make it seem smaller and more claustrophobic. Nevertheless she plastered a smile on her face before she walked inside.

  “Hey, Raphael.”

  He looked surprised. “I didn’t think you were going to come back. Didn’t anyone around here tell you what I did?”

  She sat across from him. “I know what you did, but you asked me to check something for you, and I did. I’m afraid I have bad news for you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My colleagues talked to your father. He confirmed that the family is not going to pay for legal representation.”

  “You’re lying!” he yelled, startling her.

  Ellie flinched, but she remained seated, waiting for him to take a deep breath and calm down. He shook his head. “No. You’re just trying to trick me into something.”

  “Yes, because that has worked so well for us, hasn’t it? Look, you really think I’d be wasting my time telling you this if it wasn’t true? I have a job to do. The reason I’m here is that you’re a friend of Rhonda’s. If there’s something you need to talk about with your public defender, you better do it soon.”

  “They don’t understand,” he claimed.

  “That’s perhaps true. I admit I don’t understand it either. If Jennifer was telling lies in her book, you could have sued her, get more money than she’d ever make with it. Doesn’t that make more sense than killing her?”

  “The damage would have been done. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear. Why don’t you go back to your job? You can’t help me.”

  Ellie pushed her chair back and got up. “Maybe you’re right. I can’t do anything for you unless you cut the bullshit and start talking to me. If we found that book, it would be much easier to argue that you panicked, being already under so much pressure from your family. If they find it first…well, let’s say you’re running out of options fast. I’m not going to come back.”

  Her heart was pounding as she walked to the door, hoping she hadn’t laid it on too thick.

  She couldn’t hesitate too much either, or he would call her bluff.

  At the last moment, he said, “Please, wait.”

  Ellie turned around, leaning against the door.

  “Why? You made it very clear that you’re not going to work with me. You want to take all the blame, that’s fine with me. I can tell Rhonda that.”

  “You don’t understand. If I do this, I won’t be safe. Neither of us is ever going to be safe again.”

  Those words gave her a chill, but she took a couple of steps towards him.

  “They are not almighty, but they have harmed many people. You can help us put a stop to that, and we can help you. That is not a trick or a lie. You murdered somebody, and you will be held accountable, but the ones who put you up to that should be too.”

  “What do you want?” he asked, his tone resigned. “You said it yourself, they’re not going to listen to me on anything now.”

  “That’s right.” Ellie sat back down. “But you grew up with them, lived with them for most of your life. Tell me how we get in.”

  He shook his head. “You can’t just knock on the door and asked to be let in. They will smell a cop.”

  How very original, she thought. “So what do we do?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  Ellie got to her feet. “Right.”

  “I’m not sure if it’s going to work, all right? There’s a bar a few miles out, where the guys go. Over the years, they’ve brought back a girl or two. You know, the kind you wouldn’t miss right away.”

  Listening, Ellie had to swallow her anger once more. She had to remind herself that if she could see this through, it would only help the greater good, and her career in the process—valid reasons not to show how much he disgusted her.

  “Come on, don’t think I’m stupid. I’ve seen their websites. They consider themselves holy men, chosen…and you’re telling me they go to a seedy bar to hook up and bring back some lost sheep?”

  “Believe it or not.” He shrugged. “At home, everyone plays by the rules. My Dad and uncles wouldn’t like it if they knew—they think they just go and observe, then approach someone if they fit the requirement. What do they expect?” he said with a cruel laugh. “With the robot wives they have at home? A man needs some kind of outlet.”

  After he had given her the address, Ellie was more than happy to leave the room.

  “Brilliant,” Bethany commented. “Purity of body and mind, that’s what the manifesto says, huh? I guess some of the boys didn’t get that memo. “I will let you go back to your day job now while Agent Strickland and I work on further preparations. We might need you for backup later, or sometime this week.”

  “That’s it?” After spending another couple of hours with Deane, this moment felt rather anti-climactic to Ellie.

  “Well, yeah, unless you’d like to join me and Lilah for lunch.”

  “I think she’s got plans already,” Jordan said with a hint of amusement. “Ellie?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Truth be told, Ellie would have liked to go home and have a long shower, but that wasn’t an option right now. Lunch with Jordan was a preferable alternative.

  “Wow, that was fast,” she said when they were on the way to Jordan’s car. “I didn’t think they would shut us out so early.”

  “Get used to it. This is not even shutting out. They’re going to need some of us when they set up the specifics.”

  “Okay. How was your evening?”

  “I had to get over not finding the magic key…I think I did. You did great, finding out about the book, and getting him to cooperate.”

  After everything they’d been through together, Ellie still felt a little flustered at the compliment. They had arrived at the restaurant, and Jordan held the door open for her.

  “Thank you,” she said, meaning the gesture and so much more. “I think he was at this point where he really wanted to talk. I hope he’s not feeding us a load of crap.”

  “Strickland is well prepared. She’ll be careful,” Jordan offered as they sat down at a table in the corner. “Look…I’m really sorry about all of this.”

  “It’s okay. I heard you, I swear. About everything.”

  She wasn’t going to obsess about Esposito any longer, or any assignment she might have gotten out of this case. She, they both had to move forward.

  They were silent for a few moments, before Jordan said, “I called Kathryn. I’m going to see her for lunch on Friday.”

  It was a bit of a surprise that she had contacted her so soon.

  “That’s a good thing, right?”

  “I suppose. I don’t want to give them so much power over what I think or feel anymore. They have to live their lives. I have to live mine. And speaking of which, would you mind if I stayed over tonight? As long as we’re in limbo with this case, I’d like to get some work done and maybe take Friday afternoon off. We could make it a long weekend?” Jordan asked, sounding hopeful. />
  “I’d love that.” There had hardly been any offtime since their vacation. “As long as you don’t mind that I take a bit of time to study.”

  “It’s getting serious now.”

  Jordan’s proud smile was another affirmation that she was on the right track, after getting praise from Bethany of all people. In the past year, Ellie had kept as close to detective work as her job allowed, and it was finally paying off.

  “No kidding. I can’t believe it’s almost here. I decided to do this during the first weeks on the job.”

  “And you might be able to move upstairs right away. Rumor has it Waters is retiring at the end of the year—but don’t tell anyone yet.”

  This was exciting news, her long-held plans about to come true. She and Jordan already worked well together. Ellie hoped that would continue once they did it more often.

  “Would you really be okay, working this closely all the time?”

  Jordan smiled ruefully. “I will be. Don’t worry--I heard you too. I have to stop freaking out everytime you have an assignment I’d rather wouldn’t have you go on. I get it. Sometimes, it’s just…hard.”

  “I understand. On the bright side…We have the rest of our lives to get used to it, right?” Ellie was well aware that she might be getting ahead of herself somewhat, but she was confident, and Jordan needed that little push every once in a while.

  “We do.”

  Chapter Five

  Jordan had, as she’d told Ellie, caught up on her paperwork, but her thoughts kept wandering back to that small box. There was a name engraved, the manufacturer, but the letters were mostly unreadable. A serial number on the bottom—it looked as if it had been handwritten. None of this was of any help, and the only fingerprints belonged to Jennifer Beaumont. Her mother had said that the bracelet wasn’t worth that much—why had Jennifer chosen this particular box to send it? Maybe it meant nothing, and she was grasping at straws.

  What if it did?

  She went back to studying the files on the Prophets of Better Days, notes from Ellie and Lilah Strickland. There were certain behavioral patterns one could deduce from their online presence, but they were careful not to go beyond a certain point. All of it, promoting a woman’s role in the home, lamenting the “homosexual agenda” and lack of morals in society, it wasn’t new or original. There was no way of holding them accountable for spreading prejudice and harmful stereotypes—but Bethany and her colleagues believed they had done more than that.

  The book would help a great deal. Raphael Deane claimed that Jennifer Beaumont had never told him where she’d hidden it. Again, she studied the different parts of the box. It was simply made, wood and velvet fabric, leather on the outside. What if the clue was in the box, not the bracelet? She went back to the files where the business side of the Prophets was detailed: Farming was mostly for self-sustainance, but they sold a handful of products.

  Leather? She found the website of a small company offering leather-binding for books and knickknacks. It was owned by one of Daniel’s nephew Nathan, who lived on the local compound. He was Jeremiah’s son and had moved here from the Iowa compound.

  She picked up the phone to call Bethany. Jordan assumed that while Nathan was listed as the owner of the company, the women would do a lot of the work. This could be a chance for Lilah to make some friends on the inside.

  “That’s a good idea,” Bethany said. “Is Harding anywhere near? Don’t make plans for tonight.”

  * * * *

  Lilah Strickland had a complete story and persona, and she would try to catch the attention of some family members. Raphael Deane had given them the address of a local pub where some of the male family members could be found on any given night, looking for an adventure or a soul to save, sometimes both. He’d told them that “they can’t resist a good story.”

  Aside from the women born into their group and living on the compounds for the majority of their lives, they looked for recruits every once in a while, but the process was complicated. If someone came to them, they’d be suspicious, paranoid.

  If Strickland managed to present herself as somebody who needed saving in their opinion, inspiring them to take action—there was a good chance. This was what they suspected had happened to Jennifer. This was what almost happened to Rhonda.

  Jordan was disgusted that something like this could go on close to her hometown. She didn’t want Ellie anywhere near it. She didn’t want to be anywhere near it, but under the circumstances, neither of them had a choice.

  For some reason, Bethany seemed eager to advance Ellie’s career. She might still be trying to make amends. There was no reason to suspect ulterior motives. Jordan found it odd nonetheless.

  We had a deal. Jordan didn’t say it out loud, even though she strongly disagreed with Bethany’s assessment of the situation. The problem was, she couldn’t voice her concern without sounding like everything she’d told Ellie over lunch was just lip service.

  “So Strickland will hang out there every night until one of them tries to pick her up?”

  “Start conversations first,” Bethany said, and Agent Russo nodded. “We’ll be listening in, getting a feel for how they react to her.”

  Raphael had also assured them that there were certain trigger words that would guarantee the family’s interest. Abortion. Lesbian. A pregnancy out of wedlock—anything that would trigger their self-righteous anger about the conduct of women.

  Neither Jordan nor Bethany could go in, because Daniel Deane knew them, but Agent Russo would be watching Strickland. For some reason, Bethany thought it would help if Ellie was there too. That was different from talks with Raphael in a controlled environment. The set-up was supposed to put Strickland on their radar, but the same could potentially happen to Ellie.

  She, however, didn’t seem much concerned about it.

  “Sure, I can blend in,” she said. “Sell the story if someone wants to hear it.”

  Jordan caught Bethany’s quick sideways glance on her.

  “Be careful,” Bethany said. “Do it if you have the opportunity, but don’t lay it on too thick. Remember, Lilah’s the star here.”

  “Understood.”

  “Everybody knows what they’re supposed to do, great. Let’s have a girls’ night out.”

  Much to his credit, Russo didn’t comment on that, and he didn’t even make a face. Everyone was too focused on this opportunity that might not come back.

  The Prophets might be cautious so soon after Jennifer’s murder, but Lilah’s would be a story they wouldn’t be able to resist. Hopefully.

  * * * *

  Ellie had always been observant, but since the incident that made the Code 7 go up in flames, she paid even more attention to the audience when going to a new place. She already knew that she wouldn’t find any women who lived with the cult, here. The men left the compound more often, Raphael had said, for business and pleasure purposes. The wives remained oblivious in all of it—or at least, they were supposed to be.

  Too much curiosity was usually followed by swift punishment, a lesson taught to all children on the compound. She still despised Raphael Deane for what he had done—it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together though, the environment that had made him think he needed to call out Rhonda on her clothing choices, and keep Jennifer from revealing the secrets at all costs.

  She could easily understand what had Jordan on edge. They’d had their share of dealing with megalomaniac male criminals. The structure of the Prophets’ family and other groups like that made it much harder to get to them and prove they were actually committing crimes by the letter of the law. It shouldn’t be so hard to dismantle a women-hating cult.

  She took a seat at a table from where she had a good vantage point for the whole bar. A staircase led to a small gallery, and on the main floor, about twenty tables were strewn across the space, the bar spanning the far wall. Russo was sitting at another table, Lilah at the bar. Ellie scanned the room, unobtrusively studying the men present. Ther
e was a group of four people, two men, two women—judging from their body language and clothing, they weren’t what Raphael had described. A couple of women sat at a small table by the window on the other side, and then there were three tables occupied by men. One of them had a sparsely clad woman sitting perching on his lap. So much for morals. Their clothing was simple, and, if you looked closely, almost like a uniform.

  Ellie got up and went to the bar to order a beer, steering close enough to their table that she could hear the woman laugh. She seemed a little blitzed, but not in distress. Ellie assumed that she would be safe for the night—she was probably not the type these men deemed worth saving, and they didn’t want to draw too much attention to them either.

  She caught Russo’s stern glance and resisted the urge to give him a shrug. She couldn’t spend the whole night wondering about this woman…and maybe there was even a chance to talk to her…

  Ellie ordered her beer, and while she was waiting, saw one of the men from the table get up and walk over to where Lilah sat on a barstool, nursing her Coke. She was looking pensive and sad. According to her undercover story, she had reason to be. “Lilly” had been kicked out of her home when pregnant as a teenager. She had given the baby up for adoption, had to live in her car for a while and was now working three jobs to keep a roof over her head. She was looking for guidance, but unable to find it. She was scared of the future, blaming herself for the events that had led her to this place.

  If asked, Ellie was someone who knew her, not well, but from what she’d heard Lilly needed to get her life together. She would do anything for it. She needed to come home.

  Assured that Lilah was making first contact as planned, and that Raphael had obviously not lied to them, Ellie directed her attention back to the other woman. At second glance, she was more intoxicated than Ellie had thought, or maybe the woman had continued to drink really fast in the few minutes it took her to order the beer and go back to her place.

  Ellie sat back and continued to watch her. The entitlement and exploitation of women by the brothers and their sons was outrageous. They expected their wives to cater to every one of their demands, punished them if they didn’t, and they cheated on them, picking up women in bars. Each compound had a school house, but it was clear that the children also had to do a great deal of work on the farms and in the other businesses.