Tentatively, the group stepped into the sunshine, stopped and squinted at the late-morning glare. Deidre had assigned the three women deputies on the force to be on the team, and two of them ushered the cult members to the waiting bus. The children were in awe of the vehicle and stared wide-eyed out the windows after they had found seats inside.
Anna led Deidre to another building and assertively knocked on its door. “Lydia, it’s Anna. You can open the door now. Someone is here to help us.” The door was opened a crack, and a baby began to cry. Anna pushed the door open further and stepped in, motioning Deidre to wait. She spoke to whoever was inside but with such a subdued voice that Deidre couldn’t make out what was said. A minute later a girl about Anna’s age ushered two children out, where they stood blinking in the bright sun. They were followed by a girl Deidre guessed to be about thirteen who carried a baby in her arms. Deidre thought the worst and hoped she was wrong. Anna followed. One of the women deputies met the group and, as she tried to reassure everyone, more or less herded them toward the waiting bus. It helped that some of the group had already boarded.
One building remained that hadn’t been approached, and Anna, more emboldened than ever, marched over to it and pounded her small fist on the door. “Open the door. The sheriff is with me and she wants you to come out. She wants to talk to you.” As with the other buildings, the door wasn’t opened at first. But Deidre could hear a commotion inside, followed by a heated argument.
“Get your hands off me!” someone shouted.
The other person retorted, “Don’t you dare open that door! You know Reverend Isaiah said not to allow anyone in, and it is a sin to disobey our husband.”
The first person responded, “Husband! Husband! He’s no more my husband than he is to the others. He might be your husband, but he’s not mine. Now get out of the way.”
The door was thrown open, and an obviously pregnant older teen stood in the doorway. “Get me out of here. I can’t stand it anymore,” she exclaimed as she jumped off the step and ran toward Anna and Deidre. The doorway was filled with the frame of a large, frumpy-looking woman. Deidre figured her to be about forty-five, but she couldn’t be sure. She guessed this was Sarah, the woman Anna had said might resist going into town. Sarah’s graying hair, which had been pulled back in a bun, was disheveled and coming loose from its pins. She wore a dress that hung to her ankles and over it an equally long apron. She tried to shoo the other women and children back inside, but they were having nothing of it. Eventually, she stood alone, her hands held to the sky.
“God, show these sinners your power. I command you to strike this woman dead. Let your fury rain down on her, Lord. Let fire and brimstone end her evil life right now.”
The woman watched expectantly, and Deidre wondered if she really believed the vitriol she was expounding or if she was trying to scare her. Deidre felt a little uncomfortable, nothing she could put her finger on, but that feeling disappeared when a few seconds had passed and nothing had happened. She almost laughed, but caught herself, not wanting to make the situation more tense.
“I want you to come with me,” she calmly informed the woman.
“I will not!” came the reply. “You’ll have to carry me out of this sacred place. But if you try, God is going to save me.” Deidre could tell Sarah was serious.
“Please,” she pleaded. “Don’t make us have to use force. If you come peaceably with me, everything’s going to be okay. Otherwise, I’m going to place handcuffs on you and take you to town in a sheriff’s vehicle. Of course, it’s your choice. You can decide.”
The woman shouted back at her, “The choice has been made for me. My husband said to wait for him, and his word is my law. I will not sin by disobeying him. Do you understand?”
Deidre called for one of the women deputies, and together they approached the doorway in which the woman stood. “Get away from me!” she shrieked and rushed into the confines of the building. Deidre and her deputy followed and discovered her cowering in a corner of what appeared to be a kitchen. She brandished a ten-inch-long butcher knife and waved it in front of her, all the while shouting, “God will give me strength to kill you if you lay a hand on me.”
Deidre tried to calm the situation. “I don’t think God wants you to be a murderer. Remember what the commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.”
Sarah shouted, “No! It says that we can’t commit murder. Reverend Isaiah says its not murder if you kill someone while defending yourself. He said it’s not murder if you kill your enemy, and he said all sinners are the enemy of God. If I kill you, I’ll be doing God’s will, just as whoever killed that boy in town was doing God’s will. The reverend said that the boy was a homosexual who refused to seek help for his sin, and it was God’s punishment that he died.”
Deidre was so taken aback with those words that she could only stand motionless. Finally, she found her voice. “Don’t you think that Reverend Isaiah could have been wrong? What if God loves everyone, saint or sinner? Or what if we’ve heard God wrong and what we call sin, really isn’t? That would mean the boy was killed for no reason.” Sarah kept shaking her head and continued her rant. Deidre tried to reason with her. “Why don’t we sit down and talk about this? Maybe I’ll be able to see things your way. Why don’t you drop the knife?” Those words only made the incensed woman more unstable, and her words became more and more incomprehensible. Deidre decided it was time to act. With a slight movement of her eyes and head, which she hoped had gone unnoticed by Sarah, Deidre motioned for her deputy to move in from one side, and she began to work her way to the other.
“Stay away from me!” the woman screamed, and thrust the knife at Deidre. With one quick step forward, Deidre was close enough to grab her arm and a struggle for the upper hand turned ugly. With a downward jerk of her arm, the woman wrenched herself free of Deidre’s grasp, and she slashed at Deidre. It happened faster than Deidre expected, and with the move, Sarah slit the sleeve of Deidre’s uniform and gashed her upper arm. The other officer rushed the scene while the assailant’s attention was directed at Deidre and pinned the knife-wielder’s arms to her body. Sarah’s strength was amazing, and she was on the verge of breaking free when Deidre brought her nightstick crashing down on the struggling woman’s forearm, breaking at least one of her bones and forcing her to drop the knife, which clattered to the floor. The zealot sank, holding her arm and rocking back and forth as she cursed God for having abandoned her.
Deidre kicked the knife to the far corner of the room and, panting from the struggle, tried to help Sarah to her to her feet. The woman wouldn’t move, but by that time two other deputies had responded to the sounds of the struggle. Together, the four officers carried the uncooperative resistor from the building and forced her into the screened back seat of one of the SUVs. At eleven thirty, the group was on its way to Two Harbors. Thirty-one women and children rode in the bus and one woman was held in the back of a sheriff’s SUV. Sarah kept trying to call down the wrath of God on the officers. The other women and children rode in silence, wondering where they were going and what the future held for them.
Chapter Thirty
Deidre picked at her evening meal, hardly joining in the conversation with her family and spending most of her time deep in thought. She forced herself to supervise the cleanup, and afterward busied herself with mindless tasks. Ben knew to let her continue in her own world and to not try to help. Later, after the girls had retired to their room to read, or text, or do what preteen girls do, he asked if she wanted a glass of wine.
“No, not tonight,” she answered with a half smile on her face. “I could sure use a gin and tonic, though, with a twist of lemon. Make it a stiff one.” Deidre plunked down in their lounger and tilted it back until she was staring at the ceiling.
“Must have been a tough day,” her husband commented when he handed her the highball. You’ve been prett
y much lost all night. Anything you can talk about? If you can’t or don’t want to, we can just sit quietly together and get a little plastered.” Ben smiled at her as he lowered his frame into another easy chair. They sat in silence for a long time, Deidre sipping her drink while she thought and Ben waiting until she wanted to say something.
“We did a raid on that group up north at the place called The Sanctuary. I’m afraid when we find out what went on up there we’re going to want to castrate somebody. I can’t get the image of that vile preacher out of my mind. It’s been there all evening, and I wish I could make it go away.” She quit talking and took another sip, a gulp, really, of her gin and tonic. Ben noticed the glass was already half empty. Deidre continued.
“Remember, I told you several weeks ago that a girl had dropped a note for me when I visited the compound. All it said was ‘Help us,’ and now I know why they needed help.”
Ben nodded as he sort of murmured a “mmmmm” to indicate yes, he remembered.
“Today, I found out her name is Anna. She’s sixteen, has a two-year-old child, and may be pregnant again. She said the father is Reverend Isaiah. I don’t think he’s the only child the almighty reverend has fathered.”
They were both pensive for awhile, until Ben brought up an incident that had been investigated by the FBI. The person in charge was Gary Rose, a close friend of Ben’s. His office was just down the hall, and they frequently ate lunch together. “Is there any connection between The Sanctuary and that enclave that was operating in the east-central part of the state, the one near that small town? What was its name . . . Fiddleson, Askoton, something like that? Anyway, it was all over the papers about a year ago. Remember?”
Deidre finished her drink in two gulps and motioned for Ben to make another. While he was in the kitchen preparing it, she answered him. “That’s where Anna came from, a couple of the other girls, too. She said three or four years ago Reverend Isaiah frequently attended the worship services and meetings down there. He and the minister, Joshua Blood, preached together. She said their messages were almost always about hearing God’s voice and obeying his command.”
Ben interrupted. “That’s the guy Gary’s been trying to find, Joshua Blood. Those working the case think he headed to the mountains in Idaho, but no one had seen him for over two years. Then, just last week he was spotted coming out of a fast food joint in Salmon, Idaho, with a girl on his arm. A customer thought she recognized him from when his picture was on a local TV channel. She notified the authorities, and with their help, made a positive ID. They’re on his trail as we speak and hope to catch up with him soon. He’s a slippery one, though, and there’s a good chance he’ll get away. But we’ll eventually get him, just a matter of time. “
“Yeah, well, here’s what happened to Anna.” Deidre went on to tell Ben what she had learned. “One evening, when Reverend Isaiah was visiting the services run by this guy Blood, the two so-called ministers preached on Matthew 25. I didn’t know what that was about and had to ask Anna. She told me it’s the parable of the ten virgins. That still didn’t mean a thing to me, but she went on to say that the story is about ten virgins waiting in a room for their bridegroom to make an appearance. Something about them being ready for the moment when he arrived.”
Ben shook his head in disgust. “I know where this is headed, and I have a feeling it’s going to get ugly. But finish what you’re saying. I’ve got to know if I’m right.”
Deidre continued. “Anna said the reverend had been sitting in a chair next to the pulpit while Reverend Blood declared that all unmarried women should be ready because at any time God might call on them to become a bride. When that time came, their bridegroom would call their names, and they would be led to a more godly level of living. She said the sermon on that particular scripture lasted for over an hour. Then it was time for meditation, a time to listen for God to speak.” Deidre stopped to sip her drink. She had slowed down on the highball. Ben watched her, knowing the catharsis of what she had seen was necessary.
“After fifteen or twenty minutes, Reverend Isaiah shot out of his chair. ‘I’ve just received a word from God,’ he declared. ‘He has given me the names of three virgins in this room who are to become brides tonight. The names I’m going to recite are girls who will be known as God’s Maidens.’ Anna said he spoke the names of three girls. She was one of them.”
Ben shifted uneasily. “How did Reverend Blood react to this announcement?” Deidre’s face showed how revolted she was.
“Joshua Blood lifted his arms and shouted, ‘Hallelujah, our God is so faithful! He has selected three from our group to be his wives through Reverend Isaiah. What an honor and a privilege this is for us and for these three chosen virgins. Praise God!’ Anna said she tried to talk to her parents, said she was afraid and didn’t want to go with the reverend, but they told her it would be a grievous sin to refuse. They told her she would burn in hell if she disobeyed God. And so she was taken away by Reverend Isaiah to his commune, The Sanctuary. That was four years ago, when she was twelve. He raped her the second day she was there. Told her she was serving God. She gave birth to her son when she was fourteen, and now, she thinks she’s pregnant again.” She drained her glass for a second time. “That bastard. Nothing we can do to him will be punishment enough for what he’s done to those girls.”
Deidre’s story was sobering for Ben, even though he could have just about written the script before Deidre told him. “What about the girls’ parents?” he asked.
“That’s the part that makes me the sickest. They were overjoyed that God had chosen their daughters for this special purpose. What a sick bunch of ignorant asses. Turns your stomach, doesn’t it?”
Ben wanted to spit to get the vile taste out of his mouth. “You know, I’m going to have to tell Gary about this. The parents of the girls found in Blood’s group were arrested and charged with parental negligence and a number of other crimes, but I don’t think anything was ever discovered about the girls who had been taken to other communes. You understand I have to do this, don’t you?”
Deidre nodded and set her empty glass down. She covered her face with her hands and rubbed her eyes. “Social Services got the judge to order DNA tests on the children to determine who their parents are. I have a notion that more than one of them is a product of the reverend’s continued rapes of their mothers. We’ll get it sorted out, I’m sure, but how do we sort out the feelings and emotions of the children and their mothers? I don’t know,” she lamented.
Ben got up and helped Deidre from her chair. She discovered she was a little wobbly from her two highballs and leaned heavily on him. They laughed as they made their way upstairs to their bedroom. “Let me run you a warm bath,” Ben more asserted than asked. “You okay to get undressed while I do that?” Deidre nodded but said nothing. She had some trouble unbuttoning her blouse, and after taking her bra off she tried to get out of her slacks but stumbled when her foot got hung up in the fabric. Finally, she stood naked in front of the mirror.
“You’re drunk,” she announced to the image looking back at her.
Before the image could answer, Ben came to help her but stopped dead in his tracks. “Where did that cut come from?” he demanded as he stared at her arm.
“It’s nothing,” she quickly answered and tried to cover the gash with her other hand. He came over and pried it off her arm and looked closely at the wound.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” he questioned, the hurt evident in his voice.
Deidre shrugged and looked first at the floor and then into Ben’s face. “I didn’t want to concern you with a little scratch. It’s nothing.” Ben would have none of that.
“Nothing? If whoever did this had been an inch closer, you could be dead from a severed artery. How can you say it’s nothing?”
Deidre looked at the floor, not knowing how to respond.
This was the first time in their married life that Ben had raised his voice to her. She didn’t mean to, but she began to sob and fell into his arms, not because of the drinks she had consumed but because the dam holding back her emotions had burst.
“Oh, Ben. I’m sorry to have held this back from you. This has been one hell of a day for me, and I didn’t want you to know. When I agreed to fill in for this job, you asked me not to take chances, and I didn’t want you to think I’d been reckless.” She paused and held him closely. She could feel Ben’s arms tighten around her, as if he was protecting her from an unseen enemy. They stood that way for what seemed like minutes.
Calming herself, she said, “Help me to the bathroom. I want to soak, and while I do, I’ll tell you every gory detail, although it wasn’t as bad as it looks. I wasn’t in that much danger, because I had deputies with me.” Ben’s anger bred by his concern melted, and taking Deidre’s elbow, he helped her step into the warm bath. Deidre winced when the warm water contacted the fresh cut. She reclined against the back of the tub with a sigh.
“Okay, here’s what happened. Like I told you downstairs, all the men had abandoned The Sanctuary, and we found only women and children. Every one of them cooperated, although most of them were terribly frightened and mixed up in their emotions. Some thought God was going to strike them down for disobeying the reverend. Others believed the men would come back and punish them.
“One girl, the one I told you about, Anna, had the courage to show us around the compound. In the last building, Reverend Isaiah’s wife—I think she really is his wife judging by her age—and a few others were holed up. This woman, Sarah, tried to get them to resist, but they all left. She stood her ground. In fact, she retreated into the kitchen, where she grabbed a butcher knife. I tried to talk her down, but the more I talked the more irrational she became. Finally, I had to act. The deputy and I moved so we were on opposite sides of her, and we slowly began to move toward her. She decided to lunge at me with the knife. I used the standard move and grasped her wrist, hoping to be able to force her to drop the knife, but she was a lot stronger than I thought she’d be. She wrenched her arm free and took a swing at me with the knife. Fortunately, she only cut my shirt and gave me this superficial wound. The deputy restrained her but couldn’t get her to drop the knife. By that time I had freed my nightstick, and I cracked her across her forearm. I think I broke a bone, because she dropped the knife. It all happened in less than two minutes.” Deidre looked at her husband, her eyes pleading for understanding.
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