Shannon waved it away. “Of course. Anyway, I should go back to that condo complex and talk to more of the neighbors. We’ll have dinner, go our separate ways for a few hours, then meet back here at ten.” He hesitated, then added, “I had plans to fly out to Wichita tomorrow, but I can reschedule that for another day if you want.”
“Aren’t people expecting you?”
“They don’t even know I’m coming. Ah, if I were still giving my lessons in being a private eye I believe this would be number seven: don’t give suspects a chance to coordinate their answers.”
“They’re suspects?”
Shannon arched an eyebrow as he looked at her. “Everyone’s a suspect, my dear.”
“Well, what if they’re not home tomorrow!”
“Then it will be an uneventful trip. But I’ll get a chance to see downtown Wichita.”
Susan frowned at that. “Private eye lessons or not, I think its foolish flying there without calling that family first. Don’t cancel your flight for me, though. I have appointments scattered throughout the day. In between I’ll do some shopping and spend enough of our money to make you think twice about tangling with Russian mobsters in the future. Just try to be back by tomorrow night?”
“I’ll make sure of it. Tomorrow evening we’ll be watching the sunset together from this window. And I’ve got news for you, I think I’ve had my fill of Russian mobsters.”
They kissed, her hands wrapped lightly around his neck, his lingering on her small hips. On his way out, a collection of what looked like first edition Zane Grey westerns caught his eye. He opened one of them, told Susan that it had been published in 1908. “They must’ve bought all these new when they came out. Damn.” He opened more books and saw publishing dates of 1910, 1914, 1915. “Before we check out, I’m spending a whole day in this room,” he told Susan. “And I’m spending part of it reading these books!”
She laughed, told him he had a date.
He called Pauline Cousins from his car and told her that the cult had refused to let him talk to her daughter but that the Boulder Police were going to check on her and make sure she was okay.
“I’ll call you after I hear from them,” he said. “And I want you to know I’m not giving up on this.”
“Should we meet? I’d like to pay you a retainer.”
“That’s not necessary, but I’ll talk to you soon.”
At the Boulder Mind Body Center, some of the people he passed in the hallway stopped to ask whether he’d been in an accident, others averted his eye. When Eli saw him, he stared deadpan for a long ten-count, then shook his head sadly.
“I sweated off ten pounds while you were locked in that compound,” he complained.
“You’ve been telling me for months how you need to drop some weight. Just thought I’d help out.” Shannon lowered himself into a chair and swung his feet onto Eli’s desk. He froze for a moment, feeling as if someone had gripped his lungs and squeezed the air out of them. When he could breathe again, he took the bottle of aspirin from his pocket and popped several tablets into his mouth.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just some muscles tightening up. I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Yeah, well, I am.”
Eli gave him a cautious look, then asked if Shannon was going to tell him what happened, a mix of worry and impatience edging into his voice. Shannon leaned back in his chair and told him all of it. As Eli listened his long face grew somber.
“I’ve got a question for you,” Shannon asked. “
Eli nodded briefly. “Short for Dmitry.” He nodded again, this time slower and to himself. “You’ve had a lot of violence in your life,” he said after a while.
“I guess you could say that, but I couldn’t help what happened all those years ago with Winters.”
“No, you couldn’t. But you knew when you rang that buzzer what was going to happen. You knew those two cult members were going to come out and try to push you around. Do you think at some level your motivation was to pay them back for what they did to your client?”
“I don’t think so. You’re right, I did know what was going to happen, but I was thinking more that I’d be able to use it as leverage to see Melissa. After all, they did assault me first.”
“Very Machiavellian of you.” Eli smiled thinly. “And when you let yourself get locked into that room…”
“I didn’t let myself get locked into any room-”
Shannon’s cell phone rang, interrupting him. According to the Caller ID it was Mark Daniels. Eli’s smile turned peevish, but he indicated he wouldn’t be overly offended if Shannon took the call. He then picked up a book and peered at it with heavy eyelids.
When Shannon answered the phone, Daniels broke in, stating in a defensive tone that he had talked to Melissa Cousins over an intercom. “She claims she’s there because she wants to be. She also wants you and her mother to leave her alone,” he added brusquely.
“You didn’t see her?”
“They preferred that I didn’t enter their premises.”
“They could’ve had any woman there pretend to be Melissa. Or even some high-pitched guy.”
“Look, I had no legitimate cause to enter their compound, and after the way you botched things up I couldn’t get a warrant now to save my life.”
Shannon didn’t believe that was true. When he was on the force, he would’ve had more than enough to get a warrant. He decided not to push it and instead asked if they wanted to file charges against him.
“No. They didn’t mention you. I also checked the local hospitals. No head injuries or concussion cases brought in today. They’re trying hard to keep a low profile.”
“So that’s it.”
“Yeah, that’s it.” Daniels sounded exasperated. “I feel the same as you. Something about that place stinks, but there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. Except keep my eyes open.”
“There is something else you could do. True Light operates Vishna Yoga Studio up on the Hill, directly on Thirteenth Street. They use it for recruiting new members. The place smells like they’re smoking pot in there.”
“If they’re distributing it…” He let the sentence die, then grumbled that he’d check into it. “That would be enough to get a warrant,” he admitted.
Shannon showed a grim look as he hung up the phone. Eli tossed his book back on the desk and commented how it sounded as if the police didn’t have any better luck.
“No, they didn’t.”
“It doesn’t sound good.”
“It doesn’t,” Shannon agreed.
“You think something happened to this girl?”
“I think so.”
“But she could be fine,” Eli said. “It could just be the cult leader’s megalomania shining through. Refusing to let anyone enter his sacred ground or talk to one of the flock. Playing God and all that.”
“Anything’s possible.”
Eli gave Shannon a long, pained look. “Jesus, talking to you now is worse than pulling teeth,” he said. “Still, I’d like to ask you to think about why you let yourself get locked in that room.”
“It’s just something that happened.”
“Nothing just happens. As what has long become a mantra of mine, at least when arguing with you, there’s no such thing as an accident.”
Shannon shrugged. “Maybe I thought they might lock me in, but the worst I was expecting was for them to call the police which would’ve given me a chance to get things hashed out with Melissa. I don’t believe at any level, subconscious or otherwise, that I expected muscle to be brought in.”
“But you knew the place wasn’t kosher.”
Shannon nodded weakly. “That’s a long stretch from expecting a couple of Russian mobsters to walk into that room.”
