pulled it out of her purse and set it on a nearby end table. Then she took out her cell phone and switched it off.
“Do you mind if I record this conversation?” she asked.
“No,” Andrea said. “Go ahead.”
Joanna switched on the recorder. After identifying herself and giving the time and date, she introduced Andrea Mossman. “And you know why I’m here?” she asked.
“Of course I do,” Andrea replied. She stopped long enough to force down a sob. “It’s because all of this is my fault.”
“Your fault?” Joanna asked. “Why is that?”
“Because I’m the one who heard what Pam and Carmen were looking for,” Andrea said in a rush. “One of my clients-one of the former Brethren women whose children I helped counsel and who ended up living in L.A.- somehow learned that Pam Davis and Carmen Ortega were looking for a way to do a story-an insider’s story-on The Brethren and what goes on with them.” Andrea paused and looked closely at Joanna’s face. “You do know what goes on, don’t you?”
Joanna nodded. “I have a pretty good idea,” she said grimly. “Your grandmother told me some of it, but I’d like to hear what you have to say.”
305
Andrea Mossman’s face darkened. “Among The Brethren, women are nothing, and girls are less than that. They’re pieces of property, to be traded back and forth. And abused. For some of the girls, it’s the first thing they remember. For others, it’s the first thing they forget.
“Pam had heard about me through that former client. She contacted me and asked if I would help her put together a story on The Brethren. That same client has a son named Josiah who still lives in the family compound up in northern Arizona-out on what they call the Arizona Strip. He helped his mother get out, and he’s functioned as a spy for us ever since. Among The Brethren, boys are given far more freedom to come and go than women and girls are-it’s a lot like the Taliban that way. Josiah has been able to smuggle messages in and out for us. It was through him that I found out about …”
“Cecilia’s wedding?” Joanna suggested quietly.
Andrea glanced quickly at Joanna’s face, then she nodded. “You know about that, too-about my father’s other family?”
“Yes.”
“I shouldn’t have told you Josiah’s name,” Andrea said. “If anyone finds out he helped us …”
“He’d be in danger, too?” Joanna asked.
“What do you think?” Andrea broke off. After a minute or so, she went on. “If it hadn’t been for Josiah, I wouldn’t have known what was going on. I didn’t think I could stop it, but Pam and Carmen convinced me that if they could film the wedding itself and make it public, maybe there would be enough publicity so we could bring Cecilia out of there and try to give her some kind of normal life. They said they needed enough damning evidence to blow The Brethren sky-high-something 306
so compelling that even the mainstream media would be forced to pick it up.”
“So you made arrangements for Josiah to help Pam and Carmen film the wedding.”
Andrea nodded.
‘And how did you contact them?” Joanna asked.
“Once or twice I emailed them, but usually I used a phone card and pay phones. I didn’t want to have anything traceable back to me.”
“One of my detectives found your e-mail address in Pam Davis’s e-mail address book,”
Joanna said.
Andrea’s face darkened. “I warned Pam about how dangerous these people can be,” she said softly. “But I don’t think she believed me.”
“Tell me about Carol,” Joanna urged. “I’m assuming you’re the one who put Pam and Carmen in touch with her.”
Andrea nodded again. “Everything I have-everything I own-this house, my education, my car, my independence-I owe to Carol. She’s the one who saved us-Stella and me.
She really did bring us out of the wilderness. If it hadn’t been for her, I’d probably have been sold off into indentured servitude in some family compound the same way Cecilia has been. But Carol called Grandma and made arrangements for train tickets.
Then she hustled us onto the train. She tried her best to get Kelly to come with us, but she wouldn’t. That was awful for Carol. Kelly simply refused to go. If Carol had tried to take her by force, none of the rest of us would have gotten away. So the three of us left and Kelly stayed, God help her. She’s twenty-five now. It breaks my heart to think of the kind of hell her life must be. It broke Carol’s heart, too.”
307
“So Carol saved you,” Joanna breathed.
Andrea Mossman nodded as tears began to course down her cheeks. She dabbed at them fitfully with a tissue. “She saved us, but she couldn’t save herself. Maybe it’s because Stella and I were younger than Carol was. Somehow we were able to find our sea legs and go on. Once I got into school, I was so hungry to be educated, nothing could stop me. And Stella found Denny, but Carol never found anybody or anything.”
“Except her dogs,” Joanna offered.
“Yes,” Andrea agreed. “Her dogs. They were always hungry and needy and mostly discarded purebreds, but she
