“The same exorcism by dogs, knives, and scalding liquid she’d ordered when Carole Comptois got pregnant.”
The image still made me shudder.
“Was Comptois still working as a hooker?”
“She’d given it up. Ironically, she was introduced to Elle by a former customer. Though Comptois lived with the group off and on, apparently she maintained outside interests, since her baby’s father was not a member and therefore not an approved sperm donor. That’s why Elle ordered the exorcism.”
“Why Amalie Provencher?”
“That’s unclear. Amalie may have gotten in the way of the elimination of Jennifer.”
“Elle believed she needed the psychic strength of fifty-six souls to muster the energy for the final crossing. She hadn’t counted on losing Comptois. That’s why she needed Harry.”
“Why fifty-six?”
“It has something to do with the fifty-six Aubrey holes at Stonehenge.”
“What are Aubrey holes?”
“Small pits that were dug and filled in immediately. They were probably used to predict lunar eclipses. Elle has woven all kinds of esoterica into her delusions.”
I took a sip of tea.
“She was obsessed with the idea of balance. Matter and antimatter. Controlled coupling. Exactly fifty-six people. She chose Ange Gardien not just because of the name, but because it’s equidistant from there to the communes in Texas and South Carolina. It’s an amazing coincidence, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?”
“My sister lives in Texas. I work in Quebec, and have lifelong ties to the Carolinas. Everywhere I turned, Elle’s influence was there. Her reach was awesome. How many lives do you suppose these cults affect?”
“There’s no telling.”
The sound of Vivaldi drifted from my neighbor’s patio.
“How did your friend Sam take the news that one of his employees brought bodies to Murtry?”
“He wasn’t thrilled.” I remembered Joey’s nervousness by the water truck when we emerged from the burial location. “Joey Espinoza had been working for Sam for almost two years.”
“Right. He was an Owens follower, but lived in his mother’s house. She’s the one who phoned Social Services. Well, it turns out he’s also Carlie’s father. That’s why Kathryn fled to him when things got ugly. It seems she didn’t know anything about the murders.”
“Where are they now?”
“She and the baby are with some cousin of hers. Joey is discussing the recent past with Sheriff Baker.”
“Has anyone been charged?”
“Elle and Daniel have each been charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Jennifer Cannon, Amalie Provencher, and Carole Comptois.”
Ryan picked up a magnolia leaf and trailed it across his thigh.
“What else was in the evaluation?”
“According to the court-appointed shrink Elle suffers from an elaborate multidelusional psychosis. She’s convinced that the apocalypse will occur soon in the form of a giant environmental disaster, and that she’s destined to preserve humanity by transporting followers away from the apocalypse.”
“Where were they going?”
“She’s not saying. But you aren’t on her manifest.”
“How do people buy into such crap?” Ryan echoed my question to Red Skyler.
“The group recruited people who were disillusioned with their lot and attracted by group acceptance, being accorded a sense of worth and importance, and being given simple answers to all questions, with a little drug therapy thrown in.”
A breeze lifted the branches of the magnolia, bringing with it the smell of wet grass. Ryan said nothing.
“Elle may be crazy, but she’s smart and extraordinarily persuasive. Even now her followers are loyal. While she’s pontificating, they’re not saying a word.”
“Yeah.” He stretched, raised his bandaged arm, and repositioned it on his chest. “She’s cunning, all right. She was never after a huge following. She wanted a small but loyal band. That and Guillion’s money let her keep a low profile. Until it began to unravel, she made very few mistakes.”
“What about the cat? That was brutal but stupid.”
“That was Dom Owens. Elle ordered him to stop your meddling. He claims he was not into physically harming people, so he directed some student followers in Charlotte to do something to frighten you off. They devised the cat trick. Got the poor thing from the animal shelter.”
“How did they find me?”
“One of them took a bill or something from your office. It had your home address.”
Ryan sipped his tea.
