“Would you care to explain that?” Ryan.
“By living apart from the world we reject the slaughterhouses and chemical plants and oil refineries, the beer cans, and the tire heaps, and the raw sewage. By living together as a group we support each other, we feed each other both spiritually and physically.”
“All for one.”
El gave him a brief smile. “All the old myths have to be eliminated before true consciousness is possible.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Even his?” Ryan tipped his head in the direction of the preacher.
“All of them.”
I circled the conversation back.
“Kathryn, if you wanted information on someone, where would you ask?”
“Look,” she said, smiling, “you’re not going to find her.” She retrieved Carlie’s cup again. “She’s probably on the Riviera right now, smearing sunblock on her babies.”
I looked at her a long time. She didn’t know. Dom hadn’t told her. She’d missed the introductions and had no idea why we were asking about Heidi and Brian. I took a deep breath.
“Heidi Schneider is dead, Kathryn. So is Brian Gilbert.”
She looked at me as if I were crazy.
“Dead? She can’t be dead.”
“Kathryn!” El’s voice was sharp.
Kathryn ignored her.
“I mean, she’s so young. And she’s pregnant. Or was.” Her voice was plaintive, like a child’s.
“They were murdered less than three weeks ago.”
“You’re not here to take her home?” Her eyes shifted from Ryan to me. I could see tiny yellow flecks in the green irises. “You’re not her parents?”
“No.”
“They’re dead?”
“Yes.”
“Her babies?”
I nodded.
Her hand went to her mouth, then fluttered to her lap, like a butterfly unsure where to light. Carlie tugged her skirt, and the hand dropped to stroke his head.
“How could someone do something like that? I mean, I didn’t know them, but, how could someone kill a whole family? Kill babies?”
“We all pass through,” said El, placing an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “Death is merely a transition in the process of growth.”
“A transition to what?” asked Ryan.
There was no answer. At that moment a white van pulled to the curb in front of the People’s Bank on the far side of Bay Street. El squeezed Kathryn’s shoulders and nodded toward it. Then she gathered Carlie, rose, and extended her hand. Kathryn took it and got to her feet.
“I wish you the best of luck,” said El, and the two women set off toward the van.
I watched them a moment, then downed the last of my Coke. As I looked for a trash can something under the bench caught my eye. The cover to Carlie’s cup.
I dug a card from my purse, scribbled a number, and snatched up the lid. Ryan looked amused as I bolted from the bench.
She was just climbing into the van.
“Kathryn,” I called from the middle of the street.
She looked up, and I waved the cover in the air. Behind her the clock on the bank said five-fifteen.
She spoke into the van then walked toward me. When she reached out I gave her the lid with my card tucked inside.
Her eyes met mine.
“Call me if you’d like to talk.”
She turned without a word, walked back to the van, and got in. I could see Dom’s blond head silhouetted behind the wheel as they disappeared up Bay Street.
Ryan and I showed the snapshot at another pharmacy and several fast-food restaurants, then drove to Sheriff Baker’s office. Ivy Lee told us his domestic situation had turned into a standoff. An unemployed sanitation worker was barricaded in his house with his wife and three-year-old daughter, threatening to shoot everyone. Baker would not be joining us that evening.
