Last Writes (27 page)

Claudia felt as if her own anger was burning a hole right through her chest. Thanks to Erin’s manipulations, they had practically delivered the child into Stedman’s hands. Her only comfort was the knowledge that Rodney would do whatever it took to keep his wife from handing Kylie over to Harold Stedman. She sighed. Maybe tomorrow night she and Jovanic would stroll hand in hand down the hill to Tyler’s and watch the sun fall below the horizon while the music played.

 

Nearly dusk, the streetlamps on Bishop Street were already lit. Morning seemed a long time ago. Was it really only twelve hours since she and James had made their first trek into the woods? So much had happened in between; it seemed days ago. Claudia turned into her driveway, noting the unfamiliar car parked behind Jovanic’s Jeep out front.

The FBI case agent had arrived early and the two men were drinking coffee. They both stood as Claudia came through the door and Jovanic introduced her to Agent Jesse Oziel. Her first impression of the agent was formality in a plain brown suit. Pretty much what she’d expected.

As Jovanic came across the room and took her bags, she observed that his stride was easier than when she’d left town at the beginning of the week, and grudgingly conceded to herself that his workout regimen for the past couple of days might actually be helping in his recovery. He was dressed in casual slacks and a black T-shirt she’d bought him. He looked so good she hoped the interview wouldn’t take long.

Jesse Oziel stuck out his hand and gave Claudia’s a firm shake. He looked about Jovanic’s age—mid-forties—though he was a few inches shorter, with thinning brown hair and a slender build. He had a prominent nose and vigilant eyes that darted here and there while he was speaking. His speaking voice was dry and reserved.

They all went to sit at the kitchen table and Jovanic brought Claudia a mug of strong black coffee. She hadn’t realized how utterly drained she was until that moment when she sat back and took a sip—how relieved to be away from the Ark and everything it represented.

Jovanic told her he’d been able to locate Tabitha Barton’s address in Moreno Valley. MVPD had promised to send a patrol car over to do a welfare check.

Claudia was relieved to hear it. “I couldn’t be sure when the call dropped whether Rod was dealing with Kylie having a tantrum, or something happened. I heard a man’s voice, but I don’t know what he said. It sounded like Rod knew him, though. I don’t think Erin would have had time to get over there from Kelly’s.”

“That’d be a two-hour drive on a Friday night. She’s probably about halfway there.” Jovanic got up and took his cell phone from his pocket. “Let me find out what’s going on.”

After Jovanic left the room, Oziel took a notepad and pen from the briefcase he’d carried into the kitchen with him. He began the formal interview by stating the names of those present, the date, and the reason for the meeting, scribbling on the pad as he spoke.

“Why did Powers phone you tonight?” Oziel asked.

“He heard I’d been asking about him at the Ark and he wanted to know why.”

“How did he know you were asking about him?”

“His friend James Miller. He handles the computers for the TBL.” She explained how James had overheard her plans for lecturing at UCR and told Rodney.

Oziel nodded and wrote. “What can you tell me about the time you spent at the Hemet compound?”

Claudia hesitated. She felt obliged to explain that she and Kelly had signed a confidentiality agreement upon their arrival at the compound. “I read the agreement before I signed it, of course, and there was a clause providing for an exception in the event of legal proceedings. . . .”

She figured being questioned by the FBI was probably about as legal as it could get. But while she had plenty of misgivings about the Temple of Brighter Light, breaching confidentiality went against her professional grain. When she said so, Oziel raised a pair of sandy eyebrows. “I’m sure you don’t want to obstruct our investigation when it’s unnecessary, Ms. Rose.”

“Of course I have no desire to obstruct anything. But you have to recognize that officially, Harold Stedman is my client, not the FBI, that’s all. My first concern is for the safety of Kylie Powers, but if I know what it is you’re looking for, I might be able to help you better.”

“Our investigation doesn’t directly concern the Powers child, but it’s possible that something you saw or heard would relate to what we are looking into.”

“Which is what?”

“I’m not going to discuss that,” Oziel said in a flat monotone that annoyed her.

“But you expect me to talk to you.” As soon as she spoke, Claudia felt herself flush. She softened her tone. “If you could tell me something about what you want to know, I’ll be happy to answer.”

“Let’s do this: I’d like you to tell me everything you can remember from the days you spent at the compound. Anything that comes to mind, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to you, could be helpful.”

She wanted to ask him “Why bother?” when they already had someone undercover at the Ark, but she had to protect Jovanic.
“Everything?
That’s pretty broad.”

“Okay then, let’s start with the daily activities, how people are treated. The children, for instance, are they being well cared for?”

“Everyone I met at the Ark seemed pretty happy—more than average, in fact. They were well fed; everyone has work assignments in the garden or the kitchen or the bookbindery, and so on. They have a school, so there must be teachers. I know there were classes for new members because they put Kelly in some of them. I expect Joel has told you that she was drugged and hypnotized.”

He nodded. “We’ll want to interview Ms. Brennan about that later. Why don’t you tell me about the work Harold Stedman asked you to do for him at the Ark. I’d like to hear in detail what it was that he wanted from you.”

She explained Stedman’s suspicions that some members might be disloyal and that he had given her the handwriting of about twenty Ark members to analyze during her stay.

“What did you find out?” Oziel asked, curiosity pushing through his bureau reserve.

“A couple of the samples had signs of possible deception on specific items, but there were no obvious red flags. No major problems, no pathology. As far as integrity, most of them were in the normal range. The essay that had the most glaring indications of a lie was written by the head of security. How’s that for irony?”

Oziel got up from the table, took his mug over to the Mr. Coffee on the kitchen counter, and poured himself a refill. “I agree that’s a tad ironic. You’re referring to a woman named Lynn Ryder, I believe?”

Claudia nodded. “From the little time I spent with her, she seemed to be a devout member. But from the point of view of a handwriting analyst, it was clear to me that her motivation for being at the Ark wasn’t precisely what she wrote in her application essay. And, by the way, the only reason why I knew it was Lynn’s handwriting was because she walked in on me while it was lying on Rodney’s desk. The fact that it was there really shook her up. I think she was afraid of what I was doing with it. Stedman didn’t tell her why I was there, and that bothered her, too.”

As she spoke, Oziel continued to make notes. “What about the other one? You said there were a couple of them with signs of deception.”

“Someone who identified himself as a dentist. It wasn’t that he was directly lying so much as he wasn’t telling everything. I believe he was leaving out parts of his story—probably facts that he thought would be detrimental to getting his application approved. The identifying information had been removed, so I couldn’t tell you who the guy was. Maybe you have enough information to figure it out.” She couldn’t think of anything else to tell him.

“From what you observed, who would you say are Stedman’s most trusted cohorts? The Ryder woman?”

“He put her in charge of the Ark’s security, so she has to be high on his list. Erin told us it was because she used to be a security specialist before she joined TBL. Still, if Stedman wanted me to examine her handwriting, he must have had some concerns or suspicions about her. Unless he was testing me, but I have no way of knowing that. I think he gave me Erin Powers’s handwriting, too. He could have been using me to double-check the people closest to him. He’s suspicious of just about everyone. His own handwriting certainly had indications of paranoia.”

Claudia closed her eyes for a moment while she pondered the question. Opening them she said, “The members of the governing board would have to be at the top of his most-trusted list. They write the literature for all the members—not just for the people who live at the Ark but for those at the satellite branches, too. They write books and pamphlets with all the rules—even what married members can do in bed. It seems to be the governing board who makes the final decisions about what’s going to be taught and who gets excommunicated when they break the rules.” She paused, remembering the stunned reaction of the members when Stedman made his announcement at lunch.

“Someone was excommunicated yesterday while I was there. Joel probably told you about the people I saw in the yard last night, dressed up in robes, like monks? Some of them went in the direction of the main house. I followed a few minutes later, and when I went up to my room, Harold Stedman stopped me on the landing. He would have had just about enough time to change out of the robe.”

“What do you think they were doing out there?” Oziel asked, writing furiously. He was on the other side of the table, which made it hard to see his handwriting, but Claudia could see his hand move fast across the page, which meant he was a fast thinker, too.

“Looked like some sort of secret meeting. I’m pretty sure they came from the bomb shelter Stedman showed me today. The person they excommunicated was a man named John Talbot. I thought they might have been meeting about that.”

More scribbling. Finally, Oziel’s pen halted and he glanced up, waiting. “What else?”

She told him about the note Rodney had left for her the previous evening and he asked her to produce it.

“The handwriting is different from a note his wife showed me.” Claudia showed him the note from her briefcase, along with the one that James had given her. She had already placed them separately in acid-free plastic protective sleeves that she kept in her briefcase. She could hear Jovanic in the living room, talking on his cell phone.

“The writing is also different from the writing on the card James gave me,” she went on. “But the handwriting in the note James gave me does match some other writing that I came across in a file cabinet in Rodney Powers’s office. What I would like to do before giving a firm opinion is to put them all side by side and compare them. Preliminarily, though, it’s my belief that Erin herself wrote the note she claimed was from her husband. She wanted Kelly and me to think he was the bad guy in all this.”

“It makes you wonder what motive she might have had,” Oziel said.

Claudia refused to speculate on that question. “I don’t know her motive, but for some reason she wanted Kelly and me to believe Rodney had written that note. I’d say she was trying to protect herself.”

“And you’re sure about it being her handwriting?”

“As sure as I can be without physically examining the notes side by side. I’m working from memory, but I’m as reasonably certain as I can be that the handwritings are as I’ve said. The only way for me to be more conclusive is to get the writing in the thank-you note James Miller gave me authenticated by Erin, and that’s not likely to happen.” She paused again, asking herself if she was crazy for what she was thinking. “I believe Rodney told the truth: Erin’s working with Harold Stedman. She used Kelly and me as pawns to help her get the information they needed to get Kylie back.”

One eyebrow twitched. “She set you and Ms. Brennan up?”

“Well, she sent us to the rally, where someone ‘just happened’ to overhear our conversation. Then,
voilà!
Stedman invites me back to the Ark to work for him.”

“That means Stedman knew all along about you and Ms. Brennan.”

Claudia felt like a fool for allowing herself to get drawn in the way she had. “I should have charged him more for my services, the bastard. Erin must have told him I’m a handwriting analyst and they used that to get us to the Ark. I suppose if I hadn’t given them that excuse there would have been some other pretext to get us there.”

“Well, it’s not illegal for Mrs. Powers to send her child to the Colorado temple.” Agent Oziel clasped his hands together on the table, giving her a serious look that made her queasy. She wished Jovanic would return. What was taking him so long?

“I hadn’t planned to share this with you, Ms. Rose, but I’m going to because it may be more efficient this way. But I’m warning you not to divulge this information to anyone.” He waited until she gave her assent.

“The bureau has been investigating the disappearances of female juveniles who have gone missing from the welfare system in several states over the past few years. We have reason to believe that some of these juveniles ended up at the TBL facility in Colorado. We have recently obtained the location of that facility and have evidence that ties these disappearances to the Temple of Brighter Light and Harold Stedman.”

Claudia cleared the mugs from the table and rinsed them at the sink, then went through the motions of making a fresh pot of coffee. The small activity gave her time to think. “I didn’t see anything close to child abuse at the Ark, if that’s what you’re implying. The children I saw there were all well behaved and happy. They didn’t look ill treated in any way.”

“There doesn’t have to be child abuse; we’re talking about kidnapping,” Oziel said in his dry way.

“They took Erin in from a shelter and raised her; gave her a much better home than she had, which is why she’s so loyal to Stedman. If they took the children you’re investigating, they must have been rescuing them from a bad situation.”