Phantom Evil

“I think he needs to find some peace. I think he needs…”



“I think he needs to believe that he didn’t cause his wife’s death,” Lisa said. “Please, I don’t want to be caught like this. We have to go back now.”



Jackson nodded, lifting his hands. “By all means, return to work.”



Jenna rose. “I’ll see you out,” she said.



“One at a time, if you don’t mind. I’ll get the car out of here first,” Blake said.



“I walk back,” Lisa told them.



No one said goodbye and no one spoke until Jenna returned to the kitchen. “They’re out. We’re locked,” she said.



“Well, that was intriguing,” Whitney said at last.



“Very,” Jackson agreed.



“So, Senator Holloway was having an affair,” Jenna said.



Jackson nodded. “Actually, that’s not half as important as the fact that Senator David Holloway owns the house right next door to this one—and that he has, for years,” Jackson said.



“But what does it mean?” Jake mused.



“I’m not sure yet. It may mean nothing, and it may put us back to square one. Or worse. Now we have the Aryans, the Church of Christ Arisen, a mistress, a bodyguard, a chauffeur—and an aide we know to be a lying lech, if not something much worse,” Jackson said.



“I say we have to take down Martin DuPre. If we do something about him, the rest of the charade that is the senator may start to crumble,” Jake said.



Jackson looked at Angela. “We have to talk to Gabby Taylor. She’s home now. I believe that what is going on at the Church of Christ Arisen might lead us to the answers.” He hesitated a moment, and then grimaced. “We need to keep making every effort to discover what we can in the house, but I think we also have to concentrate heavily on the church. The girl was terrified of what they’d do to her if they found her, and I don’t think she’s going to be that hard to find. You’re the one who befriended her. I need you, and I need you now, no matter how you feel that you’re treading on a fragile young woman.”



Angela winced, but nodded. “Okay, so what are we doing?”



“Will and Whitney, stay on the cameras. We need to be watching closely for anything that’s going on in the house while we continue investigating other leads. Jenna and Jake, I need you to go back to the Aryans—find out if Blake has anything to do with their membership.”



“Gag, vomit,” Jenna said, sighing.



“It’s all in a day’s work,” Jake told her. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not my fault you’re whiter than the driven snow.”



She cast him an evil glance. “All right, come on. We’ll be able to find an address on the internet and if not—”



“Just give Andy Devereaux a call. He’ll find an address for you. And tell him I’ll be talking to him later in the afternoon.” He rose as well. “I think that whether we’re really getting to the truth or not, people will believe that we’re getting close, and that could make them dangerous. Lethal. Right now, if the senator is as off his game as Blake says, he’s not paying attention, and putting his life and his platform into the hands of Martin DuPre. Gabby Taylor could be in serious danger.”



“So, you think that they kill young women who leave the fold—and might talk?” Jake asked him.



Jackson said, “I think that Gabby’s fear says something. There are always going to be missing young women. Some will be runaways. And some will be cultists. And some will be dead. Come on, Angela, we’re going to take a ride.”



She nodded. “We know that they’re killing young women. We know it. I’ve seen one in the mirror,” she said quietly.



The Taylor home was a modest ranch, built in Metairie sometime in the 1940s, Angela thought. They had Jake’s car—he and Jenna were walking to the Aryans headquarters, discovered to be in the CBD, not far from the senator’s home office.



“Should we have asked Andy to send an officer with us—or better yet, come along as well?” Angela asked Jackson.



He shook his head. “If we can get her to tell us something, we’ll have enough so that the police can bring DuPre in,” he said. “Andy has patrol cars watching the house, and I let him know that we were coming by.”



“All right. They may not let us in at all,” Angela said.



“Won’t know until we try,” Jackson said.



Angela needn’t have been worried. She raised her hand to knock at the door, and the door swung open. A slim woman with whitening platinum hair and a kind face threw her arms around Angela. “Thank you! Thank you so much! You brought our baby home to us! Gabby told us all about you.”



“Mom, you’re strangling her,” Gabby said, coming out from behind her mother. She smiled at Angela. She already looked like another woman. The look of absolute dejection was gone from her face, and she was prettier than ever.



“I’m fine, I’m fine, and I’m so happy to see that you’re all doing so well,” Angela said.



“Is that her?” came a booming male voice.



“Angela, this is my mom, Ellie, and that’s my dad, Sam,” Gabby said.



“And this is Jackson Crow,” Angela said.



“Pleasure,” Jackson told them both.



“Great to meet you,” Sam Taylor said. He was tall and thin, too, and his face was haggard. Angela imagined he had suffered badly over the loss of his daughter. “We can never thank you enough. Never.”



“Never,” Gabby said.



“If there were only some way we could help you! We had a reward offered—” Ellie began.



“No, no!” Jackson said with a smile. “We’re actually government employees—your tax dollars at work.”



“We wanted to make sure that everything was all right,” Angela said.



Sam dragged his daughter into a hug. “Our girl is back with us. What could be wrong?”



A look of dismay and fear flashed across Gabby’s face, but it was quickly gone. “We’re going to be all right.”



“We’re going on vacation, tonight!” Ellie said. “Gabby wants to get away for a bit.”



Jackson looked at them all. “We need to talk,” he said.



Gabby lost her poise; it looked as if she might have fallen, had she not been in her father’s firm grip.



“Gabby, we have to get that church shut down. There’s something very bad going on there, and you know it,” Angela said quietly.



“May we sit?” Jackson asked Sam.



“My girl just wants to get away from it all,” Sam shook his head.



“She is afraid of people involved with that church,” Jackson said. “We need her help. Desperately. Mr. Taylor, don’t you want other girls to go home, too?”



He hesitated.



“I can’t prove anything. I can’t really give you anything that will help. And if you know things and go into that church, they’ll know that you learned about them from me,” Gabby said.



“Let’s sit. Please. I’ll get some nice iced tea,” Ellie said. She was obviously distressed, but she was a consummate hostess, and she seemed to realize that something worse could happen to her daughter now.



When they were seated in the pleasant family room and tea had been served, Gabby glanced uncomfortably at her father. “They really don’t want to hear a lot of details,” she said quietly.



“And you don’t need to tell us any,” Angela assured her.



“We just need to know about other people who were there. Other people who were there—and then disappeared,” Jackson said.



“Gabby, how did you wind up being involved with the church?” Angela asked her softly.



The girl’s breathing quickened and she glanced at her mother, flushing.



“It’s all right, Gabby. You’re home now,” her mother said, her voice filled with tremulous affection.



Gabby looked at Angela. “Oh, that was easy enough,” she said dryly. “I was with some friends on the riverfront one day, and we’d been doing a lot of smoking. Weed, grass, you know, right?”



“Yes, I know the terms,” Angela said, trying not to smile.



“I’m sorry, Mom,” Gabby said.



Her mother patted her knee. “It’s all right.”



“Please, Jackson needs to know everything you told me, and anything at all you can think of that might help,” Angela said.



“I—I saw him—as if he were walking right out of the light! He was so—holy. He started talking to me, and he told me to come to the church and see him. And all night, all I could remember was the way he’d talked to me. And that light he’d had around him. When he spoke, his voice was musical. He was…amazing.”



“And so you went to the church.”



She nodded, shaking her head. “Once I was there, nothing else mattered. We were in a group discussion one night and he looked at me. And he told me that my time was coming. That night, I couldn’t sleep. His words filled my mind.” She hesitated again. It had to be hard for her.



Her mother squeezed her hand.



Gabby looked at Angela and Jackson again. “There was a knock on the door, and it was one of the older girls, and she said that he had been expecting me, but I hadn’t come to him. She said that I was privileged…I would be one of his wives. I kept seeing his face and hearing his voice, and when I went to his room, he was waiting for me. Naked. And then…well, it wasn’t every night. He has other—wives.”



“And you weren’t jealous?” Jackson asked her softly.



She studied his face and grimaced.



“No. Yes. I don’t know. He taught me that it was right, that I was a holy vessel, and that he was chosen, and that made me chosen.”



Brainwashing. Mind control. He seemed to appear in light.



“There are others in danger out there, Gabby. Two women disappeared, one was named Susanne Crimshaw, and the other June Leven.”