Dave Zeltserman - Bad Karma

Shannon nodded towards a monitor and DVD player in the room. “I’d like to look at them first before buying.”

Starks’ eyes glazed. He smiled at Shannon. “Yeah, sure, friend, if that’s what you’d like. I’d have to ask for a small rental fee. Thirty bucks per DVD. Cash only.”

Shannon was tapped out at a hundred and fifty cash. Maguire came up with the rest. Starks took the cash and gave both men an oily smile. “Knock yourself out, boys,” he said before leaving.

There were a couple of chairs by the monitor and DVD player. Shannon and Maguire both elected to stand. Shannon went through each DVD as quickly as he could, fast-forwarding through most of it and stopping only to try to recognize the women involved. They all started off the same, with Linda taking one of the cult members to the bed, the two women undressing, engaging in different sex acts, then later Carver joining in. Through all of it either heavy metal or grunge music blasted in the background. Nirvana and Metallica were used a lot. A few times instead of Carver, an ugly skinny kid with tattoos took his place. After a couple of times coming across this same kid, Shannon realized he was Carver’s brother, Randall.

As he fast-forwarded through the last of the DVDs, Maguire elbowed him. “Back it up a little and play it again at normal speed.” Shannon did, and he caught what Maguire had seen. The woman in the shot glanced towards a corner of the room and smiled vacantly. It seemed like an odd thing for her to do, as if she were subserviently acknowledging someone. Shannon went back through a couple of the other DVDs looking for the same gesture and found that all of the women in them did the same thing. He realized why. Paveeth must have been sitting off camera observing.

By the time he was finished viewing the DVDs, he had matched three women to the photographs Maguire had taken, and, along with Melissa Cousins, had recognized other women from his time in the True Light compound. He was also pretty sure he had seen the redhead that Eddie had described to him.

“Why do I now feel like scrubbing myself with sulfuric acid?” Maguire remarked.

“I don’t know, but save some for me.”

“Do you think any of the girls knew they were being filmed?”

“No.”

Maguire thought about that, his eyes dull as he shook his head. “I still can’t believe those two were making videos like that right next door to me.”

Shannon shrugged. Watching the DVDs didn’t leave him in much of a mood for small talk. He tried the door, found it locked and banged on it. Starks opened it and walked in. The two farm boys who’d been milling about the store followed behind him.

Shannon handed him the stack of DVDs and told him which one he wanted to buy. He needed one of them to prove the connection between Paveeth and the murdered students, and he chose one which didn’t feature Melissa Cousins but where he was able to recognize most of the women as cult members. Starks checked all the DVD boxes to make sure that nothing had been taken. Shannon asked him whether he took credit cards.

Starks smiled amiably and raked his fingers through his long hair. “Sorry, friend, these items are cash only. Can’t afford to leave any sort of paper trail. You understand.”

Maguire offered to go to a cash machine. Shannon gave him his car keys, and Starks opened the door to let him out. The next ten minutes waiting for Maguire were long ones. Starks, along with the two large farm boys stood silently smirking at Shannon, as if he were a member of their fraternity. And they smelled bad, Starks with his heavy musk cologne and the two farm boys smelling like onions and sweat. When Maguire returned with the money he was out of breath, a sheen of perspiration covering his face. Starks counted the money and stepped aside to let them pass.

When they got in the car, Shannon headed towards 36 West to take them back to Boulder. Neither of them seemed in much of a mood to talk. After about twenty minutes Maguire commented that it didn’t seem like Starks had any idea that the ‘two honeys’ were the college students who were killed.

“I don’t think he did either, which is just as well. Otherwise, he would’ve jacked up the price.”

There was another long period of silence before Maguire asked whether the DVDs would tie the cult to his neighbors’ murders.

“I’m hoping so. It pretty much shows that Paveeth, Carver and Linda Gibson were partners in making these films. I’m also now having second thoughts about whether the killers knew about the hidden camera. Paveeth would’ve known about it and so would his Russian muscle. It could explain why the killers were lucky enough to stay out of the video.”

Shannon’s cell phone rang. It was Susan. In a rushed breathless voice she told him she was in trouble. That she was at True Light’s compound.

A slow panic took over as Susan’s words made sense to him. He thought about the Russians being in his apartment, about them seeing pictures of Susan and knowing who she was. He could hear himself asking her to tell him what happened.

“I went back there. Now don’t get mad at me! I know I shouldn’t’ve but I wanted to get some of that incense so you’d be able to have it analyzed. Two men came into the cult-”

“Wait a minute. Describe them.”

“I think they were both cult members. They were both young, bald, wearing white robes.”

“Yeah, okay, I know who you’re talking about.”

“Bill, I think they were looking for me. It was the way they were staring at me. I’m not sure, but I think they might’ve had a picture of me. They selected some of the other women there to meet Vishna. Before I knew what was happening, they grabbed me also. They took our backpacks and pocketbooks from us and herded us into a van. The other women went willingly, but there was nothing I could do, it happened so fast and I was just dragged along with them!”

“Where are you now?”

“They separated me from the rest of them. I think I’m in the same room you were locked in. There’s no handle on the door. Thank God they didn’t search me, otherwise they would’ve found my cell phone, and thank God they’re making them so small these days! I’m scared, Bill-”

Shannon heard a door being opened, then Susan demanding that she be released. A vaguely familiar voice hushed her, telling her how much he’d been waiting to meet her. The phone went dead. Shannon realized the familiar voice was Dmitry’s.

He was fifteen miles from the True Light compound. Tossing Maguire his cell phone, he told him to call both 911 and Lieutenant Mark Daniels and tell them that his ex-wife’s been kidnapped and taken to True Light. He pushed hard on the gas pedal until his foot pressed against the floor of the car. The car jerked forward, accelerating until it topped out at one hundred and ten miles per hour. The traffic was light but Shannon still had to weave between cars, and at one point, squeezed between two trucks. He ignored both of their horn blasts and Maguire’s yelling, his knuckles a hard white as he gripped the wheel, his leg muscles straining to keep him in his seat. He didn’t let up on the accelerator until the True Light compound came into sight. There were no police cruisers there. He had beaten them to the place.

He skidded to a stop by the main gate, got out and found the.38 snub nose in his trunk. Taking a running jump, he was able to get halfway up the metal fence and pull himself over. On the way down, he ripped his hand on the spike topping one of the posts but ignored it and raced to the side of the building where he knew the solarium was. A dozen or so women in white robes sat inside. A few of them noticed him and gawked. He shot one bullet through the glass pane to structurally weaken it. That got the dozen or so cult members inside screaming and scurrying from the area. Shannon shoved the revolver in his waistband, found a small boulder, maybe thirty pounds, and slammed it against the bullet hole. The pane shattered into a hard rain of jagged glass. Taking the gun in his hand, Shannon ran through the opening. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a blur of motion, and dropped quickly to his knees. The larger stooge, Curly, tumbled over him as he ran to throw a haymaker and lay sprawled on the floor. Shannon flipped him over and grabbed him by the throat. Pieces of broken glass had sliced the stooge’s face up and he was bleeding from dozens of wounds. He also looked like he was about to go into shock.