Jeff Abbott - A Kiss Gone Bad

One small cross hung on the wall, fitted in between a pair of ringside wrestling photos. No pictures of Jesus the gentle shepherd.

‘We’d like to show her picture to your followers,’ David said.

‘They don’t follow me. They follow Jesus. Followers makes it sound like a cult.’

‘Well,’ David said pleasantly. ‘No offense meant.’

‘You start a new church, offer seekers new answers to old questions, find success with it, and then people question you.’

‘You glorify the body, though,’ Claudia said.

He flexed the muscles in one arm. ‘We consider our bodies temples to the Lord, since we are sculpted in His image. Our own bodies are reflected in the Body of Christ that the church forms.’ He ran a hand over the muscle in his arm like it was sacred velvet, a priest admiring his vestments.

‘You certainly have a lot of young women here,’ she said.

‘I’m sure there are many young women at your own church.’

Claudia smiled. ‘But they don’t live with Father O’Hearn or Father Aguilar.’

‘I don’t sleep with these young women, if that’s what you’re implying.’

‘You just focus on having female disciples? That it?’ David asked.

His gaze hardened. ‘The way I bring God to them appeals to them, just as a prayer book appeals to an Episcopalian or bowing toward Mecca appeals to a Muslim.’

‘You’re sure the Ballew girl didn’t make her way here?’ David asked.

‘I will happily swear on a stack of Bibles that I’ve never laid eyes on her face before.’

‘You are the only connection we’ve yet found between this girl and Port Leo,’ David said bluntly.

Jabez drained his shake in such a pronounced swallow it reminded Claudia of a python downing a rat. ‘You have no cause to bother us.’

‘This girl had no reason to be in Encina County that we know of except for you.’ Claudia set down her drink on a glass-topped table. ‘I’m sorry, but I feel like you’re not being completely honest with us.’

‘I’ve given you no reason for doubt.’

‘I wonder,’ she said, hoping to shake the tree. ‘You have this missing girl who might have come here to see you. You’re seen arguing with Pete Hubble on his boat, and he is now dead. I suppose it might be coincidence. I suppose it might not.’

David shot her a questioning look with the barest shrug of his shoulders.

Jabez crossed his buffed arms. ‘I don’t get easily intimidated. Jesus is on my side, in my heart, in my brain. I can withstand Satan. Comparatively, you’re not that frightening.’

‘Satan can’t get a search warrant, Reverend. And Satan can’t put every aspect of your operation under a microscope. How do you think your television flock would react to news of you being investigated?’ Claudia asked.

‘On what charge? I’ve cooperated fully.’ He laughed. ‘I might expect this of a provincial buffoon like Delford Spires, but I always marked you as fairer and more intelligent, Ms Salazar.’

Claudia shook her head. ‘So why do I believe I’m going to have to lean on you very hard to get the truth?’

He smiled beatifically. ‘Lean away. I have a great PR firm in Austin. They’ve already laid out a plan for any crisis. Arrest, investigation, scandal – not that it’s likely.’

She let the silence hang. ‘Fine. Anything else, Deputy Power?’

David shook his head, a numb look on his face. ‘Loved the shake,’ Claudia said.

‘Go with God,’ Jabez said. She wanted to slap the sure smirk off his face.

They got into David’s cruiser and shut the doors. David didn’t start the car.

‘You know, Claud, I miss that little spark of tough you got,’ he said.

‘You said you wouldn’t do this. Talk about us.’

‘Sorry. I just admired the way you wouldn’t let him walk all over you.’

A group of Jabez disciples jogged past the parking lot, legs lifting into perfect beat, mouths moving to a chant of prayer.

‘I knew I should’ve joined a gym,’ David said. ‘I saw the lustful stare you gave those arms of his.’

‘You saw nothing,’ Claudia said. Great. David was teasing her now, bantering.

As David drove down the palm-lined road leading to the encampment and halfway down to the highway, the girl Rachel stepped out of the growth, waving her arms. David stopped the cruiser, and Claudia lowered her window.

‘Cops, right? Can we talk a minute?’ the girl asked. Her voice shook.

‘Sure,’ Claudia said.

‘Not here. Someplace else.’

David let the girl into the back of the car. Rachel ducked in and pointed at a side road, curving off to the right. ‘Pull in down there so no one sees us. He’s gonna be looking for me soon enough.’

David obeyed. Claudia turned to Rachel. ‘Do you know that girl in the picture?’

‘No, never seen her. But I know Pete Hubble.’

‘What?’

‘Pete’s a friend from California. I did a couple of movies with him this year, and he lent me some cash.’ Claudia studied the young woman’s face, and saw anew the vixen clinging to Pete on the cover of one of the tapes. Cleopatra’s Love Slaves. Done up as a horny Queen of the Nile, pulling a rubber asp through her cleavage and kissing the snake’s head. Hadn’t one of the stars had the silly name of Rachel Pleasure? Different hair, but the same girl, the same wide blue eyes, the same elfin face.

Rachel hunkered down in the seat. ‘Just listen, okay? If I’m gone long, Mary Magdalene will kick my ass. Bitch already hates me.’

‘We’re listening,’ Claudia said.

‘Pete wanted dirt on Jabez Jones, and he asked me to help him, said he’d pay me what I make in a month’s work doing flicks. I said sure. He flew me out here and I checked into the camp.’ Her voice wavered. ‘We don’t get to watch television – except for Jabez’s show – or listen to radio or read papers, but last night I was in Jabez’s room and heard them say on the TV news Pete was dead.’

‘He shot himself,’ Claudia said.

‘But Pete was supposed to get me out. They watch us like hawks.’

‘Didn’t Velvet know you were here?’ Claudia asked.

Rachel shook her head. ‘He didn’t want Velvet to know about his business. Plus she doesn’t like me too well. I’m a way better actress than she is.’

‘Um, we’ll get you out,’ David said. ‘You want to go now?’

‘Look, if Jabez knows Pete planted me here, no way am I staying. But I don’t have the evidence Pete wanted.’

‘What were you looking for?’ Claudia asked.

Rachel bit her lip. ‘Pete thought Jabez knew who killed his brother, years ago. He thought maybe Jabez had made all his money by keeping his mouth shut or maybe was in on his brother’s death. I couldn’t find anything about that, though, but I did find something else. Dope.’

‘Do tell,’ David said.

‘I made sure I got close to him once I got here.’ Rachel peered out the back windshield, as though the hounds had been released. ‘That’s why Mary Magdalene hates my guts. I’m the new favorite.’

‘He says he doesn’t sleep with his… followers,’ Claudia said.

‘Right. He was screwing me last night while the news was on. I had to keep lying there while he huffed and puffed and watched himself in the damn mirror. I thought I was going to die when I heard them talk about Pete. He’s rough about sex, too. Something’s not right with him, let me tell you. He likes to snort a little coke, especially when he and I are about to get busy. He keeps it in his bedroom.’

David revved the engine. ‘If we get you out right now, will he flush the cocaine?’

‘I don’t know. I’m due for phone duty for the prayer line in thirty minutes. They’ll look for me.’