Joan Hess - Maggody And The Moonbeams

"You're sure that it was Ruth?"

"I know that everyone else was accounted for this morning. We're waiting for official confirmation before we tell her children."

"Can you give me her real name?" I asked.

Judith stared at me. "When a woman arrives here, she is given a new name, as are her children. We do what we can to eliminate the negative influences of the secular world in order to devote ourselves to observing the purity that is the Daughters of the Moon. Last night was stormy, obscured with savagery and malevolence, but tonight you can gaze in wonder at the moonlight on the lake. You will see God's fingers rippling the surface of the water. The sky will be filled with an infinite number of diamonds. All you have to do is look, Arly, with your eyes and with your heart."

"I most likely will," I said, "but in the meantime, I need to know what happened to Ruth."

Bonita whipped out the pad that was apt to have been issued to her in cop school. "Before she got rewarded with this new name, who was she?"

Judith's lips curled downward. "I have no idea. We do not demand passports."

"Why did she come here?" I asked.

"Again, I have no idea. Deborah could tell you more, but as I said, she's not here."

"How many women are living here?"

She paused. "Five as of yesterday. I suppose we're down to four now that Ruth is no longer with us. It's not much of a loss."

I was taken aback at her attitude. "She was murdered not too far from here. Doesn't that bother you?"

"I suppose it should, but all she did was whine and demand to be waited on. Everyone is expected to contribute. Some sisters work in town, others school the children, tend to the garden, and prepare meals. Once a month we make our own soap and herbal remedies."

"When the moon's full?"

Bonita edged around me, her pen poised as though she was hot on the trail of a late-breaking story for a tabloid. "Then Ruth brought children? How many and how old? Where are they now?"

"I don't think she ever specified. They're with the other children, all of whom are quite frightened by this intrusion. Naomi has taken them to the schoolhouse to study the Book of the Revelation in order to help them come to grips with what has happened. Under no circumstances can they be interrogated."

I bumped Bonita out of the way. "I need to examine whatever this woman called Ruth brought with her."

"You won't find anything. Her instructions were to dispose of any personal items that might identify her."

"Instructions from whom?" I demanded.

"Deborah, of course."

I wasn't sure if all this was silly, surreal, or supernatural. Most likely, all and none of the above. "Just show me her things, okay?"

"As you wish," Judith said, heading for the nearer cabin. "The women sleep here, and the children in the other cabin. Unlike most families these days, the older ones have learned to share responsibility for the younger ones."

I whispered at Bonita to locate the children, then went inside. The iron bunk beds were much the same as we'd found farther down the hill. Attempts had been made to create a cheerier decor, with potted plants on the windowsills and drawings taped to the walls.

"Quite a comedown from the lodge," I said. "You must have been annoyed when the church groups began to arrive."

"One might think that, but we celebrate all demonstrations of faith. We've accepted the fact we'll be living here until fall. After that, Deborah is confident we can return to the lodge, where we will be warm and dry."

"Mrs. Robarts said you do community service in Dunkicker in exchange for being allowed to live here."

Judith looked back at me. "Is that a question?"

It was a struggle not to imagine her with normal hair and makeup; she might have been a reasonably attractive fortyish woman, working as a real estate agent or moving up the corporate ladder at a bank. I glanced at her feet to make sure she wasn't wearing pantyhose beneath her robe.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"Since God called me to serve as a Daughter of the Moon. I have erased all memories of my former life, as have the other women. We have dedicated ourselves to prayer and good deeds. When the skies explode and the earth splits apart with fiery fissures, we shall be prepared to cast aside our physical shells and ascend to heaven."

"No men allowed, huh?"

"If one is to purify her soul, she must denounce all pleasures of the flesh and focus on her inner spirit." She produced a fleeting smile. "So, as you said, no men allowed."

"Corporal Robarts comes here."

"Anthony hardly qualifies, does he? Here is Ruth's bunk. Her possessions are in a suitcase under it. I will leave you now."

I waited until I had the cabin to myself. The suitcase contained nothing much more than dingy cotton underwear. Beneath that layer was a crumpled sundress and platform sandals, which she must have been wearing when she arrived. No purse or wallet, however, or so much as an envelope.

I took out everything to examine it more carefully. A few hairs on the dress indicated she'd been blonde before receiving her buzz cut, but the darker hue on one end suggested her coloring had come from the beauty aids aisle of a discount store.

I put it all back, replaced the suitcase, and pulled a similar bag from beneath the next bunk. It too held mostly underwear, but this Beamer had arrived in jeans and a faded T-shirt. I checked the pockets of the jeans. This time I did better, finding half a pack of flattened cigarettes and a matchbook from a glitzy bingo establishment just across the state line in Oklahoma. I found no other evidence that might help me identify the owner of the suitcase.

I was having no better luck with a third suitcase when Bonita came limping into the cabin. Her pants were torn and splattered with mud, and one elbow was bloodied. Dried leaves clung to her hair. Her face was scratched, her lower lip already swollen, her nostrils discolored with congealing blood. I could see she was going to have an impressive black eye within an hour.

"Are you all right?" I asked as I helped her to the nearest bunk. "What happened? Did they attack you?"

"Might as well have, the little shits. I finally found the so-called schoolhouse along a path behind the cabin just below us. I went on in. It's hard to say how many children were there. A few were in diapers, but most of them appeared to be between six and fifteen. All scruffy looking, with clothing that didn't fit well and bad haircuts."

"Take a guess at how many."

"I don't know-maybe a dozen. Naomi, who looks just like the other spooks, herded the smaller ones into a corner and somehow managed to keep them still. I told the older ones that I wanted to talk to them. They bolted out the door and into the woods. I was so pissed that I went after them, thinking I could catch at least one of them. Well, it seems like one of their homework assignments was to boobytrap the woods. Holes, hidden by twigs covered with leaves. Vines stretched between trees. Branches tied back with trip wires. I could hear them whooping every time I fell, which made me all the madder."

"And then you lost them. Stay here." I went into the bathroom and found a washcloth. I dampened it and took it back to her. "Police work's not as glamorous as they make it out to be in the movies."

"Where were you when I decided to enroll in the academy?"

"Start talking loudly if you see any of the Beamers heading this way. I doubt it'll do any good, but I might as well search the rest of the suitcases."

I found nothing more incriminating than a romance novel in one and a half-eaten chocolate bar in another. Deborah's dictum had been observed, with only a few misdemeanors.

I pushed the last suitcase back where I'd found it and stood up. The washcloth Bonita had been holding to her elbow was bright with blood. "We'd better get that seen to," I said. "Surely there's a local doctor who can put a few stitches in it."