Deadly Deception (SCVC Taskforce) (31 page)

The house was dark and still cordoned off by police tape, but the interviews were over and the officials gone. The CSI techs had done their thing and everyone had been told to stay away from the house until further notice.

Melanie had been forced to take the last room available in the women’s quarters, her personal stuff left in the house. She’d busied herself borrowing clothing and toiletries from the other women, and was dragged into their various groups to tell her side of the story along the way.

Lance had not returned. Paige was staying with Belinda as usual. No one had told the girl what had happened, but Ronni figured Paige was smart enough to figure most of it out on her own. Especially if she’d overheard even a tenth of what was being said.

Ronni had received a lot of reserved looks from the others. No one seemed to know what to say to her. Thomas had left her to keep tabs on Jacob—he didn’t like the guy any more than she did, and they both had the feeling he was hiding more than his true identity.

Thomas wanted to interview some of the men about Lance. See if he could come up with anything indicating Lance might be the murderer. Meanwhile, Ronni stayed out of sight in the chapel, alone with her thoughts. Her brain was on overdrive, trying to work through the suspects, their possible motives, and the past day’s timeline. She needed a dry erase board or bulletin board to collect all the facts.

Poor Adam
.
He’s scared and alone
.

Again.

Thomas thought she had blinders on when it came to her brother, but Ronni didn’t believe deep down inside that Adam was a murderer any more than she believed he’d been planning an attack on federal agents. Adam was the product of unfortunate circumstances and would never be able to shed the trappings of the past. A past he’d barely survived.

His future didn’t look bright either. Even if he hadn’t killed Kristine and her unborn child—
he doesn’t have it in him
—Adam faced a life of challenges with his health, his relationships, and the federal government always looking over his shoulder, waiting for him to screw up.

I have to find the real killer and make this right.

She made her way to the pulpit, remembering her first day inside the chapel. Paige looking up at her with those big, round eyes. The child was now motherless and her father was under suspicion of murder.

Losing your mother at such a young age was a horrific experience, Ronni knew. It had affected her entire life, and she so often thought of Danielle and wished she were still alive.
A girl shouldn’t have to grow up without her mother.

Adam had lost both of his parents before he even knew them. Paige might have lost both of hers too.

I have to make this right
for her
.

Ronni paced the stage, touched the pulpit, and bowed her head.
I know it’s been a while, God, or whoever’s out there and helped me save Adam before, but please do it again. I need help. Or a sign. Or…something.

She opened her eyes and waited. No burst of inspiration hit. No
aha
idea. Just one nagging sensation she couldn’t shake. One she couldn’t quite name. She headed for the women’s quarters.

Melanie was in the common room, telling her story of the discovery of Kristine’s body for the hundredth time. While she reveled in her drama with the other women, Ronni found the room Melanie was now staying in. It had two single beds, so Ronni laid down on one and waited for her.

An hour later, Melanie bustled into the room with a stack of clothes over one arm and a new toothbrush and toothpaste tube in her hands. She pulled up short and smiled a fake smile at Ronni. “What are you doing here?”

“Sharing your room.” Ronni sat up. “I have nowhere else to stay either, remember?”

“But, uh…” It was the first time Ronni had seen Melanie at a loss for words. “I assumed with Adam gone, you wouldn’t want to stay here.”

“Why not?”

Melanie’s smile dipped and she managed to wrinkle her forehead at the same time. “Your brother killed Kristine. Your presence here is a little…awkward…don’t you think?”

“We don’t know who murdered Kristine. Not yet. And you said Lance did it.”

“Did I?”

She’d told Thomas that.

Setting her armful of clothes on the bed across from Ronni, she offered another smile. This one full of pity. “They found the gun in Adam’s nightstand, Roanna.”

“They found
a
gun. We don’t know if that’s the gun that killed Kristine.”

And anyone could have placed that gun in there.

Melanie sat next to her and patted her hand, that patient and pitiful smile still on her face. As if she was speaking to Paige instead of Ronni. “I know this is horrible for you. Just horrible. And I want you to know that we all feel the same way. No one here at Heaven’s Gate can believe Adam would take a life, especially not one of his followers.”

He didn’t.

“But.” She squeezed Ronni’s hand. “You must prepare yourself for the possibility it’s true. If so—and it looks likely—your presence here will not be well received.”

Was Melanie trying to get rid of her? “But this is my home now.”

One brow lifted. “Even if Adam’s not here?”

Ronni played her part. It wasn’t entirely a lie. “In a few short days, I’ve come to love it here. I don’t want to leave.”

The smile disappeared and a small crease divided Melanie’s forehead. She dropped Ronni’s hand and rose, making work of sorting the donated clothes. “I see.”

Why was Melanie so fired up for Ronni to leave? “I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable to have me here.” Her acting skills were getting a workout. “You’ve been so kind to me, I would hate to cause you trouble.”

“Trouble has already been caused, hasn’t it?” Melanie sighed a burdened sigh, as if she needed to save the whole world and Ronni was a pesky bug buzzing in her ear. “We’ll do what we always do and make the best of things. The farm will go on, and we’ll just have to see how things work out with you.”

“Hopefully, Adam will be back before you know it. The organic farm operations and iChurch business can continue again.”

“Yes, well, luckily the farm is in both of our names, so I can continue operations and build the business without him.”

She sounded quite cheered by that thought.

Hmmm…

Melanie hung a couple of blouses in the cheap armoire between the beds. Tucked some socks in a drawer. “All I ask, Roanna, is that you lay low and don’t stir up strife. Everyone’s upset enough as it is.”

“Stir up strife?”

“You don’t really fit here.” She closed the armoire and picked up a clean towel from her stash to fold it. “Asking a lot of questions and nosing around makes people uncomfortable and they’re already quite wary of you. I know it’s just your manner, but you do question everything. Now might not be the best time to put people on the spot about Adam or Lance.”

So much for being nice to everybody. It was everything Ronni could do not to get in Melanie’s face. Kristine had been murdered. Adam was being set up. And Miss Melanie wanted Ronni to leave.

Ronni tamped down her anger. “Anita told me no one here was allowed to have sex except Adam.”

Melanie nearly dropped a towel. “Anita misspoke. Of course, Adam preferred sexual relations be kept discreet, and that relationships not interfere with our mission, but there’s no rule against sex.”

“Adam told the police he’d never slept with Kristine.”

Melanie waved off the idea. “Nonsense. Of course they slept together. Why do you think he let her live here in the house? After his anointment, he planned to make her a sacred wife.”

Like Daniel had with Danielle. “If she was infertile, and he wanted children, why did he pick her to be a sacred wife?”

“You really do ask too many questions.” Melanie gave an exasperated sigh and set her hands on her hips. “God told Adam that Kristine would be the first to bear him a child.”

God had told Adam? Or someone else had put the idea into Adam’s subconscious when he was delusional? “How often does Adam go off his meds?”

“What? Oh, um, rarely.” She dropped her hands, began putting sheets on her bed. “He’s religious—pardon the pun—about taking them.”

“Who’s his doctor? I should notify him or her about Adam’s condition.”

“He sees Dr. Elgin. And I believe everyone here knows what happened today.”

“So he gets the drugs illegally.”

Melanie snapped the end of a fitted sheet over a corner of the bed. “See, there it is again. You’re acting like an FBI agent, rather than a concerned sister. Which is it, Roanna?”

Both
. Sensing the conversation was over, Ronni headed for the door. “I’m going for a walk. I’ll see you later.”

“It’s nearly ten o’clock.”

“Don’t wait up, then.”

“Where are you going?”

“Nowhere in particular. I just need to clear my head.”

“Be careful out there.”

Ronni turned back. “Why? The murderer’s been caught, right?”

Melanie frowned and Ronni left.

She started for the honey house, wanting to look for the hidden path behind it, but it was dark, and she didn’t want to run into Jacob. Instead, she wandered toward the house, just to see if he appeared.

She found Thomas instead. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” he said with a smirk.

“What are you doing here?”

The police tape flapped every time a breeze lifted it. The skies were clear and the moon turned the tape a sickly grey.

“Waiting for you. I figured you’d want to see the crime scene.”

“I do, and I want to see that path, but I had to have a powwow with my new roomie. She’s none too happy I’m staying here.”

“Melanie?”

“She wants me to leave. Says I’m making people uncomfortable.”

“She want me to leave too?”

“She didn’t say a word about you.”

“Really? I’m hurt. I thought for sure she and I had this thing going, you know.”

Ronni couldn’t help the eye roll. “You’ll get over it.”

“Let’s have a look at Adam’s room while we’re here.” Thomas ducked under the tape. “I want to see if anything seems out of place from our previous visit and I want my phone back.”

Ronni followed him under the tape, up the steps and to the back door. “You can’t remove anything from the house.”

He snickered as he held the door for her. “The hell I can’t.”

“Wow.” The house was eerily dark and quiet. “The Boy Scout is willing to screw with a crime scene for his own purposes.”

“Absolutely.”

His hand felt for hers, caught it. He drew her toward him. “You okay?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“After what went down here today, you have every right to be upset.”

The thought of Adam killing Kristine and his unborn child knotted her stomach. Since the moment she’d found Lance and Adam in the honey house, the twitch between her shoulder blades had been going crazy. “What was Adam doing in the honey house with Lance?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“Do you think the ‘Judas’ Adam kept referring to in the chapel was Kristine?”

Her eyes were adjusting to the dark, but she felt more than saw him shrug. “Does it matter? The guy was schizo when he was talking about that.”

“What if the baby
wasn’t
Adam’s? What if Kristine was only
claiming
it was?”

“Jeez, what a fucking mess. If that’s true, and Adam knew it…”

“He might have thought she was after something. Like becoming a sacred wife, even if she wasn’t pregnant. And a sacred wife would have more power and influence than Melanie.”

“Not worth murder. A simple paternity test would have proven he wasn’t the father.”

“To you and me, that’s simple, but in Adam’s current mental state, who knows what he was thinking?”

“So maybe in his mind, God told him to kill the evil baby and its mother.”

“I hate to admit it, but it’s possible.”

“What a goatfuck.”

“At least he didn’t try to kill
me
.”

His thumb rubbed the pulse at her wrist. “Granted, but he did burn your picture. Kind of symbolic, don’t you think?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think.”

“That makes two of us.”

They had to leave the lights off or draw attention, but Thomas—
smart man
—had brought a flashlight. He clicked it on and they headed upstairs. The wood under their feet popped and squeaked in spots. Before, it had been charming, now it was eerie.

Everything about the house had changed in Ronni’s mind. What had initially been a warm and inviting home now seemed cold and haunted. Thanks to Thomas, the lines of
Hotel California
ran through her head. “I’m surprised you’re not humming or singing that stupid song.”

“I was trying to be considerate. You know, like a Keanu Reeves character. All emo and shit.”

She smiled into the dark. They’d reached the second floor landing, and the empty hallway loomed.