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Chapter Twenty-Six
Illumination
Salem was certain, as he was crammed into the van
with the other suspects, he had been brought by Marie Roget to the depths of
humiliation. He was about to be tested
for drugs by the Los Angeles police.
What if they concluded that he was, in fact, the missing Mister
Leeds? He could not coherently respond
to the train of thoughts flashing into his head to bolster his spirit: Salem,
where is your faith? I will protect
you. They will find out nothing. Adam is dead. You are, to them, a blank sheet...
At the station, after a malodorous
ride with the other vagrants, they were all taken down a long hall to special
rooms in which the women in one cubicle and the men in the other were asked to
urinate into small plastic cups.
Afterwards, blood was drawn from each of them. Because of the number of the suspects and Deputy Chief Walker’s
interest in this investigation, the results were expedited by the lab. Salem was reminded as he took his turn to
enter the restroom, fill is cup, and hand it to the technician, of the time he
took his father for his annual physical.
That time, however, a polite, chipper nurse directed his father as he
read magazines in the waiting room. His
father and mother were dead now. They
would have been shocked to find out that their son was also having his urine
sample taken and blood drawn to see if he had taken illegal drugs. This time, the only reading materials were
wanted posters and various signs directing the suspect to his or her
destination.
As he sat with the others in a large
holding room that smelled of urine and foul air, he looked across the floor to
where Marie sat with the women, wondering why the Princess of Darkness would
allow herself to be treated like a common tramp. Judging by the smile on her adolescent face, she almost looked as
if she was enjoying the experience.
The final step after the department’s
efforts to see if he had taken drugs was a simple discussion given by a
uniformed policeman, who counseled him as he would all vagrants they were
turning back onto the street. Salem
barely heard his advice on finding employment and returning to society. He realized that this young man had
memorized his speech and would give it to all the others before he was
done. What amazed him, at that point,
and made him feel light-headed and giddy was the fact that they hadn’t made any
connection between himself and Adam Leeds.
They were also not holding him as a suspect as Sergeant Cosgrove had
hoped. Suddenly, as he felt his mentor’s
soft hand on his, and they were rising to leave the crowded room, he felt euphoric
again, as he had when he realized on the street that nothing could harm him
with her nearby.
When Salem, Marie,
and the twelve disciples had been brought in, the expectation that members of
this group might be under the influence of drugs had ran high in the
precinct. The couple and their motley
followers had given the officers and detectives quite a show. Though their leaders behaved themselves when
they were being processed ostensibly for trespassing and suspicion of using
illegal substances, several of the homeless people boasted that Salem and Marie
would give the atheist cops “what-for” and anyone messing with Salem Dade would
feel the full wrath of the Universal Lord.
Kaz, playing the court jester again, even did a little jig. Now, as they were gathered up, handed a
packet of information that included a flyer from the mission, the police and
detectives in the precinct watched this spectacle with mixed emotions. Many shook their heads or laughed amongst
themselves. As Jake and Sam remained on
duty at the end of their shift, the realization fell heavily over the sergeant, that
Salem and his disciples, including Marie Roget, had been found drug-free and
would be set loose to carry on whatever ominous enterprise Salem planned for
the community and the world. Sam, who
shared Jake’s embarrassment this hour, tried to console the sergeant as they
stood there watching the fourteen homeless people file out of the precinct onto
the street.
“You should be ashamed of yo’ selves,”
Ursula Printer wrung her finger at them, “for accusing God’s anointed.”
“He’s gonna punish you,” sneered Liz
Moydin. “You’ll burn in hell!”
They still don’t understand, Marie’s
thoughts filled Salem’s head. We
have much work to do to make them understand the Universal Lord.
“I need a drink,” Salem stared dully
into the night.
As they departed behind their leader,
Sam stifled the urge to trip one of them.
“I don’t care what the lab found,” he set his jaw. “Those people are on something!”
“I can’t believe it,” Jake kept muttering
to himself. “They’re clean. Not one of
them tested positive for drugs. The
bastards are clean!”
******
As they walked to
the parking lot, Sam gave words of encouragement to Jake, although he needed
consoling, himself. They had, he
explained thoughtfully to the sergeant, acted upon reasonable suspicion. Salem Dade had appeared autistic on the
street, exhibiting a behavior associated with prolonged drug use, and yet he
was totally coherent, albeit coached, in the hotel. Marie Roget, though her social security card said differently,
had looked under-aged, and she displayed bizarre behavior today. Salem and Marie, it was plain to see, had
been play-acting, which meant they had something to hide. Not only did Marie appear to control Salem
Dade but she also had an inexplicable power over the disciples’ minds. Though the vagrants apparently had no
illegal substances in their bloodstreams, many of them, on the previous day,
appeared to be high on drugs. Drugs,
Sam reminded Jake, was therefore not the issue. A greater issue, he could not put into words, was in play. While Sam consoled his partner, however, his
lip twitched slightly and he broke into a worried frown. Clearly, Jake realized, Sam’s words didn’t
match his expression. He was humoring
him again. He had been doing that a lot
lately, as Jake fell into his moods.
Sam had proven his
loyalty and trust once again. The old
detective was moved greatly, but also felt a surge of guilt. He had placed them both in a difficult
situation, the outcome of which hinged upon the new deputy chief’s
support. His detour to the Fairmont
hotel had been sanctioned only by Walker.
What if Randall, discouraged by the results of the investigation,
changed his mind?
When he and Sam
parted with a handshake in the parking lot, his feeling of guilt deepened. For the first time since his rookie days,
Jake was worried about his job. Almost
as acutely, as he entered the Santa Ana Freeway and headed home, did he feel
concern for Sam’s career. Until he
reached his Anaheim home, a bottomless depression gripped him that only Anna,
his indulgent wife, could dispel. When
the Cosgrove’s phone rang and Anna picked up the receiver, Jake vaulted down
the stairs, after having changed into casual wear, and grabbed the receiver out
of her hands.
“Calm down Jake,”
she murmured as he raised the receiver to his ear.
“Jake, Howard
here,” a gruff voice barked into the phone. “I just got the lab results from
the alleged drug addicts found in the old Fairmont Hotel. I also talked to some of the officers
arriving initially at the scene. Those
folks were as clean as boy scouts.
What’s all this malarkey about that woman Marie Roget? You fellows made us look stupid, Jake. I need some answers. What happened out there today?”
“Listen
Lieutenant,” Jake set his jaw. “I know it sounds crazy, but I was only relating
to officers Reed and Garth what I heard.
As far as the drug bust, our people overreacted on that. We expected backup, not an anti-terrorist
unit. It might seem unnecessary the way
they dragged those people in, but we had, after the narcs found all that
paraphernalia, just cause.”
“All right, Jake,
Rick Vance agrees with you there, but I didn’t authorize you to check Salem
Dade and his crowd out. I certainly
didn’t want you going back there after they couldn’t find evidence of a
crime. Ashes don’t mean shit, if
they’re sterile. Is this a private
investigation, Jake? What do you care
about a bunch of vagrants sleeping in a condemned hotel?”
His voice grew
increasingly cutting, until Jake lost his temper and shouted into the phone,
“Lieutenant Howard, calm down! How dare
you take that tone with me? In the
first place, it’s standard policy for police to stop and investigate an ongoing
crime. Sam and I suspected foul play in
skid row. If we hadn’t of taken a
detour off a traffic-jammed freeway, we wouldn’t have known about Salem
Dade. I don’t have an agenda, Bill. Why would you suggest such a thing?”
Bill’s voice took
on a sharper edge. “Watch your tone,
Jake, you’re close to insubordination now.
You always are. You know
I don’t like hot doggers. You ain’t no
rookie. You know the rules.”
“You know what
Bill, I’m going to call Walt Franklin and get his input on this. If he wants me to apologize to you, I’ll
call you right back. Otherwise, if you
don’t hear from me, go straight to hell!”
“Jake, Jake!” Anna
rung her hands after he hung up. “Your retirement from the department is only
months away. Why would you antagonize
Bill like that?”
“Because,” he shot
back angrily, “he’s an asshole. This
isn’t the first time he’s interfered with my judgment. I think that man works for internal
affairs. I still know Salem’s a big
problem, Anna. I can’t explain it—hell,
I barely understand it myself, but I’m certain he torched a couple of homeless
people down there. It’s the same
feeling I have about the Reverend Adam Leeds.
Haven’t you ever just known something deep down inside of you that you
couldn’t explain but you knew was true?”
“Yes,” Anna
confessed bluntly. “I know I’m going to die.
But I don’t want to see your career in shamble before I go.”
“Don’t talk that
way,” he reached out to hug his wife. “The doctors still have hope.”
“No, Jake,” she
allowed her frail body to be engulfed in his brawny arms. “You have hope.”
“I’ve heard you mumbling in your sleep.” She withdrew and looked at him with
clear, but moist dark eyes. “….You sounded like you were praying…. Then I heard
you mumble ‘False Prophet, Counterfeit Christ.’…. I’ve read the Bible, Jake. Those are apocalyptic terms—the kind
Reverend Le Blanch used to spout at the church we attended in Orange.”
“I’ve forgotten
about those days,” Jake said, kissing his wife’s brow. “Don’t worry, I’ll patch
things up when I talk to Franklin. This
won’t take long.”
Jake called Walt
Franklin’s home in her presence and was startled when the captain immediately picked up the phone.
Against a
background of loud music, a man’s voice answered, “Franklin residence. This is Walt.”
“This is Jake
Cosgrove,” the sergeant said light-headedly, his heart hammering in this chest.
“I’m sorry I’m calling you at home, but I need to talk to you about something.”
“Wait a sec,” Walt
shouted over the noise. “My oldest son and his band are showing off to me and
my wife. I’ll take my cell phone outside.”
After a moment, in
which he took the opportunity to go over all the facts in his mind, he heard
that good-natured voice again, this time in the silence of Walt Franklin’s
large Brentwood yard.
“I know why your calling,
Jake,” he sighed faintly. “Howard’s never liked you. I’m sorry about that. He
thinks you’re a grandstander, because you never play by the rules. But Rick Vance was pretty spooked by those
folks too, and so were members of his team.
Fact is, I was going to call you about something else. It’s been bothering me for a couple of
days.”
“Something else?”
Jake was taken back.
Walt was silent a
moment, as he listened to a distant howling of a coyote in the hills. What else did Howard have on him? wondered
Jake. Searching his memory for all the
side detours and short cuts he taken with his partner Sam, he could think of
only one possible issue: the voice recorder.
Sam had warned him about using it undercover…. Or was it more basic than
this…. Could it be the slack he had been giving members of squad one? What if it was about one of his unorthodox
methods of getting information? Walt
was right; he had, at times, for a good cause, broken the rules.
“… I know that I
called you in for the Leed’s case,” replied Walt after a pause. “But they found
no evidence of arson in the ruins and no evidence of a crime. This should have been an open and shut case,
Jake. I’m disturbed that it’s still
going on.”
“I’m sorry,” Jake
sat down, with the greatest relief, and took Anna’s hand. “I was just following
orders. You’re the one who called me
into it, Walt. I’ve done everything by
the book.”
“By who’s book,
Jake,” Walt exhaled heavily into the phone.
“There’s such a thing as the chain of command. No wonder Howard’s pissed.
Frankly, I’m a little upset myself.
You’ve got to start following the rules.”
“What do you want
me to do, ” Jake grinned at Anna, “apologize to Howard. I was just doing my job when I interviewed
those people on the street. Howard
accuses me of having an agenda. What
kind’ve agenda could I have in that neck of the woods? ”
“I know Jake,” Walt
settled in a lawn chair and looked wistfully at the pool, “you always do your
job… and so much more. I’d like to know
why, however, proper procedures weren’t followed. The street was a one shot thing, but who gave you permission to
interview all those people from that church?”
“I was ordered,”
Jake sighed. “If you clear it with
Chief Randall, I’ll drop it at once.
I’ll stay away from Salem Dade too.”
“I don’t care about
Dade,” Franklin snapped now. “I’d have pulled over too. But we’re getting calls from some prominent
citizens in that other group.
They think they’re being harassed for Leeds’ disappearance. For Christ’s sake, Jake, it’s barely been
seventy-two hours. There’s no evidence
of homicide or even arson to justify an investigation like this.”
“There won’t be,”
Jake murmured almost to himself.
“What?” grunted
Walt. “You admit it?… What do you mean by that, Jake?”
“I think it will
become a cold case, Walt,” replied Jake, a dreamy look breaking on his stony
face, “but much, much more. Sometimes we, as cops, get hunches we call
gut instinct. Sometimes our facts are
just plain luck. This time I’m in the
dark, Walt, and yet I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. You’re going to have to talk to Chief
Walker, yourself. You know as much as
I.”
“I did,” Walt
sighed again. “Randall was very evasive…. It’s as if he’s got something to
hide.” “Things have changed since Randall Walker came aboard,” he complained,
almost to himself. “Goodnight, Jake,” he signed off on a glum of note. “I hope
Anna’s feeling better. I just found
this week, I have type two diabetes.
That’s the bottom line, isn’t it?
Screw this job!”
After Walt had signed off, Jake checked his cell
phone screen and saw the small envelope indicating that someone had left him a
call. He had checked his voice mail
only fifteen minutes ago but then, out of habit, turned off his phone, so it
wouldn’t ring during his discussion with Walt.
The message he heard now, of course, was from Deputy Chief Walker. A strange, inexplicable feeling of
well-being overtook the sergeant, when he read the message on his phone:
“Jake, Walker here. Good work, Sergeant Cosgrove.
You and partner Sam are on the right track. Please drop by the house tonight. We want to talk to you about the Dade and Leeds case.”
“I’ll be damned!” he muttered to
himself. “The Dade and Leeds case…. I’m on the right track….
Son-of-a-bitch!”
“What did you say,” Anna was suddenly
shaking his arm. “You’re talking to yourself, Jake. Are you all right?
“I’m all right, ” he looked at his
wife, illumination growing on his face. “I have the deputy chief on my
side. He didn’t let me down!”
“You have the Lord on your side,” she
said to him as he kissed her check and headed toward the door. “He will never
let you down!”
“I love you Anna,” he called back as
he exited the house.
Though he would tell Anna everything, Jake had no
intention of telling Walt about the meeting at Randall Walker’s house
tonight. This, he sensed, had nothing
to do with departmental business, and yet it appeared as if he might be working
for the deputy chief directly now. An
excitement he had not felt since his rookie days filled him as he exited his
home and walked toward his car.
******
As he drove across town to Brentwood,
he wished that Sam was with him now.
Sam deserved recognition too. He
had been acting strangely around his partner for weeks. So impulsively now, he called Sam’s
home. After allowing his landline to
ring for several moments, he left a message for Sam to call him, and then
called him on his cell phone. When
Sam’s cell phone voice mail kicked in, Jake was not alarmed. Sam and his wife Linda were probably out on
a date tonight—it was about time, smiled Jake.
No matter, he thought, as he approached Randall’s neighborhood. I’ll talk to Sam tomorrow.
Unwittingly perhaps, Sam was the one who first tied
Dade and Leeds together. This thought
had appeared as a meteor in his dark thoughts…. Now, as he searched for
Randall’s house, a light continued to grow in his mind—all starting with that
casual remark. When he drove up to the
Walker estate, he noticed that the street was lined with other
automobiles. One of them was a patrol
car with an LAPD logo on its sides. It
took him several minutes to find a parking space on the curb and walk up the
long, winding path to the entrance of the house. When the chief’s wife answered the door and led him into the living
room, Sergeant Jake Cosgrove could scarcely believe his eyes. There in Randall’s living room, with the
chief walking cordially toward him, was the deputy fire chief, Sid Barnes,
several prominent citizens, including Dwight Higgins, whom he had talked to
earlier this week, and Officer Fred Gandy standing next to his partner
Sam. In a dimly lit corner whispering
excitedly to Sid’s wife Vickie, was Jetta Carlson, the only member of the news
media present in the room.
“Sam!” Jake cried out happily.
“Welcome, Jake,” Randall Walker
proffered his hand, “I’m so glad you came…. You and your partner Sam Ruiz have
done a fine job. Now it’s time to let
you know what this case is really about.” “Sit down Jake,” he motioned
to an easy chair. “Sam told me everything.
I went through the same metamorphosis myself after my wife Sylvia was
cured…. For you it comes slower because you’re not a believer, like the rest of
us—not withstanding Sam Ruiz—in the room.
We plan on working on that.”
Sam’s dark face seemed to redden as
everyone turned to stare at him. He
smiled with embarrassment at Jake and shrugged his shoulders as if to say
“beats me!”
“Believers?” Jake looked around the
room. “…. I don’t understand. Believers
of what?” “Who are you people?” He motioned to the others standing in back of
the room. Many of them moved through
the sliding door to greet him. At least
a dozen more spilled in from the dining room and hall.
“We are Lord Jesus’ witnesses for the
End Times,” Dwight Higgins called from their midst.
“We have seen the second beast and are
truly blessed.” Sid Barnes came forward arm and arm with his wife, with Jetta
Carlson following close behind. In the
light of the living room, the glowing faces of the remnant of Our Lord and
Savior’s Christian Church who attended Dwight Higgins meeting were discernable,
including Amy Sullivan and her friend Jolene Frick.
“There-there, don’t be afraid,”
Randall squeezed Jake’s trembling hand.
“We share a secret. We have been
calling ourselves the Brotherhood of the Fish, but because half of us are
women, we need a new name.”
“We are the first to know!” Officer Fred Gandy’s face was radiant in the subdued light.
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