After the afternoon workshop session, Kate and I took a break. She returned to the room she shared with Norma to wash her hair. I returned to my cottage, straightened up, and then took a brief but satisfying nap. I woke up at six-thirty and hit the dining-room dinner line just before it closed. I didn’t see Kate, so I grabbed enough food that she would have something if she was running late. That turned out to be propitious; when I sat down at our usual table, Norma handed me Kate’s note that explained she was tied up doing interviews for the Sheriff’s Department.
At 7:45Pm Kate ran in and sat down next to me. “Thanks for saving me food, I was running errands for Laura and O’Malley.”
“How’d it go?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
At a little bit after eight, Kate and I went to the last evening session of the Transitions workshop and sat in our
accustomed seats. I noticed that Lois and Tammy were sitting close together.
“I think Lois and Tammy hooked up,” Lucy whispered.
“Welcome to what normally would be the last session of the Transitions workshop,” David said. “Usually, we have a talent show tonight, but considering the circumstances, we decided against it.”
Cheryl shifted forward, “We thought that we would open up the group so that any of you who haven’t had a chance to fully express yourselves could.”
Across the room, I saw Lois nudge Tammy, who slowly got to her feet. I noticed that instead of dressing like she was about to play golf at the country club, Tammy was wearing more casual clothes and a grey-brown shawl around her shoulders. She’d let her hair down into a long braid. “I don’t know what I expected when I came here. I was stuck in loveless relationship and couldn’t see a way out. And then Lois befriended me.”
“I bet she ‘befriended’ her,” Kate whispered.
I bit my tongue.
“Mama bear,” Lucy whispered. “Can you teach me about befriending?”
Kate, Julie, and I struggled not to crack up.
David shot us a “get it together” look.
Fortunately, Tammy didn’t hear us.
Tammy took a long time to tell us that Lois had helped her understand that “love has many faces” and, in the process, Tammy had experienced a level of sexual pleasure she hadn’t known before. I was happy for Tammy, but I couldn’t fully appreciate what she had to share because I kept dozing off. Several times, Kate woke me by whispering, “Tom, you’re snoring.”
“Who wants to go next?” Cheryl asked.
Rory raised his hand. He explained that he had met a new girl in the work-study group, but instead of asking her to go to the baths he was “going slow.” Rory got accolades for this, but I wondered how long his restraint would last. Rory needs a real father, I said to myself and wondered if I had the time to take him on as “project.”
Aoife raised her hand. She’d received a phone call from her husband, who was home caring for their daughters. The Berkeley police had arrested her stalker, Ray, for setting a fire in a homeless encampment; he was in jail and likely to stay there for a considerable period.
“Anyone else?” Cheryl asked and looked slowly around the room. “Okay. That’s it for tonight. We’ll see you tomorrow at 9AM for what probably is our wrap-up session.”
“I’m not ready to go to the baths,” Kate said.
“I’m not sure if I’m going to be ready to go anytime soon,” I said. “I have your bite marks all over my body.”
“What a baby,” Kate said, giving me a punch on the arm. “Just wait until it gets darker.”
“I guess.”
“Anyway, I want to check Bryn Moore’s cottage before it gets too dark. Want to go with me?”
“Of course.”
We walked north through the campus and Kate briefed me on her interviews. “Talk about incestuous,” I said.
“I know. Eastwick didn’t have any boundaries and it rubbed off on his staff.”
“Speaking of boundaries,” I said. “I’m monogamous. I’m not sharing you with anyone in the universe.”
“Good. Since I’m not sharing you, either.” She stopped and gave me a warm kiss.
“I’m in responsible adult mode. That will end when we get into the baths.”
Bryn Moore lived in a one-bedroom cottage slightly to the north of Malcom Eastwick’s home. We put on gloves and then Kate fished Moore’s key out of her pocket and opened the door.
I stayed in the doorway.
Once again, the residence had been trashed.
Kate slipped on booties before she stepped inside and turned on the light. “Similar to what we saw at Eastwick’s.” The mattress had been slit open and the books pulled off the bookshelves. The side table had been pulled over. Kate straightened it and opened the drawer. “Various kinds of drugs.” There was a plastic bowl on the floor. “Drug pipes and sex toys.” Kate went into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. “More drugs. I bet there are some hidden. Tom, put on gloves and booties and help me with the search.”
We found the trapdoor when we moved Moore’s couch and rug. Kate carefully pulled open the door, revealing a sizable concrete basement. “I saw a setup like this when I was with Fresno P.D.” She shone a flashlight into the secret room. “Tom, hand me a big throw pillow.”
I pulled a pillow off Moore’s couch and handed it to Kate.
She centered it over the opening and dropped it. A gun went off and the pillow exploded. I smelled something like fireworks.
“Can’t be too safe,” Kate said. “Look around and see if you can find a long-handled broom.”
I found what she wanted in a closet off the kitchen. Kate lowered the broom into the secret room and twirled it around. Then she swept it over the steel-rung ladder. “Looks safe. I’m going down.”
I thought about telling Kate to be careful but decided against it.
“This isn’t a drug lab,” Kate said. “More like a place where Moore stored drugs and occasionally cut big portions into smaller units. Tom, please hand me your phone.”
I leaned into the drug room and handed Kate my iPhone.
She turned the flashlight on and scanned the walls. “There’s one wall for cannabis products and another for drugs,” Kate said. “There’s a third wall with a mixing board. There’s a bottle of white powder, maybe Levamisole. On the last wall there’s a safe.”
“Any chance we can open it?”
“None unless you have some sketchy talents I’m not aware of.”
“Sorry. I’m terminally straight.”
Kate chortled. “I like that about you. Let me look closer at the drug shelf.” She began taking photos. “Bags of cocaine. A box of blue pills that may be Fentanyl. Tabs of what could be LSD or some other psychedelic.”
“See if there are any roofies.”
“Rohypnol. Good idea.” Kate shone the flashlight around the shelf. “Here’s a plastic container with olive-green pills. They could be roofies.”
“What about the other drug they found in Malcolm? The one that was injected.”
“I forgot the name,” Kate said. “I don’t see any syringes here or vials of injectable drugs.” She took more photos. “Tom, look into my kit bag and removed the spool of police masking tape.”
I found what she wanted and tossed it to Kate. She covered the safe with yellow police tape. She similarly demarcated the cannabis and loose drug shelves. When Kate was done, she tossed me the tape and climbed up the steel ladder. We closed the trap door and covered it with yellow police tape.
“Anything else,” she asked.
I pointed to a spy camera perched on a living room shelf atop a stack of CDs. Kate took a photo of it and then led me out of Moore’s cabin.
We stood on the porch and pulled off our gloves and booties. “Let’s go call Laura.”