Chapter 25

 

 

Pen always enjoyed entertaining, and Benton Case was easy to cook for. They’d once been lovers for a brief spell. Now they were one of the rare couples who happily remained close after the passion had dwindled to an easy friendship. Tonight, she’d made his favorite pasta dish.

Her Christmas tree stood in the corner of the living room, beautifully decorated in her favorite shades of blue and lavender, and she had strung soft lights around the perimeter wall of the small yard. Beyond the wall, the view of Phoenix spread out below for miles in each direction, like a bonus spread of holiday lighting, just for the two of them. They stood outside in the mild breeze, enjoying a glass of wine while the Florentine pasta shells baked.

“So, what do you think?” Pen asked. She had told him about the two situations the Heist Ladies were working on.

“Both cases are intriguing but, truthfully, I doubt you’ll ever know what happened to the missing items from the people at Heaven Sent. Shelters like that are not secure places. Sad as it is, I would imagine things disappear all the time.” He sipped his merlot. “The other case sounds as if it may have merit—from a legal standpoint.”

Pen heard the timer on the oven. “Let’s go inside. I want to hear more, and dinner’s ready.”

He carried their wine glasses to the dining room. She dropped her light shawl over the back of the sofa and went into the kitchen. Filling plates with the piping hot pasta dish, garlic bread and salads, she carried them to the table. They toasted one another and resumed the conversation.

“Anyway, as you probably already know, prosecuting fraud can be tricky. First, you need evidence. And then you need witnesses who will come forward and admit they were cheated. It becomes especially difficult when the deception comes under the guise of some sort of religious activity. People tend to cling very strongly to their beliefs, for one thing, and they also don’t like having it pointed out that they were caught in a gullible moment.”

Pen nodded thoughtfully, remembering Anna who had sat next to her. The woman’s trust in Orion and Sunshine had reached a fervor by the time the séance-like session ended that night.

“You mentioned evidence. What sort of evidence?”

“Catching them in the act is always good. That would mean law enforcement agents attending their services and documenting the claims.”

“I can’t think what, exactly, they are claiming. It’s not as if an afterlife is something that can be proved or disproved. But that’s not really what they seem to be about, even though there is talk about earning a place in heaven and other such rhetoric. The real push of the regular services is about raising money to build housing for the poor.”

“Good,” he said, taking a second slice of garlic bread. “That’s a concrete claim, and one that should be provable. Or disprovable. If they take money and don’t use it for what they claim they will, that’s fraud.”

“We’re making a bit of progress there,” Pen said, telling him of Gracie and Amber’s efforts to establish the chain of real estate ownership.

He nodded. “That’s good. But I’m not sure it’s enough to take to the District Attorney or to the US Attorney if the properties are in more than one state. They’ll want to see some kind of documentation before they organize a raid and search the couple’s premises.”

“Considering they are living in an old bus, I have a hard time picturing all their business enterprises actually being on the premises.”

“You’d be surprised. An entire business can exist on a laptop computer these days.”

“That’s where the real evidence will be then.” Her eyes lit up, but she couldn’t exactly reveal to Benton, a former district attorney himself, that she’d just had a vision of stealing Orion’s computer.

“What about the other routine they do, the sessions I think of as séances? Telling people Orion can communicate with their dead loved ones is cruel. And charging money for it—it’s absolutely reprehensible.”

He placed a hand on hers. “Pen, dear. Yes, you are right. Sadly, this will be the hardest of all your cases to prove. How does one prove that he didn’t actually receive some message from the Great Beyond? There are bona fide psychics who receive messages the rest of us cannot understand.”

“But not on cue, in front of an audience, revealing facts most anyone could either find online or can get the person to reveal with a few clever questions.”

He laughed softly. “That’s my girl. I know you’ll figure out something.” He reached for her empty plate and stacked it with his. “Now, what’s for dessert?”

 

* * *

 

Pen was delighted when she received an invitation from the Fordyces to attend a second of their intimate gatherings “to communicate with our dear departed ones.” She called Amber.

“Benton tells me we need proof—we’ll get proof.”

“Come by my place on your way to the séance. I’ll get you all fixed up,” Amber told her.

Pen touched the jeweled brooch on her lavender suit jacket as she approached the Moon Temple. Amber had said the tiny embedded chip behind the buttonhole camera would record an hour’s worth of video. Pen thought it a good idea to record the entire process, from the greeting at the door to the ‘show’ inside. This time she planned on feeding out a few false details, just to see how her information would be used.

Sunshine seemed in an ebullient mood tonight, greeting each newcomer with a warm hand clasp and taking an interest as she asked their names. Pen barely spotted the little flesh-colored earbud, and she tried to aim the brooch toward Sunshine in hopes of catching a glimpse of it with her camera.

As luck would have it, Pen walked in just ahead of Anna, and the other woman suggested they sit together. Perfect.

This time, when Orion tested by calling out the name of Pen’s mother, she tentatively raised a hand and stood.

“I believe you might be talking about me,” she said, adding the right amount of hesitation to her voice.

When he heard her accent, he beamed. “I believe I am. I’m hearing the voice of a British woman. She was a war bride. You were born in the UK but have lived here much of your life.”

Pen nodded. The information was almost verbatim from her author biography that was posted widely online.

“Your mother transitioned from this earthly realm to the other side, let’s see … it’s been two years ago now?”

Pen had planted that tidbit with Anna, standing near the entrance where Sunshine could overhear. In reality, her mother had been gone for decades.

“Twenty-seven months, oh gosh yes, that’s right.” She tried to put the right amount of enthusiasm into her voice without sounding as if she was mocking him.

“You miss her very much.” His voice dropped into a sad register, and Pen felt Sunshine gently touch her arm. These two were good.

Pen nodded.

“Your mother is doing well. She’s in a happy place. She wants you to know—” He squeezed his eyes closed, appearing to be concentrating very hard. “To know …” He let his breath out in a rush. “I’m sorry. I’ve lost contact. Maybe later. If I hear more from her I will write everything down. Please get in touch. I’ll be happy to share whatever I learn.”

He straightened his shoulders, took a deep breath, and turned toward someone at the other side of the room. The spiel began again.