Chapter 45

 

 

Pen watched the clouds race eastward across the sky. The storm was on its way out, and she would miss the rainy, gray days. Arizona, known for clear skies and hot sunshine, sometimes wore her down. Days like these past few reminded her of her childhood in England. She glanced up to see a little Ford pulling into the parking lot.

Mary parked outside Heaven Sent and walked over to the Temple of the Rising Moon, while Pen lowered her window to say hello.

“Looks pretty quiet around here,” Mary said.

“They aren’t exactly lining them up at the door, are they?” Pen joked.

“I’m going to walk around back and take a look. Stay warm in the car.” Mary set a brisk pace as she ducked between the tall palm tree and a big oleander near the base of it.

She returned less than two minutes later. “Just as Trini said—the bus and trailer are gone; the VW is sitting there. Back door is locked up tight, and I don’t see any sign of those security guards.”

“I believe Amber named them the goons.”

A late-model red pickup truck pulled into the lot and stopped at the front door of the building. A forty-something man, with the build of a Marine, got out and looked toward the ladies. Pen got out of her car and joined Mary.

“Royce Williams,” the man said. “Did I talk to one of you on the phone?”

Mary shook his hand and introduced herself and Pen.

“So, my tenants moved out a little early?” he asked.

“We think so. But they’ve left a car out back. They’re wanted for questioning, and we’re curious as to whether they may come back,” Pen said. The ‘wanted for questioning’ was a brilliant bit on her part, she thought.

“I always do a walk-through—usually accompanied by the tenant,” Royce said. “Need to know whether I owe their security deposit back to them. Looks like I’d better go ahead with it now. Come along, if you want.”

Pen was glad they hadn’t needed to ask for the privilege. The women followed as Royce unlocked the front door. Immediately, she noticed the purple curtains which had sectioned off the room for the séance groups. Chairs for the audiences sat in rows, although slightly more disheveled than she’d last seen them. She spotted a sticker for Acme Party Rentals on one of them.

“Okay,” he said, pushing between the draperies. “Looks like I’ve got a cleanup job here.”

In the larger portion of the warehouse-like space, the risers and chairs were still in place. The big stage where Orion had stood, bestowing blessings upon the crowd, and the backdrop curtains were all there.

“Dammit—they didn’t clean out anything,” he said. “What the hell were they doing here anyway?” He glanced at Pen. “Sorry for the language, ma’am.”

She waved off the apology and pointed out the sticker. “It appears the chairs and risers may have been rented. Certainly, Acme would come to retrieve their part of it all.”

Mary had meandered to the area behind the audience seating and was studying a large table. “But this stuff looks like theirs. There’s some pretty expensive sound equipment here, and a lighting control panel.” She slid two of the levers, and spotlights shone on the center of the stage.

“It’s quite a lot of gear,” Pen murmured. “Surprising they would abandon it.”

Royce strode past the rows of seating, bypassed the stage, and walked behind it. The women could hear metallic clanking, then the sound of a door opening.

“Do you suppose the Fordyces plan to come back?” Mary whispered to Pen.

She gave it some thought and shook her head. “I doubt it. But the purpose of—” The answer hit her just as Royce reappeared.

“No deposit back for these guys. This is a massive job,” he said. “Gonna take me days to get rid of this stuff. That, or hire a crew. And technically I can’t start until after the thirty-first.”

He removed his ball cap and ran fingers through his dark hair, looking as though he’d like to kick something. “You ladies done here?” He started for the front door.

“Yes,” said Pen. “Thank you for letting us take a look.”

“Hey, you come across that couple, you let me know. I didn’t charge them near enough as a cleaning deposit.” He ushered them out and locked the door, still muttering. “I knew it! Between their religious patter and her batting those baby-blues at me, I was stupid to believe a thing they said.”

Mary smiled and thanked him again. Pen only wanted to agree with what he’d just said. They watched him drive away, throwing dirt as the pickup spun out of the parking area.

“What do you make of it?” Mary asked. “I saw your face in there. A lightbulb came on, didn’t it?”

“Quite possibly. Think about it a moment. The trailer arrived here filled with all that gear—lights, sound equipment, draperies, large screen monitors—and it left here empty?”

“Seemingly …”

“I have this dreadfully titillating feeling it was filled with money.”

“Oh my god, Pen. You’re right. All the time we’ve wondered what they did with the bulk of the cash, all the searches Amber has been doing for their banks … and the money was right here under our noses, sitting in that trailer.”

“It would be so terribly risky,” Pen said. “Can you imagine—if someone had taken a fancy to the trailer and hauled it away while the Fordyces were not looking?”

“It’s probably why they lived in the bus, so they could keep an eye on everything.”

Pen stood beside her car, staring toward the distant mountains. “And yet … something does not feel exactly right about this theory either. I only wish I knew what that something is.”