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I helped him out. "Snakes? Bears? Polecats? A tribe of ca
"I was thinking more along the lines of the person who murdered Ruth," he said.
"The flashlight," I repeated. While he was rooting through his trunk, I told Judith that it might be best for the children and adults to stay together until we returned. She nodded, then grasped Naomi and headed her toward the cabin.
Corporal Robarts and I went around the garden and started down what had once been a road. Weeds sprouted in the middle like a bad Mohawk haircut.
"What can you tell me about Naomi? " I asked.
"I haven't had much to do with her. I brought them here and introduced the other Beamers. I don't recollect her being in town since then."
"You said you brought them here. Does that mean you told her where to leave her car when she arrived in Dunkicker?"
"That's not what I said. They showed up at the PD one afternoon and said Deborah had told them that I would drive them to Camp Pearly Gates. I didn't ask any questions."
"Bonita found their cars earlier this afternoon. The sheriff's department put enough pressure on the DMV to open its files on a Sunday. Four cars, four names, and four home addresses. Sarah's the one who came from Muskogee. Norella, or Ruth, if you prefer, had a car registered in her own name. I'd bet that Naomi's from Springfield. You know who that leaves, Corporal Robarts?"
"Hold on," he said. "There's a cabin behind those trees. We'd better stay quiet."
We might not have gone undetected by ca
I took the flashlight out of his hand and went around him. A minute later, I returned. "They're not here, and it doesn't look as if anyone else has been in here for the better part of a decade. Where's the next cabin?"
"Over that way," he said, pointing. "The ones away from the lodge tend to be clustered in groups of two or three, sometimes four." He retrieved the flashlight. "You want me to show you?"
I fell into step behind him, wishing he'd slow down so I could see the path. "I think the remaining car belonged to Ester."
"Why do you think that?"
I tripped over a stump and had to grab a vine to steady myself. Catching a whiff of him was more effective than sticking my nose over a bottle of smelling salts. "Well, Judith told me that she and Rachael didn't get here by car, that Deborah made arrangements. She wouldn't elaborate, but now they're panicky. Even if we find Naomi's children and return them safely, the others are going to talk to me. A missing child is every mother's worst fear. I hope Naomi's medication, whatever it is, is industrial strength and not some herbal concoction."
"Two hours is a long time." He stopped and shined the light at yet another cabin. "You want me to look this time, or are you too high and mighty to trust a good of country boy like me?"
"Whatever," I said, restraining myself from suggesting he soak his head while he was at it-or even take a quick shower. Two children, aged eight and five, were somewhere in the wooded acres. Corporal Robarts's unexpected outburst of petulance wasn't helping. "I'll sit out here and wait."
He looked back at me. "You don't want to give me detailed instructions on how to search a cabin? Didn't you have a course at the police academy on proper procedure?"
"I'm sure you can handle it," I said mildly. I bit my tongue before I could add that he needed to open the stalls in the bathroom.
A minute later, he came outside. "All clear. Ready for the next one?"
"Let's rest for a minute. What I was going to say earlier was that I'm pretty sure Ester's car is parked behind the body shop. You said you took her to the bus station in Starley City, though."
He leaned against the side of the cabin. "And that's what I did. She told me she'd tried to start her car that morning, but it was dead. Lester even came out and tried to jump the battery. Mind if I smoke?"
"Why, Anthony," I said inadvertently using his given name, "I didn't realize you have secret vices. Do you keep a bottle of whiskey under your pillow?"
"Yeah, and I pilfer pe
"Your mother must be very proud of you."
I could see his smile as he flicked a lighter and took a draw on the cigarette between his lips. "She's not, though," he said. "My father was a banker. He invested in the stock market, bought up repossessed properties, and had a couple of car dealerships. I barely got through high school. If I'd had a different last name, I never would have graduated. Hell, I'd probably still be repeating the eighth grade."
I waited until he'd finished the cigarette and ground it under his heel. "I guess we'd better keep searching. Did you think to look in the dugout at the softball field?"
"The only place I went was the lodge. I can see that they might have gone over to the field, but why would they stay in the dugout?"
"They might have seen the teenagers working on the bleachers and found it entertaining-or they might have been there later when Jarvis went to meet Norella."
"I know Norella was Ruth's real name, but who's Jarvis? Shouldn't you have brought him in for questioning if he was at the field?"
"Jarvis is one of the boys," I said. "Norella called him a few days ago and asked him to bring her enough money to get away from the Daughters of the Moon. I talked to him about it. He could have been lying through his teeth, but I couldn't discern any reason why he might have attacked Norella. He agreed to give her what he could, but if he didn't want to, all he had to do was stay away."
"Maybe they had something going. A boy's brain is located between his legs. Could she have threatened him with blackmail?"
I stood up. "Let's get going. And slow down, okay? I'm partial to my knees, skin and all."
"Sorry," he muttered. We retraced our way to the road. "I still say you should have taken this Jarvis into custody."
"Even if she had been sleeping with him back in Maggody, nobody would care. Mrs. Jim Bob might have turned sanctimonious and fa
He stopped. "I told you I threw away the bill because I didn't see why it mattered. It was probably a relative. Now that I think about it, some man called for her after she'd left for the day. A cousin, he said. I told him not to call back."
"But you didn't take Rachael's advice and contact your long-distance company?"
"I didn't care what her cousin's name was."
"Well, I do," I said as I nudged him into motion, then allowed him a few steps. "First thing tomorrow, I'll get a locksmith so we can examine the interior of Ester's car. She may have left an address book or some letters. It'll help us track her down in Florida, if that's where she went."
He wheeled around. "Why are you so obsessed with Ester? The only crime she committed was making long-distance calls from our house, and that's hardly worth bothering with. You want to look in the cabin over there?"
"You do it," I said. "I'll wait here." There was no convenient picnic bench this time, so I settled for an unpleasantly damp log. Ester had not been a happy camper, although she had come of her own free will. Could she really have fathomed what she was getting into when Deborah invited her to join the cult? The Daughters of the Moon had provided her with an austere existence and the opportunity to clean bathrooms and fry chicken in someone else's house. She'd implied that she knew how to come into serious money, and it wouldn't be from pawning Willetta Robarts's odd bits of jewelry. Had her cousin found her a job at Disney World? Did Snow White have a dwarf named Baldy?