Cowboy's Redemption Read online

“Yes, as ridiculous as it sounds. When I refused, I was held there against my will until I managed to get away. I’d stolen aboard a van driven by two of the sisters, as they call them. That’s when I met Colt.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the police then?” Flint asked.

  “I planned to the next morning. I’d gone into the back of the hotel when I saw one of the sisters coming in the front. I ducked down a hallway and literally collided with Colt. I asked for his help and he sneaked me up to his room.”

  The sheriff looked at Colt. “And the two of you hit it off. She didn’t tell you what she was running from?”

  “No, but it was clear she was scared. I thought it was an old boyfriend.”

  Flint nodded and looked to Lola again. “You didn’t trust him enough to ask for his help the next morning?”

  “I didn’t want to involve him. By then I knew what Jonas was capable of. This flock does whatever he tells them. The few who disobey are punished. One woman brought me extra food. I heard her being beaten the next morning by her own so-called sisters. When I had my daughter, they took her away almost at once. I could hear her crying, but I didn’t get to see her again. The women would come in and take my breast milk, but they said she was now Jonas’s child. He called her his angel. I knew I had only one choice. Escape and try to find Colt. I couldn’t fight Jonas and his followers alone. And Jonas made it clear. The only way I could see my baby and be with her was if I married him and gave my life to The Society of Lasting Serenity.”

  Flint pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. “I think it’s time I visited the compound and met this Jonas Emanuel.”

  Chapter Five

  Colt followed the sheriff’s SUV out of town toward the Judith Mountains. The mountains began just east of town and rose to the northeast for twenty miles. In most places they were only about ten miles wide with low peaks broken by stream drainages. But there were a number of peaks including the highest one, Judith Peak, at more than six thousand feet.

  It was rugged country. Back in the 1950s the US Air Force had operated a radar station on top of the peak. The SLS had bought state land on an adjacent mountaintop in an isolated area with few roads in or out. Because it was considered a church, the SLS had rights that even the sheriff couldn’t do anything about.

  So Colt was nervous enough, but nothing compared to Lola. In the pickup seat next to him, he could feel her getting more agitated the closer they got to the SLS compound. He reached over to take her hand. It was ice-cold.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he tried to assure her—and himself. If what she’d told him was true, then Jonas would have to hand over the baby. “Jonas will cooperate with a lawman.”

  She didn’t look any more convinced than he felt. He’d dealt with religious fanatics for a while now and knew that nothing could stop them if they thought they were in the right.

  “Jonas seems so nice, so truthful, so caring,” she said. “He’s fooled so many people. My parents weren’t stupid. He caught them in his web with his talk of a better world.” She shook her head. “But he is pure evil. I hate to even think what he might have done to my parents.”

  “You really think he killed them.”

  “Or convinced my mother to kill herself and my father.”

  Colt knew that wouldn’t be a first when it came to cult mania.

  “Clearly the sheriff wasn’t called when they died. Jonas runs SLS like it’s his own private country. He told me that his religious philosophy requires the bodies to be untouched and put into the ground quickly. Apparently in Montana, a religious group can bury a body on their property without embalming if it is done within so many hours.”

  The road climbed higher up the mountain. Ahead, the sheriff slowed. Colt could see that an iron gate blocked them from going any farther. Flint stopped, put down his window and pushed a button on what appeared to be an intercom next to the gate. Colt whirred down his window. He heard a tinny-sounding voice tell him that someone would be right down to let them in.

  A few minutes later, an older man drove up in a Jeep. He spoke for a few moments with the sheriff before opening the gate. As Colt drove through, he felt the man’s steely gaze on him. Clearly the SLS didn’t like visitors. The man who’d opened the gate was wearing a gun under his jacket. Colt had caught sight of the butt end of it when the man got out of his rig to open the gate.

  As they passed, he noticed something else interesting. The man recognized Lola. Just the sight of her made the man nervous.

  * * *

  LOLA FELT HER BODY begin to vibrate inside. She thought she might throw up. The memories of being imprisoned here for so long made her itch. She fought the need to claw her skin, remembering the horrible feel of the cheap cloth dresses she was forced to wear, the taste of the tea the sisters forced down her throat, the horrible chanting that nearly drove her insane. That wasn’t all they’d forced on her once they’d quit coming for her breast milk. There’d been the pills that Sister Rebecca had forced down her throat.

  She felt a shiver and hugged herself against the memories, telling herself she was safe with Colt and the sheriff. But the closer they got to the compound, the more plagued she was with fear. She doubted either Colt or the sheriff knew who they were dealing with. Jonas had gotten this far in life by fooling people. He was an expert at it. At the thought of what lies he would tell, her blood ran cold even though the pickup cab felt unbearably hot.

  “Are you all right?” Colt asked, sounding worried as he glanced over at her.

  She nodded and felt a bead of perspiration run down between her shoulder blades. She wanted to scratch her arm, feeling as if something was crawling across it, but feared once she started she wouldn’t be able to stop.

  Just driving up here brought everything back, as if all the crazy they’d been feeding her might finally sink in and she’d be a zombie like the other “sisters.” Isn’t that what Jonas had hoped? Wasn’t that why he was just waiting for her return? He knew she’d be back for Grace. She couldn’t bear to think what he had planned for her.

  By the time they reached the headquarters and main building of the SLS, there was a welcome group waiting for them. Lola recognized Sister Rebecca, the woman Jonas got to do most of his dirty work. Sister Amelia was there, as well, but she kept her head down as if unable to look at her.

  Lola felt bad that she’d gotten the woman in trouble. She could still hear Amelia’s cries from the beating she’d received for giving her extra food. She could well imagine what had happened to the guards after she’d escaped. Jonas would know that she hadn’t been taking her pills with the tea. Sister Amelia would be blamed, but there had been nothing Lola could do about that.

  Flint parked his patrol SUV in front of the main building. Colt parked next to him. Lola felt her body refuse to move as Colt opened his door. She stared at the two women standing like sentinels in front of them and fought to take her next breath.

  “Would you feel better staying out here in the truck?” Colt asked.

  She wiped perspiration from her lip with the back of her hand. How could she possibly explain what it was like being back here, knowing what they had done to her, what they might do again if Colt didn’t believe her and help her?

  Terrified of facing Jonas again, she thought of her baby girl and reached for her door handle.

  * * *

  COLT WONDERED IF bringing Lola back here wasn’t a mistake. She looked terrified one moment and like a sleepwalker the next. What had they done to her? He couldn’t even imagine, given what she’d told him about her treatment. They’d taken her baby, kept her locked up, hadn’t let her sleep. He worried that was just the tip of the iceberg, though.

  One of the two women, who were dressed in long simple white sheaths with their hair in braided buns, stepped forward to greet them.

  “I’m Sister Rebecca. How may we help you?” Appeari
ng to be the older of the two, the woman’s face had a blankness to it that some might have taken for serenity. But there was something else in the eyes. A wariness. A hardness.

  “We’re here to see Jonas Emanuel,” the sheriff said.

  “Let me see if he’s available,” she said, and turned to go back inside.

  Colt started to say something about Jonas making himself available, but Flint stopped him. “Let’s keep this as civilized as we can—at least to start.”

  The second woman stood at the foot of the porch steps, her fingers entwined and her face down, clearly standing guard.

  A few moments later, Sister Rebecca came out again. “Brother Emanuel will see you now.” She motioned them up the porch steps as the other woman drifted off toward a building in the pines where some women were washing clothes and hanging them on a string of clotheslines.

  “Seems awfully cold to be hanging wash outside this time of year,” Colt commented. Spring in Montana often meant the temperature never rose over forty in the mountains.

  Sister Rebecca smiled as if amused. “We believe in hard work. It toughens a person up so a little cold weather doesn’t bother us.”

  He thought about saying something about how she wasn’t the one hanging clothes today in the cool weather on the mountaintop, but he followed the sheriff’s lead and kept his mouth shut.

  As Sister Rebecca led them toward the back of the huge building, Colt noticed the layout. In this communal living part of the structure, straight-backed wooden chairs were lined up like soldiers at long wooden tables. Behind the dining area, he could hear kitchen workers and the banging of pots and pans. An aroma arose that reminded him of school cafeterias.

  What struck him was the lack of conversation coming from the kitchen, let alone any music. There was a utilitarian feeling about the building and everything in it—the workers included. They could have been robots for the lack of liveliness in the place.

  Sister Rebecca tapped at a large wooden door. A cheerful voice on the other side said, “Come in.” She opened the door and stood back to let them enter a room that was warm and cozy compared to the other part of the building.

  A sandy-haired man, who Colt knew was fifty-two, had been sitting behind a large oak desk. But now he pushed back his office chair and rose, surprising Colt by not just his size, but how fit he was. He had boyish good looks, lively pale blue eyes and a wide, straight-toothed smile. He looked much younger than his age.

  The leader came around his desk to shake hands with the sheriff and Colt. “Jonas Emanuel,” he said. “Welcome.” His gaze slid to Lola. When he spoke her name it was with obvious affection. “Lola,” Jonas said, looking pained to see her scratched face before returning his gaze to Colt and the sheriff.

  “We need to ask you a few questions,” Sheriff Cahill said, introducing himself and Colt. “You already know Ms. Dayton.”

  “Please have a seat,” Jonas said graciously, offering them one of the chairs circled around the warm blaze going in the rock fireplace to one side of the office area. Colt thought again of the women hanging wet clothes outside. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

  They all declined. Jonas took a chair so he was facing them and crossed his legs to hold one knee in his hands. Colt noticed that he was limping before he sat down.

  “How long have you known Ms. Dayton?” Flint asked.

  “Her parents were founding members. Lola’s been a member for the past couple of years,” Jonas said.

  “That’s not true,” she cried. “You know I’m not a member, would never be a member.”

  Colt could see that she was even more agitated than she’d been in the truck on the way up. She sat on the edge of her chair and looked ready to run again. “Just give me my baby,” she said, her voice breaking. “I want to see my baby.” She turned in her chair. Sister Rebecca stood at the door, fingers entwined, head down, standing sentry. “My baby. Tell her to get my baby.”

  Colt reached over and took her hand. Jonas noticed but said nothing.

  “As you can see, Ms. Dayton is quite upset. She claims that you are holding her child here on the property,” the sheriff said.

  Jonas nodded without looking at Lola. “Perhaps we should speak in private. Lola? Why don’t you go with Sister Rebecca? She can make you some tea.”

  “I don’t want any of your so-called tea,” Lola snapped. “I want my child.”

  “It’s all right,” Flint said. “Go ahead and leave with her. We need to talk to Jonas. We won’t be long.”

  Lola looked as if she might argue, but when her gaze fell on Colt, he nodded, indicating that she should leave. “I’ll be right here if you need me.” Again he could feel Jonas’s gaze on him.

  After Sister Rebecca left with Lola, the leader sighed deeply. “I’m afraid Lola is a very troubled woman. I’m not sure what she’s told you—”

  “That you’re keeping her baby from her,” Colt said.

  He nodded sadly. “Lola came to us after her parents died. She’d lost her teaching job, been fired. That loss and the loss of her parents... We tried to help her since she had no one else. I’m sure she’s told you that her parents were important members of our community here. On her mother’s death bed, she made me promise that I would look after Lola.”

  “She didn’t promise Lola to you as your wife?” Colt asked, and got a disapproving look from the sheriff.

  “Of course not.” Jonas looked shocked by the accusation. “I had hoped Lola would stay with us. Her parents took so much peace in living among us, but Lola left.”

  “I understand she ran away some months ago,” Flint said.

  “A year ago,” Colt added.

  Again Jonas looked surprised. “Is that what she told you?” He shook his head. “I foolishly suggested that maybe time away from the compound would be good for her. Several of the sisters were making a trip to Billings for supplies. I talked Lola into going along. Once there, though, she apparently became turned around while shopping and got lost. In her state of mind, that was very traumatic. Fortunately, the sisters found her, but not until the next morning. She was confused and hysterical. They brought her back here where we nursed her back to health and discovered that while she’d been lost in Billings, she’d been assaulted.”

  Colt started to object, but the sheriff cut him off. “She was pregnant? Did she say who the father was?”

  Jonas shook his head. “She didn’t seem to know.” The man looked right at Colt, his blue eyes giving nothing away.

  “Where is the baby now?” Flint asked.

  “I’m afraid the infant was stillborn. A little boy. Which made it all the more traumatic and heartbreaking for her since we all knew that she had her heart set on having a baby girl. I’m not sure if you know this, but her mother had a daughter before Lola who was stillborn. I’m sure that could have played a part in what happened. When Lola was told that her own child had been stillborn, she had a complete breakdown and became convinced that we had stolen her daughter.”

  “Then you won’t mind if we have a look around,” the sheriff said.

  “Not at all.” He rose to his feet, and the sheriff and Colt followed. “I’m so glad Lola’s been found. We’ve been taking care of her since her breakdown. Unfortunately, the other night she overpowered one of her sisters and, hysterical again, took off running into the woods. We looked for her for hours. I was going to call your office if we didn’t hear from her by this afternoon. When she left, she forgot her pills. I was afraid she’d have another psychotic event with no one there to help her.”

  “Don’t you mean when Lola escaped here?” Colt asked.

  Jonas shook his head as if trying to be patient. “Escaped?” He chuckled. “Do you see razor wire fences around the compound? Why would she need to escape? We believe in free will here at Serenity. Lola can come and go as she pleases. She knows that. But when she�
��s in one of her states...”

  “What kind of medication is she on?” the sheriff asked.

  “I have it right here,” Jonas reached into his pocket. “I had Sister Rebecca bring it to me when I heard that you were at the gate. I was so glad that she had come back for it. I believe Dr. Reese said it’s what they give patients with schizophrenia. I suppose she didn’t mention to you that she’d been taking the medication. It helps with the anxiety attacks, as well as the hallucinations.”

  “Dr. Reese?” Flint asked.

  “Ben Reese. He’s our local physician, one of the best in the country and one of our members,” Jonas said.

  “I’d like to see where the baby was buried,” Colt said.

  “Of course. But let’s start with the tour the sheriff requested.”

  Colt memorized the layout of the buildings as Jonas led them from building to building. Everywhere they went, there were people working, both men and women, but definitely there were more women on the compound than men. He saw no women with babies as most of the women were older.

  “Our cemetery is just down here,” Jonas said. Colt followed Jonas and the sheriff down a narrow dirt path that wound through the trees to open in a meadow. Wooden crosses marked the few graves, the names of the deceased printed on metal plaques.

  He spotted a relatively fresh grave and felt his heart drop. It was a small plot of dark earth. What if Jonas was telling the truth? What if Lola had had a son? His son? And the infant was buried under that cold ground?

  “It is always so difficult to lose a child,” Jonas was saying. “We buried him next to Lola’s parents. We thought that would give her comfort. If not now, later when she’s...better. We’re waiting for her to name him before we put up the cross.”

  “I think I’ve seen enough,” Sheriff Cahill said, and looked at Colt.

  Colt didn’t know what to think. On the surface, it all seemed so...reasonable.

  “Sister Rebecca took Lola to the kitchen,” Jonas said. “Lunch will be ready soon. I believe we’re having a nice vegetable soup today. You’re welcome to join us. Some of the sisters are better cooks than others. I can attest that the ones cooking today are our best.”