"Would you like some tea? We have chamomile and sage," the tiny, fragile looking young woman with the long straight blonde hair asked as the two detectives sat on the burgundy velvet sofa in the small cluttered living room of the tiny red house on Bonita Street.

"No, thank you, we're fine," Mike answered for them both as Steve smiled with a shake of his head. "Miss Devereaux, we just have a few questions and then we'll be on our way, I promise."

"Annie, please… call me Annie," she said nervously, pushing her hair behind her right ear as she climbed into an armchair, folding her legs beneath her.

"All right," Mike agreed genially with a grin, "if you call us Mike," he pointed to himself, "and Steve, all right?"

When the handsome young cop smiled at her, she ducked her head quickly, but both men could see the corners of her mouth turn up and she bit her bottom lip before she nodded shyly.

"Good," Mike said with a nod, leaning forward slightly. "Now Annie, you told me on the phone that you were a member of the Church of Satan, is that right?"

She nodded again.

"How long were you with them?"

"Almost three years."

"Are you from The City?"

She shook her head vigorously. "No… no, I'm from Oklahoma. A friend of mine wanted to move out here and there was nothing to stay in Oklahoma for, so I came out here with her. She'd heard of the Church and she wanted to know what it was all about. So I went along with her, for something to do, I guess…" Her words faded away as she looked down, seemingly embarrassed. "My friend left the Church about three months after we joined… but I stayed. I'm not sure why… I guess I just felt like I finally belonged somewhere. I mean, it's not like we were worshiping Satan or anything, it wasn't like that at all. People don't really understand it, they don't."

"We're not here to judge you," Steve said softly, "we just want to know what happened with you and the Church, that's all."

"But I left the Church almost a year ago." She raised her eyes, looking at him from under her brow.

"Yes, we know that," Mike confirmed. "We're interested in the man you left the Church to follow."

Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and almost frightened. "You mean Jimmy?" she asked, her voice suddenly low and tremulous.

Momentarily taken aback, both cops hesitated, then Mike leaned in a little closer and tilted his head. "Yes," he said carefully, "yes, we do. What can you tell us about him, Annie?"

"Why?" she asked sharply, her eyes bouncing back and forth between them. "What's he done?"

A fleetingly brief, trepidatious look passed between the two detectives. "Why do think he's done something?" the older one asked.

She closed her eyes and they saw her swallow then bite her lips. When she opened her eyes, they were filled with fear. "Because he's not right… in the head… you know…?"

Steve slowly leaned closer. "What do you mean by that?"

"He has… ideas…" she began slowly, "he told us he believes in a spirit larger than ourselves… not God and not Satan but something between… something that could bring God and Satan together… he talked about starting a church that would be able to bring them together and make this a better world…" She inhaled deeply and looked down again, her lower lip beginning to tremble. "Someone needs to make this a better world…"

They waited patiently until she finally looked up into the younger cop's kind eyes and almost smiled. "You remind me of my brother… Brian…" Her pale blue eyes suddenly went dark and filled with tears. "He died in Vietnam… I couldn't believe in God after that… But what Jimmy said, well, it made sense to me… for awhile… until he started going crazy…"

"What do you mean crazy?" Steve asked softly.

Mike sat back slightly, allowing his partner to take the lead.

"He stopped talking about bringing people together… and he started talking about…" She stopped, biting her bottom lip and looking away. She pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her shins. "He started talking about killing people… people in the Church… people who didn't believe in him, people who didn't come with him when he left…"

"Was this after he started his own church?"

She nodded. "When we were up at the ranch."

Steve froze momentarily; he could sense Mike do the same. This was what they wanted to hear. "We heard about the ranch. What was it like up there?" He kept his tone even and encouraging.

Annie almost smiled. "It was wonderful at first. I mean, you know, compared to the Black Church it was beautiful to be out in the country. We started a vegetable garden and we cooked and prayed and sang and smoked dope and just…. you know, looked after each other… it was… it was wonderful…"

"Was Stan Kowalczyk with you on the ranch?"

This time her eyes lit up and she almost beamed. "Stan?! Of course! How do you guys know Stan?"

Steve glanced peripherally at his partner, who leaned slightly forward again.

"We made his acquaintance recently," Mike said smoothly then continued quickly, "Was he at the ranch the entire time you were there?"

"Oh yeah, Stan was like Jimmy's right hand man. They were always together. You see, Stan was this rich guy and he was the one that bought the ranch for all of us. He's a real sweet guy."

"And he was still at the ranch when you left?" Steve took over the questioning again.

She nodded. "Yeah. He tried to talk me out of going, but I'd made my mind up."

"What made you quit?"

She hesitated, looking away again. She frowned and blinked quickly several times. "Jimmy… he, ah, he got a little crazy a couple of months after we moved up to the ranch like I said… He started talking about how everyone was out to get him, just like they were with Charlie… and how he was going to let the world know exactly who he was, like Charlie…"

"Like Charlie…?" Steve prompted quietly.

Annie looked him straight in the eye. "Charlie Manson… He was like Jimmy's hero. He carried a copy of that book around - you know, the one with the green cover...? That book became his bible."

Almost imperceptibly, Steve inclined his head, his brows slightly knit. It was a movement his partner caught, making a mental note to ask him about it later; something was amiss.

"While, ah, while you were with him, did Jimmy do anything that you know of that was against the law?"

"Against the law?" she echoed, frowning. "Like, what? Robbing someone… or hurting someone?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head slowly. "No… no, not that I know of. I mean, he talked about it but he never really did anything… at least anything that I knew of… Sorry."

Steve smiled disarmingly. "Don't be sorry." He hesitated for a second, then asked gently. "Annie, did he ever do anything to you that you didn't want him to do?"

She frowned, looking confused, then she tilted her head and smiled slightly. "Do you mean, did he ever… force himself on me?"

He nodded, meeting her stare evenly.

Her look got far away and her smile softened. "The only time Jimmy… touched me… was when I wanted him to." She stared at him as if daring him to contradict her.

"Good," he said simply, continuing to meet her eyes.

Mike, who had been watching the exchange carefully, leaned forward. "Say, ah, Annie," he started conversationally, in an attempt to get her attention, "you spent a lot of time at the ranch, right?"

She turned slowly towards him and nodded.

"Do you know where it is? I mean, do you know how to find it?" Despite their best efforts, and with all the powers that their profession gave them with regards to any legal searches, they had so far been unable to locate the 'ranch' that Scott had ostensibly purchased using Kowalczyk's money. And they had used every permutation of the names 'James Scott' and 'Stanley Kowalczyk'. They even threw 'Charles Manson' into the mix but with still no success.

With a regretful smile, she shook her head. "Sorry. I rode in the back of a pick-up truck when we went up there the first time and I never stepped foot off the property until I quit the church. And then we all left in the middle of the night. I just know it's a ways upstate, in the Central Valley somewhere." She shrugged apologetically.

"That's okay," Mike smiled genially.

Suddenly her eyebrows shot up and she looked at Steve. "John! John would know," she offered excitedly.

"John Castle?" Mike asked hopefully.

She turned to him. "Yeah. Do you know John too?"

"We're going to be talking to John tomorrow."

"John's a nice guy too," she said warmly.

"Um," Steve prompted, leaning closer again, "you were saying that maybe John would know where the ranch is...?"

"Oh yeah," she almost chuckled, "John was in the front seat with Jimmy when we drove to the ranch that first time… and then he was the guy that would drive the truck back and forth into town to get supplies. He'd know where the ranch was, I guarantee it." She finished with a confident nod.

The partners exchanged looks, then Mike leaned forward and gently touched her forearm. "Annie, I would like to thank you very much. You've answered all our questions. We'll get out of your hair now."

As they began to stand, Steve looked around the small living room. "This is a nice place," he said pleasantly. "You live here alone?"

He saw Mike throw a curious look his way but ignored it as he focused on the young woman.

She smiled broadly. "No. I can't afford a place like this. I just rent a room from a friend. I, ah, I haven't been able to work since I…well, since I left the Church, so I do odd jobs, like grocery shopping and cleaning, and she lets me stay here for free."

Steve smiled. "Well, it's a beautiful location. You're lucky."

She stared at him, her smile fading slightly. "I know," she said softly, "I know…"

# # # # #

"What was that reaction you had in there?" Mike asked as they crossed the street to their car. "About the book?"

Steve paused, his hand on the driver's door handle, as Mike crossed around to the passenger side. "Helter Skelter doesn't have a green cover. It has a black cover." He opened the door and got in behind the wheel.

"Then what book was she talking about?" Mike asked as he got into the car and closed the door.

"I don't know but I'll find out." He put the key in the ignition and started the engine. "So where are we going now?"

"Back to Bryant Street. Castle works the late shift and he won't be able to see us till tomorrow morning. I want to see if there's anything new that's been turned up on this elusive 'Jimmy Scott'."

They had also been unable to locate anything on The Reverend James Scott, and were beginning to think it wasn't the man's real name. According to the California Census, there were 235 James Scotts in Northern California, 97 of them in the Bay Area and its environs. Mike had two assistant inspectors, on loan from Robbery, sifting through the list and weeding out those that didn't fit the criteria. When that list yielded no obvious matches, Mike had had them expand their search, postulating that perhaps James was Scott's middle name.

Early that morning, they had received the updated list from the Census Bureau. There were 386 men in Northern California with the surname of Scott and the middle name James – 149 of them in the Bay Area.

It was a long shot, both detectives knew, but right now it was the only shot they had.

Steve chuckled as he pulled the LTD away from the curb. "I'm sure glad Robbery had a couple a guys they could spare. That is the one part of this job I can easily do without."

Mike laughed. "Tell me about it." He paused for a second. "Oh, I almost forgot. Can you swing by Fell on the way back to the shop?"

"Fell? What's on Fell?"

Mike had turned to him with a guilty, almost pleading, smile.

"Oh, right…" Steve growled quietly with a soft chuckle, the other shoe dropping, "there's a butcher shop on Fell, isn't there…?"

The older man sat back with a laugh and a grin. "Thanks, smiley."

Steve looked across the front seat and shook his head, continuing to chuckle. The hunt goes on…