Chapter 11: "Hello, Father"

Conference Room
Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office
Henbane River

With the news that two of Chief Noah Deveraux's agents from the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation had arrived at the Hope County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Harrison convened a meeting with every available member of the department in the large conference room of the Sheriff's Office. Everyone was able to attend the meeting, with the exception of Deputies Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels, who were busy finishing things up at the site of the body recovery operation at Horned Serpent Cave.

Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux were met by DCI Agents Tim Hallow and Tanya Khalim. Tim Hallow was a tall athletically built white man looking to be in his mid-thirties, dressed very sharply in a brown trench coat, a white button-down shirt, and brown slacks. His female partner, the statuesque African American Tanya Khalim, looked to be slightly younger, dressed just as professionally in a form-fitting black pant suit and had her thick, dark dreadlocks put into a neat bun on the top of her head.

"Sheriff Harrison?" Tim Hallow inquired

"Yes", he replied as he extended a hand to the man

Hallow shook his hand firmly. "Nice to meet you sir", he said, "Agent Tim Hallow, Major Case Section, Montana DCI." He motioned to his partner. "This is my partner, Agent Tanya Khalim."

Harrison repeated the gesture with Agent Khalim. "The pleasure's all mine", he said, "And I don't mean to be rude by asking this, but would you mind pronouncing your last name again for me so I don't mispronounce it later, please?"

Khalim flashed an amused smile before obliging the sheriff. "'Kuh-Leem'", she carefully annunciated. "It's nice to meet you too, Sheriff", she continued, "I think I speak for Agent Hallow, Chief Deveraux, and myself when I say that it's a pleasure to be helping you all out with this."

Looking around the roomy conference room, Harrison noticed that Sergeant Asher, Deputy Hudson, and Deputy Pratt were seated around the large conference table. "Hey guys", he greeted everyone as a whole, "Thank you all so much for taking time out of your regular duties to attend this briefing. As you all know, Deputies Dodd and Whitehorse are still on leave, but I'll keep them informed as needed. Deputies Xander and Michaels are finishing up at Horned Serpent Cave and should be joining us shortly. I assume that our visitors have already introduced themselves, so we can dispense with the formal introductions."

"We have", Agent Hallow replied, "I've already handed out the DCI dossiers on the Seeds and the Project Eden's Gate Cult, as Chief Deveraux asked."

Harrison nodded, noting that each person seated around the table had a case folder in front of them. "Alright then", he began, "For those of you who don't know, the Project Eden's Gate Cult was founded by the Seed Family about eighteen years ago. The group's leader is Joseph Seed, known as 'The Father'. He is a self-styled preacher and religious zealot who served nine years in a Georgia prison for killing his infant daughter back in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight."

The sheriff then took a moment just to take a breath, finding the subject of a deceased infant to be a particularly difficult one to approach. "As the story goes", he continued, "his wife was pregnant and almost completely to term when she was involved in a very serious car crash. His wife succumbed to her injuries at the hospital, but not before her daughter was delivered by way of an emergency C-Section."

Joey Hudson sensed how troubling this grim topic was to her boss, so she took it upon herself to chime in and assist in the case presentation, getting up from her seat and standing beside Harrison at the head of the table. "Joseph was apparently left alone beside his daughter's bed in the Neonatal ICU", she chimed in, "To paraphrase the statement he gave the Georgia authorities after his arrest, he squeezed the plastic tubes from the baby's nasal cannula and turned off her life support. Joseph saw the killing as an act of mercy."

Agent Tim Hallow raised his hand. "How was it that this guy only received nine years as opposed to life?" he asked.

Harrison flipped through to the section of the case file detailing the subsequent court case. "According to the courtroom transcript from his trial back then", he said, "he claimed some sort of 'religious awakening' and had the prison chaplain testify on his behalf. I guess it convinced the judge and the jury."

Everyone in the room let out a collective sigh of frustration. "I hate the hypocrisy of that", Hallow said very candidly, "This guy finds God and still more people die."

Harrison put a hand up to silence any other unsolicited comments. "I appreciate and even agree with that point, Agent", he said, "but we need to stay on task here, please, okay? We still have a lot of things to cover." He turned back to Hudson and nodded for her to continue.

"To make a long story short and as I'm sure you all know by now", Hudson continued, "the Seeds and the Project Eden's Gate cult tried to take over Hope County earlier this year and really put us all through a real Hell on Earth. Sheriff Harrison, our former sheriff Earl Whitehorse, Deputy Pratt, and myself spent months fighting those Peggie assholes." Hudson sighed deeply and put a hand under her chin.

Harrison then stood back up and retook the floor. "Deputies Hudson and Pratt as well as Sheriff Whitehorse and I were all held captive by the cult at different points during their siege", he explained, "Those traumas took pretty big tolls on all of us. I was hospitalized for a while and even left the country for a few weeks before getting the offer from Earl Whitehorse to succeed him as Sheriff."

"I see that you were contacted by the CIA and given intel that the cult may still be active in some areas, is that right?" Agent Khalim asked as she skimmed through the contents of the folder.

"Yes", Harrison replied, "A group of CIA operatives and an FBI agent who were apparently doing their own investigations into Eden's Gate gave us a heads-up about recent terrorist activities in other countries around the world that all seemed to connect back to the cult." He motioned to Sergeant Asher. "They even made us aware of a connection to a case that Sergeant Asher and I were part of when we worked with the Chicago Police Department", he added before addressing the Sergeant herself, "Sarge, would you mind coming up here and explain things further, please?"

Sergeant Asher promptly stood up from her seat, went over and stood beside Harrison, taking the floor. "Seven years ago," she explained, "Sheriff Harrison and I were working with the Chicago PD. On February First, Two-Thousand-Eleven, he and I were working a patrol shift together during a really bad snowstorm when we learned of a nine-one-one call reporting an abandoned baby outside Saint Augustine's Church." She cleared her throat before continuing. "As such", she continued, "we responded as quickly as we could to the church."

"And what did you find when you arrived at the church?" Agent Khalim asked.

"We found a newborn baby girl wrapped in a blanket and screaming her head off in a cardboard box", Asher replied, "Given how cold it was outside, we figured we didn't have time for an ambulance to be dispatched and try to respond in crappy, unsafe winter weather, so I carried her into the backseat of our patrol car and tried to keep her as warm as I could while Troy hauled ass to the nearest Emergency Room two blocks away, which he very skillfully did."

"The baby was nearly hypothermic by the time we reached the hospital", Harrison added, "But the doctors were able to successfully stabilize her. She remained in the hospital's nursery for a few days before being taken into the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She went through a few foster homes before being adopted by a family from another state. That's all we were able to find out at the time."

"That is", Asher said, "until earlier this week when Troy, Hudson, and I were called to a surprise meeting with those CIA people and Troy's FBI friend, Agent Donovan. They told us that the FBI lab ran DNA samples from Joseph Seed and Faith Seed, who was also known by her real birth name, Rachel Jessop, through their database. It turns out that this abandoned baby we had found in Chicago, known to all the Chicago-area media as 'Baby Augustine', is in fact the biological child of both Joseph Seed and Faith Seed, a.k.a. Rachel Jessop."

"Which explains the connection to the cult", Deputy Pratt said, "When you guys found the baby back in Chicago, did you find anything useful at the church that pointed you to who could've left her there?"

"The CPD crime lab techs found fingerprints on the flaps of the box she had been left in", Harrison said, "But they didn't register any hits in any of the databases at the time."

"This 'Baby Augustine' would be around seven years old now", Agent Hallow pointed out, "Have you had any luck trying to figure out where she is now?"

"I called our old CPD district station this morning and asked them to 'Overnight' the case file", Asher said, "It should arrive at my office by tomorrow morning."

Just then, Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels entered the conference room. "Sorry we're late", Xander said, "We had the suspect's vehicle towed from Horned Serpent Cave to the Highway Patrol station in Billings."

Sheriff Harrison then took the time to introduce the late arrivals to Chief Deveraux and his two DCI agents as well as fill them in on what they've discussed so far. He then gave Chief Deveraux a look, which he interpreted as his cue to come to the front and take the floor.

Deveraux sighed deeply before addressing everyone. "This is a very tough subject for me to bring up", he said with a remorseful tone, "but as it turns out, I myself have a very personal connection to the cult, and that's why I've asked you all here." He choked back sadness before beginning his explanation. "Thirteen years ago," he began, "my sixteen-year-old sister, Marcie Jean Deveraux, disappeared from our hometown of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. I found out later that it wasn't the storm that took her, but in fact she left to join up with Joseph Seed and Project Eden's Gate."

"I'm very sorry, boss" Agent Hallow said, "Has there been any confirmed sign of her since she left?"

"No", Deveraux replied, "I checked the arrest reports filed by both you folks here in Hope County and by the FBI. No one fitting Marcie Jean's description was booked into either county or federal custody, and she's not among the cult members who were killed."

Agent Khalim opened her case folder and pulled out a specific report. "I may have some things here that may help, Chief", she said, "Agent Hallow and I stopped by the Missoula County Medical Examiner's Office on our way here. They rushed dental charts on your deceased suspect from Horned Serpent Cave. They matched a missing person from Louisiana named Abel Beaupre. He was a seventeen-year-old kid from New Orleans who disappeared after leaving Crescent City High School on May Tenth, Two-Thousand-Six. The kid had no prior history of any trouble, so the New Orleans PD wrote it up as a routine runaway case. He hasn't been seen since."

This finding set off light bulbs from within Chief Deveraux's mind. "My sister was a student at Crescent City High", he said, "I remember she was friends with a boy named Abel who was a bit older than her."

"So, is it possible your sister recruited this boy and sent for him after she joined up with the cult?" Harrison asked.

"I think what we found at Horned Serpent Cave tonight proves that", Deveraux stated very assuredly, "Yes."

"There is something else, Chief", Agent Khalim said, "the crime lab technicians found a mixture of assorted trace material on the driver's side floormat of the white pickup that Abel Beaupre had been driving. Mud, mice hairs, what appears to be a big abundance of rodent feces, wood shavings, and a wet footprint that appears to have been made in fresh water."

"Fresh uncontaminated water?" Hudson asked.

Agent Khalim nodded. "Yes", she said, "the water sample was pure."

"That actually narrows things down a lot", Hudson said, "When the cult took over Hope County, Faith Seed and her disciples contaminated a lot of our bodies of water by dumping Bliss straight into them. The government cleaned things up as best as they could during the Martial Law order, but tests are still bringing up remnants of Bliss components in the water at certain locations."

"So that leaves which bodies of water left unspoiled, Joey?" Harrison asked.

Hudson took a second to think. "There's the Silver Lake region between here and the Holland Valley", she said, "but that's federal land watched over by the Park Rangers and this old reclusive veteran named Dutch Roosevelt."

"I remember him", Harrison said, "he gave me shelter and aid after the helicopter crash."

"Right", Hudson said, "There's no way that he or the Rangers would give shelter to a Peggie without a major fight. But when you add a ton of rodent shit, mud, and wood in addition to the freshwater, that points to Orville Creek in the Holland Valley. There's an old shack right beside the creek that provides access to the unused mine tunnels that connect to the creek. We locals call it the Wellington Residence."

"So, it stands to reason", Harrison said, "If Abel Beaupre took shelter there right before he shot Mike Whitehorse, he probably left some stuff behind that could point us in the direction of the Chief's sister. I say we hit the place first thing tomorrow, but let's call it a night for now."

Everyone got up from their respective seats at the table, at which point Agent Hallow shook the sheriff's hand once again. "Thanks for your insights, Sheriff", he said, "You have a great team here. We'll be staying at the Henbane River Chalets if you need us.

Solitary Housing Pod
United States Federal Penitentiary
Florence, Colorado
7:00 P.M. (Mountain Standard Time)

Federal Correctional Officer Erika Marsden arrived for her usual graveyard shift at the high-security U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. She would often work the intake desk, but due to another officer having called in sick, tonight she was to guard the Solitary Housing Pod, where the facility's most vicious, aggressive, and/or otherwise dangerous inmates were housed in claustrophobically small solitary confinement cubicles. 29-year-old Officer Marsden had only been employed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons for just over two years and was new to Colorado after working for a year at another federal penitentiary in California.

Officer Jason Bingham, who guarded the entrance to Solitary Housing Pod, said hello to Officer Marsden as she made her entrance into the unit at 7:00 P.M. that evening. He provided her with the necessary supplies she would need during the course of her twelve-hour shift before Marsden scanned her employee keycard through the security scanner, which then allowed her access into the unit through an automatic inner door.

Marsden spent about twenty minutes walking the long corridor of the Solitary Housing Pod, looking into the rectangular observation window that each cubicle had at the top of its impenetrable reinforced white steel door. She finally reached the end of the hall and checked the last cubicle, located on the farthest corner of the hall. She peered inside the observation window for a moment before inserting her large skeleton key into the door's large lock and opening the door.

Joseph "The Father" Seed sat in a nearly fetal position in the corner of the darkened cell. His few months in federal custody had really done a number on his appearance. His long brown hair, which he had previously always had fashioned into a bun, had been mandatorily shaved completely bald by a prison barber in response to a facility-wide outbreak of head lice, likewise with his full beard. The lack of natural light in his windowless solitary confinement cubicle had turned Joseph's skin a ghostly pale tone, and his repeated refusals to eat citing a choice to fast in accordance with his religious beliefs had left the cult leader looking all but emaciated. His many religiously themed tattoos, now stretched over his sickly slender and pale skin, were the only reminder of who this diabolical and manipulative man had once been.

"What hath God wrought?" Joseph said.

Erika Marsden, or at least, the woman posing as Erika Marsden, knelt in front of the cult leader and warmly touched his face in the way a daughter would comfortingly touch her father after not having seen him for a long period of time.

"Hello, Father", she said, "The exodus I've arranged for is upon us."

"Hello, My Marcie Jean", she said, "I'm ready for my liberation. It's time for us to take our home back."