As Stefanie pondered these questions, she took a breath and looked up to find Campbell standing there, gazing at her, having come across the barricade tape.
“Hey,” he said in a low voice.
She met his eyes and asked, “What did you find out?”
Campbell hesitated, rubbing his jawline. “Jasmine appears to have died under similar circumstances to Mia…right down to having her clothes removed. The autopsy will show if she OD’d on fentanyl or another lethal drug.”
Stefanie put a hand to her mouth as she envisioned Jasmine lying there and then switched the ghastly image to Mia. “In talking to Jasmine, I didn’t get the impression that she was a drug user.”
“Maybe she wasn’t,” he entertained.
“So, we’re talking about murder?”
Campbell lowered his chin. “We’ll see about that,” he responded ruminatively. “Don’t want to get ahead of myself by speculating. But clearly, Jasmine’s mysterious death—coming when and how it did—is cause for concern.”
For me, too, Stefanie told herself, putting it mildly. She said, ill at ease, “The Braison Family has a lot of explaining to do. Or will Kenneth Braison try to worm his way out of this death of one of his followers, too…?”
“If Braison or his Family are culpable in any way for Jasmine’s death—or Mia’s, for that matter—they’ll have to answer for it, one way or another,” Campbell promised, leaving it at that. He put a gentle arm around her shoulders. “I’ll take you home.”
Though she wanted to stick with him every step of the way in the investigation, Stefanie understood that she needed to stay in her own lane and allow him to do the police work. All she could do was hope he could get the right answers on why Mia and now Jasmine were dead seemingly without legitimate reasons.
* * *
CAMPBELL FLASHED HISID as he stood at the gate to the Braison Family compound, under the watchful eyes ofJuan Barrientos and a hefty, bald guard, over six feet tall with a moon-shaped scar on his cheek.
“I need to see Braison!” Campbell said sharply.
Juan smirked. “Uh, Kenneth’s kind of busy right now. What is this all about?” he demanded.
“You’ll know when you know,” Campbell retorted, glancing at the other man, preferring not to give Braison a heads-up on the nature of the visit.
Juan seemed to think about offering resistance, but thought better of it as he got out a cell phone from the back pocket of his jeans and put it to his ear. “There’s a detective here to see you…” Campbell watched him listen expressionlessly, then Juan hung up and muttered, “Follow me…”
They left the other man standing guard, and Campbell was led to one of the cabins. Kenneth stepped out of it with two attractive and slender young blond-haired women, who grinned at him coquettishly, then scattered as the cult leader approached them.
Kenneth peered at Campbell and said snidely, “This is becoming rather habit forming. To what do I owe this pleasure, Detective Sawyer,thistime around?”
Meeting his hard gaze, Campbell answered succinctly, “Another one of your followers, Jasmine Roxburgh, was found dead this morning in Reston Hills Park—”
Kenneth’s countenance changed. “What?”
“She was naked and, apparently, left there to die…” Campbell faced Juan, who seemed impassive, then turned back to the cult leader. “An autopsy will show if there were any drugs in Jasmine’s system that may have contributed to her death. Or any other explanation for what happened to her—”
After sucking in a deep breath, Kenneth stated somberly, “I’m frankly stunned to hear about Jasmine’s death. She was a valued member of the Braison Family…as was Mia…”
“Now both women are dead,” Campbell said, an edge to his voice. “And under circumstances that I would call highly suspicious.”
“Believe me, I feel the same way,” Kenneth argued. “So does Juan. We’re family, and what hurts one of us, hurts us all. I wish I could tell you why either of them had to die, but I can’t. I can only say that Jasmine, like Mia and every other member of the Family, are free to go outside the compound whenever the spirit moves them. In fact, we encourage members to step into the real world and its many problems as often as they like—so that they can better appreciate what we offer to the contrary in what I see as a much better world within this space we’ve created here.” He scratched his circle beard. “I fear that both Jasmine and Mia were influenced by those on the dark side, and it took them down a very dark path of no return—resulting in drug abuse and suicidal behavior.”
Braison’s almost too smooth an operator, Campbell thought. Only he wasn’t buying it. At least not the notion that the two deaths had nothing to do with the Braison Family and everything to do with the outside world and its negative influences. As far as Campbell was concerned, all roads in this investigation still led back to the cult’s compound. In one respect or another.
He narrowed his eyes at the two men and said, “Once the estimated time of death is established, I’ll need to know where you both were—and, for that matter, every member of your Family.”
“Not a problem,” Kenneth said. “Nothing to hide. Neither of us have stepped outside the compound for the last twenty-four hours, at least.”
“That’s right,” Juan backed him up. “We’ve been swamped with one thing after another in trying to keep things running smoothly. Anyone can vouch for that.”
“Anyone but Jasmine Roxburgh and Mia O’Dell.” Campbell rolled his eyes. “They somehow seemed to have slipped out unnoticed—and apparently, with little concern about their health and well-being away from this ranch—while ending up naked and dead in the park all by themselves. Doesn’t really sound like a close-knit family who have each other’s backs to me when the going gets tough—as in death.”
