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His stance widened, and his arms crossed over his chest—the fun of the debate had disappeared. “One hundred percent not. Our most basic tenet is no harm to others, including animals. We even encourage vegetarianism.”
“Can you share with me what all the tenets are?” Jo asked. “That will help us rule out anyone not legitimately a member of your group.”
Pride washed over his face. “We believe in personal autonomy and responsibility: all individuals may believe and act as they like, as long as their actions don’t harm others. We believe in treating our fellow beings with empathy. And we believe in putting words into action, so we pledge time and money to support the autonomy of others.”
“And what happens when members fall short of those tenets?” Arnett asked.
“Part of our pledge is that when we fail, as all humans do, we atone for that failure, including rectification of the harm caused by our actions.”
“Who enforces that?” Jo watched his face carefully.
He shifted in place. “Nobody has authority over another member.”
Jo held back her skeptical smile—where there were rules of any sort there was a need to enforce them, even if that only meant expulsion from the group. “Do you know of anyone who’d want to paint Lucifer Lost in a bad light?” Jo asked.
Brad’s arms swept a wide circle. “You mean besides everyone?”
“Any specific threats?” Jo asked.
“Nothing specific,” he admitted grudgingly.
Jo switched gears. “We have to ask where you’ve been this weekend, starting at ten yesterday morning.”
His arms crossed over his chest again. “You’re looking at it. Watching TV and kicking back.”
“Alone?”
“For the most part. A friend came to chill last night for a couple of hours.”
“What time?”
“From about ten last night to about one in the morning.”
Which left plenty of time to abduct and kill Madison. Jo pulled a card from her pocket and handed it to him. “We’d appreciate it if you’d let the other members of your group know we’d like to speak to them. And if you think of anything that might be useful to us, we’d appreciate hearing it.”
Brad glanced down at the card, then back up at her. “They won’t be able to tell you anything else.”
Once back inside the car, Arnett grunted in disgust. “Guy’s the real-world equivalent of an internet troll. And ‘personal autonomy as long as it doesn’t harm other people’—who determines what constitutes harm?”
Jo stared down at the picture of Madison lying naked and dead in the woods. “And would demanding a man provide for a child he’d fathered be seen as infringing on his autonomy?”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Arnett’s head snapped up. “You think the father was a member of Lucifer Lost?”
“I don’t know what to think.” Jo’s hand flew up to the diamond at her throat. “But quite a few things about all this bother me. One is the complete lack of struggle on her part, even assuming she was drugged. How did the killer get her out so deep in the woods with no fuss?”
Arnett nodded. “Fairly easy if they had her at gunpoint.”
“Except for the dog. Dogs don’t know to be quiet in the face of a gun.”
Arnett’s brows shot up. “Good point. And even an affable golden retriever wouldn’t be okay with a stranger forcing Mom off the trail. So we’re looking at someone she knew.”
“Easy enough to claim you wanted to show her an interesting landmark or some such. But why would someone want to kill her? The only possible motive I can see involves that baby.”
“Or maybe Brad just fed us a line of bullshit, and Lucifer Lost took her out there to participate in a ritual.”
“Maybe she was even a member, and participated willingly, thinking the ritual was something else.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Far-fetched, but possible.”
