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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cora stared at Pierre Maison, not trusting him fully. The foundation leader was giving her an explanation, but she wasn't buying it. Not yet.
But he was also giving her surprising perspectives. He had tried to argue that there were two sides to Heidi Le Roux's decision and that it truly had been an unbiased choice to renounce her family. She didn't know if she believed that, but at least he'd offered it up.
What she did believe was that he was traumatized by the deaths. That she could see in his body language. Even if running a 'foundation,' as it was euphemistically called, was nothing more than a cynical machine that revolved around money and power, they were in trouble now. These deaths were affecting business, and they were affecting him personally.
“But have you called the police?” she asked. “Have these deaths even been reported? How do you do things here? Because I have to say, so far, the answer is ‘weirdly.”
“Of course, we have called the police! But they found nothing," he said defensively.
Now, Cora really wasn’t buying that. The only explanation she could think of was that someone in the police was getting paid to turn a blind eye.
"What happened?" she asked.
He didn't answer. He turned away and grasped the young female acolyte gently by the shoulders. He helped her up and turned her in the direction of a door on the far side.
Cora looked at him suspiciously.
"Maria needs to go through. This conversation is not for her ears,” he said firmly
Cora hadn't heard anything from behind that door, but she didn't trust this.
"Open it," she snapped.
He opened the door. Cora moved sideways, not too far from her guarding post. She could see beyond. And it looked like a tiny storeroom, where there was nothing except a few white robes. That was what it seemed to be, but for all she knew, there was a secret passage leading outside. She didn't know and suddenly felt as if she'd lost a few points of initiative here. But he wasn't asking her. This was clearly a non-negotiable.
The leader ushered Maria in. As he closed the door, he leaned forward and whispered a few words to her. Cora's focus sharpened. Was he reassuring her and telling her everything would be okay and that this was just a minor issue, just a small problem that had to be resolved? Was that what he was saying soothingly?
Or was he whispering a threat to her, warning her that if she said a word about this, ever, she would suffer dire consequences and a similar fate?
Cora was not thrilled about that idea but acknowledged it was a possibility.
The third option that she liked the least was that he was telling her to sound the alarm, to call in the guards, to bring help and backup. And he might just be doing that. This foundation seemed to operate on the borderline of the law. She didn't know if she trusted any of what this leader said.
For now, though, she had a promise to keep, a promise she’d made to Stefan’s family. She had to find out the truth about Heidi. And she knew he wouldn’t want to tell her everything. He’d been briefly surprised, but he would regroup, and she’d have to be ready to outmaneuver the master of trickery himself.
She was up for the battle.
He turned to her, and now she saw the anger in his eyes.
“You have no right to come in here, to interrupt a private ceremony, and at a time when we are locking down, hard, on security,” he said. “I should call the police for you.”
"Go ahead," she said, folding her arms. "Call them now. I'll wait."
He stared at her. Then he let out a slow breath.
“Why are you here?” he asked. “Why are you wanting to know these things?”
He'd regrouped. He was calm now, and he was thinking hard. She knew that he was most likely adept at creating a version that people would want to hear. This could go well, or it could go badly.
"I'm representing Heidi Le Roux's family," she said. “They didn’t tell me a thing about Heidi being estranged from her parents, by the way.”
“Perhaps they were ashamed of it,” he suggested. “Or regretful. That happens. I’ve seen it before.”
“Or perhaps that’s a lie?” she offered.
It was weird and unsettling to be standing in the back room of an old, tumbledown church and arguing in this way with a leader who had the force of personality to have bent hundreds of people to his will. She knew she'd have to be careful.
