The Goodbye Man
- Автор: Дивер Джеффри
- Серия: Colter Shaw #2
- Год: 2020
- Язык: английский
- Год: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
- ISBN: 978-0-525-53597-3
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Goodbye Man». Краткое содержание книги:
Shaw scrolled down to the link and clicked on it. He was directed to the site’s home page.
Mack’s email continued:
Eli is probably David Ellis, 41. His internet presence is largely scrubbed too. No web or social media imprint I could find. But corporate and government filings link him to the limited liability corporations that own the Foundation. History of real estate development and running brokerage houses in Florida and California but no records of filings since the inception of the Osiris Foundation. No criminal record.
He read the promo piece again and recalled the uniformed crew in the van parked on the ridge where Adam had died. Smelled like a cult.
An impression borne out by another link Mack had included: to an article from The San Francisco Daily Times. The story was about cults preying on the vulnerable for money or sex, or simply because the leader was hungry for the power that comes from adulation and obedience.
The piece was long, and the author dissected a number of cults. There was a mention of the Osiris Foundation, though a very brief one.
Some organizations appear to be cults, as they have charismatic leaders, demand absolute loyalty, teach spiritual or emotional advancement and require significant financial commitment. However, they are so shrouded in secrecy that it is impossible to say exactly what they are: predatory cults taking advantage of the vulnerable and gullible, or legitimate self-actualization groups. Among these are WayForward and the Thompson Program, both of which are in California, and the Osiris Foundation, in Washington State.
Shaw decided to call the article’s author, Gary Yang, and see if he could tell him more about the Foundation. But when he scrolled to the next page of Mack’s email he read:
Note that Yang was killed in a robbery outside his town house in the Mission District of San Francisco.
The death had occurred one week after the article had appeared.
Never accept coincidence at face value.
Shaw put a connection between the reporter’s death and the article at forty percent, high enough that he felt it was worth looking into.
He went online and called up news stories about the crime. Yang’s killer was Harvey Edwards. He’d shot Yang after demanding his wallet. Then he fled. He was subsequently shot to death by police. A day laborer at the time of the robbery, Edwards had a troubled past, including criminal convictions for assault, burglary and drug possession.
On the surface, the murder seemed to be a typical mugging gone bad. Shaw wasn’t convinced. Why shoot someone who’d cooperated and handed over his cash? He did some more searching. He found next to nothing about Edwards, only several social media photos from years ago. The killer wasn’t what Shaw had expected. Not a sullen or shifty visage, not a glare of suspicion and anger. He was good-looking, athletic, cheerful of expression. The images were of him on a beach somewhere, squinting into the sun, smiling. An attractive blonde sat beside him.
Shaw was about to log off when he froze.
In the photo Harvey Edwards was wearing a necklace. It was a thin black cord, and from it dangled a piece of jewelry: a purple infinity symbol.
The logo of the Osiris Foundation.
16
“Tom.”
Shaw was sitting at the banquette of the Winnebago, speaking to his friend, the former FBI agent Tom Pepper.
The man asked, “We still climbing Two Wolves Face? Weather permitting.”
“Weather? Don’t you worry,” Shaw replied. “I’ll hold the umbrella for you”
“Haw.”
The three-hundred-foot cliff, in the Sierra Nevada chain, had been on their free-climb to-do list for some time, and they’d planned it for August.
Shaw said, “Need the name of another detective.”
“Tacoma?”
“No. This one’s in San Francisco.”
“Hmm. Lot of homicides out there. Lot of detectives. You know, Colt, you’d think, being so pretty, the Bay, the bridges, Ghirardelli Square, all those old hippies singing Jerry Garcia, nobody’d want to tap anybody.”
Shaw explained about the journalist.
Pepper grunted. “Now, that pisses me off. Free press has to stay free. And alive.”
“I need the lead detective.”
“Give me five.”
Shaw brewed a cup of coffee. He made the beverage as he always did: the old-fashioned way, boiled water poured through a filter. Capsules were not his favored technique; convenience always comes at a price. He added some milk. One sip, two. Pepper called back with a name and number. Shaw wrote it down, thanked his friend. A third sip, then he punched the number into his phone.
“Detective Etoile.” A rich, vibrating baritone. Shaw imagined that that voice could shake confessions out of suspects within a dozen words.
“This is Colter Shaw.”
“Oh, Mr. Shaw. Yes, your associate, Tom Pepper, just called.”
Associate. Somewhat true. Shaw let it stand.
“This’s about the Gary Yang murder?”
“That’s right.”
“Mr. Pepper said you’re a private investigator.”
This too was close enough. Shaw said nothing about his reward-seeking work.
“Detective, can I ask how the murder happened?”
“It was pretty straightforward. Plenty of witnesses. The victim was approached outside his townhome, robbed and shot. The suspect fled. Responding officers cornered him in a convenience store. He didn’t surrender. There was a firefight. He was killed. No one else was injured.”
“Edwards had no history of violent crime?”
“No history of arrests or convictions for violent crime,” Etoile corrected.
“I’ve found out that Yang had written an article about cults. One of the groups he mentioned was the Osiris Foundation in Washington State. I think Harvey Edwards was involved with it.”
Etoile was silent for a moment. “The implications being that (a) the robbery was a cover-up for a hit and (b) others might have been involved.”
“Did you find anything in the investigation about the Foundation? Literature? Anything with an infinity sign on it?”
“Like the number eight on its side?”
“That’s right. It’s their logo.”
“Nothing I recall. But we didn’t toss... we didn’t search Edwards’s place much. No need. You heard the facts. Homicides don’t get any more open-and-shut than that. You’re probably interested to know if we looked at the new stories that Yang was working on, for possible motives.”
Shaw said, “And the fact you raised the point tells me no, you didn’t.”
“Correct. Like I said, open-and-shut. What is this group, Osiris Foundation? Like the Manson Family?”
“Doesn’t seem to be. Talks about self-help. That kind of thing.”
“And what exactly is your interest, Mr. Shaw?”
“One of the followers of this outfit killed himself. Adam Harper. Tacoma Public Safety has the details. And I saw another follower, a woman, I didn’t like the way she was being treated.”