‘Yeah, if a hedgehog so much as inspects the lawn, the place lights up like the Fourth of July.’ Clancy was still looking at me. ‘You’re asking all the right questions, only I’m not sure they’re questions a reporter would think to ask.’
‘I’m not your everyday reporter,’ I said. ‘He spends most of his time in there?’
‘Yeah. There’s a house out on Hood Canal belongs to Nathan. That’s hot real estate too. Sometimes Provost goes there for the weekend. He doesn’t do much, digs clams, picks oysters at low tide. Mr Microsoft has a compound a few houses down.’
‘How much do you know about Nathan?’
‘Not much. I got a name and a face.’
‘When did he join the Disciples?’
‘I don’t know. The problem is, only having one of his names, I can’t even begin to do a trace back.’
‘He handles the business, does that mean the money?’
‘Yeah, there’s an accountant too, but Nathan does the day to day balance sheet. Thing is, there’s very little on the profit side. Very little income compared to the outgoings.’
‘Maybe we should talk to Nathan rather than Provost.’
‘He’s no easier to get to, Mike. And he wears this look like he’s just waiting to break someone’s face open. These cults, they’re always suspicious. I mean, someone comes sniffing around them for a story, chances are it isn’t going to be a panegyric.’
I looked out at Provost’s house. ‘Can we see it from another angle?’
‘Yeah, if you walk downhill and take a left. But frankly, you won’t see much more than you can from here. More concrete and the top of a window, that’s about it. It’s a smart design, completely open but totally private. He doesn’t even have a fence, but he could be filming hard-core in his pool and none of the neighbours would know.’
‘Some of these cult leaders like to initiate new recruits,’ said Bel, who’d done her reading.
Clancy shrugged. ‘I don’t know if Provost shafts the women in the cult. I mean, with a name like Disciples of Love, and starting off where it did and how it did, it’s got to be a good bet. But he’s never gone public on humping politics.’
‘That sounds like a quote from one of your own stories.’
He grinned. ‘It is, only the paper spiked it as defamatory.’
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘I’ve seen enough. Let’s go buy what we need.’
The shop we wanted was on Aurora, way north of Green Lake. It was called Ed’s Guns and Sporting Goods and was run by a man named Archie with a trace of a Scots accent. I knew pretty much what we needed: camouflage jackets, overtrousers, boots, a couple of tents, a small stove and pot, plates, mugs and cutlery, binoculars, and a couple of rucksacks to put everything in.
The binoculars he showed me were small but powerful. ‘Bird watchers love them,’ he said, like this was a recommendation.
I handed them back. ‘Got anything with a night vision facility?’
‘You’re talking major expense.’
‘So let me talk.’
He went off to find a night-scope. Bel was picking out thick socks to go with her boots. ‘We want to look like tourists, right?’
‘Right.’
‘Then we’d probably have too much gear, all of it brand new.’
‘Right again.’
‘So I want some new sunglasses.’ I nodded and she went to choose some. Meantime I picked out a compass, and studied a few of the available knives. The survival knives looked good. There was one with a hollow handle, inside which were fishing-line, hooks and a needle, a tiny compass, stuff like that. Another was so versatile you could turn it from knife into axe or shovel or even a torch. It was big too. I reckoned it was big enough to scare most people.
‘I’ll take that,’ I said, pointing it out to Archie, who had come back with a plain cardboard box. He was licking his lips, excited at the total sale but nervous about the ease with which we were spending money. Maybe he thought we were going to pull a gun or even one of his own combat knives on him. Instead I pulled out a wad of cash and waved it in his face. He nodded and relaxed a little.
I checked the night-scope. It was perfect. I could use it like a telescope or, with a couple of adjustments, fit it to my sniping rifle.
‘How discreet are you, Archie?’ I asked.
‘That depends.’
‘Well, I want to buy all this, and I want to pay cash. But I’ve a job I’d like to do. Do you have a workshop back there?’ He nodded. ‘Could I borrow it for, say, fifteen minutes?’
He shrugged. ‘You buy that lot, you can bunk in the back for all I care.’
‘That won’t be necessary.’
Bel was asking Archie about maps when I left the shop. She’d slid a survival knife into the top of her right boot to see how it felt. Clancy stared at the knife for a moment, then followed me out. Clancy wasn’t a country boy or a born-again backwoodsman. Seattle still had something of the frontier town about it, but he was strictly latte and art museum. He told us the only times he’d been out to the Olympic Peninsula had been to visit the hot springs resort. He’d driven past the Disciples’ compound, but only on day trips, and he’d hardly budged from the car.
But a lot of the Olympic Peninsula was wilderness, mountains and first-growth temperate rainforest. I knew there was no such thing as being underprepared. Clancy stood watching as I unlocked the boot and lifted out my bag.
‘Come on, Mike, who the fuck are you, man? You’re security, right? I mean, a secret agent or something. Reporters I know, they wouldn’t have the expenses to claim for that hotel you’re staying in, never mind leaving the room empty for a night. Even if they could claim it, they’d stay someplace ratty and cream the cash. And they’d never ever have so much cash on them. Strictly plastic, and a receipt every time you spend.’
I locked the boot. ‘So I’m not a journalist. All you have to know is, if you stick around I’ll give you a story. This is better for you, Sam. See, I don’t represent any competition. It’s your exclusive.’
He was shaking his head. ‘I’m not going.’
‘Sam, we don’t need you any more. You want to stay here, fine. Maybe it’ll take us an hour or two longer to find the compound. But we’ll find it. I’m not going to beg you to come with us.’
‘I could blow you wide open, man. All it would take is a call to Provost.’
I smiled. ‘We’re not your enemies, Sam. Why would you do that?’
He thought about this. ‘I wouldn’t do it. Forget I said it.’ He followed me into the shop. Bel was trying on a red-and-black-check lumberjacket. Archie gestured for me to follow him. Sam was still on my tail. We entered a back room full of equipment and work benches. There was even a metal-turning lathe. And there were bits and pieces from gun-cleaning kits. I put the bag down on a bench and unzipped it.
‘I just want to know,’ Sam was saying. ‘See, people have been trying to kill me, and I can’t afford not to be choosy about my friends. Someone comes up to me with a chickenshit story about being a journalist, and it turns out he’s not, then I’ve got to wonder what he really is.’
The words died in his throat as he saw the Varmint being unwrapped, then the pistol and finally the Colt Commando.
‘Sweet Lord Jesus,’ he said quietly. I started seeing if I could fit the night-scope to the Varmint.
‘Sam,’ I said, not looking up, ‘you’re safe with us.’
‘I hear that.’
‘I’m a friend of Bel’s. I was a friend of her father’s. He sold me guns from time to time. I saw what those bastards did to him, and I intend finding out just why they did it. That’s the whole story, except for one thing.’ Now I looked at him. ‘I don’t care what it takes.’