“Okay, Manny,” Angie said. “From the top.” She placed a tape recorder on the floor in front of him and turned it on.

“Desiree was depressed because her father had cancer, her mother had just died, and a guy she’d known in college had drowned.”

“We know that part,” I said.

“So, she came to us and—”

“How’d she come to you?” Angie said. “Did she just walk in off the street?”

“Yes.” Manny blinked.

Angie looked at Bubba. “He’s lying.”

Bubba shook his head slowly and turned on the torch.

“Okay,” Manny said. “Okay. She was recruited.”

Bubba said, “I turn this on again, I’m using it, Ange. Whether you like it or not.”

She nodded.

“Jeff Price,” Manny said. “He was the recruiter.”

“Jeff?” I said. “I thought his name was Sean.”

Manny shook his head. “That was his middle name. He used it as an alias sometimes.”

“Tell us about him.”

“He was the treatment supervisor at Grief Release and a member of the Church Council.”

“Which is?”

“The Church Council is like the board of directors. It’s made up of people who’ve been with the Church since its days in Chicago.”

“So, this Jeff Price,” Angie said, “where’s he now?”

“Gone,” John said.

We looked at him. Even Bubba seemed to be getting interested. Maybe he was taking mental notes for the day he’d start his own Church. The Temple Defective.

“Jeff Price stole two million dollars from the Church and disappeared.”

“How long ago?” I said.

“Little over six weeks ago,” Manny said.

“Which is when Desiree Stone disappeared.”

Manny nodded. “They were lovers.”

“So you think she’s with him?” Angie said.

Manny looked at John. John looked at the floor.

“What?” Angie said.

“I think she’s dead,” Manny said. “Jeff, you gotta understand, he’s—”

“A first-class bastard,” John said. “Coldest prick you’ll ever meet.”

Manny nodded. “He’d trade his mother to the alligators for a pair of fucking shoes, if you know what I mean.”

“But Desiree could be with him,” Angie said.

“I suppose. But Jeff’s traveling light. You know? He knows we’re looking for him. And he knows a girl as good-looking as Desiree kind of stands out in a crowd. I’m not saying she might not have left Massachusetts with him, but he would have cut her loose at some point. Probably as soon as she found out about the money he stole. And I don’t mean cut her loose like leave her behind at a Denny’s or something. He would have buried her deep.”

He looked down and his body sagged against the ropes.

“You liked her,” Angie said.