[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
ther had financed the local Ku Klux Klan). At school he d been
brilliant but erratic, ditto at college. He d landed a job at a small
college in Oklahoma before moving to Nebraska and then
California.
He found his vocation at last with the Disciples of Love. He
was destined to become leader of a worldwide religious founda-
tion, built on vague ideals which seemed to include sex, drugs,
and organic vegetables. The American tabloid papers concen-
trated on the first two of these, talking of bizarre initiation
rites and mandatory sexual relations with Provost. There
were large photos of him seated on some sort of throne, with
long-haired beauties draped all around him, swooning at his feet
and gazing longingly into his eyes, wondering if he d choose
them next for the mandatory sexual relations. These acolytes
were always young women, always long-haired, and they all
looked much the same. They wore long loose-fitting dresses and
163
Ian Rankin
had middle-class American faces, strong-jawed and thick-
eyebrowed and pampered. They were like the same batch of
dolls off a production line.
None of which was my concern, except insofar as I envied
Provost his chosen career. My purpose, I had to keep reminding
myself, was to ask whether this man s organization could have
hired a hit man. It seemed more likely that they d use some sui-
cide soldier from their own ranks. But then that would have
pointed the finger of the law straight at them. The Disciples of
Love were probably cleverer than that.
The Disciples really took off in 1985. Trained emissaries
were sent to other states and even abroad, where they set up mis-
sions and started touting for volunteers. They offered free shel-
ter and food, plus the usual spiritual sustenance. It was quite an
undertaking. One magazine article had priced it and was asking
where the money came from. Apparently no new elderly rela-
tions had gone to their graves, and it couldn t just be a windfall
from investments or suddenly accrued interest.
There had to be something more, and the press didn t like
that it couldn t find out what. Reporters staked out the Disciples
HQ, still the old Spaceship Berkeley, until Provost decided it was
time to move. He pulled up sticks and took his caravan north,
first into Oregon, and then Washington State, where they found
themselves in the Olympic Peninsula, right on the edge of
Olympic National Park. By promising not to develop it, Provost
managed to buy a lot of land on the shores of a lake. New cabins
were built to look like old ones, grassland became vegetable
plots, and the Disciples got back to work, this time separated
from the world by guards and dogs.
Provost was not apocalyptic. There was no sign in any of his
writings or public declarations that he thought the end of the
world was coming. For this reason, he didn t get into trouble
with the authorities, who were kept busy enough with cults stor-
ing weaponry like squirrels burying nuts for the winter. (These
reports were mostly written before the Branch Davidian ex-
ploded.) The Revenue people were always interested though.
They were curious as to how the cult s level of funding was being
maintained, and wanted to know if the whole thing was just an
164
Bleeding Hearts
excuse for tax avoidance. But they did not find any anomalies,
which might only mean Provost had employed the services of a
good accountant.
Lately, everything had gone quiet on the Disciples news
front. A couple of journalists, attempting to breach the HQ com-
pound, had been intercepted and beaten, but in American eyes
this was almost no offense at all. (The same eyes, remember, who
were only too keen to read new revelations of the sex n drug sect
and its screwball leader.)
All of which left me where, precisely? The answer was, on a
train heading north, where maybe I d learn more from the cult s
UK branch. Bel was sitting across from me, and our knees, legs,
and feet kept touching. She d slipped off her shoes, and I kept
touching her, apologizing, then having to explain why I was
apologizing.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]