He was able to smile again. "It was, though I didn't realize it at the time, the beginning for me, taking that step, allowing myself to speak the unspeakable. I learned to accept my own innocence, and to forgive my mother. But the rage was still there, this hard, secret knot inside me. Then I met Isis."
"Through your interest in the occult," Eve prompted.
"Through my study of it, as part of my therapy." He drank his tea now, and his lips were curved. "I was angry and rude. Religion of any kind was an abomination to me, and I detested what she stood for. She was so beautiful, so full of light. I hated her for that. She challenged me to come to a ceremony, to observe much as you did last night. I preferred to think of myself as a scientist. I would go, I thought, to prove there was nothing in her faith but old words repeated by fools. Just as there had been nothing in my father's creed but an excuse to hurt and dominate.
"I stood back, separate, cynical, and secretly enraged. I hated them for their simplicity and their devotion. Hadn't I seen that same captured look on the faces of those who'd gathered to hear my father speak? I wanted nothing to do with it, with them, but I was drawn back. Three times I went back and watched, and though I didn't know it, I had begun to heal. And one night, on Alban Eilir, the Spring Equinox, Isis asked me into her home. When we were alone, she told me that she had recognized me. I panicked. I'd tried so hard to bury all of that, all of him. She said she hadn't meant from this life, though I could see in her eyes that she knew. She knew who I was, what I'd come from. She told me I had a great capacity for healing, and I would discover it once I had healed myself. Then she seduced me."
He gave a short laugh, and in it was great warmth. "Imagine my surprise when this beautiful woman led me to her bed. I went along like a puppy, half eager, half terrified. She was the first woman I'd had, and the only one I've been with. And on the night of the Spring Equinox, that hard, secret knot inside me began to dissolve.
"She loves me. And the miracle of that made me believe in other miracles. I became Wiccan, I embraced and was embraced by the craft. I learned to heal myself and others. The only person I've ever harmed in my life has been myself. But I understand better than Isis with all her insights, the lure of violence, of selfishness, of bowing to another master."
She believed him, yet too much of his past mirrored her own for her to trust her instincts. "You've gone to a great deal of effort to hide your connection with your father."
"Wouldn't you?"
"Did Alice know?"
"Alice was innocence. She was youth. There were no David Baines Conroys in her life. Until Selina Cross."
"And Cross is an intelligent and vindictive woman. If she'd discovered your secret, she might have used Alice, and others, to blackmail you. Would the members of your cult trust you if they knew your history?"
"Since that's never been tested, I don't have the answer. I'd prefer, certainly, to keep my privacy."
"And on the night Alice was killed, you were here. Alone with Isis."
"Yes, and we were here, alone, on the night Lobar was killed. You know I was on hand at the last murder, again with Isis. And yes." He smiled slightly. "I have no doubt she would lie for me. But while she would live with a murderer's son, she would never live with a murderer. It's against everything she is."
"She loves you."
"Yes."
"And you love her."
"Yes." He blinked, and horror filled his eyes. "You can't believe she'd have a part in any of this, beyond the fact that she loved Alice, cared for her as a mother would a sick child. She's incapable of hurting anyone."
"Mr. Forte, everyone is capable."
– =O=-***-=O=-
"You don't think he's involved," Peabody said as they started down the outside stairs.
"There's history of aberrant behavior in his family. He has an expert knowledge of chemicals, including hallucinogens and herbals. He has no alibi for any of the incidents. He was associated with Alice, closely enough that she may have stumbled across the secret he's been hiding for years, and that exposed, could destroy his cult."
She paused, tapping her fingers against the rail as she ticked off her mental list. "He has good reason to hate Selina Cross and her membership, to want to punish them as he couldn't punish his father. He was on hand when Wineburg started to break, and could have easily circled around and killed him. That gives him motive and opportunity, and with his background, the potential for violent behavior."
"He's made himself a decent life after a nightmare childhood," Peabody protested. "You can't condemn him for what his father did."
Eve stared out at the street and fought her own demons. "I'm not condemning him, Peabody, I'm investigating every possibility. Consider this." She turned. "If Alice knew, and told Frank, his reaction might very well have been to demand she break off the connection. It's likely, following this line of speculation, that he confronted Forte himself, even threatened him with exposure if he didn't break off his influence. He was in Homicide when Conroy was taken in, and he'd have known and remembered every filthy detail."
"Yes, but – "
"And Alice moved into her own place. She continued to work part time for Isis, but she no longer lived here. Why did she move out, away from here, when she was afraid?''
"I don't know," Peabody admitted.
"And we can't ask her." Eve turned back, started down the stairs again, then swore when she saw the boy leaning on her vehicle. "Well, hell."
She strode down, straight over to Jamie. "Get your butt off my hood. This is an official vehicle."
"An official piece of shit," he corrected with a quick, sassy grin. "The city puts you cops into recycled garbage heaps. A high-profile detective like you ought to have better."
"I'll tell the chief you said so next time I'm in the Tower. What are you doing here?"
"Just hanging." His grin flashed again. "And I ditched the shadow you put on me. He's good." Jamie tucked his thumbs in his pockets. "I'm better."
"Why aren't you in school?"
"Don't bother to call the Truant Brigade, Lieutenant, it's Saturday."
How the hell was she supposed to keep track? "Then why aren't you terrorizing one of the sky malls like a normal delinquent?"
His grin spread. "I hate sky malls. They're so yesterday. Caught you on Channel 75."
"Did you drop by for my autograph?"
"You scrawl it on a credit slip, I could outfit this heap of yours and make it rock." He looked past her toward the shop. "I got a load of the witch through the glass. She's doing some heavy retail today."
Eve glanced back, noted the customers browsing inside. "You've seen her before."
"Yeah, couple times when I tailed Alice."
"Ever see anything interesting?"
"Nope. Everybody's always wearing clothes in there." He wiggled his brows. "A guy has to hope. I studied up on Wicca. They liked to be naked a lot. Did see the head witch kick a guy out of the shop once."
"Really." It was Eve's turn to lean on the hood. "Why?"
"Couldn't say, but she was maximum pissed. I could see they were having words, and I thought she was going to belt him. Especially when he shoved her."
"He shoved her."
"Yeah. I thought about going in then, though she was a hell of a lot bigger than he was. Still, guys got no business pushing women around. But whatever she said had him backing off. Backing way off until he was backing right out of the door. And he went off in a big hurry."