Croyden? He had the day off. “Hello.”
“Schmidt, this is Croyden.”
“I didn’t think you were working today.”
“I was fishing, but I had to come in because of this mess. I got the word that you spotted Nathan earlier. We’ve had cars crisscrossing the area, but we haven’t seen him. We’ve got all entrances to the Hahn Recreation Area covered. Maybe he’s flown. What are you doing now?”
“Looking for the spot where this Ascension into heaven is supposed to take place. Have you found Hodgkins or any of his flock?”
“We’ve got units working on that too. LAPD and the sheriff’s office have been working together, but they haven’t been able to find this guy, Hodgkins. If you’re right about him, maybe he’s already taken off with the loot.”
“Except that the website said to bring cash tonight. But if there’s nothing happening tonight, maybe he’s gone.”
“And by the time he gets to Phoenix, the folks who trusted him will be crying. Anyway, we’re drawing a blank. Don’t do anything stupid, but if you find anything, call me immediately on this number.”
Tony wrote the number down and promised they would call Croyden if they spotted the believers. At least Croyden was asking for his help. Then he had a thought. He said, “Shahla and I would like permission to go into the park.”
“Why? There’s nobody in there.”
“Just a hunch. If nobody is there, we’ll come right back out.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“How could it be dangerous if nobody’s there? I don’t think we’ll be attacked by rabbits.”
Croyden was silent for a few seconds, apparently digesting this logic. Then he said, “All right, I’ll clear it with the officers at the entrance. But be careful. I don’t want to get my ass in a sling because you fell off a cliff.”
There was certainly nobody in the lower part of the park. The area was relatively flat and open, except for an occasional tree. A group of people would be easy to spot, even in the dark, because they would need some sort of light.
“If all the entrances are being watched, how could anybody get in?” Shahla asked.
Tony had been wondering the same thing to try to justify what they were doing. He said, “In a park as large as this one, there are probably ways to get in other than the official ones. Maybe Hodgkins found one.”
“If he did find an alternate way in, it probably leads to the ridge, near where those houses are.”
“Okay, we’ll go up the road to the east side of the ridge. It’s paved.”
Tony drove up this road. A locked gate blocked an additional loop of paved road that doubled as the ridge trail at that point. There was a gap between the gate and a tree that stood at the edge of a large grassy area, which Tony remembered as being shown on the trail map as Janice’s Green Valley. He squeezed the truck between the gate and the tree, utilizing the four-wheel-drive feature to navigate the rough terrain, and then climbed back onto the road and drove to the other end of the loop.
He shut off the engine, and they opened their windows. The night air was chilly, but not cold. They had put on sweatshirts earlier. Shahla was wearing one of his old sweatshirts that had shrunk with repeated washings. They could see city lights in the distance, blinking like stars. The lights were below them instead of above them, since the real stars weren’t visible. Clouds hid them. It was an upside-down universe. It was also a peaceful scene, as Tony had thought it would be when he had seen it that afternoon-too peaceful for the thought of murder.
“This is as far as we can drive,” Tony said. “But we can take the flashlight and walk along the ridge trail.”
They also carried the crowbar and box cutter as they started to walk west along the dirt path. It had some ups and downs but was fairly easy to follow, even in the dark. They had gone about a hundred yards when Shahla, who was in the lead with the flashlight, stopped. Tony stopped beside her.
“Listen,” Shahla said.
Tony listened. He could hear something other than the distant muffled noises of the city. “It sounds like singing.”
“It is singing. Remember, the church website said that they would sing until the Ascension. Tony, it’s them.”
Tony felt himself getting excited. “It sounds far away.” He looked at his watch. “We don’t have much time before midnight. I don’t know if we can get there.”
“Remember where the trail goes up to the other end of the ridge? Can the truck make it up that trail? If so, we can probably drive right to them.”
The western end of the trail was dirt, but it was wide enough for the truck. And the truck had four-wheel-drive. “Okay, let’s do it.”
They turned and walked rapidly back toward the truck, being careful not to fall on the rough trail. Once there, Tony drove the truck back around the locked gate and then accelerated down the hill.
“Should we call the police?” Shahla asked.
“There isn’t time for them to get here before midnight,” Tony said. “And the car they have at the entrance can’t climb the hill. Wait until we see what the situation is. And I’m going to need your eyes to help me drive up that trail.”
They arrived at the bottom of the trail shortly thereafter. Tony slowed way down as he started uphill, making sure to keep the truck in the center of the path. The trail became fairly steep, but with its four-wheel-drive, the truck didn’t have a problem with traction. He breathed a sigh of relief when it leveled off at the top of the ridge.
Tony stopped the truck and turned off the engine. Through the open windows they could hear the singing, much louder than before. But because of the hilly terrain, they still couldn’t see anybody.
“We’re close,” Shahla said. “I hope the sound of our engine didn’t scare them.”
“Apparently it didn’t, or they would have stopped singing.” Tony looked at his watch again. “Twelve minutes to midnight. I’m going to drive another fifty yards and then stop again. We’ve got to find out exactly where they are.”
They drove a short distance and stopped. The singing was still ahead of them. Tony repeated the maneuver.
Shahla, whose seat in the truck was on the south side of the ridge trail, said, “The singing is right below us.”
They both got out of the truck, leaving the doors open so as not to make excessive noise. They walked to the edge of the hill and looked down. The singing grew louder and they could see lights-candles. The people were lighting candles, apparently in anticipation of imminent Ascension.
Tony’s first thought was that open flames were prohibited in Southern California, where the fire danger in September was extreme, especially in this brushy area. But if you were about to ascend into heaven, you didn’t care about earthly worries like brushfires. The sound of religious music in this setting was eerie. And when Tony thought about what the singers expected to do, he felt something crawling up his neck.
The people were sixty or seventy feet below them, on a level area. A plateau that stuck out of the hillside. Hodgkins must have spent some time looking for that particular spot. It was inaccessible by motor vehicle. The only way to get to it was to walk down a steep path from where Tony and Shahla were standing. Tony could barely make out the path in the dark.
He had been right about one thing. The faithful had found a way into the park, probably through the fence that bordered the north side, not far from them. If they had cut a hole in the fence, nobody would have noticed because of the inaccessibility of the area, caused by the brush and the steepness of the hill. Then they could clear a path from there to the ridge, through the ice plant and the brush. And avoid the police.
There might be a hundred people, but it was impossible to pick out individuals. Impossible to tell whether Nathan and Tina were in the crowd.