“Did he take the books?” Rick appeared relaxed, but he was certain he was on the right track, eager to den his quarry.
“No. Left them as he found them.”
“Brother Luther, do you think he’d been pilfering funds?” Rick folded his hands together.
“It’s worse than that.” Brother Luther’s voice shook.
On cue, Brother Sheldon wailed, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
“Shut up!” Brother Ed seized Brother Sheldon’s arm, holding it in his vise grip. “None of us knew. Why the hell do you think we were left here?”
“It appears he left you funds to continue your work and to live here,” Cooper interjected.
“We can scrape by,” Brother Luther replied dourly.
“I thought your order had received big contributions,” Rick said.
“Yes, and that’s when I became suspicious,” Brother Luther said. “Those checks were given directly to Brother Morris or Brother George. I never saw them. Brother Morris always said he instantly put them into bonds. What a fool I was.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Brother Ed consoled him.
“I do the books. I should have asked to see those bonds. I didn’t.”
“If you did, you might be dead.” Brother Sheldon’s voice lifted to the teary note.
Brother Ed cast him a stern eye. “You’ve got a point there, Brother Sheldon.”
Calmly and deliberately, Rick asked, “Do you know where the money is?”
“Presumably with Brother Morris and Company.” Brother Luther dropped his head in his hands. “I think it’s a lot of money.”
Rick glanced at Cooper, a hint of triumph in his face, which soon enough shifted to disbelief. “So people gave large sums in gratitude for your services in Brother Morris’s name.”
“No, Brother Morris isn’t that dumb. He had to have an account with a bank or with a brokerage house similar to the one here.” Brother Luther was sharp as a tack in his own way.
“What do you mean?” Rick unfolded his hands.
“Since I never saw the account, I can’t give you a specific name, but an easy one would be to have the checks made out to BOL instead of Order of the Brothers of Love.” Brother Luther’s mind crept into underhanded accounting byways in an attempt to figure this out.
“A fairly straightforward scam.” Rick’s eyes met each brother’s gaze.
“No. It’s far more clever.” Brother Luther nodded to Brother Howard, who took over.
“My task for the order involved meeting people. You might say I am our public relations expert. I scheduled Brother Morris, I called on people. Brother George did, too, and I began to notice over the last two years . . . well, let me say that it wasn’t obvious to me at first, since my mind doesn’t run on that track.”
Rick almost uttered the words, “What track?” but he waited patiently.
“I swear I didn’t know,” Brother Sheldon whimpered again.
“I called on the more middle-class people. Brother Morris and Brother George called on the richer ones.”
“I’m not sure what the significance is,” Rick replied honestly.
“Bigger checks, obviously, but I also think that Brother Morris and Brother George identified people with Achilles’ heels.” He paused. “I expect they threatened to expose them.”
Cooper half-smiled. “Lucrative.”
Rick continued questioning. “What kind of Achilles’ heels?”
Brother Luther answered. “Gambling. Affairs. Shady business deals. And some of the affairs were married men with other men.”
“How do you know that?” Rick pressed.
Brother Sheldon, misty-eyed again and looking guilty, confessed, “Brother Christopher told me.”
“Brother Sheldon, you withheld evidence.” Rick sounded stern.
“How could I have revealed that?”
“What did Brother Christopher have to do with it?”
“He owed money,” Brother Sheldon said.
“To whom?”
“Alex Corbett.” Brother Sheldon’s chin wavered again.
“Don’t start blubbering, Brother Sheldon.” Brother Howard pointed a finger at him.
“Oh, shut up.” Brother Sheldon surprised everyone, then turned to Rick. “Alex runs a little betting business: football, horses, any large sporting event. Brother Christopher couldn’t resist the idea of winning money.”
“So?” Rick shrugged.
“He didn’t win.” Brother Sheldon stated what he thought was obvious. “He had to pay it off somehow.”
“How did he do that?” Rick kept his voice even.
“Sex for money.” Brother Sheldon cast down his eyes. “It was wrong, but I wasn’t going to rat on a friend.”
“With women?” Rick had to admire Brother Sheldon’s loyalty, even if somewhat misplaced.
“One man.” “Let me be clear: Christopher Hewitt sold his body to a man?”
“He didn’t like it but the money was good. The man was head over heels.” Brother Sheldon wanted to make sure no one thought Brother Christopher was gay. “Brother Christopher was weak where money was concerned.”
“Who was his partner?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Guess.” Rick pushed harder.
“Bill Keelo or Bryson Deeds.”
Rick’s eyebrows shot up. “Your reasons?”
“Those were the men I saw him with, and they became increasingly helpful to our order.”
Brother Howard butted in. “You think Brother Morris figured it out?”
“Of course,” Brother Sheldon replied. “Blackmail.”
Brother Luther shuddered. “I knew it!”
“Why didn’t you come forward?” Rick forced his anger down.
“Didn’t know for sure.”
Cooper asked, “Was Brother Speed in debt, too?”
Brother Sheldon nodded. “He bet on the ponies.” He sighed deeply. “Money. Money is the root of all evil.”
“So they just wanted to pay off their debts?” Rick asked.
“Yes. They swore they’d stop gambling.” Brother Sheldon had believed them.
“And Brother Speed . . . uh, serviced a man, too.” Rick said more than asked, as he watched Cooper’s pencil fly over her notebook.
“The money is with men, Sheriff. I don’t think women will pay a lot for sex,” Brother Howard interjected.
“So it seems.” Rick was surprised, for he didn’t see this coming. “Speed’s client?”
“Either Bryson or Bill,” Brother Sheldon answered.
“And Bill and Bryson knew about each other.” Rick focused on Sheldon.
“They’d met the brothers together. At the Christmas tree farm or at the hospice. And they had good reasons to be there. They didn’t arouse suspicion.”
Brother Luther allowed himself an acid comment. “Bill Keelo tried to cover himself by being publicly homophobic. Ass.”
Brother Sheldon, scandalized at the language, chided, “That’s enough.”
“Two men are dead and you’re worried that I said ‘ass’?” Brother Luther snorted.
“So the question is, who was blackmailed and who killed?” Rick rubbed his jaw.
“Well, I can tell you Brother Christopher never blackmailed anyone.” Brother Sheldon got misty again. “He tried to reform. He did. But easy money corrupted him. The flesh is weak.”
“Obviously.” Cooper’s comment was fact.
“Blackmail.” Brother Luther said the chilling word again and shook his head.
“I don’t know if the order can recover from this,” Brother Howard mournfully said.
Brother Luther replied, “People will always need help with the dying.”
Driving down the mountain, Rick immediately sent out a call to pick up Brother Morris and his cohorts. Clever though the opera singer might be, hiding that bulk could prove very difficult.
“Think we’ll get him?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know when.” Rick noticed how the water running over the rocks on the mountainside had turned to blue ice. “I hope we can get him to tell us exactly who they blackmailed. And mind you, Coop, this doesn’t solve the murders.”