Page 68 of See How They Hide

“I’m going to check with the coroner,” Jim said. “Go talk to Michael.” He gestured to where Michael was sitting in his car with the heater running.

Sloane walked over and tapped on the window, then slipped into the passenger seat.

“Hey,” she said. “Jim’s talking to the coroner. Where’s Kara?”

“At the station with our witness.”

“The girl who knew one of the victims?”

“She knew all of the victims,” Michael said.

“Suspect?”

“No.” Michael gave her a rundown on their interview with Riley Pierce.

“A cult?” she asked when he was done. “That was the furthest thing from my mind.”

“You should listen to the interview if you’re not wiped out tonight,” Michael said. “And she has a lot more to say. AD Montero will be here in the morning to talk to her.”

That surprised her. “From Quantico?”

“He’s an expert on cults.”

“I remember, but I didn’t think he worked in the field.”

“I’ve never met him,” Michael said. “He wasn’t at Quantico when I was at the academy.”

“You don’t sound like you’re happy to have his help,” Sloane said.

“Like you said, he hasn’t been in the field for a long time,” Michael said. “His quick debrief into the psychology of former cult members helped us—particularly Kara—get Riley to open up. But I don’t know what he’s going to be able to do here.”

“Were you inside?” Sloane tilted her head toward the cabin.

Michael nodded. “Poor guy was tortured. I don’t know what he gave up, but based on what Riley said, he created fake identities for people who escaped. Someone shot his computer, don’t know if it was him or whoever killed him. But it makes sense that he gave up some of the people—Riley confirmed that Robert Benson, Jane Merrifield, Chris Crossman, and the newest victim, Donovan Smith, were all cult members who left. Jesse Morrison was hired help.”

“Do you know if there are other former cult members out there? Or do you think Riley and Andrew are the last still alive?” Sloane asked Michael.

“Riley gave us a list of names—first names only, because they didn’t use last names at Havenwood—of people she helped Thalia get out of the cult. But she doesn’t know who left over the last three and a half years. She didn’t explicitly say, but implied that she hadn’t spoken to Thalia—her aunt—since she escaped.”

“There could be more victims out there,” Sloane said. “Or maybe the cult wasn’t able to find them.”

Michael shrugged. “What I don’t understand is how a large group of people can conspire to kill people they’ve lived with, worked with, for years.”

“Cult psychology is not my strength,” Sloane said. “But we were both in the military.”

“The military is not a cult,” Michael said sharply.

“No, of course not. That’s not what I was getting at. People who were never in the military don’t understand us. We follow orders because we trust our CO. Our CO works hard to build trust and respect. We have experience, education, training, and the confidence that there is a chain of command that reviews and vets information that we act on. There is a structure—a huge and sometimes unwieldy bureaucracy—but a clear structure so that we know our orders are righteous.

“Now, take away everything but our commanding officer,” Sloane continued. “That’s the cult leader. They’ve built trust and confidence. Whether that’s because of religion or a common goal or belief, or any number of things, they are charismatic and have the power to lead and motivate people. Others put their faith and trust in them, but they treat that person like a demigod. They can do no wrong.”

Sloane could see Michael didn’t completely agree with her. But that was okay, she was still trying to wrap her mind around everything they had learned, and where to go from here. She was new to the team, and while everyone had welcomed her and didn’t make her feel like a rookie, she had a steep learning curve.

“Maybe,” Michael finally said. “I think of it more like the mentality of thrill killers. Where a group of people commit crimes that they would never even think of on their own.”

“I can see that,” Sloane concurred. “There still would need to be a dominant personality to pull them together, convince them to abandon their morals and values.”

Jim walked down the stairs of the cabin, taking off his gloves and putting them into an evidence bag as he walked. Sloane and Michael exited the warm car and approached him.

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