Page 58 of Phoenix Rising

The drugs he’d taken from the nurse for Tilly had run out and she’d been in pain. Elijah had been at the end of his rope when he’d pulled up to a dilapidated gate with posted signs warning trespassers of guard dogs and guns and plenty of room to bury the bodies. At that point, Elijah wouldn’t have cared if Josiah shot him. He had nothing to live for, and frankly, it seemed preferable to his miserable future.

Elijah had left a weeping Tilly in the car and scaled a section of the fence where the razor wire had rusted away. When no rottweiler had waited to gnaw off his leg, he kept going. He’d had to avoid weeds and overgrown bushes, along with what looked like a junkyard of tires, barrels, and hulls of old cars. The place was a disgusting dump. When he’d finally reached a clearing and glimpsed the house, he could only stare in awe. That crude entry had been a diversionary tactic. Josiah’s dwelling was a gigantic modern farmhouse, and it was incredible.

He hadn’t gotten as far as the porch before Josiah came out with a shotgun. At least, he’d assumed it was Josiah. He looked nothing like the clean-cut man of God Elijah remembered. This guy had been old, hunched over, and haggard, with stringy white hair and a bushy gray beard. He’d worn a ratty plaid shirt and dirty jeans.

“It’s me, Richard Caraway,” he’d said before Josiah could pull the trigger.

Josiah had lowered the rifle and squinted. “Richie? Is that really you? What the hell are you doing here, son?”

He could’ve heaped praise and flattery on him, saying things like he’d missed him or wanted to make sure he was doing well. Elijah was a master bullshitter. Instead, the truth had come out. “Matilda is hurt, and we’ve nowhere to go.”

Josiah had always had a soft spot for Tilly. She’d struggled since the day she was born, but she’d never lost her sweetness. That had done the trick. Josiah had welcomed them into his home—a big, whopping mistake on his part.

Elijah had snooped and discovered a fat bank account in the eight digits. The guy had been a hermit and one step from death’s door. Why did he need the money? Elijah had fed him a story of being set up and wanted by the Feds, except it wasn’t made up. Someone had ratted him out, only he didn’t know who. Josiah had a long-standing hatred of authority figures and readily agreed to fund new identities for him and Tilly.

The expenses for new papers and a driver’s license had been exorbitant but worth the splurge. He’d drummed the need for new identities through Tilly’s head. They were hiding from the devil, he’d told her, and they needed to outsmart him. He’d selected the name Ariel for her since she’d loved the fictional mermaid. She’d been overjoyed, and he thought she might’ve forgotten that she used to be Matilda. He’d told Josiah that he was honoring him by giving her the last name Porter, and it’d brought a tear to the old codger’s eye. Elijah had made Tilly repeat it over and over until she believed it was her name. Ariel Porter. She answered to it now without hesitation.

Elijah now had two separate personas: Phoenix Valo and Xander Porter. He’d selected Phoenix for obvious reasons. The devil’s minions might’ve tried to clip his wings, but he was born to soar. Valo had become his new surname because it meant light in Finnish, a nod to his former persona, The Lightkeeper. He insisted people call him Guru Phoenix. After all, he’d risen from the ashes to forge a new life.

At first, Tilly couldn’t understand why they didn’t have the same last name. He’d fed her more B.S. about tricking the evil forces, and in a way, he had been right. It was because he didn’t want the Feds to look for a man with a sister who had Down syndrome, put two and two together, and come up with good ol’ Richie Caraway.

Xander Porter was his second identity—one that Tilly didn’t know about. It would’ve confused her, so it was better to stick to one where she was concerned. Xander had been chosen because it meant defender of humankind in Greek. Elijah liked to think he was omnipotent—previous troubles notwithstanding. He’d told Josiah he’d used his last name in honor, too, but it was so he could claim to be a long-lost relative if questions ever arose.

Goodness, he’d gone through so many names over the last few years, even he had trouble remembering who he was.

Elijah had siphoned enough money from Josiah’s accounts to amass a nice cushion. However, he didn’t fully trust banks since the Feds could apparently drain fortunes at will. Thankfully, neither had Josiah. Elijah had found the code to his walk-in vault and stuffed enough cash into a duffle to live comfortably for years.

Since Josiah had no heirs, it had been easy to talk him into drafting a new will and leaving his estate to Tilly. Elijah had played on the old man’s sympathies by reminding him she had no long-term security, and who knew where she might end up if something happened to him. In fact, Elijah thought it might have lifted a sizable weight off Josiah’s shoulders. He hadn’t wanted the government to reap the benefits of his lifetime work, and it had bothered him for a long time.

Josiah’s will removed a gigantic burden from Elijah, too. He hadn’t been blowing smoke when he’d told Josiah that if something happened to him, say the Feds catching him, Tilly might end up in a homeless shelter. Now, she would be set for life. He might be a bastard, but he couldn’t stomach the thought of his sister being put into some dirty, understaffed hellhole.

The next move had been to convince Josiah to add Xander Porter to the business in Sedona, Arizona. Josiah had brought him up to speed on the operations, and Elijah knew that was where he belonged. Again, Josiah had surprised him by plugging in a fax machine and calling his lawyer, the only person he’d had contact with on the outside. In less than an hour, he’d taken care of the details. The new will had been sent, signed, and filed. Tilly now had more money in the bank than she could ever use, plus she would own the house. As Tilly’s guardian, Xander Porter would have control of all her accounts. He would oversee the business ones as well. It was a win-win for everyone.

With his financial troubles resolved, Elijah had been itching to get back to his true calling: fleecing unsuspecting rubes out of their money, er, leading the masses. If he had to spend another day with conspiracy theorist, doomsayer Josiah, he would have been tempted to eat the shotgun Josiah had used to run off trespassers. The old man’s health had been deteriorating rapidly. At least, it had seemed that way to Elijah, though he was no doctor. Still, he’d decided to give the Lord a little assistance since He’d been the impetus for Elijah to visit Josiah in the first place. One of God’s servants, if you will. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t taken a life before; he looked at it as a mercy killing.

Holding a cushion over a sleeping Josiah’s head wasn’t as easy as Elijah had thought. The old guy had some fight left in him, and when he realized what was happening, he’d kicked and clawed like a madman. Elijah had dropped the pillow and closed his hands around Josiah’s wrinkly neck, squeezing until his rheumy eyes bulged and his lungs stopped working.

Elijah remembered breathing heavily and sweating profusely after the unexpected exertion. He didn’t work out, so carrying the old man was out of the question. He’d dragged him by his feet down the stairs and out the back porch, wincing each time Josiah’s head had connected with a riser and bounced. A trip to the barn produced a wheelbarrow, and he’d somehow managed to push Josiah inside and wheel him into the woods behind the house. The man had no contact with the outside world, so it might be years before anyone realized he was gone. Wild animals and Mother Nature would take care of the body by then.

When he was ready to move to Arizona, Elijah had needed to decide what to do about Tilly. He’d used his new papers to purchase a cell phone and searched for group homes for people with Down syndrome in the area. Once again, God had been looking out for him. There was one in Sedona! What were the odds? Elijah firmly believed it was divine intervention. After one phone call, they’d accepted Tilly with a sizable donation, of course.

As much as he loved his sister, they couldn’t be seen together. Plus, she made it difficult for him to work his cons. The group home had the resources necessary to take care of her. She’d balked at first. Tilly had been with him her whole life. Then she’d met people like her, and Elijah thought that maybe she’d felt as if she belonged for the first time. That had made him happy.

When Elijah became the owner of Spiritual Beginnings, his first order of business had been to whittle down the staff. There had been entirely too many people being paid. Next, he’d upgraded the security. Josiah had a pretty good set-up, but Elijah couldn’t risk being caught unawares again. He’d instituted a strict no-phone policy so people couldn’t take pictures of him, even if he’d changed his look by growing a beard and shaving his head. Josiah had renovated recently, so the place had been in great shape, but there were several changes he’d wanted to make. Hiring construction crews had been a snap when cash was offered.

Another deviation from the old setup had been branching out from sermons on God to include other religions. It was to draw more people in, seeing how the business had been floundering the last few years, but it was also a cover to throw off the Feds.

Elijah had always possessed a healthy sex drive, but it’d been non-existent in the aftermath of losing his fortune. It had come back in full force. He’d made several trips to Phoenix or Flagstaff to pick up random women in dive bars.

Everything had been going swimmingly. The only thing missing had been a right-hand man, someone he could trust to do the most confidential jobs. On his last adventure, he’d enlisted the help of two men, Rob and Clint, to bring an influx of cash to fund his operation. They’d been useful idiots at first but had grown tiresome.

Then Henry and Tina McKay had come along and rocked Elijah’s world. Tina was the most exotically beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and Henry had actually made Elijah question his sexuality. He’d been half in love with both.

After losing his wealth, what had upset him the most about the raid on his compound was losing Henry and Tina. He had no idea what had happened to them or where they ended up. He’d pored over the news, trying to find out anything about the bust, but there had been nothing. It was almost as if it had never happened, except his empty bank accounts told him it had.

Now that Elijah was ensconced in his new life, he might hire a private eye to track them down. His body twitched with pleasure at the thought of seeing the couple now, not knowing if it was Tina or Henry he was excited to see the most.

It was time for his sermon to begin. He’d had to bone up on different religions before the first time he stepped onto the stage. Now, he was proficient on several gods and how to lead people on their spiritual journey.

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