Chapter Five #2
Can I really find the answers to Lynda’s unfortunate death that have eluded me for over twenty years with the help of my son?
Mason asked himself. Or did one death really have nothing to do with the other?
He wondered what he had missed and if it could ever turn back the hands of time in delivering justice for Lynda, who didn’t deserve to have her life ended that way.
It occurred to Mason that perhaps he had been looking in the wrong direction by going after Wendell. Maybe the same was true for Campbell as he focused on Kenneth Braison. Maybe someone else was the true enemy and was intent on throwing them off the trail.
Or maybe they were definitely on the right track with the Braison Family and only needed to make their case.
When he heard the front door open, Mason turned and saw Sally walk out toward him. Hopper ran up to her.
Sally had a worried look on her face as she regarded Mason and asked him, “Everything all right?”
He thought about it, wanting to just give a pat answer.
But knowing how much she had come to mean to him as his partner in life and the closest thing Campbell had to a mother with Alyssa no longer in the picture, Mason regarded his girlfriend and responded truthfully, “Not so much, really. But maybe it can be.”
“How?” she asked ill at ease.
He put his arm around her shoulders and replied, “I’ll explain inside…”
* * *
STEFANIE WASN’T QUITE sure what to expect when she drove through the gates and into the Braison Family compound.
Was it a mistake to go there and try to get a read on presumably the last place that Mia O’Dell had spent her final hours prior to ending up at Reston Hills Park?
Maybe I should leave the sleuthing up to Campbell and the police department, Stefanie thought.
Then she half joked to herself, What fun would that be?
Truthfully, she considered this anything but an exercise in fun and frolic. Beyond that, she would just have to play it by ear.
After parking, Stefanie exited the car and was met by Jasmine and a tall, brawny Hispanic man in his thirties with a bald head and crooked nose.
“Greetings,” Jasmine said spiritedly. “Stefanie, right?”
“Yes, good memory,” Stefanie told her, considering all the people she must regularly try to recruit.
“I make it my business to remember anyone I get a good vibe from,” she said sincerely, and looked at the man. “This is Juan.”
Stefanie smiled. “Hi.”
He didn’t smile back, as if resistant to any outsiders. “Hello,” he said stiffly.
“Anyway, I wanted to take you up on the invite, Jasmine,” Stefanie told her, “and check out the place.”
Jasmine beamed. “I’m so glad you did.”
“Me too,” Stefanie said hastily as she gazed at the stone-faced Juan.
Jasmine took her hand and said, “Come, let me show you around…”
“Okay,” Stefanie agreed, watching Juan head off in another direction but still peering at her.
Jasmine noticed and said, “Don’t pay any attention to him. He’s naturally suspicious of anyone who wants to see what we’re all about, as though we’re supposed to be closed off to expanding our tent. That isn’t the case at all,” she argued.
“Cool.” Stefanie smiled. She had no intention of joining the cult, but she was most interested in what she could learn about Mia.
After being led around the open country space that included fruit trees, crops and farm animals for a self-sustaining lifestyle, Jasmine introduced Stefanie to a few of the members, then took her to a cabin.
“This is where I live,” Jasmine said proudly.
Stefanie took a sweeping glance around the cozy cabin with bamboo flooring and wicker furniture. “Nice,” she told her.
“I try to make it as comfortable as possible.”
Stefanie smiled softly. “Do you know Mia O’Dell?” she asked evenly.
“Yes, Mia’s part of the Braison Family,” Jasmine said. “Are you friends with her?”
She doesn’t seem to know what happened to Mia, Stefanie thought. I have to tell her.
But before she could, a tall and fit bearded man with presence walked into the cabin, and Jasmine said, with eyes wide with admiration, “Kenneth—”
“Hey.” He regarded her with a serious look, then turned to Stefanie and said, “I’m Kenneth Braison.”
The head of the Braison Family, Stefanie deduced by his commanding presence. “Stefanie Nguyen.”
Kenneth shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Stefanie.”
“You too,” she told him politely.
“I trust that you’ve been made to feel welcome to our little slice of paradise?”
“Yes.” Stefanie flashed a smile. “Thanks to Jasmine.” She looked at her and got a grin in return.
Kenneth fixed his eyes to Jasmine’s face and told her intently, “Everyone’s meeting in the courtyard in five minutes.”
She nodded. “All right.”
All three left the cabin, where Juan was waiting outside. Kenneth eyed Stefanie and said succinctly, “Hope you’ll come again. Juan will show you out…”
Stefanie glanced at Juan and understood that this was Kenneth’s way of telling her it was time to leave, whether she was ready to or not.
She looked at Jasmine, who seemed confused, but didn’t dare voice an objection.
Nor did Stefanie wish for her to put herself at any risk.
Especially after what had happened to Mia. Or perhaps because of it.
After leaving the compound, Stefanie wondered if Campbell might be up for having dinner with her. There was only one way to find out.
* * *
KENNETH SENSED THAT Stefanie Nguyen was on a fishing expedition rather than truly being interested in becoming part of their family.
He’d heard through the grapevine that she was the one who found Mia in the park.
So, was she visiting the compound on behalf of Campbell Sawyer, to see if he could connect her death to the Braison Family?
Or was it a personal quest by Stefanie to see what rocks she could overturn for her own curiosity?
Either way, Kenneth was not about to let the group his father started be torn apart. Not as he was now the head of the Family. That included making sure that Stefanie stayed in her own lane—as a yoga instructor, he’d learned—if she knew what was good for her.
With everyone now gathered before him, Kenneth sucked in a deep breath and said, with the appropriate remorse, “I have some news to share with you… It’s with a heavy heart that I just learned that one of our own, Mia O’Dell, died on Founder’s Day from a drug overdose.
” He watched for a moment as the expected moans and murmurs came from his flock.
“She was found in Reston Hills Park. Though I’m sure this comes as a shock to most of you, given that drug use is strictly prohibited on these grounds, Mia may have fallen in with the wrong crowd outside of our reach… and paid the price…”
Kenneth saw this as an opportunity to further separate the Braison Family from outside influences and their decidedly negative play on human nature.
If this made them stronger, then all the better.
He could only hope that Mia’s death wouldn’t make its way back to him and everything he stood for. Just as his father had before him.