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Faithless in Death

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“It’s engineering, man. Something might look bright and shiny on the outside, but the structure’s what counts.” – Chadwick Billingsby to Eve about what he learned when Gwen Huffman set him up in college, Faithless in Death[1]

Plot Summary[]

The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wineglasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body―but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?

As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within―and soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.

Spoiler warning!
This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Timeline[]

Story Date: May, 2061'[2]

Day 1[]

Chapter 1[]

  • Eve had just finished the paperwork from the Ireland Op when her communicator signaled. She and her partner, Peabody, head to the West Village to investigate a homicide called in by a woman on the Upper East Side.
  • The officer downstairs, Officer Miller, tells them Ariel Byrd was killed in her studio, bashed in the back of her head with a mallet that was conveniently left by the body in the sculptor’s studio. There’s also a take-out bag with muffins and fancy coffee spilled as if it was dropped.
  • The other tenant, Hettie Brownstone, didn’t hear anything unusual the previous night. Eve tells Miller to get the security feed from the two street-level stores, check on the café, and check on the neighbor when she gets back from dropping her kid at school, letting her know Eve and/or Peabody will come down to speak with her. Miller tells them the bed had been used and there were wineglasses on either bedside table, with a nearly empty bottle of Shiraz in the kitchen.
  • The music was loud enough that it covered the sound of their footsteps, so Ariel wouldn’t have heard somebody coming in. Eve reviews the studio and body while Peabody covers the living area. Everything’s tidy and uncluttered, so the bedroom with the wineglasses is out of place, as if Ariel didn’t get the chance to clean up before being killed. Prints on one of the wineglasses match the vic’s, but the other prints aren’t in the system. The bed is mussed up from sex, so there will be DNA, but it may not be in the system either. The last text on Byrd’s ’link was from Gwen Huffman, saying she was looking forward to their sitting and wouldn't come empty-handed.

Chapter 2[]

  • The neighbor’s parents paid for soundproofing her apartment, and she didn’t hear anything the previous night. Ariel was private and Hettie didn’t know of any of her friends or lovers - she’s a single parent with a dance studio and didn’t socialize much. Ariel was also careless about her security.
  • On the way uptown, Eve and Peabody listen to the 9-1-1 call, which was left by Huffman, the same person who sent the last text to Byrd, an hour after she was there that morning based on the security feed. She sounds hysterical, which Eve finds not credible given that Huffman took the time to go back uptown before calling it in.
  • Huffman lives in an obsessively elegant apartment building, definitely not owned by Roarke. The clerk tells them Huffman’s fiancé is with her, and clears them to go up. Eve thinks Huffman got home, put on her Do Not Disturb, then called 9-1-1 from her apartment. Eve is suspicious about the texts between Huffman and Byrd not having names on them and about Huffman going downtown that early.
  • Her fiancé and legal representative, Merit Caine, was at the door. Huffman’s apartment is studied elegance - everything perfect and perfectly matched. She’s dressed in white and looks delicate and fragile. Huffman said Ariel’s door was unlocked and she heard the music, so she went up to the studio. When she saw the body and all the blood, she ran out of there and came home because it didn’t seem real and she was in shock.
  • Eve asked Huffman about the night before, since that’s when Byrd was killed. Caine worked late at the office, preparing for a big case, and she went for a walk, didn’t buy anything, and came home after a few hours. She worked on some things for her wedding and then was asleep by eleven.
  • Peabody doesn’t trust her because she cried pretty tears. Eve doesn’t figure her for murder, but thinks she’s cheating on the fiancé and was out with the person she was cheating with, not home alone. Eve pointed out all the holes in Huffman’s story:
    • She’s not the type to walk for two or three hours and not buy anything
    • People like her don’t book an 8 a.m. sitting, and don’t get there thirty minutes early - people wait for her, not the other way around
    • She’s the type to use a car service, not walk around in a fugue state before hailing a cab

Chapter 3[]

  • Morris recognized her name because he, Garnet DeWinter, and her daughter were at the Art in the Park festival the previous month, and she was one of the artists there. They admired her work, took her card, and visited her home studio, where she bought a charming gargoyle for her garden wall. Ariel was healthy, with good muscle tone and no signs of alcohol or illegals abuse. She was hit three times, although the first would have killed her without quick medical attention. There’s DNA from the sex partner, but no semen and there weren’t any sex toys condoms in her apartment, so Eve and Peabody think Ariel and Gwen were having an affair and Ariel got pissed when Gwen was texting back and forth with her fiancé.
  • Huffman’s DNA isn’t on file despite both her parents being doctors. Eve sends Peabody to check with Dickhead at the lab, while she talks to DeWinter about Ariel. DeWinter liked her work and Ariel was good with her daughter, answering her questions. DeWinter went to her home studio to buy the gargoyle to save Ariel the commission, and talked with her about doing a sculpture of her daughter and her dog, and was supposed to call her up in a couple of weeks to set that up. Ariel had gorgeous striped tulips on her table and when DeWinter complimented them, she got the look in her eye that says you’re thinking about a lover.
  • There were two sets of DNA on the sheets – one was Byrd’s and the other wasn’t on file, but no prints on the murder weapon. Peabody runs Caine, who comes from a lawyerly family and graduated top of his class from Harvard Law School and is worth 63 million dollars, and lives about five blocks north of Huffman.
  • At Central, Eve watches the security feed from Huffman’s apartment building. They see her come in from meeting the wedding planner, carrying a bag from Intimate Occasions, and leave again dressed in a hot red dress that showed off her shoulders and a short swingy skirt that showed off her legs, and strappy heels in hot red - definitely not urban strolling clothes. She came home at ten looking pissed, with “I-just-rolled-out-of-the-sexy-bed” hair and her lip dye is worn off, like her mouth did some work.
  • She leaves again that morning, looking determined, and returns at 7:43 a little shaken, but not in shock. It still doesn’t make sense for Huffman to have killed Byrd, but she’s definitely lying her ass off.

Chapter 4[]

  • Eve sets up her murder board with pictures of Byrd and Huffman. Officer Shelby walks in and recognizes Huffman. Shelby tells Eve she and Huffman had a summer fling when they were teens. Shelby also tells Eve that Huffman’s parents are part of the “Natural Order” cult, known to be very anti-LGBT. Someone outed them to Gwen’s parents and she disappeared and then dumped Shelby by text. She doesn’t think Huffman is violent, more bitchy, demanding, and manipulative. She’s more likely to lie and play the victim than kill.
  • Eve and Peabody think someone from the order could have killed Byrd if they thought she might reveal the affair, maybe at Huffman’s suggestion, but not realizing how far it would go. Harvo came through with pubic hair and the uniforms found the wine and flower shops, confirming that Huffman was a regular and always paid cash They’re going to bring her in to sign her statement under the premise that Byrd’s death was a result of a botched burglary so she won’t bring her lawyer.
  • Feeney confirmed Byrd’s security feed had no glitches but said the her door was accessed with a key card at 7:18 that morning, and before that the previous night at 22:46, but using a copy of Huffman’s card, not the original. Some of the dates on her calendar are marked with little red hearts, including the previous night; he’ll send Eve the dates.
  • Ariel’s mother returned Eve’s call - she’s in Atlanta, where her daughter-in-law had a baby that day. She doesn’t know of anyone who would harm Ariel, did know she was dating someone, but didn’t know her name.

Chapter 5[]

  • Eve brings Huffman in for questioning, making sure she sees Shelby; Gwen greets her warmly, while Shelby gives her the cold shoulder. Huffman tells Eve they were summer friends when they were twelve or thirteen. Eve has Peabody bring Gwen a small drink to get her prints and DNA, and she has Shelby observe, looking for tells, inconsistencies, and lies. Eve brings up the suspicious character hanging out near Byrd’s home, an idea put into Gwen’s head by Peabody when she said it was probably a botched burglary. Ariel told Gwen about it, and that it was a male, not that clean, casing the apartments and stores, but Gwen fluffed it off and joked about it.
  • Gwen never noticed the man, but she didn’t go to Byrd’s apartment that often, which Eve finds less than credible given the number of times she bought flowers and wine a few blocks from Byrd’s place. They play Huffman the security feed from her buying the flowers and wine the previous night, both items that were in Byrd’s apartment. Peabody also gives her the cab info, but Huffman says the cameras can be manipulated. Eve tells her to cut the crap, she left the wine glasses in the bedroom. Gwen smugly says her fingerprints and DNA aren’t on file, and they can’t compel her to give them without charging her. At that there’s a knock on the door, with fingerprints and DNA matching Ariel’s sex partner’s.
  • Huffman starts to weep, and Eve tells her they can charge her with lying to officers on record during a murder investigation, fleeing a crime scene, and murder. Huffman said she didn’t murder Ariel, it was a one-time thing, and she just had too much to drink. Eve asked her if she had too much to drink on all the other dates she was there, listing them. Gwen tells Eve she has to promise to keep everything private, Eve says she doesn’t, Gwen asks how she can be so cruel, and Eve says because she just spoke with the widowed mother of the woman on the slab in the morgue.
  • The next set of lies is that Ariel seduced her, Gwen never having been with a woman, and it was just a fling but Ariel wanted more so they fought, with her saying she would tell Merit if Gwen didn’t call off the wedding. Huffman went back the next day to talk to her calmly so they could erase the awful words (or as Eve puts it, persuade her not to tell Merit). Eve tells her the door wasn’t unsecured - she used her key card to get in; Gwen said she threw it away that morning after she left. Eve asks to see her ‘link, which is brand new, bought that morning, because Huffman recycled her old one. Eve says they’ll add destroying evidence to the charges, and Peabody takes her to booking.
  • Shelby gives Eve the details of Huffman’s trust - money at eighteen as long as she went to college for a year, more money at 21, more at 25 and more at 30, with all of it free and clear if she marries and has a child. Shelby and Eve agree that Gwen is a lousy human being, and Shelby says her taste has improved considerably since that summer. They expect Huffman to contact Shelby for an ally, and Eve dismissed her for the day.

Chapter 6[]

  • Roarke shows up at Central to pick Eve up along with Peabody and McNab. They all go over to the house that Mavis and Leonardo just bought. Eve is skeptical about its livability, but Roarke estimates it will take two to three months to rehab it enough to move in. Eve notices the dimensions seem off, which is when Mavis and Leonardo do the reveal of another house on the property.
  • They ask Peabody and McNab to take it for the same rent they pay now because that would mean onsite security and not renting to strangers. Everyone cries. Eve and Roarke go home.

Chapter 7[]

  • Roarke knows Merit Caine and his family a bit, and knows of the Huffmans. It’s an open secret that the parents are associated with Natural Order, so there was some surprise that Merit would align himself with that family; Eve’s impression is that Merit is in love with Gwen. The Huffmans are respected for their medical skills, but not liked, whereas Merit’s parents are both respected and liked. Roarke will look into Gwen’s finances while Eve looks for someone who Gwen got to do her dirty work.
  • Baxter tags Eve - they found the link Gwen put in her kitchen recycler, dinged up but not destroyed, now with EDD, and a bottle of something tucked away with her vibrator collection, already dropped at the lab. Roarke found the trust details - when Gwen marries a white male, American born, approved by the parents, she gets one hundred million dollars, plus the same for conceiving a child, and if she doesn’t marry by 35, her six million dollar annual allowance is cut off.
  • Huffman shows up at Shelby’s apartment, saying she needs help - her life is ruined, what with her fiancé dumping her and all those charges. Shelby asks what the charges were and then asks if Gwen did those things, which of course she did. She also noticed that Huffman left out that she dumped the key card. Huffman made a pass at Shelby, which she rebuffed, saying she was in a relationship and when Gwen pushed, Shelby told her she’s insulting both of them by trying to trade sex for her integrity. Gwen said she’s desperate and Shelby told her she needs a good lawyer, and if she doesn’t want Shelby to add offering sexual favors to a cop for information on an active investigation, she should leave. Shelby wrote it all up and sent it to Dallas.

Chapter 8[]

  • Over cake, Eve fills Roarke in on Gwen’s visit to Shelby, and wonders who outed them that summer. He tells her about Gwen’s brother, who goes by Trace D. Huff and wants nothing to do with the parents or their cult (his word). He’s moderately successful, and avoids playing in New York because his parents are so toxic.
  • Dr. Oliver Huffman hooked up with Stanton Wilkey, a charismatic lunatic with crazy eyes and then married Paula Vandorn. The Huffmans are major funders of Natural Order, but don’t advertise their affiliation other than by their intolerance for all things that go against the straight white patriarchy. He refuses to treat patients who don’t meet his criteria: mixed race, gay, trans, females who have had abortions, and has deleted his son from his official ID, which is undoubtedly fine with Trace.
  • Dr. Paula Huffman is an OB, working at Mercy Clinic a few days a week and volunteering at Eternal Flame Clinic part of the time - it’s owned and operated by Natural Order, and since it’s private, it’s exclusive - members only. The clinic is in Westport, CT, near Wilkey’s main residence, on the Natural Order compound, which is largely self-reliant, with its own schools, medical facilities, greenhouses and gardens, and housing. There are also several other Eternal Flame Clinics in wealthy suburbs around the world.
  • Eve wonders what’s under the surface and how far they would go to dispose of the lover of their daughter, who might expose the affair shortly before the wedding. They still would have identified Gwen from the wine and flowers, even if she hadn’t gone back and then called the murder in, but it would have taken longer, so whoever cleaned up after her didn’t tell her - she’s not the killer, but she’s the reason for the kill.
  • The plan for the next day is visit Merit, go to the bank for Gwen’s safe deposit box, and then check back in to find out what Gwen’s new plan is since going to Shelby didn’t work out for her. Roarke sets up a search for Natural Order members who live close to Ariel Byrd’s apartment, with a secondary list of those who’ve been arrested for violent crimes. Eve and Roarke have sex twice and fall asleep.

Day 2[]

Chapter 9[]

  • Eve and Roarke visit Merit Caine, who lives in a lovely home that was unfortunately decorated to Gwen Huffman’s taste. He didn’t know Huffman was having an affair or any of her other shenanigans, and just thought she was inexperienced with men, so he was careful with her, and of course abstained from premarital sex by her request. Eve suggests he keeps the house, which looks like him, but sell everything inside it, which doesn’t.
  • Peabody and Eve meet at the bank to search Huffman’s safe deposit box. It contained cash, jewelry, and other gifts, along with appraisals for everything of value. Her jewelry from “Chad” included a heart-shaped diamond engagement ring and matching necklace and bracelet, worth over twelve thousand dollars combined.
  • Peabody said she wouldn’t have pegged her for sentimental, but Eve quickly corrects her - all of the appraisals were made within days of receiving the items. Merit’s engagement ring was appraised at almost a million dollars; there’s another 1.5 million dollars of jewelry from him. Peabody, still a romantic, hopes he gets the ring back, but Eve tells her no way will Gwen offer to return it and he’s too classy to make an issue of it. Peabody wants to believe Huffman had the appraisals done for insurance, but Eve pointed out that College Chad and Lawyer Merit would have had the paperwork on that.
  • There is a bronze sculpture of an angel from Byrd, which she clearly received for Christmas based on the appraisal date of 1/5/61. Peabody finally concludes Huffman’s actions are tacky and cold. Huffman also had copies of her trust documentation and her parents’ wills. Only Merit and Gwen’s parents are on her approved guest list for her apartment, and the instructions are to call up and inform her.
  • The wills include specifically disinheriting their son, and 500 million dollars to Gwen if she meets the trust requirements, plus their houses and her mother’s jewelry. Any full Caucasian child born to her in wedlock gets 50 million dollars in trust, held by Huffman. The rest goes to Natural Order. There’s also a prenup allowing her to keep all jewelry given during their relationship, half of any property purchased, and $10,000 a month for any child plus educational and medical expenses. If she chooses Professional Parent status, he agrees to pay her an additional $5,000 per child monthly.

Chapter 10[]

  • They go to Huffman’s apartment to question her again. This time she tells them that she was caught with Shelby when they were teens and her parents sent her to a Natural Order Realignment center, where they attempted to torture the gay out of her. After five days she realized the error of her ways so as not to be sent to the even more extreme shock therapy. She knew she had to end things with Byrd, but since Ariel was in love with her, Huffman could play her, which is why she went back the morning after their fight. She hadn’t known about the calendar, but planned to take her ’link if Byrd got pissy about ending their affair.
  • Huffman got rid of the key card because she knew it would have looked too intimate if she had it, and planned to replace her ’link anyway since it had been doing strange things like echoing for the past couple of months. Eve tells Huffman she can make the charges go away if she cooperates with them and tells the truth, including a list of people she’d had relationships with, beginning with Chad. Eve and Peabody think that Huffman’s ’link was bugged.
  • Chadwick Billingsby was her college beard - she needed her parents to believe she had a solid boyfriend from a good family, one who respected her vow to stay pure until marriage. She set him up by putting some sleeping pills in his beer and paying an LC who’d lost her license (so a UC) to get into bed with him and take pictures. She threw those up on the internet and she had her tearful breakup. As a bonus, she didn’t have to go back to college because she couldn’t face him.
  • Mira is waiting in Eve’s office when she and Peabody get to Central. She thinks Huffman is a malignant narcissist with sociopathic tendencies and a sexual predator - opportunistic rather than violent. She’s not capable of love, but is of murder.

Chapter 11[]

  • Mira thinks Gwen is more likely to lie and manipulate than to kill. If she had killed Ariel, she would have removed the wineglasses and sheets. Wilkey is another malignant narcissist, one with a messiah complex, a charismatic bigot who draws in his followers with words of peace and contentment. Mira considered doing her thesis on Natural Order, but chose to do it on serial killers instead. She and Eve agree that the murder was disorganized and impulsive; the killer should have made it look like a botched burglar, which would have been easy to do.
  • Eve called Chad, who said Gwen had no real friends in college, and he knew he’d been set up. His cop great-uncle tracked down the LC. He wanted Chad to press charges, but he just wanted to move on.
  • Eve sets up a meet with Nadine at the park near Mavis’s new house, which Nadine has just come from. Eve asks what she knows about Natural Order. Nadine tried to do an exposé of them when she was new with Channel 75, but was shut down - her fake ID and background got her through the first session of an introductory seminar, but they broke through after the refreshment break and booted her.
  • Eve tells her Byrd was having an affair with Huffman, and that the engagement to Caine is off, telling her she can leak the breakup but not the connection to Byrd. Nadine gives Eve Stanton Wilkey’s background data, saying she got the mother’s sister to talk to her because she despised Stanton’s father, Jethro Wilkey.
  • Jethro’s philosophy was that women were meant to bear children, birthing them in pain and blood, which he called “Eve’s curse.” Also, women were meant to do what they’re told when they’re told or get a good belt in the mouth. His first wife died in childbirth delivering their fourth child, his second wife, who was 18 to his 39, ran off with their two daughters after a few years, and the third wife also died in childbirth. He was a white supremacist, misogynist, and religious fanatic - his version of religion. He was a raging alcoholic, an abuser who refused to send his children to what he considered government facilities, including schools and hospitals. He homeschooled the children with his twisted vision of history, science, and so on. They never saw doctors or had inoculations, screenings, or dental care.
  • When he died from a diseased liver, Stanton was sixteen and his sexually abused younger sister was fourteen; both were sent to live with his first wife’s sister, and while Stanton left, the daughter got help and is now a therapist but won’t talk about her background.
  • Eve takes a break to apprehend a thief, threatening to bust him for exposing himself to minors if she ever saw him near that park again, since that’s where Bella would be playing. She tells Nadine she pegged him for a thief because he was loitering around a playground without a kid and not watching kids, so not a pedophile. She gives Nadine the basics of the murder, the relationship, the cover-up, and that she was outed when she was a teenager, and had to go to their Realignment Center on Utopia Island, a sovereign nation, meaning it has its own laws. Nadine asks for an exclusive, and Eve promises to do a one-on-one on Now if she helps.
  • Nadine tells her the reason she wanted to meet with Eve was to give her the new book, The Red Horse Legacy, set to be released in ten days. Eve noticed that her name was bigger on that one than on her first book. They need to find Byrd’s killer and expose Natural Order before her book tour starts, and now Nadine has next book.

Chapter 12[]

  • Eve reports to Whitney, filling him in on everything, including that Nadine is digging for dirt on Natural Order, but won’t air anything until Eve gives her the green light. Whitney reached out to the FBI, who have investigated them, but so far have only been able to prosecute individual members for violent crimes, not tie them to Natural Order or Wilkey. They had an undercover agent placed with them, but he went silent ten days ago; the assumption is he got made and killed. They will share their data with the NYPSD in exchange for being briefed on the homicide investigation. Eve is planning to interview Wilkey that day, routine due to Gwen’s connection with the group.
  • Peabody found three people to visit and asked Eve if she should give the local police a heads-up that they plan to visit Wilkey, but Eve points out that the likelihood of nobody at the police being on his payroll is zero. They start with Marcia Piper in Tribeca, a 28-year-old former model who earned almost seven million dollars a year and is now a professional mother of three children under six.
  • McNab found a tracker on Gwen’s ’link, but since there was so much damage he’s going slow to extract it. Based on the cleanliness and uniformity of the houses, Eve speculates that the whole block is Natural Order members. Marcia is a tired ghost of the model she was, and is distressed to see police. She’s reluctant to let them in, but when Eve offers to get info on her and her husband from the neighbors instead, she allows them entry. She tells them she repented her modeling career when Larry showed her the true way, saving her from a life of debauchery and uselessness. She’s covered with bruises and orders them out when Eve comments on them. They leave her husband on the list given that he’s clearly violent.
  • They next visit Idina Frank, another Natural Order mother - she was Gwen’s first lover and now has four children under six. She’s married to a microbiologist who works for the order. The family lives in the East Village and is working out the best way to leave the order before their oldest child begins school; otherwise she will be forced to attend an approved school and start indoctrination lessons.
  • Idina joined Natural Order to marry Anson Frank, but their beliefs no longer align with the order’s. They’re African-American and not part of the inner circle, so when Anson finds a new job they should be able to leave without repercussions. They’re apprehensive but not afraid, and Idina promises to contact Eve if that changes.

Chapter 13[]

  • Their third stop is Savannah Grimsley, a potter whose brother went missing two years ago. Her brother, Keene, was two years younger and went missing two years ago, when he was twenty-two. She reported him missing June 15, 2059, and thinks Natural Order, which he joined when he was eighteen, disappeared him. He had been working in IT for them since dropping out of college at twenty. He came to her apartment for the first time since he joined the cult the night before he went missing, telling her he’d found out some shit that really opened his eyes, but wouldn’t say what (for her safety), and was going to put it all online so they’d be exposed. He thought he’d be famous and do make millions from telling the story. She tried tagging him the next day but his ’link was dead.
  • She was a friend of Ariel’s but didn’t know she was killed. She introduced Gwen, whom she was casually sleeping with, to Byrd at an art show, “and that was that.” She didn’t know that Gwen was in the order since she was gay, but did think she was slumming it and probably not out to her parents, which is why she was so secretive. Peabody asks McNab to do a search on missing persons, accidental deaths, and homicides for Natural Order members in the past two years, tristate area.
  • Next they drive to the Natural Order compound to talk to cult leader Stanton Wilkey. Eve tells security she is there to inform Wilkey of an active investigation involving one or more of his members, and asking if he would like to cooperate with the authorities before too many details, including the connection to Natural Order, become public. She gives the guard the option of having her go through channels, get a warrant, and bring him into New York for interview instead. Although he was in meditation, he is suddenly able to see her.
  • The next tussle is over the weapons, which naturally Eve and Peabody keep with them. As they get into a cart to be driven to the residence, Eve sees that security plans to search her vehicle and access data from her nav system and comms, making her smile since the DLE is secured against such attempts. Driving through the compound on the way to Wilkey House, they notice that members’ uniforms are color coordinated according to race - navy and white for whites, red and white for blacks, brown for Hispanics, green for Asians.
  • They first meet Wilkey’s daughter, Mirium. Eve is secretly passed a note by a woman in her late teens or early twenties serving them tea. Mirium says she didn’t know Ariel Byrd but has been friends with Gwen since they were children. She tries to dismiss them, but her father glides out from the trees.

Chapter 14[]

  • Wilkey tries to dismiss his daughter, but Eve tells him it will save time to speak to both of them at once. When the women serving tea came back, the younger one spared a flicker of a glance at Eve, who said “Since communications are forbidden, it would be difficult for word to get out of the compound or in. We’re here to do both,” letting her know she received the message. Eve then says anyone needing help from the police is considered of great import. She goes on to talk about Byrd being killed, saying that aspects of the investigation have shown a connection between Natural Order and her murder.
  • Wilkey doesn’t see how that’s possible since they abjure violence and Natural Order is dedicated to spreading peace. Eve tells him that the victim was a lesbian of mixed race, two other things he and his followers abjure. When he tells her violence to the misguided is not the answer, Peabody offers to refresh his memory with the long list of incidents of violence perpetrated by their members. Wilkey tells them it’s not necessary, since they renounce and denounce those who twist the tenets of the order. When Eve asks about specific members who committed murders, he tells them he leaves it to the secular authorities to mete out punishment.
  • Eve asks for his whereabouts on the night of Ariel’s murder – he says he was at home, that nobody leaves the compound during retreat. His wife is in treatment on Utopia Island, his two oldest sons are also in retreat at their Connecticut HQ, along with their families, and Aaron is with his mother. Eve compliments his security, saying she could use the feed to verify that no one left, and he tells her the feed is overwritten every twenty-four hours. Eve tells him their EDD would be able to locate the overwritten data, but Mirium pipes up to tell them they have given the police enough of their time.
  • As they’re leaving, Mirium asks them if they would be so relentless in pursuing someone who murdered one of their members since she holds them in disdain. Eve assures her she’s pursued killers of people they’d held in a lot worse than disdain. Their driver confirms that people can leave the compound during retreat because it would cause a hardship for many families to not allow it and put a strain on housing and service facilities. He’s worked there for eight years, and his parents are part of their farm system in Iowa, as is his wife, locally. They’re proud that they can feed the faithful.
  • Eve deduces from the scowl on the guard’s face that he didn’t enjoy the theft-repellent shock that likely knocked him off his feet when he tried to break into her DLE, which is confirmed by the middle finger he shoots up as she drives off. Peabody rants about the color-coding and poor treatment of women, and when Eve is sure there’s no tail, she pulls off to read the note she was given: “I am Ella Alice Foxx 5/6/43 Brooklyn, New York.” Peabody can’t find anybody with that name or birthdate, so Eve tags Yancy to work with them to get a sketch of her.
  • Eve thinks her data was wiped so she wouldn’rt exist outside the compound, and since the women are treated like droids, she knew cops were coming, probably from Mirium complaining about it. Once home, she asks Summerset about Natural Order and he tells her they didn’t gain a foothold in Dublin, and therefore they considered them no more than a flash in the pan, which he now regrets. Eve gives a perfect description of Foxx and Roarke asks her what she thought of Stanton Wilkey. She tells him, “I want to bury the bastard.”

Chapter 15[]

  • Eve and Peabody try to identify Ella and some of the other women in the compound. Eve asks Roarke to find Mirium Wilkey’s place in the city. They get a hit on the other tea server: Gayle Steenberg, age 52, married to Carl Steenberg, age 55 (see YANNI) , residence Natural Order’s Connecticut HQ, and she is a domestic/domestic trainer, earning $125K annually. Yancy elects to stay, and Feeney has brought McNab, and over pizza and fizzies, Eve goes over what they know and need to learn.
  • Roarke confirms that Natural Order owns all of the townhouses on the block in Tribeca, 26 duplexes, and Feeney says there haven’t been any 9-1-1 calls from there in the last two years, so they assume Natural Order handles problems internally. The Pipers pay three K in rent, very low for that location and size.
  • The team is trying to figure out who put the tracker on Gwen’s phone, and why, plus why was Byrd killed? Was it to protect Huffman from exposure, and if so, why? Natural Order gains more if she’s cut off by her parents, but they’d risk embarrassment and lose out on the possibility of Caine’s money They think the murder was spur of the moment and since the victim was a mixed-race lesbian, easy for them to justify. McNab thinks the goal was to have Huffman continue and have kids, further cementing the Huffmans to the order, and maybe giving the Caines more reasons to join.
  • Roarke doesn’t think the order is as profitable as it seems at first glance – they’re losing money on the Tribeca and other properties, the farms aren’t particularly profitable, and they provide housing, schools, services for their laborers and staff at minimal rates. Members are required to tithe 20% of their income, and there are fees and quotas to be met, with deductions when they’re not. Wealthier members agree to bequeathing large sums to the order in their wills. They use slave labor, as witnessed by Ella Foxx. Wilkey, however, spends lavishly on himself – several homes, two private shuttles, a jet-copter, a yacht, plus similar for each of his older sons. The annual salaries are ten million for Wilkey, 3.6 million for each older son, 1.2 million for the youngest, and mid-six figures for the daughter, but none of those numbers are likely to be accurate, meaning they can toss in tax evasion and fraud once they bag them.
  • The tracker is illegal and unauthorized, so not law enforcement or military. It was decent but not good enough for spooks, and the echo was from it breaking down – it had been in use for 9-12 months, which fits with when Gwen got engaged (last summer) and met Byrd (last fall). They need to tie in the missing Grimsley and Special Agent Anthony Quirk, and Foxx being held against her will. Peabody will look into the older sons, Eve into the daughter, youngest son, and mother. Yancy will look into the Steenbergs, and the e-geeks are going to find Foxx, with Roarke also concentrating on getting them financial data on Wilkey and the order.

Chapter 16[]

  • Eve wonders about Mirium - she has three degrees from the online Natural Order school, Unity University, since women are not allowed to attend Stanton Wilkey University - an MBA, a degree in hospitality, and a third in computer science, but she was still relegated to serving her father and running his household. She earned considerably less than her brothers and owned no property in her name. Eve also wondered how she has gotten away with not marrying and breeding yet. Her father masks bigotry with benevolence, while she masks intelligence with subservience, and both are liars.
  • Yancy has data on the Steenbergs: they joined the cult when they were in their late forties. They were financially underwater, Gayle was a domestic, and Carl owned a small handyman business. He did some work for a member and since Carl was already in a white nationalist group, it was preaching to the choir. Yancy put up their pictures on screen; Peabody said they look like the mean version of American Gothic. Six months after they joined, they started working for Natural Order - maintenance for him, domestic for her. A few years later they left St. Paul to work on the order’s Heartland Farm in Kansas, with their sons going to the farm school. Five years later they moved to HQ, with their kids moving back to St. Paul to live with Gayle’s parents, having both reached eighteen. They changed their last names to Russ, the grandparents’ name, and the older son is a detective with St. Paul PSD.
  • The two older sons have law degrees from Stanton Wilkey University, not recognized by the American Bar Association. They’re both entitled jerks who aren’t bright, both had big society weddings on the island to wives already in the order, and both like to hunt genetically engineered animals, killing and posing with them. The older one heads the European HQ, based outside London, and the middle one heads up Global Networking, is based outside East Washington, and has political ambitions.
  • Yancy requests to be part of the takedown, and Eve reminds everyone that the priorities are Ariel Byrd, Keene Grimsley, Special Agent Anthony Quirk, and Ella Foxx. “It’s money. And it’s power - protecting those. Money and power they used to spread and perpetuate an ugly vision.”
  • The e-geeks found Ella Foxx - her mother died in February from an OD, and her father was shanked in prison in Florida, April, 2059. She was in and out of the system - foster care, juvie, back to her mother, etc. and picked up as a runaway for begging without a license. Her last known address was a halfway house her caseworker, Jane Po, got her into even though she wasn’t yet eighteen. She was employed and got her GED, but when she disappeared, nobody reported her missing.
  • It’s too late at night to contact the caseworker, so the plan is to go to her place at 0800. She sends everyone home and asks Roarke for a little financial data. Wilkey spends lavishly on himself, plus the usual offshore accounts under assumed names. Their profits are from their medical centers, membership fees, and merchandizing - oratories, books, meditative music. They go to sleep.

Day 3[]

Chapter 16 (Continued)[]

  • Early the next morning Eve received a call from one of the women from the creepy Tribeca neighborhood. Zoe Metcalf, who recognized Eve from seeing her the previous day called 9-1-1 and asked for Eve. She heard Marcia Piper’s murder and witnessed the cleanup, so she escaped with her 10-month-old son. Roarke and Eve met her a couple of blocks from her townhome and brought her to Dóchas.

Chapter 17[]

  • Zoe, whose husband “only” slaps her and takes away “privileges,” explained that the woman across the street, Gina Dawber, told her how to get money by returning unopened items to the store for cash every few trips. Zoe bought a clone ’link and hid the money and ’link in one of Gabe’s (clean) diapers, since Harley would never lower himself to change a diaper.
  • She overheard Larry Piper shouting at Marcia and calling her stupid and swearing at her when he got home the previous night. She heard him hitting her and crying, which is a fairly common occurrence. This time was worse than the others and Zoe heard things crashing and breaking, and Marcia’s head hitting the wall repeatedly. It finally stopped, but she saw a black van drive up and two men came in with a stretcher and left with a body bag loaded on the stretcher. Then Piper came back with his SUV, loaded the kids, and left. Finally, a larger van came with four or five people wearing coveralls with their hair covered - Natural Order’s cleaners.
  • It occurred to Zoe that something like that could happen to her, and she wondered what would happen to Gabe, so she knew she needed to leave and used her ’link to call 9-1-1. She got a good look at the sweepers, so the plan is to work with Yancy to identify as many members as they can. Eve tags Reo to get warrants for the Pipers’ home, which she can do, and the Natural Order HQ, which will be a bit harder, even with the info that they’re holding Foxx and hiding Piper.
  • Eve and Roarke drive back to Tribeca, where Roarke gets them into the Pipers’ house when Eve’s master doesn’t work. They find where the wall was patched from where Marcia’s head was bashed into it, and smell the fresh paint.
  • While Roarke is playing with the electronics in Piper’s home office, Eve visits Gina to rescue her. She and her three-year-old have trackers attached, but her baby is still too young, so Gina tries to have Eve just take Westley. Roarke is happy to remove the trackers from Gina and Lollie, and Eve takes the Dawbers to Dóchas, where Gina tells her harrowing tale of abduction, forced marriage, rapes, and imprisonment. Eve has Officers Carmichael and Shelby sit on Po at her home address, with instructions to tail her if she leaves. She sends an update to Whitney, Mira, and Jenkinson, scheduling a meet at Central in 90 minutes, requesting the FBI, Mira, and her available bullpen.

Chapter 18[]

  • She had been at Stone Tree House at age seventeen, when her caseworker, Po, set her up with a recruiter for an interview, talking about training for a marketing and public relations position with a global organization. After she passed the first interview, she was told she was being taken to a supervisor, but given dosed coffee on the way. She woke up in hell, being tortured by “Mother Bitch” aka “Mother Catherine” with a shock stick. She had her two tattoos removed, painfully.
  • Stanton Wilkey married her and Steven Dawber (“The Asshole”) in a sham ceremony where she was drugged and unwilling. Two women held her down while Steven raped her to consummate the marriage, and then every day and night until she got pregnant. Then she and Steven moved to “Zombie Town” and she was only raped once a week. “Mother Sweet Smile” aka “Mother Deborah” taught her housekeeping and child-rearing. She identified the woman in Zombie Town who ratted people out, Barbara Poole aka “Mother Rat,” and her husband, Vince.
  • Reo comes to Dóchas to get statements and file charges, Yancy comes to work with Zoe and Gina on ID sketches. Natural Order needed young, healthy women with a lot of childbearing years in them to grow their cult, so they “recruited” and they needed to keep people like Gwen in the fold - good genes, deep pockets, loyal members. Somebody watched her to protect their investment, since all they had to do was get her married and pregnant. Eve doesn’t think Piper killed Ariel because he would have been more vicious with it, and would have used his fists.
  • EDD got the global membership list from Piper’s electronics and it’s segregated by race. The sweepers found Marcia Piper’s blood and gray matter in the drywall compound, and Larry washed up in the kitchen sink, so they have proof, plus when he changed clothes, he left a trace of blood on the bedroom closet door. Peabody: “Our guys are better than theirs.”
  • Special Agents Teasdale and Conroy join them; Tony Quirk, the agent who went missing, is a good friend of Conroy’s, and they worked on Natural Order the last two years. He went in rather than Conroy because Conroy is mixed race and therefore wouldn’t qualify.
  • EDD found a list of “potentials” - girls/women sixteen to twenty in college or in trouble - halfway houses, foster homes, street kids, plus a list of “recruits” and the names of “finders” like Jane Po, all in Dawber’s e’s. Roarke found Po’s finances, and she’s definitely in it for the money, of which she now has plenty. Mid-briefing, Nadine tags Eve.

Chapter 19[]

  • Nadine found the sister of a former OB nurse/midwife for Natural Order who self-terminated ten years ago after sending her sister documentation from the forced inseminations and births, including Aaron Wilkey, who was born three years after his mother had an emergency hysterectomy. She was paid $1K for each successful birth, and Nadine got the business model - the men paid $20K or more for a woman 18-24, then the order paid them $5K for each child.
  • Eve took the information back into the briefing, where Eve tells the group they have Wilkey and the order on a decades-long system of abductions, human trafficking, enforced slavery, rape, and enforced impregnation. Roarke called it a long con. “A kind of pyramid scheme founded on bigotry with women and children as the bricks.” When Realignment doesn’t work, they have slave labor.
  • Mirium Wilkey is the recruiter in this region, and therefore is the one who had the most to lose if Ariel told anyone about Gwen. Eve confirmed that Mirium was in the Hamptons at the same time Gwen and Shelby were intimate, and is probably the one who told her father, being rewarded with his approval and possibly other things. She was at the house her father has in New York, a few blocks from Byrd’s apartment. Her long-term goal is to either kill or blackmail her father so she’s in charge.
  • The takedown plan is: Interpol handles the island, since it’s a sovereign nation but has broken international laws with human trafficking, torture, and slavery, all high crimes globally and off-planet. Whitney will coordinate that with Abernathy (from Shadows) and his superiors. The FBI will take down the farm system in the U.S. They will get a search warrant for Po’s e’s but wait until everything is implemented so there’s no advance warning. They’ll also get warrants for the Wilkey apartment where Mirium stayed when she killed Byrd, making sure it’s unoccupied first, same for the Huffmans’ residence.
  • Yancy joins the briefing with the pictures from Gina and Zoe’s descriptions. They were able to get matches on all six. The first one is one of the medicals who took Marcia’s body away, Dr. Oliver Huffman. Next the cleaners: William Henley, ex-army, dishonorable discharge, employed as security for Natural Order and Wendell Phiffer, a forensic specialist whose parents are also Natural Order members. Next is the Tribeca midwife, Hester Angus. The fifth one is the head torturer, Catherine Duplay, who’s listed as an educator; she’s the one who “trained” Gina Mancini with a shock stick and collar. Finally, also listed as an educator is the one who trained Gina on being a parent and wife, Deborah Beyers, married to an IT guy, Lloyd Beyers.
  • Reo’s got all the warrants except the one for the HQ, which is in progress. Eve updates her on Nadine’s info and the witness statements, plus Marcia Piper’s blood and gray matter. Eve has everybody start on the residences but wait on offices and the clinic. Nadine arrives with the documentation from the OB nurse, which she passes along to Reo while they chat about Mavis and Leonardo’s new house. Peabody transfers Eve’s office AutoChef into the conference room and everybody dines on cow burgers and fries. They have names, dates, and other stats confirming forced imprisonment and other high crimes, and info on the Realignment center, including results - failures were kept as slave labor or forced breeders.
  • Nadine can’t be in on the takedown at HQ, but can be a couple of miles away and ready to go when it happens, plus a follow-up one-on-one and a full segment with Eve, Reo, and possibly the FBI. The plan is for a 1 a.m. takedown of everything. They’re going to get warrants for all of the Tribeca homes as well. Carmichael checks in about Po - she’s at her office now, after a trip to the halfway house and some home checks. Eve sends relief so he and Shelby can join that evening’s festivities. Teasdale confirms the FBI handling the farm system takedown.
  • Roarke has the schematics on the HQ security system (his, natch) - it’s 42 acres, with staff housing all neatly segregated by race, all well away from the grandeur of the main house, and schools and clinics. “It’s freaking Wilkeyville. His own town, and he’s mayor and sheriff and supreme ruler.”
  • They identify the prison area, and note that the walls are outfitted with a shock system. Eve tells him “You’re going to look at this like it has a zillion hot white diamonds inside and you want them. You’re going to figure out how you’d get in, get to every one of these buildings, and steal the shit out of them. Find the weak spot and be a thief.” Summerset tags him with the schematics and blueprints for the island community. Feeney has the Tribeca blueprints since the houses weren’t originally built by Natural Order, and again, it’s Roarke’s security system. They finalize the plans, with them taking the main house, Feeney the prison, and reactivating the shock system on the outer wall after they’re in so people can’t escape.

Chapter 20[]

  • Baxter is back from the Wilkey apartment and has Mirium’s audio and video recordings of Gwen and Ariel (from her phone) that made Trueheart blush, a keycard for Ariel’s apartment, and data on Byrd, including the layout of her apartment. Baxter thinks Mirium was planning to abduct Byrd and take her to Realignment and/or keep her on the island. She also had financial data on Natural Order, which is losing money plus calculations on generating more income, including blackmail opportunities. She has the senior Huffmans’ wills and documentation on recruitment with names – Po and other “finders.” She has evidence that her oldest brother was dipping into the membership fund, her older brother has a taste for LCs and looking at young girls, and her younger brother, “Mommy’s fake boy,” is gay. Finally, she has a supply of heavy sleep meds in liquid form, prescribed by Dr. Oliver Huffman, undoubtedly useful for dosing people when she transports them to Natural Order HQ.
  • Eve thinks Mirium is laying the groundwork for a coup and confirms with Baxter that they’re going in that night.

Chapter 21[]

  • Eve lines up Lowenbaum to shut down Tribeca, which is the first phase, with child service reps recommended by Rochelle Pickering from An Dídean - some of the women and children will resist or run or have trackers/shockers. They have a device from Roarke to deactivate the shockers, and instructions to separate any adult males in case they have weapons or comms. Dóchas will have room for the women and children Lowenbaum’s team rescues, will Moira O’Bannion coordinating with other shelters if need be.
  • Roarke brought in a portable holo unit so they could test out the takedown scenarios and gave Eve a chocolate protein drink. They won’t be able to get everyone in the farm system, but Roarke points out that the ones who run will have only the shirts on their backs and won’t get far or be able to rebuild the order. Jenkinson shakes Eve’s hand and thanks her for putting her team in for commendations for everyone who worked on Lorcan Cobbe’s takedown. Tibble comes in to tell Eve he will join the operation, but will stay outside the compound with Reo and Mira, who will be there for people who need immediate evaluations, medically and emotionally.
  • Lowenbaum reports that Tribeca is complete and contained, and Teasdale detained the two men who tried to leave HQ. Everyone will wear black, vests, night goggles, earbud comms and recorders, and have their stunners on medium for quick incapacitation.
  • Eve reviews the planned breach of the compound, with everyone’s assignments (she and Roarke are taking the main house, obviously). As soon as they’re all inside, Feeney will jam the comms and then Interpol and FBI will get the go for Utopia Island and the farm systems. She shows Ella Foxx’s face, saying she risked a hell of a lot passing Eve a message, and has been abducted and tortured. There will be others like her, held against their wills.
  • Shelby thanks Eve for including her in the op, and asks if she thinks Gwen knew about the full extent of the misdeeds. Eve tells her Gwen definitely knew about the torture since she went to Realignment, and thinks she knew all of it, but was too selfish to care as long as it didn’t affect her. Shelby says she wouldn’t have thought that about Gwen.
  • Lowenbaum is back with a report - some trackers/shockers, and his team wants in on the HQ takedown because they’re pissed about that. A few women tried to resist, including Mother Rat / Barbara Poole, but no injuries. Everybody takes some downtime, including Eve when Roarke insists she take an hour; she sleeps in his lap in her office. They dress in their stealth clothing, will Eve thinking how ridiculously sexy Roarke looks. Baxter suggests breakfast beers at the Blue Line after the takedown.

Day 4 (after midnight)[]

  • They start with the gatehouse, then scale the wall inside. Roarke takes a moment to shut off their recorders and tell Eve, “What a pair we’d have been. You move like smoke, smoke with nerves of steel and unshakable focus. We’d have romped the globe, you and I, plucking every precious thing we wanted. What a pity we didn’t meet in some lovely alternate world where you weren’t a cop.” Eve tells him she’s a cop in all of those worlds, but is amused at his absolute delight.
  • They make it inside Wilkey House, Feeney shuts down comms, and Eve gives the go to Interpol and the FBI, as planned. Roarke goes to Wilkey and Eve goes to Mirium. Eve kicks her door open, telling Mirium if she pulls a weapon out she will drop her. She arrests her, listing some of the charges, including murdering Ariel Byrd and abductions and forced imprisonment of human beings, and accessory to rape. Shelby reads Mirium her rights and takes her outside.
  • Roarke’s team arrested Wilkey and a woman whom Eve recognized from her and Peabody’s visit - she was gardening with two girls - asks for her girls, telling Eve they’re kept in the other wing upstairs, locked in at night, and she is Wilkey’s “breeding wife.” She says she also has a two-year-old son, Seth, but they took him. They assure her they will get the children out. Detective Carmichael brings out Ella Foxx, saying “the shrieking hag of a bitch with her fucking stabbed Santiago,” but they got her. “Gayle fucking Steenberg” opened up his arm but the MTs have him and Foxx insisted on bringing her to Eve. Eve tells Foxx, “We’re here because you didn’t give up.”

Chapter 22[]

  • It took two and a half hours to fully contain the compound, and they had 106 women in various stages of pregnancy. They found the torture chamber, exam and treatment rooms fitted with restraints and two of those containing shock therapy devices. There was a sensory deprivation chamber and locked cabinets containing legal and illegal drugs, pressure syringes, surgical tools, test kits, and shock sticks. The floors above contained ten-by-ten windowless cells. One of the guards was Mother Catherine, who tried to resist in the takedown, using a shock stick, and got a taste of her favorite form of torture.
  • Santiago had 22 stitches, but was the worst of the injuries. Abernathy reported that the island was mostly contained, same for the farm system. In custody: the Huffmans, Jane Po, Denise Wexford, and Michael J. Harstead (child service reps/finders), the Pooles, and all the Wilkeys. She gets to interview everybody for the New York crimes before Teasdale takes them for their federal misdeeds.
  • Eve gets a bonus of tripping the guard who tried to break into her car when he rushes her after elbow-jabbing the cop loading him into a van; she also got in an uppercut, and had the police add assaulting an officer and resisting arrest to his charges. The officer said he had a stunner and hit his partner with a stream before grabbing his eight-year-old kid to use as a shield; the kid gave her dad a shiner.
  • Nadine is outside the compound doing a one-on-one with Tibble and the total count is 632 adults, 1418 minors. Conroy rushes up to let everybody know they found Tony Quirk - in bad shape, tortured and being held in Iowa in their farm system, but alive. Eve gives Nadine a one-on-one and then it’s time to go back to Central and start the interviews.
  • Shelby brings Eve a change of clothes from Mr. Summerset, and asks to observe the interviews, assuring Eve she doesn’t want a gold shield, that she likes the uniform. Eve showers off the night and dresses, looking powerful, with her weapon visible. She steps out to see Peabody also dressed that way. Mira comes in also, so Eve asks Peabody to stock Observation with decent coffee and the tea Dr. Mira likes.
  • Jenkinson’s tie has little red devils with horns and pointy-ended tails and snarling grins (and Reineke’s socks also have red pitchfork-wielding devil on the sides). Jenkinson says if there’s a hell, those bastards are going to fry in it after they lock them in cages. One of the kids they got out was locked in his room in one of the apartments, restrained to the bed for being gay, and they would have sent him to the island for Realignment that day if he hadn’t been rescued. His own parents did that to him.
  • Eve hands out assignments, telling Santiago he doesn’t get to interview Gayle Steenberg because one of the charges is attempted murder of him. Reineke assures him they’ll lock her down. Teasdale updates everyone that Utopia Island is fully shut down, with five casualties - two law enforcement, three residents, all being treated in their excellent medical facilities. The farm system is 85% contained, and Agent Quirk is stable. Rachel Wilkey is in a coma, has been for nine days, following an attempt at self-termination, not for the first time. Aaron Wilkey, who is with her, wasn’t part of the criminal enterprise, has been restricted to the island for months, has endured two Realignment procedures, and is cooperating fully with authorities.
  • Eve and Peabody start with Piper, since he’s a bully but not a true believer and will roll to save his skin. Eve starts by telling him his chosen legal representative was arrested and his financial accounts have been frozen due to his connection with Natural Order. She offers him a public defender, but he declines, saying they work with the cops. Peabody gives him his charges - spousal abuse, spousal assault, endangering minors, three counts since the children’s rooms had outside locks, and murder in the second degree for the beating death of his six months’ pregnant wife.
  • Piper claims she died from complications of a miscarriage, and he got her to the best hospital. Eve tells him she left the house in a body bag and the cleaners missed a spot so they have both their blood on the wall where he beat her head in, meaning off-planet, a lifetime in a cage, plus another twenty for the other charges, plus whatever the feds want to add for accessory to kidnapping, torture, and forced imprisonment. Also they recovered Marcia’s body from the crematorium on the compound and he’s stupid if he thinks the Wilkeys or Huffmans or anyone else will protect him.
  • They offer him twenty-five instead of life, and he spills, mainly confirming what they already knew. She tells him he’ll get twenty-five, on-planet, with a possibility of parole, plus twenty for child abuse and endangerment since his prints were on the locks and the Whore derivative found in his office, plus the feds will want to charge him with human trafficking. They congratulate him on his excellent record keeping, saying he had a good shot on a solid return on his investment with Marcia, 50K for the marriage, but a ten K rebate since he found her on his own and 15K for his three kids. He would have had another 5K if he hadn’t killed her, so he’s down twenty-five large, plus another ten for the cleaning fee, which is what a bad temper will get you.
  • Reo updates Eve. Gwen spilled all, but won’t be charged: “Yes, she’s a selfish, greedy, entitled diva who doesn’t give a shit about anyone but herself, but her fear’s just as real.” Po crumbled so fast they could barely keep up, which will help with identifying abductees. She’ll live out her life in a cage. Same with Vince Poole, who was more afraid of his wife and the order than prison.

Chapter 23[]

  • Next up: Stanton Wilkey, who is able to justify all of his actions, and blame others (mainly women) for all that’s wrong with the world, except for the things caused by homosexuality and mixed-race relationships, the latter requiring forced sterilization. “A woman’s purpose in life, indeed her greatest joy, is creating life, then nurturing that pure spirit. A husband is duty bound to fulfill his wife’s purpose and bring her joy.”
  • Eve tells him about his embezzler son (Samuel), his pedo son (Joseph), and his murderer daughter. She also lets him know that the congressman and senator he has in his pocket have both been taken into custody. Also, Fiona Vassar’s children are with her now, as are the others he designated as breeders. He’d already banked 100K payment for Foxx’s forced marriage to take place the following week, but she’s also free. His Tribeca block is done, with the jailer in custody, along with the Huffmans, his recruiters, and all the judges, cops, and lawyers on his payroll, many of whom will flip hard on him.
  • “You know why your cult is finally broken? Because your daughter’s been planning and plotting how to take over, and she killed rather than risk a hitch in those plans.” Eve tells him Mirium despises him and will turn on him. Peabody tells him the roots of the order may be wide, but they can’t be more than an inch deep or else they wouldn’t have been so easy to rip out. Mira confirms Wilkey is legally sane, just a fanatical bigot with a messiah complex. Teasdale asks Eve to have him serve time for the federal crimes first as payback for taking the FBI agent, which she’s fine with, as long as Mirium Wilkey starts her sentence in New York’s prison system.
  • Roarke tells Eve Dóchas has taken in ten women and eight children; women already there volunteered to double up. After they’re finished he wants to take Eve’s squad and EDD out for drinks and a meal to show his appreciation for their help in Ireland, since things moved fast there and he didn’t get a chance.
  • Once again, Mirium’s lawyer was charged with multiple crimes and therefore not available to represent her, and she opted not to go for a public defender. Mirium claimed she feared for her life, and did what she had to to survive. Peabody goads her into swiping at her by mocking her, and they add assaulting an officer. The plan was to have Gwen marry Caine and then blackmail Gwen.
  • Mirium whines about being forced to marry within two years, to someone her father chose, and blah blah blah, poor me, my life is so hard and what would Eve know about living with a monster for a father, about being afraid of her father every day? Mirium asks for immunity in exchange for telling them everything about the order. Eve says they have all that, but thanks her for the offer and also for putting all her crimes on the record.
  • She has Roarke hold her and then they all head out for drinks and food.

Character List[]

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

Memorable Quotations[]

  • “The fear of the Time Out, Dallas. It can’t be overstated.” - Peabody in interview with Mirium Wilkey[3]

YANNIs[]

  • Gayle and Carl Steenberg are either 52 and 55, respectively[4] or in their late 60s to early 70s (based on the math of them joining in their late 40s, spending a few years working for the order in St. Paul, then five years in Kansas and then fifteen in CT).[5] (Back to timeline)
  • Typo about the Natural Order membership group: “...it’s designed for specific race groups and programmed to send to same. No mixing there, for the most part. It’s inclusive only when Whitney himself adds a message.” Obviously this should have read Wilkey.[6] (Back to timeline)
  • Catherine and Dudley Duplay’s children are 27 and 23, but were placed when they were 14 and 12 (Nora can’t math).[7] (Back to timeline)

Footnotes[]

  1. ↑ Faithless in Death, Chapter 11
  2. ↑ Chapter 1: “…spring of 2061…” “[Eve] watched the airtrams wind through a blue sky. The weather gods offered the city a perfect day in May. Sunny and seventies.” After Eve is tagged with a homicide: “Somebody hadn’t had such a perfect day in May.” Chapter 3: Morris says Ariel is “young, healthy, and dead on a lovely day in May.”
  3. ↑ Faithless in Death, Chapter 23
  4. ↑ Faithless in Death, Chapter 15
  5. ↑ Faithless in Death, Chapter 16
  6. ↑ Faithless in Death, Chapter 18
  7. ↑ Faithless in Death, Chapter 19
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