While the group studied the photos, he continued. “The end result was Prescott returning home minus one wife and one child. Milton said Ruth wanted both of the boys, as did Prescott. After a lot of yelling and angry words, Ruth and Tom somehow came to the agreement that they would each get one, so they flipped a coin to decide.”
Dani gasped and glanced at the others around the table, seeing that they were as horrified as she. “Poor Eli.”
“How can you say that, considering he’s out to harm you?” Logan demanded.
She turned to him. His eyes had turned to ice, his expression hard and unrelenting. This must be how he looked on a mission, dangerous and deadly. Strangely, it turned her on. She would like to go to bed with him when he was in his Iceman persona. Talk about playing with fire.
“Dani?”
Shaking her head to clear it, she shrugged. “It’s obvious Evan won that coin toss. He grew up okay and apparently his twin didn’t. I just feel sorry for him.”
Logan glared at her. “Don’t get it in your head to invite him in for tea and crumpets.”
“Damn, there went that plan.” If he thought he was intimidating her with that look, she wondered how he would feel if he knew it just made her want to jump his bones.
Realizing everyone watched her and Logan with rapt fascination, she waved a hand at Jamie. “Continue, please.”
His lips twitched and then he slid a questioning glance to Logan, who gave a terse nod.
“Right. Milton said Prescott returned home, told everyone his wife and Eli had been killed in a car wreck, packed up his belongings, and moved to Austin. Nowadays, I doubt you could get away with something like that, but no one thought to question it. Milton said he and his wife only wanted to stay out of it, so they kept silent.”
“So Ruth’s still alive?” Dani asked. All these years Evan had believed his mother dead. This story was getting sadder by the minute.
Jamie shook his head. “No, she died ten years ago. The details are murky, but Maria found a death certificate filed in the state of Arkansas, which made it easier to follow Ballard’s trail. He left Christ’s Gospel, moved Ruth and Eli to Arkansas, settled on some land in the Ozarks, and founded The Temple of God’s Divine Children. They have a website you’ll want to look at. Ballard claims he’s God’s son reborn.”
“Wow,” Dani breathed.
“Jamie sent me a text with the name of the cult before he boarded his return flight,” Maria said. “Jake and I have been researching them. There’s not much on them, or at least we haven’t found it yet. One disturbing thing did turn up, though.”
She flicked through some pages and pulled one out. “Five years ago there was a complaint filed against The Temple of God’s Children by a Mr. Gerald Scanlon. He claimed his wife cleaned out their savings and joined the cult. Since there was nothing else on the report, I called Mr. Scanlon. According to him, his wife, Amy, met Herbert Ballard and his son, Eli, at a local music festival. Next thing he knew, she was attending their church. Four months later, he came home from work and she was gone.”
“What made him think she’d joined the cult?” Dani asked.
“She left him a note apologizing for taking the money but explaining that Herbert needed it for his ministry. She said, ‘God told Herbert you would forgive me.’ Mr. Scanlon went to the sheriff and filed his complaint. Said he didn’t give a damn about his wife by then, that she’d turned into a woman he didn’t recognize since meeting Ballard, but he did want”—she made air quotes—“his damn money back.”
This was getting downright creepy. Dani glanced at Logan, but his face gave nothing away. “What did the sheriff say?”
“That Mrs. Scanlon’s name was on the savings account and she had as much right to the money as he did. I got the impression he doesn’t have a high opinion of the sheriff. One other thing, Mr. Scanlon told me he’s found two other men in the area whose wives joined the cult after meeting Herbert Ballard. Both of them cleaned out their bank accounts before leaving their husbands.”
“Do you know if Eli was involved with the other two?” Dani understood Logan’s opinion that she shouldn’t feel sorry for Eli, but he was Evan’s twin, shared Evan’s DNA. For the life of her, she couldn’t rubber-stamp evil over Eli’s face.
Maria nodded. “Yeah, according to Mr. Scanlon, Eli was there each time the women first met Ballard.”
“Maybe he wasn’t given a choice.”
A throaty growl sounded from the man sitting next to her, and she turned to Logan.