Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

“What happened then?”
    “I opened the door and went down the stairs. It was dark except for red lights , like a brothel.” He caught himself. “N-n-not that I’ve ever been in one. ” He rubbed the sweat off his forehead. “ W hen my eyes adjusted, it looked like fucking Halloween down there. People with masks like monsters . T hey were in a circle around s omething in the middle . I couldn’t see what. Shit, I didn’t want to see; I just wanted to get the hell out of there . I started to creep back up the stairs when one of ’ em saw me. He pointed and everything stopped. I spooked and leaped the stairs three at a time , yelling to Johnny to let’s get the fuck out of there.”
    All during Hall’s version, Johnny Meade sputtered and stuttered, waiting his turn. “I thought he was kidding. Then one of the monsters burst through the door after Tony. I didn’t wait another second. I shot out of there like a cannon and even passed Tony.”
    “Y ea h , al most push ing me to the ground.”
    “ C alm down,” Beecher said. “We got time.”
    “Did anyone sa y anything? Yell at you to stop ?”
    Both men ranted at the same time. Words ran over words into a cacophony of confusion. Lucier couldn’t keep track.
    “Yeah the guard yelled something like stop or I’ll shoot,” Johnny said , “b ut I don’t think he had a gun. Anyways, I wasn’t about to turn around to find out. We just ran the hell down the street. ”
    Then both said different versions of “ I’ve never been so fucking scared in my whole life. ”
    “Okay.” Lucier stepped in between them, hands raised in a cease-fire. “One at a time. How many people would you say were there?”
    “I don’t know,” Hall said. “A dozen, maybe. It was too dark , and I wasn’t about to count heads.”
    “Where was Maia during this?”
    Sweat dripped off Meade’s nose and on to his soaked T-shirt . Both men reeked, and Lucier thought he would retch from the smell.
    “I don’t know . One minute she was standing right beside me, but when Tony came running and yell ed about monsters, she disappeared. I wasn’t gonna hang around to see where she was neither.”
    “Me either. I was too busy running for my life,” Hall said. “The guard in the gatehouse was facing the street and didn’t see us until we ’d climbed over . He tried to stop us, but we were gone.”
    “I’d never run so fast in my life ,” Meade said. “You can’t let them get us . Them people in there are crazy.”
    Lucier would have thought the ir story fantasy, except for the red lights and the chanting. The image eerily mirrored Diana’s dream. He ’d filled Beecher in on the dream and caught him nodding as he recognized the same scenario.
    “You said you went there in Ms. Compton’s car. How did you get away without a car?”
    “Johnny went with her. I followed in his car. I don’t have one.” He stopped at Lucier’s expression. “I have a license, though, in case you’re thinking I don’t.”
    “Driving without a license is the least of your problems,” Beecher said. “Keep going.”
    “ I parked his car a couple of street s over in the Quarter,” Tony said , “ then got in hers. We hid in the back seat, hidden by the dark windows. ”
    “Okay, guys, sit tight,” Lucier said. “ S omeone will be in shortly to take your statements. T ell him everything you told us, without the hysterics. What the people looked like, the music, everything. Understand? I’ll be back later.”
    “You’re not gonna let us go, are you? We need protection.”
    “Oh, don’t worry. You’re not going anywhere.”
    They were still yammering when Lucier closed the door. He and Beecher stood at the glass and watched the two men. He flicked on the speaker and heard them rant about monsters and chanting and the double-crossing Maia. He shut it off.
    “What do you think?” Beecher asked.
    “ T hey saw what they saw. They’re too scared and stupid to make that up.”
    “ T hey walked into a satanic meeting?”
    “ S ounds like it . Bottom line is that Silas Compton is free to have any kind of meeting he wants in his own house. That’s a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution. We might not like what he practices, but he has every right to practice it. ”
    “Yeah, I see what you mean.”
    “I have to approach this need careful ly. I don’t want the department slapped with a harassment suit.” Lucier shook his head in disgust. “Diana just