Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

cults and aliens, fathers disappearing with newborns. You’ll see. I’ve been through it all before.”
    * * * * *
    B y next day, calls from Maine to California, Florida to Washington State, jammed the switchboards just as Diana predicted. Stories that no police department in the world would take seriously, except those where one or the other parent abducted their children in custody cases.
    Brady, the desk sergeant on duty , knocked on the doorjamb. “Sorry to interrupt, Lieutenant, but I found this on my desk. Don’t know how it got there. I asked, but no one saw anything.”
    “Thanks, Sergeant. Let’s have a look.”
    Beecher leaned over the envelope. “Oh-oh, I don’t like the look of this.”
    “Me either,” Lucier said. He pulled a pair of gloves from his desk drawer and slit the envelope with a letter opener. He slid a single sheet of paper from the envelope and read what was on it. “Shit. Dust this for prints.” He picked up the phone and called Diana at the house she rented near his. “You need to get over here right away. I’m sending Cash to get you.”
    “Why, what’s happened?”
    “An envelope just arrived in the mail. It has your name on it. And I don’t like what’s written inside.”

Chapter Five
    The Star and the Crescent Moon

    WE AWAIT YOU, DIANA

    L ucier examined the note.
    “What does it mean?” Beecher asked.
    “I’m not sure what the crescent moon and star symbolize ,” Lucier said, “but ‘We await you, Diana,’ is clear enough, don’t you think?”
    Diana lifted her gaze from the paper. “Ernie, remember a few weeks ago I told you that Diana was the Goddess of the Hunt, and you said she was also the Goddess of the Moon?”
    “Yeah, I remember.”
    “The crescent moon is a symbol of Diana, but it’s something else too―a symbol of witchcraft.”
    Lucier fixed his gaze on Diana, unable to hide a frown. He turned to Cash, the uni t’s closest answer to a computer geek. “Google Diana, Goddess of the Moon and Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. See what comes up.”
    Cash settled at Lucier’s laptop . Pag es of sites filled the monitor. This article say s the city of Byzantium was dedicated to Diana. That’s Constantinople, right?”
    “If I remember my history,” Lucier said.
    “ They called her Diana, Goddess of the Hunt,” Cash continued. “Then it says the crescent moon was a symbol of her , so she was called Diana, Goddess of the Moon too . It also says she was a fertility goddess and a…a virgin. ” Cash’s face flushed. He kept his eyes on the monitor. “People everywhere practiced witchcraft, sorcery, and magic in her name.”
    Diana tilted her head back and closed her eyes. “This just keeps getting better.”
    Cash pointed to the computer screen. “ L ots of stuff about God and S atan. And Jesus . Wait, get this― ” h e turned to Diana and Lucier ― “ s eems there’s a link between Diana and Lucifer himself . ”
    An uneasy feeling rose in Lucier ’s gut. He rested his hand on Diana’s shoulder. “Until we know what we’re dealing with, keep your doors and windows locked. When you visit the children’s ward at the hospitals, I don’t want you to go alone.”
    “Aren’t you overreacting?” she asked.
    No, he thought. No. Diana live d alone, vulnerable to those who ’d want to hurt her. He wanted to live with her, to protect her. But she wasn’t ready. He didn’t push even though he was.
    It had been eight years since an auto accident took the lives of his wife and children . He’d survived the grief, the endless days of work and sleep and more work. Diana had breathed new energy into him. She wanted him to cherish the memory of his former life and the woman with whom he shared it. He loved Diana for that . He’d never forget that life, but Diana was a different woman not a replacement, and their life toge ther would be a different life. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t.
    “ No. ‘We await you, Diana’ doesn’t sound good to me. In fact, it sounds like someone is eager to make your acquaintance.”
    “They’re capitalizing on the publicity. S omeone ’s trying to put a scare into the psychic, that’s all.”
    “Yeah, well, he’s putting a scare into the psychic’s boyfriend.” Lucier realized what he said in front of his men . “You guys didn’t hear that, okay?”
    Beecher zipped his lips but couldn’t hide the smirk beneath. Cash snatched the newspaper and hurried from the room.
    Diana’s smile