Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

children.”
    “They’re beautiful,” he said, “especially the girl. She looks like you.”
    He moved into her, so close his hardness pushed against her. “Come here to stay, Maia. I’ve missed you.”
    T he words were empty platitudes , but he made them sound believable. She had loved her babies and had loved Seth in earnest, not realizing at the time that to him she was just another incubator for the new generation.
    One of his many incubators.

Chapter Thirty
    Gods and Goddesses

    “Y ou asked for a rundown on the progeny,” Jason said when he called Lucier back, “but first, you asked about the co llege the group’s children attended . ”
    “Give ,” Lucier said , grabbing a pencil from atop his desk and readying a pad of paper . “ I’m taking notes .”
    “ No need. I’ll fax you everything when this call is finished.”
    “Better,” Lucier said.
    “ Middlebridge’s endowment is huge, and the biggest benefactors are Crane Corp oration and Compton International. It has a small student body and promotes a basic liberal arts curriculum, and I do mean liberal.”
    “Explain please . ”
    “You wanted to know if it was a religious college. I didn’t find any courses in religion , but the curriculum covers just about everything else― literature, art, mythology , world cultures , even erotica . The tuition is double the top private colleges, which keeps the elite enrollment small. Besides the group’s offspring , children of others in the same financial stratosphere as Crane and Compton ’s go there . Excellent avant-garde and progressive professors in the artsy subjects , and only one has a direct connection to our man. He used to teach an abstract reasoning course at Oklahoma, where Compton went to school. He’s old now but still considered a giant in his field. The sons and daughters of our subjects graduated with very high GPAs.”
    “ I would have thought there ’ d be a right-wing lean, but it doesn’t seem that way. ”
    “ Not so sure,” Jason said. “T he political science professors tend to be Libertarian and Conservative, but , as I said, the other courses lean socially left. Go figure .”
    “ Interesting but not surprising . What happens when they graduate?”
    “ Here’s where it gets strange, because I haven’t been able to fill in the blanks.”
    “What do you mean?” Lucier asked.
    “Some of the sons and daughters are supposedly off doing humanitarian work overseas for the family foundations . They’ve filed IRS forms, but their income is listed as stock dividends or interest from inheritances, and their addresses are the same as their parents. They have no records of employment, credit cards with no charges , and are without debt. Nothing more I can track. ”
    “I see what you mean.”
    “Of the six progeny of Phillip Crane, Seth is the only one I can’t account for. He’s one of the out - of - the - country people. You know about the Crane women, and the oldest son, David, runs Crane Corporation. He’s married, has three children, all grown, oldest in the business; the other two are in the missing column. The other families follow the same pattern . Martin Easley’s son Cal is the only other child of a first marriage I can’t account for .”
    “What the hell’s going on?”
    “I’m just the messenger, Lieutenant,” Jason said. “ I’m curious about the answers myself . My fax will contain an exact breakdown of the family trees, their history, et cetera. B ut the only second marriage with no traceable children is Silas and Selene Compton .”
    “ Which makes Selene an oddity of the group. ”
    “ Yeah . An article about Jeremy Haynesworth said his son and daughter were off doing humanitarian work overseas. That’s the same story the others say when asked.”
    “Damn, I’d love to get my hands on their passports. See whether they’ve really left the country. I doubt they have.”
    “Why? Where do you think they are?”
    “Damned if I know , but my gut instinct says they’re not where they’re saying they are . I’ve used up my supply of hunches lately. ” He tapped his pen on the empty pad of paper . “ Is that it?”
    “For now. I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.”
    “Hey, thanks a lot. Great work. I ’m just not sure what to do with it.”
    “ Can’t help you there. You’re the cop. I’ll fax this to Diana so it doesn’t go through your office . Is that all right?”
    “Perfect.”
    “Tell her I love