Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

Sunrise Mission here in New Orleans.”
    “Doesn’t that mission take in the homeless, give them a bed, and help them find jobs?”
    “That’s the place. They’ve been written up several times in the papers. People claim the place saved their lives. Maybe Reems stayed there.”
    “ Did you f ind out who runs it ? ”
    “ Yup. It’s under state control, but it was the idea of a guy by the name of Brother Osiris.”
    “Osiris. What the hell kind of name is that?” Beecher asked, slipping into the office.
    Lucier did a double take. “You’re kidding, right?”
    “Nope,” Cash said, brows raised, mouth twisted in a smirk. “That’s his name, at least to everyone who enters his domain.”
    “Sounds mythological . Find out Brother Osiris’ s real name and the mythology , Willy .”
    “I’m ahead of you. Real name is Edward Slater. Forty-one, unmarried, no kids, not according to this, anyway. In the late eighties and early nineties he was picked up on drunk charges a few times, and last year he was questioned after a woman filed a complaint that he swindled her.”
    “What happened?” Lucier asked.
    Cash flipped the pages of his notebook. “ Slater produced a signed letter that she’d willingly donated $25,000 to the Sunrise Mission. She didn’t deny signing it and then dropped the charges.”
    “Sounds like a con man to me,” Beecher said. “Hits on the ladies before they know what they’re doing.”
    “Sure does, but you know as well as I that if someone wants to leave all her money to her cat, there’s not a damn thing anyone can do about it. Remember that hotel heiress? What did she leave to her dog? Twelve mil?” Lucier scanned the sheet on Slater. “ I assume you’ve already checked the mythology angle ? ”
    “ Yeah , and you’re going to love this . I’ll give you the abridged version . ” Cash carried a compute r printout and started reading. “Osiris was an Egyptian fertility god, sometimes called god of the underworld. He was married to Isis and slain by his brother Seth, who then cut his body into fourteen pieces and cast them to the winds. There’s another story that says his body was cut into twenty-six pieces. In both, Isis gathered up all the pieces except the phallus and healed the body. She magically restored that little baby ’cause she conceived Horus, who is often portrayed as a babe suckled by his mother.’”
    “Jeez,” Beecher said.
    “Hey, I just wrote what I found . You couldn’t make up this stuff.”
    “What does it all mean?” Beecher asked.
    “He takes the name of a god whose member has been severed and restored,” Lucier said. “Maybe he’s saying he can overcome anything, or maybe it’s a validation of his virility.”
    “This is too deep for me,” Beecher said. “Sounds like the guy’s a whack job.”
    “Could be. It’ll be interesting. Is he always at the mission?”
    “Figured you’d ask, so I took the liberty and called. He ’s there all day , every day . Gets in about nine. ”
    “Good work . I want to take Diana to meet with this fertility god. Maybe she’ll pick up some vibes. ”
    * * * * *
    T hat evening, Lucier filled Diana in on the case, including the Sunrise Mission. The weight of not finding the missing baby weighed on him. No ransom note, so money wasn’t the object. Then what was?
    She opened a bottle of pinot noir and poured two glasses. “Sounds like a front. Osiris, Jesus. One of the fertility gods.”
    Lucier sipped his wine, stopping at Diana’s statement. “How do you know that?”
    “Mythology interests me. Kind of overlaps into psychic phenomena.”
    “How so?”
    “They’re both mystical in different ways. Mythology is folklore passed down through civilizations , with their own deities and heroes. Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite ― they’re all from mythology. A lot of comic book and movie heroes are based on th e mythological warrior.”
    “Hmm, Aphrodite, the love goddess. Why does that spark excitement?”
    “Can’t imagine.” Diana winked at Lucier as she placed slices of pot roast on two plates and spooned a mixture of roasted potatoes, carrots, and onions in gravy on the side. “No one understands psychic phenomena. I’m not even sure I do, but it’s real enough to those of us who have the gift. Same with mythology. Some cultures pray to different gods for rain or for a good harvest. That’s a form of mythology.”
    “Sounds logical when you explain it.”
    “Almost logical, like