Rizzoli & Isles 8-Book Set

simply because they’re
boys
. In their communities, that alone makes them fatally flawed.”
    “Because boys cause trouble?”
    “No. Because they’re competition, and the older men don’t want them around. They want all the girls for themselves.”
    Suddenly Jane understood. “You’re talking about polygamous communities.”
    “Exactly. These are groups that have nothing at all to do with the official Mormon Church. They’re breakaway sects that form around charismatic leaders. You’ll find them in a number of states. Colorado and Arizona, Utah and Idaho. And right here in Sublette County, Wyoming.”
    “The Gathering?”
    Cathy nodded. “It’s a sect led by a so-called prophet named Jeremiah Goode. Twenty years ago, he started attracting followers in Idaho. They built a compound called Plain of Angels, northwest of Idaho Falls. Eventually it grew into a community of nearly six hundredpeople. They’re completely self-sufficient, grow their own food, raise their own livestock. No visitors are allowed in, so it’s impossible to know what’s really happening behind their gates.”
    “They sound like prisoners.”
    “They might as well be. The Prophet controls every aspect of their lives, and they adore him for it. That’s the way cults operate. You start with a man like Jeremiah, someone who attracts the weak-minded and the needy, people who desperately want someone to accept them. To give them love and attention, to fix their pitiful broken lives. That’s what he offers them—at first. That’s how all cults start, from the Moonies to the Manson Family.”
    “You’re equating Jeremiah Goode with Charles Manson?”
    “Yes.” Cathy’s face tightened. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. It’s the same psychology, the same social dynamics. Once a follower drinks the Kool-Aid, they’re his. They give Jeremiah all their property, all their assets, and move into his compound. There he exerts total control. He uses their free labor to maintain a number of highly profitable businesses, from construction to furniture making to mail-order jams and jellies. To an outsider, it looks like a utopian community where everyone contributes. In return, everyone is taken care of. That’s what Bobby Martineau probably thought he saw when he visited Kingdom Come.”
    “What should he have seen instead?”
    “A dictatorship. It’s all about Jeremiah and what he wants.”
    “And what’s that?”
    Cathy’s gaze hardened to steel. “Young flesh. That’s what The Gathering is all about, Detective. Owning, controlling, and fucking young girls.”
    A woman in the next booth turned and glared at them, offended by the language.
    Cathy took a moment to regain her composure. “That’s why Jeremiah can’t afford to keep too many boys around,” she said. “So he gets rid of them. He orders families to shun their own teenage sons. The boys are driven to the nearest town and abandoned. In Idaho,they were dumped in Idaho Falls. Here, they’re dumped in Jackson or Pinedale.”
    “And these families actually cooperate?”
    “The women are obedient little robots. The men are rewarded for their loyalty with young brides of their own.
Spiritual brides
, they’re called, to avoid being prosecuted for polygamy. Men can have as many as they want, and it’s all biblically sanctioned.”
    Jane gave an appalled laugh. “Yeah? Which Bible?”
    “The Old Testament. Think about Abraham and Jacob, David and Solomon. The old biblical patriarchs who had multiple wives or concubines.”
    “And his followers buy in to it?”
    “Because it satisfies some burning need inside them. The women, maybe they yearn for security, for a life where they don’t have to make hard choices. The men—well, it’s obvious what the men get out of it. They get to take a fourteen-year-old to bed.
And
get into heaven.”
    “And Julian Perkins was part of all that?”
    “He has a mother and a fourteen-year-old sister who still live in Kingdom Come. Julian’s father died when he was only four. The mother, I’m sorry to say, is a total flake. Sharon dropped out of her kids’ lives to go
find herself
, or whatever bullshit you want to call it, and she dumped them on their grandfather, Absolem.”
    “The mountain man.”
    “Right. A decent guy who took good care of them. But ten years later, Sharon reappears, and woo-hoo! She’s got a new man, plus she’s discovered religion! The religion of Jeremiah Goode. She takes her kids back, and