Rizzoli & Isles 8-Book Set

hiking up there, you’ll come across a few old homesteads just like Absolem’s. Most of them are down to nothing but foundations, but they remind you how hard it was just to stay alive back then. I can’t imagine going a day without flush toilets and a hot shower.”
    “Hell. I can’t imagine a day without cable.”
    They were climbing into foothills now, through terrain where the trees grew thicker and buildings vanished. They passed Grubb’s General Store, and Jane spotted the ominous sign: LAST CHANCE FOR FUEL. She couldn’t help an anxious glance at Cathy’s fuel gauge, and was relieved to see that they had three-quarters of a tank.
    It was almost a mile farther down the road before that name suddenly struck her as familiar. Grubb’s General Store. She remembered what Queenan had told her about the many sightings of Maura. That people had reported seeing her all over the state, at the Dinosaur Museum in Thermopolis, in the Irma Hotel in Cody. And at Grubb’s General Store in Sublette County.
    She pulled out her cell phone to call Queenan. Zero bars, no reception. She put her phone back in her purse.
    “Well, this is interesting,” Cathy said as they turned off the highway onto a much narrower road.
    “What?”
    “It’s been plowed.”
    “Is this the road to Kingdom Come?”
    “Yes. If Bobby told the truth, and the valley’s deserted, why would anyone bother to clear the road?”
    “Have you been up this way before?”
    “The one time I drove up here was last summer,” said Cathy as she steered around a hairpin turn that made Jane instinctively reach for the armrest. “I’d just become Julian’s caseworker. The policecaught him in Pinedale, where he’d broken into someone’s house and was raiding the kitchen for food.”
    “After he got kicked out of The Gathering?”
    Cathy nodded. “Another one of their Lost Boys. I drove up here, hoping to interview his mother. And I was worried about his sister, Carrie. Julian told me she was only fourteen, and I know that’s the age when the men begin to …” Cathy paused and took a deep breath. “Anyway, I never made it to Kingdom Come.”
    “What happened?”
    “I turned onto their private road and was just heading down into the valley when a truck came roaring up and intercepted me. They must have some sort of warning system that tells them when someone’s entered their property. Two men with walkie-talkies demanded to know the purpose of my visit. As soon as they found out I was a social worker, they ordered me to leave and never return. I got only a glimpse of the settlement from the road. They’d built ten houses, and there were two more under construction, with bulldozers and tractors rumbling around. Obviously, they’ve got plans to expand. This is going to be their next Plain of Angels.”
    “So you never spoke to Julian’s mother.”
    “No. And she never once tried to contact anyone about his welfare.” She shook her head in disgust. “How’s that for parental love? You’re given the choice between your cult and your own child, and you toss out the child. I don’t get it, do you?”
    Jane thought of her own daughter, thought of what she would sacrifice to keep Regina safe.
I’d die for her, and I wouldn’t think twice about it
. “No, I don’t get it, either.”
    “Imagine what it was like for poor Julian. Knowing his mom thinks he’s disposable. Knowing that she just looked the other way when the men dragged him out of the house.”
    “My God, is that how it happened?”
    “That’s how Julian described it. He was sobbing and screaming. His sister was screaming. And their mother let it all happen, without a peep of protest.”
    “What a worthless piece of shit.”
    “But remember, she’s a victim, too.”
    “That’s no excuse. A mother fights for her kids.”
    “In The Gathering, mothers never do. In Plain of Angels, dozens of mothers willingly surrendered their sons, letting them be dragged off and dumped in the nearest town. The boys end up so broken, so damaged, that a lot of them turn to drugs. Or they’re exploited by predators. They’re desperate for someone, anyone, to love them.”
    “How did Julian cope?”
    “He just wanted to go back to his family. He’s like some beaten dog, trying to return to his abusive master. Last July, he stole a car and actually made it all the way back to the valley to see his sister. Managed to hide out in the area for three weeks before The Gathering caught him