Blood Test by Kellerman, Jonathan

“You might start by explaining your role in the

disappearance.”

“That will be quite simple. There is none.”

“No collaboration between you and the couple

from the Touch?”

“Absolutely not. I visited them once. That’s the

extent of it.”.

“What Was the purpose of your visit?”

“Educational. I’m interested

ties.”

“Did you learn much,’Doctor?’

Valcroix smiled.

“It was a peaceful place· They have no need for

policemen.”

“What were the names of the people Wh.o visited

the Swopes ?”

“The man was called Baron, the woman, Delilah.”

“Surnames ?”

“They don’t use them.”

“And you’ve only visited the Touch once or twice.”

“Once.”

“All. right. We’ll be verifying that.”

“Feel free.”

Milo fixed him with a hard stare. The Fellow

smiled contemptuously.

“Did Nona Swope tell you anything that would

.lead us to her family’s whereabouts?”

“We didn’t talk much· We just fucked’

·de”

“Doctor, I suggest you rethink your attitu .

“Oh really?” The squinty eyes became hyphens.

“You interrupt my work to ask me stupid ques ‘tions

about my personal life and expect me to have a

good attitude ?”

“In your case·personal and professiOnal seem

pretty enmeshed.”

“How insightfax[ of you to notice.”

“Is that all you have to say, Doctor?”

“What more would you like to hear? That I like

to fuck vomen? Ali right. I do. I crave it. I’m going

to fuck as many women as I can in this life and if

there’s a life thereafter ‘I hope it will provide an

endless chain ot: .warm, willing women so I can

152

onathan Keltennan

keep fucking. Last I heard, fucking was no crime,

or have they passed a new law in America?”

“Go back to work, Doctor.”

Valcroix gathered his charts and left, dreamy-eyed.

“What an asshole,” said Milo walking back to the

car. “I wouldn’t let him near my hangnail.”..There

was an illegal parking warning from Hospital Security

taped on the windshield. He ripped it off and

put it in his pocket. “I hope he’s not typical of what

they’re passing off as doctors nowadays.”

“He’s one of a kind. He won’t last much longer

here.”‘

We headed west on Sunset.

“You going to check out his story?” I asked.

“I could ask the Touch people how well they

know him but if there is some kind of conspiracy

they’d lie. Best thing is to call the sheriff down

there and find out if the joker’s been spotted more

than once. Small town like that the law tends to

notice things.”

“I know someone who might be familiar with the

Touch. Want me to call him ?”

“Why not? Couldn’t hurt.”

He drove me home and stayed for a minute to

look at the koi. He was transfixed by the colorful

fish and smiled as they gobbled down the pellets he

tossed them. When he tore himself away to leare,

his big body seemed heavy and slow.

“Any longer, I’d stay here till my beard turned

white.”

We shook hands, he gave a little salute, turned

and ambled off for another afternoon of witnessing

the human animal at its worst.

12

I PHONED Professor Seth Fiacre at UCLA. He’s an

old classmate from grad school, a social psychologist

who’d been studying cults for several years.

“Hi, Alex,” he said, cheerful as always, “just got

back from Sacramento. Senate hearings. Stultifying.”

We reminisced and played catch-up and then I

told him why I’d called.

“The Touch? I’m surprised you’ve even heard of

them. They’re not well-known and. they don’t pros-‘

elytize. They’ve got a place called the Retreat, used

to be a monastery, down near the Mexican border.”

“What about the leader–Matthias?”

“Noble Matthias..He was a lawyer originally. Used

to call, himself Norman Matthews,”

“What kind of law did he practice?”

“I don’t know. But it was high powered. Beverly

Hills.”

Attorney to guru seemed an unlikely metamorphosis.

“Why the change of lifestyle?” I asked.

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154

“I don’t know, Alex, Most charismatic leaders

claim some sort of cosmic vision, usually after a

trauma. Your basic voice in the desert stuff. Maybe

he ran out of gas in the Mojave and saw God.”

I laughed.

“I wish I could tell you more, Alex. The group

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