I pushed back my chair. “It’s midnight. We should open the champagne.”
I was more disturbed than I had supposed, for what Marino had to say was worse than I feared. Over the years, I had heard quite a lot about Joel Hand and his fascist followers who called themselves the New Zionists. They were going to cause a new order, create an ideal land. I had always feared they were quiet behind their Virginia compound walls because they were plotting a disaster.
“What we need to do is raid the asshole’s farm,” Marino said as he got up from the table. “That should have been done a long time ago.”
“What probable cause would anybody have?” Lucy said.
“You ask me, with squirrels like him, you shouldn’t need probable cause.”
“Oh, good idea. You should suggest that one to Gradecki,” she drolly said, referring to the U.S. attorney general.
“Look, I know some guys in Suffolk where Hand lives, and the neighbors say some really weird shit goes on there.
“Neighbors always think weird shit goes on with their neighbors,” she said.
Marino got the champagne out of the refrigerator while I fetched glasses.
“What sort of weird shit?” I asked him.
“Barges pull up to the Nansemond River and unload crates so big they got to use cranes. Nobody knows what goes on there, except pilots have spotted bonfires at night, like maybe there’s occult rituals. Local people swear they hear gunshots all the time and that there have been murders on his farm.”
I walked into the living room because we would clean up later.
I said, “I know about the homicides in this state, and I’ve never heard the New Zionists mentioned in connection with any of them, or with any crime at all, for that matter.
I’ve never heard they are involved in the occult, either.
Only on-the-fringe politics and oddball extremism. They seem to hate America and would probably be happy if they could have their own little country somewhere where Hand could be king. Or God. Or whatever he is to them.”
“You want me to pop this thing?” Marino held up the champagne.
“The new year’s not getting any younger,” I said. “Now let me get this straight.” I settled on the couch. “Eddings had some link with the New Zionists?”
“Only because he had one of their bibles, like I already told you,” Marino said. “I found it when we was going through his house.”
That’s what you were worried about me seeing?” I looked quizzically at him.
“Tonight, yes,” he said. “Because I’m more worried about her seeing it, if you want to know.” He looked at Lucy.
“Pete,” my niece spoke very reasonably, “you don’t need to protect me anymore, even though I appreciate it.”
He was silent.
“What sort of bible?” I asked him.
Not any sort you’ve ever carried to Mass.”
“Satanic?”
“No, I can’t say it’s like that. At least not like the ones I’ve seen, because it’s not about worshiping Satan and doesn’t have any of the sort of symbolism that you associate with that. But it sure as hell isn’t something you’d want to read before going to bed.” He glanced at Lucy again.
“Where is it?” I wanted to know.
He peeled foil off the top of the bottle and unwound wire. The cork popped loudly, and he poured champagne the way he poured beer, tilting the glasses sharply to prevent a head.
“Lucy, how about bringing my briefcase here. It’s in the kitchen,” he said, and he looked at me as she left the room and lowered his voice. “I wouldn’t have brought it with me if I thought I was going to be seeing her.”
“She’s a grown woman. She’s an FBI agent, for God’s sake,” I said.
“Yeah, and she gets whacked out sometimes, and you know that, too. She don’t need to be looking at spooky stuff like this. I’m telling you, I read it because I had to, and I felt really creepy. I felt like I needed to go to Mass, and when have you ever heard me say that?” His face was intense.
I had never heard him say that, and I was uneasy. Lucy had been through hard times that had seriously frightened me. She had been self-destructive and unstable before.