Based on what Stephen had told us and Hector Perez, he was more than happy to erase his brother from his life in one way or another. But how might Edward feel about that? If Edward had left Short Creek at some point and discovered Stephen’s financial success, not to mention his ownership of the property that had once belonged to their parents and should perhaps have been split between them, he could easily have been angry about it. Could it have led to a murderous rage?
I’d been so focused on one of the wives doing the deed that I hadn’t thought about the possibility that she was just an accessory to it. Those damned keys to the gate. I’d gotten so focused on them and on the insular nature of life on the compound. Of course any of the wives could have opened up the gate for someone else. But I hadn’t given much thought to that because the wives were so isolated here. Who could they have known outside the compound who would be willing to commit murder? It had seemed much more likely that one of them would have done it themselves.
Now I had a new possibility: that one of them had been married to a man who hated Stephen and had probably spent years waiting for the right moment to take his revenge.
Joanna had to have been part of this. She could have easily let Edward Carter onto the property Tuesday morning. Her reasons I could only guess at. Did she hate Stephen more than I had ever suspected?
Then I remembered suddenly that Joanna had said her first husband believed in her gift of prophecy. What if she had never truly left him—or the FLDS?
She had acted as if she had escaped, but the way she wore her hair, the way she dressed, and the way she dressed her children had all pointed to the fact that she had never really changed her beliefs from her FLDS days. How long had this particular revenge been in the making? Joanna must have known Stephen was going to be attacked. When she’d warned Stephen of danger while Kurt and I were there, and that night, when she came to the house and argued with Sarah—she had to have been trying to save him. It hadn’t been a premonition at all.
She had also tried to warn me to leave because I was in danger, I remembered then. I felt a tingling sensation as she’d also told me to take Kenneth out of the compound with me. What was going on here? What else was she planning?
“I have to go,” I said to Kurt.
“Linda, promise me you’ll be safe until I can get there.” His voice seemed very far away.
“I’ll try,” I said, and hung up the phone.
After what Joanna had already told me, and with the track record I knew her premonitions had, I should have gone out of the house right away. I should have found Kenneth and Naomi and told them to go home now and take Talitha with them. I should have warned everyone else in the house while I was at it.
But before I left, I had to talk to Rebecca. After all, Rebecca might have only wanted to cover it up when she thought that it was one of the wives who had killed him. When she found out it was likely Stephen’s long lost FLDS brother, I was pretty sure she would change her mind.
Chapter 32
I went downstairs, thinking that I was most likely to find Rebecca in the kitchen. It smelled as if someone had burned something, but no one was there. One of the children must have tried a baking experiment, then cleared out before the evidence was discovered. I checked to make sure the oven was off, then hurried back upstairs to look for Rebecca.
I eventually found her upstairs in the master bedroom, looking through the night table on Stephen’s side of the bed. There were several envelopes, including one large manila one.
“I have something important I need to tell you,” I said. “About Stephen. And his brother.”
“His dead brother, Edward? Oh, you don’t need to bother.” She shook her head and put her hands on my shoulders. “Linda, I’m so sorry I’ve gotten you involved in all of this. I should have encouraged you to go home two days ago, but I have to admit, I was really enjoying having an adult woman around who wasn’t one of the wives I have to take care of all the time. Sometimes I really miss my old life, before all this happened. The regular Mormon world of Relief Society activities and lessons and meals. You know what I mean?”
I knew what she meant. “You really do want to know about—” I started again, but she hadn’t seemed to hear me.
She let go of me turned to the side. “First, can you look at this? I don’t understand it at all and it was on Stephen’s night table, marked Saturday afternoon mail delivery, which might mean it’s important or might not. I just need to know if I should throw it away or keep it,” Rebecca said. She handed the manila envelope and its contents to me.
I glanced at the document purely so that I could tell Rebecca it wasn’t nearly as important as what I’d found out about Stephen’s past. My eyes were getting older and I couldn’t see things as well, though I was vain enough not to carry reading glasses with me everywhere. I did have them at home.