it.’
Wanda shrugged. ‘People keep secrets from their spouses all the time. I’m guessing he didn’t know his wife was banging the friendly neighbourhood cop.’
‘I thought Jack was cheating on her too. With Eden.’ But now I knew Mona was the link to Eden. ‘Looks like I was wrong about that. But I don’t understand why Krugman killed Jack. After I got the photo of Eden I texted both Mona and Jack and told them I was outside their place. I think the moment Mona got that text she must have called Krugman and told him to deal with Jack before I showed him the photo. But I don’t know why.’
Wanda thought about it. ‘She must have known Jack would recognise Eden. Mona and Eden are both members of the cult. Perhaps Jack had seen them together somewhere. I bet they met up to discuss the plan to recruit Ruth, and Jack saw them together. His wife was cheating on him. The poor bastard might have been suspicious, following her around.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s a logical explanation, anyway. The other thing I’m wondering about is how Krugman got into the house while you were outside.’
‘Through the back door?’
‘I guess. But he got there damn quickly.’ A sigh. ‘Maybe we’ll never know.’
Wanda glanced towards the door, as she had done a dozen times already. Fleetwood Mac was playing in the background and I thought Wanda might make a comment about it, but she was too distracted.
‘Here’s another thing that’s bugging me,’ she said. ‘Why go to all this trouble to recruit Ruth? What’s so special about her? And yeah, I know she’s your girlfriend, that you think she’s special. But what sets her apart from a thousand other young women?’
‘She is special, that’s what. Everyone says it. She’s got that magic ingredient – whatever it is that makes some people stand out. Like your friend Stevie Nicks. It’s talent, charisma, beauty. Strength. Ruth has it too.’
Wanda nodded like she got it. ‘Let’s get back to the question of who Gabriel is. There’s nothing in any of my databases related to people called Gabriel. So then I thought maybe he’s named himself after the angel. Maybe the whole cult is based around angels. It’s a thing. And yeah, there are plenty of groups that worship angels and Gabriel above all of them. I spent quite some time going down that route but I think it’s a blind alley. From what we know of this cult, they’re not Christian. They don’t seem to be religious at all. So that made me think we’re looking for someone whose name actually is Gabriel.’
‘Is it a popular name in the US?’
She laughed. ‘Guess what? I looked that shit up. It’s very popular now. It peaked in 2008, when just under thirteen thousand babies in the US were given that name. But it wasn’t that popular in the seventies or eighties, which is probably when our Gabriel was born.’
‘Thank God he’s not called John.’
‘Ha, yeah. Or Adam. Anyway, the next step was to see if I could find anyone called Gabriel who has or had a known relationship with either Mona Cunningham or Dennis Krugman. Old classmates. Former co-workers. College buddies. I checked Mona first. Total dead end. She went to a private all-girls school and she’s never had a job apart from a series of businesses she’s run herself, and there was no way I could get hold of a list of her clients. There was no one in her college class called Gabriel either. I even checked her Facebook page and all her social media to see if they were dumb enough to be connected online, but no luck.’
Yet again, she looked over at the door. A Britney Spears song was playing now. I guessed Wanda didn’t know her.
‘I didn’t get anywhere with Mona so next I looked at Krugman. There was actually a Gabriel in his class at elementary school, but he died six years ago. Again, he’s not connected to anyone called Gabriel on social media. And, unfortunately, I can’t access police HR files to see if he’s ever worked with someone with that name.’
‘Krugman must have come into contact with a lot of different people,’ I said. ‘Other cops. Lawyers. Criminals.’
‘Oh yeah. I thought I wasn’t going to get anywhere with Krugman. Was about to give up. And then my research assistant found this.’ She had taken off her shades and her eyes shone. This was what she had been waiting to tell