had made sure Gil knew all the tools needed for a woman to “take back her life.” Gil had even gotten her to laugh a little at Tool Four, titled “The One Tool You Need for Satisfaction.” Gil had made the obvious sexual joke. That had been a long time ago. When the girls were little. When he and Susan still talked about the books they read. When they still had time to read books.

Gil moved toward another shelf just as a woman came out from the back room. She was young. Maybe in her early twenties. Her bright blue eyes matched the cobalt blue of her turban. The effect was almost disconcerting. She was tiny, no more than five feet tall, but her turban gave her at least an extra foot. It also looked like it might crush her at any moment. In her orange sash was tucked a curved dagger.

Before Gil could speak, Joe said from behind him, “Well, hello.” The woman smiled and said, “Blessings and victory be upon you.”

“We’re here to see Donna Henshaw,” Gil said before Joe could start in on anything.

“She is in a conference but should be out shortly,” the woman said, still smiling. Her teeth were perfect, and her skin was a soft dusky white. Gil could see why Joe was suddenly next to him, standing straighter and smiling up a storm.

“Can I help you with anything?” she asked.

“We need to discuss a personal matter with Ms. Henshaw,” Gil said.

“Of course,” she said, eminently serene. “Please let me know if I can be of any assistance. I’m the general manager.” The title surprised Gil. He had expected something more in keeping with a religious group—like yogi or acolyte.

“Is the ashram a business?” he asked.

She smiled. “By the grace of the Wonderful Teacher, we have been blessed. We sell mostly online, although the initiates who come here for yoga retreats do buy a fair amount as well.”

“So what’s your whole thing here?” Joe asked. Gil had to admire his straightforward attitude.

“We are a group of Sikhs who run a center for teaching kundalini yoga, and, of course, we all are still students ourselves of the Guru, victory be upon him.”

“Okay, so I didn’t understand a lot of that,” Joe said, “but I’m going to pretend I did.”

She laughed, which was what Joe had wanted, and he asked, “How did you end up here?”

“I was studying at the University of Connecticut when I heard my yoga teacher speak of the Guru—victory be upon him—and his belief in the woman warrior, so I moved here to further my studies,” she said.

“Is the Guru here?” Gil asked, thinking that he might be a long-shot candidate for Brianna’s father.

“No. He will arrive here in a few weeks for his yearly visit,” she said.

“What were you getting your degree in?” Joe asked, moving closer to her.

“I was studying for a master’s in business finance,” she said, “but I realized that the material instincts of the world were not conducive to my path of light. Here I am free to embody the saint-soldier that is written about in the sacred scripture.”

“Are you like . . . I mean, do you consider yourself a member of the Sikh religion, like, from India?” Joe asked.

“Yes, I am of the Pure Ones, the chosen who began their fraternity in the 1700s,” she said, proudly. By that time, Gil thought, his family had already been living in Santa Fe for almost a hundred years.

“So by ‘pure one’ do you mean virgin?” Joe asked.

“You know what?” Gil said quickly. “We are going to wait outside for Ms. Henshaw. I’m sorry for the trouble. Please just let us know when she can see us.”

Gil sat in the driver’s seat of the car with the door open. The fresh mountain air was crisp and light. A yellow swallowtail butterfly floated past, catching a ride on a slight wind.

Gil was on his cell phone with Adam Granger, who was saying adamantly, “They’re not Sikh. They came with the rest of the Sikhs in the 1970s when my parents came, but they split off from the ashram in Española at least twenty years ago when I was still a kid. I remember that was a really hard time at the compound. My mom cried a lot.”

Sitting in the passenger seat next to Gil, Joe typed away on his smartphone, where he was supposed to be looking up everything he could find about the Golden Mountain Ashram.

Gil asked Adam,