A Heartbeat Away - Michael Palmer [104]
“We can probably do without the trivia right now, Melvin. In case you couldn’t tell, we’re sort of at a serious dead end.”
“Well, there’s a point here.”
“Okay. Sorry. Don’t let me take my grouchiness out on you. You don’t deserve it.”
“But the good thing is I can handle it,” Forbush said, “so you’re forgiven in advance. But listen, Griff. In the film, Martin’s character is investigating the disappearance of Rachel Ward’s father, a scientist named Dr. Forrest, played by George Gaynes.”
“This helps us how?” Griff asked.
Forbush held up a hand to urge patience.
“Hey, easy does it,” he said. “In the movie business, delivery is everything.”
“Sorry,” Griff said again.
“Before he disappeared, Dr. Forrest leaves lists of notes that Martin keeps on finding throughout the film. One list he titled ‘Friends of Carlotta,’ and the other he called ‘Enemies of Carlotta.’ ”
“Go on.”
“The big break in the case comes when Philip Marlowe, who’s played by footage of Humphrey Bogart from The Big Sleep, tips Martin’s character off that Carlotta wasn’t a person. It was a place—an island off Peru.”
Griff’s impatience gave way to intrigue.
“So…”
“So, what if ‘The Certain Path’ isn’t Chen’s way of suggesting that she was on the right track, but an actual place.”
Griff’s eyes narrowed. He pulled his laptop computer over, opened a Web browser to Google, and typed in quotes: “The Certain Path.” He clicked the first link in the resultant set, then leaned back in his chair to study the page. Moments later, a look of astonishment washed over his face.
“Well, I’ll be,” he said.
Griff turned the screen to Forbush, and used the computer mouse to highlight two lines of text. The highlighted words read:
The Certain Path Mission
Wichita, Kansas
CHAPTER 48
DAY 6
9:00 A.M. (CST)
The Certain Path Mission Web site was a simple design, featuring a photograph of the building and some modest graphics. Its mission statement was prominently displayed at the top of the homepage.
DRUG ADDICTION AND ALCOHOLISM CAN BE CURED BUT ONLY BY WALKING THE CERTAIN PATH
According to the Web site’s About Us section, the ministry’s founder, Brother Xavier Bartholomew, was a recovered alcoholic/addict himself.
“It says here Brother Bartholomew was on the verge of death,” Griff said. “Drugs had drained him of the will to live. And then he heard a voice, and it saved his life and guided him along the certain path to health and purpose.”
“Let me guess,” Melvin said. “God spoke to him and told him to open a ministry to help other addicts get clean.”
“Have you been to this Web site before?”
“I’ve just seen a lot of movies,” Melvin said. “And as often as not, the characters in those films aren’t who they seem to be. Is there anything on Brother Bartholomew that he wouldn’t want posted on his Web site?”
“Like dirt?” Griff asked.
“If that’s the same as skeletons in his closet.”
Griff did another search, tracking a sequence of links in the search results for more information.
“Seems like we have enough dirt for a landfill,” he said after a short while.
He opened a YouTube video of a Wichita TV news report. The video’s title was an obvious attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor: “The Not So Certain Path.” The reporter was an attractive blond woman, with a short, stylish hairdo, and a scrubbed, corn-fed glow. Griff turned up the volume on his laptop’s small speakers.
“Deb Rosen, reporting from the Certain Path Mission in Wichita, where the ministry’s founder, Brother Xavier Bartholomew, has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of assault and battery. The charges against Bartholomew stem from a complaint filed by this man, Karl Larson, who came to the Certain Path Ministry seeking treatment for his drug addiction.”
The video showed an unshaven man in his fifties, with tangles of gray-black, unwashed hair, and murky eyes that supported the label underneath his picture: “Homeless Drug Addict.” The shot cut back to the reporter at the ministry.
“Mr. Larson,” Deb Rosen said, “claims that Brother Bartholomew offered