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Shaw nodded.
“When we were looking for those missing kids,” Auggie said, “we went to the Cottonmouth Club.”
“I remember,” North said drily. “You couldn’t stop talking about it after we kept your asses from getting capped in a parking lot.”
“Jesus, North,” Theo said under his breath.
“The point is,” Auggie said, “a guy talked to me while I was in the club, and it was Gid. He even used the same name. I saw him get in a fight—well, an argument—with a couple of other guys, and then he was looking for a way to inflate his own ego, so he started talking to me—shooting his mouth off, really, because he wanted to brag, and in the process, saying a lot of stupid stuff.”
“Like what?” Shaw asked.
“Like they did wild stuff there. Private stuff. Stuff you couldn’t do anywhere else.”
North waited, but when nothing more came, he said, “That’s it? Shit, he could have been talking about playing Dungeons and Dragons in their jocks.”
“He talked about getting Auggie a girl,” Theo said.
“Seriously? Did he even look at the little wiener?”
Theo sat forward in his chair. “Knock it off.”
Placing a hand on Theo’s knee, Auggie said, “He didn’t say anything super incriminating, no. But he talked about how the Cottonmouth Club was different, about how you could get a girl there and do whatever you wanted to her. That was the part he emphasized. And I think he realized he’d said too much to a stranger, because he left in a hurry. That was when I decided to get out of there, but as I was leaving, I spotted him talking to someone. He looked, well, worried.”
North broke off another piece of cinnamon roll, but then he let it fall back into the box, and he wiped the icing from his thumb. “Ok,” he finally said. “Welch takes us to Gid. Gid takes us to the Cottonmouth Club. And two of the three people who died last night, they were going to identify a man they’d met at the Cottonmouth Club.”
Shaw tented his hands over his mouth and shook his head.
“Did you tell John-Henry about this?” North asked.
“Yeah, of course. As soon as Jem and Tean updated us—”
“Which wasn’t their job,” Theo said, “because we should have already been kept in the loop.”
North scratched his cheek again.
“—I found that church’s website, and boom, there was Gid.”
“Auggie was up half the night doing research,” Theo said.
“Theo was up all night,” Auggie said. “When Jem and Tean left, he was in charge of keeping the kids safe.”
Which, North had to admit, might explain why the grumpy teacher was a little grumpier than usual. So, he decided to forego the low-hanging fruit aboutthe kids.
“Did you find out anything else about the church?” Shaw asked.
Auggie shrugged. “They must take in a lot of money. That huge campus, the one you saw last night? They’ve got a satellite campus in Joplin, and both campuses have fully equipped stages—lights, cameras, everything. They broadcast online, so there’s no real distribution costs, and they’ve got a big audience. The guy who started it all, the dad—”
“We met him,” North said. “He might as well be a piece of furniture; nobody’s home.”
Auggie nodded. “They talk about his advanced age and failing health, but nobody’s come out and said that. The oldest son seems to be covering the responsibilities up here, and the satellite campus has somebody else running the show—not family, I mean. Kind of interesting, right, when you’ve got two sons and two campuses?”
“The brothers clearly didn’t get along,” Shaw said. “We saw that last night.”
“But that’s normal, right? Disagreements between brothers?” Theo asked. “Or what are we talking about?”
Shaw shook his head slowly. “I think this was more than that. The older brother, Jed, is clearly the more successful one. He’s also clearly in charge. Gid was hopped up on something last night, and I doubt it was the first time. Add that to what Auggie told us, and it sounds like he’s got substance abuse on top of already erratic behavior, plus the need for approval. That’s what he was after with you, right, Auggie?”
Something like surprise flitted across Auggie’s face, and he seemed to be considering Shaw anew. North recognized the look; it happened whenever someone got a glimpse of the real Shaw. “Uh, yeah,” Auggie said. “That’s exactly what he wanted.”
