The Shunning - 7. Chapter 7

An hour later:

 

"Hello Mr. Fisher." Patrick smiled as he sat himself down in a

High back leather chair.

 

"I hope you have more information than you did last time," the

black haired, grey eyed man said coldly.

 

"About Dr. Gavin's finances?"

 

"Yes...that is what I am paying you for."

 

"I do have more information."

 

"Well...tell me," Mr. Fisher pressed.

 

"It’s quite simple really... he gives it all away." Patrick

grinned, eager to see his client's response.

 

"Gives it away? You mean every month he tossed tens of thousands

of dollars off the roof of some building?"

 

"Not literally. He gives it to charity...anonymously of

course."

 

"That is something he would do. What about his living

arrangements? I don't really believe that he's actually living like some

hermit."

 

"I’ve photos this time to prove it." Patrick said as he handed

Mr. Fisher a computer disk.

 

"And what would you have me do with this?" the man asked with

distaste.

 

"Uhmmm...put it in a computer and load up the images."

 

"We aren’t permitted to use computers. It goes against our

religion."

 

"I see..." Patrick said as he made a clicking sound with his

tongue. I will just have to give you printouts then."

 

"Never mind... just tell me what the photos show."

 

"As I said before... a whole lot of nothing. The house is still

practically empty, except there are now a couple of metal chairs, a microwave,

and a half finished table."

 

"This does not make me happy," Mr. Fisher said as if that were a

crime. "Do you have copies of his bills?"

 

"Yes, “Patrick replied, happy that he had taken the time to

photocopy them instead of scanning them onto the disk.

 

"These are much lower than I expected them to be." The man said

with greater displeasure.

 

"When my man arrived, the thermostat was set at 85. With no

refrigerator and the lights off most of the time he's not really using much

juice," Patrick explained.

 

"I should have never let him go," Mr. Fisher grunted, crumpling

the papers into a tiny ball.

 

"Excuse me?" Patrick asked, hoping his client would finally tell

him what this was all about. He was at least sure of one thing...this was

not an issue of embezzlement."

 

"My name is not Mr. Fisher... its Rev. Gano... Brian Gano."

 

"That church up in Montana?"Patrick said, controlling himself

enough to limit his comments.

 

"Yes...Daryl is our lost sheep. Even though he has left our

flock, we have tried our best to take care of him. The house, the money,

his education, all of it was provided by us even though he abandoned his

church."

 

"So the deposit entries marked `Father' are from you? You're

the Father?" Patrick asked, remembering what he knew of the `cult'.

 

"Yes...after the old Father died, I took his place. He was my

real father by the way."

 

"I see..." Patrick said nervously, waiting for a pamphlet,

bible, or whatever tool of conversion Brian's church used.

 

"Don’t worry Mr. Nash... membership into the Blessed is only

allowed through birth, marriage, or five year purification processes."

 

"And how did Daryl become a member... by birth?"

 

"Yes...not like that was a hard guess," Brian chuckled. "His

ancestors were the original family who welcomed us onto their land when our

people were caught in a blizzard. He is the last surviving member of

that family and is therefore very special to us."

 

"I see..." Patrick said, clicking his tongue as the pieces

started falling into place. "So I take it he is an only child?"

 

"No...he had a brother, a twin actually. He died under

unfortunate circumstances," Brian said as he moved uncomfortably in his

chair.

 

"Oh?"

 

"Suicide."

 

"How tragic."

 

"You have no idea how it devastated our community, especially

when Daryl left us soon after. He was supposed to marry my sister."

 

"I see."

 

"No you don't see." Brian said angrily. "You have no idea how

important that marriage was to me, my sister, and all my people."

 

Patrick arched an eyebrow, funny that Brian listed himself first

among sufferers.

 

"Is there anything else you need of me?"

 

"Yes...I do. I've done a little investigating myself... into

you."

 

"Oh?" Patrick said. This time it was he who was sitting

uncomfortably.

 

 

"I know about your ‘alternative' life style but don't worry; in

this case it's an asset." Brian chuckled.

 

"How so?" Patrick asked, not yet ready to relax.

 

"Because Daryl’s gay... everyone in town knew it but looked the

other way because of the family he belonged to. Still, I'm afraid to say it

is one of the things that led him away from us?"

 

"So what do you want from me?"

 

"I’ve read all your reports but in none of them have I heard

mention of any love interests in Daryl's life. In truth that concerns me

more than how he spends the money I have given him. We Blessed believe

that one has to have love in one's life if a person is to be considered

whole."

 

"What is it you are asking of me?"

 

"Would it be asking too much of I paid you to seduce him?"

 

"What?" Patrick laughed.

 

"When Daryl left us he had just lost his brother, the person who

meant more to him than life itself, causing him not to just turn his back on

his church but from opening his heart to anyone else as well if your reports

are accurate. If you could help Daryl to love again he might come to

forgive us for what happened to his brother David."

 

"I’ll think about it but first I need to know exactly what

happened to his brother...the detective in me doesn't believe it was a

simple suicide."

 

"Do you know of any suicide that was simple?" Brian replied.

 

"True... still the more you tell me the better I will be able to get

Dr. Gavin to forgive you."

 

Letting out a deep sigh Rev. Gano nodded before beginning.

 

**********************************************************

 

 

 

"Well?" Steven shouted from his exercise room when he heard the

front door slam closed.

 

"You would not believe the conversation I just had." Patrick

said as he sat himself down at the weight machine.

 

"Does your client want you to now hire a bunch of snipers and

ambush Dare?"

 

"Ambush yes... shoot no, at least not with real bullets."

 

"Oh?" Steven asked, slowing down the treadmill to a fast walk.

 

"The best way I can describe it is that he wants me to give Dare

sex therapy...literally."

 

"Wow...may I ask why?"

 

"Yes...but unless you are up to doing a marathon I suggest you

get off that treadmill," Patrick said.

 

"Along story I take it?" Steven asked, hopping off.

 

"Over a hundred years long," Patrick warned.

 

"Give me the Cliff Notes version then."

 

"I can sum it up in just four words... Church of the Blessed."

 

"I knew it... I knew he had to belong to some way out religion,"

Steven grinned.

 

"He’s not just a member of the Blessed... his family was one of

the founding members."

 

"Well, considering that the church owns the land of the largest

natural gas reserve in the country that must mean he's really rich."

 

"You have no idea..." Patrick said, his eyes still wide from the

meeting with Brian.

 

"Educate me then."

 

"Ok...I'll tell you, but this is sort of a church secret so you

can't be going around telling anyone."

 

"I understand," Steven nodded.

 

"The church doesn't own the land... they only signed a 120 year

lease on it, which expires very soon."

 

"What happens after it expires?"

 

"It goes back to the original title holders... or in this case

`holder'."

 

"You don’t mean..." Steven said his own eyes now wide as well.

 

"Yes...our very own archangel is about to become a very rich

angel."

 

"Does Dare know anything about this?"

 

"According to Rev. Gano, the great and mighty `Father' himself,

Dare does know. The twenty five grand he receives a month from the `Father'

is just a small fraction of the gas royalties owed to him? The rest is in

a gigantic trust account that Rev. Gano has control over until the lease

expires."

 

"If Dare is so rich... why in hell is he living as if her were

destitute?"

 

"You know why. You told me yourself... to punish him over

the death of his brother."

 

"Did you learn anything about that?" Steven asked hopefully.

 

"Yes...but I need a stiff drink first. Hearing about it was

hard enough. It's another matter for me to say the words myself."

 

Three shots of brandy latter Patrick began. "Like most things

that motivates people, the tragedy around Dare's life centers around money;

in this case a whole shit load of money.

 

"The gas fields?" Steven guessed.

 

"Yes...when Dare and his twin David were only four their

parents died. Their car slid off the road during a snowstorm and their

bodies were found until the spring thaw. That's the official version, and

what Dare was made to believe at least."

 

"And the unofficial one?"

 

"According to Brian they were murdered, executed... by the

unanimous vote of the church leadership...the Father, the sheriff, the

mayor, the judge, and the CEO of NM Mining Industries, which practically

employs half the people in the community."

 

 

"But why and how did they get away with it?"

 

"They did it because Dare's parents didn't want to renew the

lease for another 120years. They felt they would have better luck

convincing the children when they came of age. They got away with it

because the town went along with it."

 

"So everyone in town knows?"

 

"The older folk do." Patrick nodded.

 

"What happened to Dare and David after their parents died?"

 

"They were adopted by the Father himself. Who else would the

church have mold the two Gavin brothers into compliant followers."

 

"But something tells me that it didn't work out that way."

Steven chuckled.

 

"You’re right, it didn't. First off David never really adjusted

to living in the minister's family. According to Brian, David was a

constantly involved in fights at home and school. It got so bad that the

Gano's had to eventually home school him. That made matters worse until

they decided to home school Dare with his brother, as Dare was the only one

who could calm his brother down."

 

"And Dare?"

 

"He took his parents death badly as well, but remained a fairly

sweet boy. This of course is coming from a man who’s still in love with

Dare."

 

"What?"

 

"Rev. Brian Gano, the Father."

 

"How old is this man?"

 

"Just two years older than Dare."

 

"So the leader of one of the most conservative religious groups

in the country is really a closet queer?"

 

"Yep...which you can guess made his father real proud."

 

"What happened?" Steven asked.

 

"They got caught of course. Brian's father showed a great deal

of restraint in regard to Daryl. He had to, considering that he didn't

believe David would ever agree to sign a new lease. As a result, everyone

in that highly conservative community gave Daryl and Brian's affections for

one another a blind eye. That was, of course, until Brian turned eighteen,

the age when he was required by church law to marry."

 

"I take it his wife was not in a sharing mood?"

 

"That, added to the fact that after the first year no child had

has been born, infuriated Brian’s father no end. He didn't dare punish Daryl

however."

 

"So he punished Dare indirectly, through... David?"

 

"Yes... on the day they refer to as Pardoner’s Sunday, the

members of the church are allowed to declare their crimes for the year and

receive absolution from them. That's what its original purpose was at

least. These days the so called blessed use it to list the sins they

believe others have committed against them. On Dare and David’s seventeenth

Pardoner's Sunday the only person the congregation accused was David... the

hammer blow being when Brian accused Dare's brother of leading him into the

sin of sodomy."

 

"But Brian was sleeping with Dare and the whole town knew it!"

Steven said, his anger rising.

 

"Yes...but it was David who was accused. Since Brian made the

accusation and had been the first to ask forgiveness, he was declared

innocent and clean in the eyes of the church."

 

"But not David."

 

"No...not David. There was a trial where David was found

guilty. As punishment he was to be shunned for five years. He never made it

through the first."

 

"What happened?"

 

"He killed himself." Patrick said as tears started running down

his face. "You see they blackmailed Dare... threatened to have him shunned

as well if he didn't obey the church order not to talk to his twin. For a

while they believed Dare was obedient... that was until they discovered the

stacks of letters the two brothers had found some way of passing to each

other. Brian's father then took a different approach... he had Dare locked

up in the house, his son forced to shun him. It did not take long before

the flow of letters stopped. Two months of no word from his brother was all

it took before David committed suicide."

 

After the funeral Dare changed... much of the rebelliousness

that had been his brother’s trait started showing up in him until shame,

guilt, whatever, made him leave Montana."

 

"So the Father's plans were ruined regardless of what he did."

Steven chuckled without humor.

 

"If only it had ended there..." Patrick sighed.

 

"There’s more?"

 

"Not involving Daryl but Brian. When Daryl left and refused to

come back, Brian turned his grief into rage. For the past six years the

Church of the Blessed has been in a state of civil war with the members of

the old guard being removed one by one."

 

"At least without bloodshed I hope."

 

"Of five men who ordered Dare's parent's murdered, only one of

them is still alive, and he's in a mental institution. Brian did not admit

to killing the others, but he didn't deny it either, when I asked."

 

"What did he say then?"

 

"He only laughed," Patrick said, as a cold shiver ran down his

back.

 

"I see... I think we can both assume that he had some part in

their demise. Is his father the one who is still alive?"

 

"Yes...he had his father shunned three years ago, had the same

effect on him as it did David, only that Brian was prepared when his father

tried to kill himself. There's an isolated mental hospital somewhere in

Montana where Brian's father spends his days locked up in a padded room."

 

"And Brian is the man who you've been working for?" Steven

asked accusingly.

 

"Hey...don't get mad at me... I just found out about this shit

myself. I read up on the Blessed years ago... I just didn’t know how crazy

they really were until now," Patrick said with raised hands. "What do you?

think?"

 

"To be honest I don't know what to think... Right now I just

want to know who I am supposed to be mad at."

 

"Brian’s father... he's the one who started all this."

 

"Yes...but he couldn't have done it without the help of others.

A small part of me is even mad a Dare for not speaking up when Brian falsely

accused his brother."

 

"If you have any understanding of the kind of community Dare

grew up in you wouldn’t blame him. He has blamed and punished himself more

than enough, or have you not yet realized that the way he lives is his way

of experiencing what his brother went through?" Patrick said.

 

"But no one is shunning him."

 

"No...what he does is worse. He shuns himself. He ignores his

emotional and physical needs. He refuses to listen to himself. He does not

give him love."

 

"When did you become the shrink?" Steven said, impressed.

 

"I took notes watching you," Patrick chuckled. "Now that we

know the truth ... what are we going to do?"

 

"We’re not going to tell Dare that we know... I learned that

lesson at least."

 

"And Brian?"

 

"Do you trust him? I sure don't. Regardless of what his father

did, no man should act so cold towards one's family."

 

"When was the last time you talked to mom?" Patrick asked.

 

"Six...maybe seven months ago," Steven said guiltily.

 

"See...so don't be so quick to judge."

 

"Ok...want to explain why you are defending a man you just

described as a monster?" Steven asked confused.

 

"Brian might be many things... even a killer but I believed him

when he told me how ashamed he still feels over what happened."

 

"And he should."

 

"Yes...but he doesn't know what to do now that his need for

revenge has burned itself out. He's lost and lonely and needs help."

 

"You sound like you are describing a homeless puppy," Steven

smirked.

 

"Ina way he is... this is his first time away from his church

let alone the state of Montana. He tries to act cold and stoic but behind

all that is a man I believe who is genuinely frightened by the outside

world."

 

"Then why did he leave his little commune in the first place?"

 

"Twelve thousand people is not a small group, not in Montana at

least." Patrick replied. "He's here because he wants Dare to come

back home with him."

 

"So he can sign a new lease?" Steven said suspiciously.

 

"No...not entirely at least. According to Brian the church

feels ashamed over what they did to Dare's family... the one that gave their

ancestors their homes over a hundred years ago. Dare's refusal to come

back to them is being called the `great exile' believe it or not. They

believe they have lost God's blessing and won't get it back until Dare

returns and forgives them."

 

"I take it Rev. Gano has been promoting this mythological

belief?"

 

"Yes...but because he believes it. He's read the news articles

and is well aware that Dare's been christened the archangel. He's been able

to use that and the stories of how Dare's has brought back people from the

brink of death. Hearing Brian talk about it, Dare is the second coming,

third coming, or whatever number they are on. I don't know."

 

"And what do you believe... am I going to have to worry about

you are running away to Montana to join some crazy cult?"

 

"Don’t worry Steve. I'm not going off the deep end... yet. I'm

just telling you what his church believes."

 

"All the more reason to keep those nut cases away from him."

 

"That is what I am trying to get you to see." Patrick said,

clearly flustered. "Brian and his followers are desperate... they want

Dare back and from my professional perspective one of three things will

happen. One... we both do what we're good at with me protecting him while

you do your psychiatry thing and help Dare reach some resolution with his

past. Two... we could do nothing and have the best thing that has come into

our lives get stolen away from us."

 

"And three?"

 

"Weds our best to keep these nut cases away from him only for

them to get desperate enough to resort to violence."

 

"I don’t want these kind of people near Dare. You know what I

would pick but you're the security expert."

 

"I don’t like our choices either Steve but there is only so much

I can do. I can only protect Dare against rational threats. Religious

fanatics, by their nature, do not always act rationally. The best we can do

is try to minimize the damage."

 

"You want Dare to go back to Montana?" Steven asked accusingly.

 

"No...I want him to move in with us where I know I can keep him

safe!" Patrick said angrily.

 

"I’m sorry... this is just too much for me to take in."

 

"Think about how I feel. You know how bad I am at multitasking."

Patrick said as he poured himself another drink. "At elastic was able to buy

us some time. For some reason Brian believes that Dare will be more open to

going back if he lets ‘love' back into his life."

 

"And he picked you to achieve that?" Steven smirked as he poured

himself bourbon.

 

"He openly admitted that he's having me watched. He might be

even watching you for all I know. He has the resources."

 

"Theses starting to get dangerous Patrick. Are we sure we want

to get involved in this?"

 

"I don't know why but I feel as if some invisible force is

guiding me toward Dare. I can't abandon him Steve, not now, not when I know

what's at stake."

 

"Would you be surprised if I felt the same way?"

 

"Must be my fault... Brian must have a contagious form of

Irrationality." Patrick laughed.