Free For His Name's Sake (Psalm 23 Mysteries) by Debbie Viguié Page A

curiosity and your thirst for knowledge,” he said good-naturedly.
    “Longer than I thought I was going to be able to,” she admitted. “Things have been...crazy...here.”
    “You’ll have to tell me about it.”
    “Some other time. Right now I want to focus on sorting out the Paul issue. So, what else can you tell me about the cult?”
    “Right to business. Alright. Let’s see, the cult was based in the mountains above Pine Springs on the site of an old campground. That same campground was later purchased and refitted to make Green Pastures. Thanks to the land’s history the local churches were able to purchase it fairly cheaply.”
    “So, when was the cult there?”
    “Twenty-six years ago a man named Matthew appeared seemingly from out of nowhere. He had half a dozen people with him from the accounts I’ve been able to dig up. He was preaching peace, that people should lay down their arms, love their neighbors, all harmless stuff on the surface. One of his tenants was that material possessions, corporate jobs, and things of that nature corrupt people and turn them from loving, innocent creatures into greedy, manipulative people.”
    “And I’m guessing some people bought into what he was saying.”
    “More than you can imagine. He actually managed to get himself a radio show if you can believe that and people came from several different states to learn from him and to join his nature-loving group. This was the late eighties. It was post-hippy and pre-environmentalist and a lot of people with those kinds of attitudes had nowhere to go. He provided not only an avenue for expression but also a place to live and food to eat.”
    “In exchange for all their worldly goods.”
    “Right. Rumor has it he had almost everything converted to gold and precious jewels which he hid somewhere on the site. He only kept enough cash to buy the supplies the group couldn’t grow or make on their own. That treasure is what has sent a lot of people up into those hills hunting for remains of the cult.”
    “I’m guessing the locals didn’t like all this in their backyard.”
    “Not one bit. There were some skirmishes until Matthews banned his people from going into town at all. Naturally this raised red flags for the families of those people. He started having the things they needed delivered up the mountain.”
    “Then, the first child went missing. Dietrich Schmidt. His family was wealthy. The F.B.I. got involved. The parents paid five million dollars for the return of their son. Whoever kidnapped him took the money but never returned the child. The authorities could never prove who was behind the kidnapping but, obviously, the cult came under suspicion because they were already a bone of contention in the community. Plus, Dietrich’s cousin was one of its members so there was a theory that he could have lured the child away from the playground where he was last seen.”
    “That’s terrible.”
    “Three other children were taken, with the same results. Paul was the last. Two years later he showed up, and we obviously have doubts that he was the same boy that was taken. What I do know is he is the only boy to have shown up, either real or imposter. Now, here’s where things get interesting.”
    “What is it?” Cindy asked, feeling breathless.
    “As it turns out, a week after Paul turned up, the cult vanished completely. No one saw signs of them leaving town, and they would have had to pass through Pine Springs on their way to anywhere else. The couple of businesses that were delivering weekly supplies up there arrived to find the place empty, no signs of anyone. What’s even weirder, when authorities searched the area later that day, they couldn’t find signs that the cult had ever been there.”
    “That is weird.”
    “It was as though they had never been there. There was speculation for years that they had moved farther into the mountains, but several searches revealed no evidence of that. Eventually people