Did a priest (or religious leader) kill a female parishioner?
Thirteen-year-old Jacqueline Donavon frantically pressed the buttons on the phone. She listened to the buzz as the phone in her father’s apartment rang, “Daddy”, she said under her breath, “please be there and answer the phone.”
Finally she heard a sleepy masculine voice, “Hello.”
“Oh daddy, I’m glad you’re there.”
“Where else would I be at….” He turned on the bedside lamp and looked at the clock, “4:30 in the morning? What’s wrong Jackie – why are you calling me at this hour?”
“Mom didn’t come home last night.”
Mark thought, “What else is new,” but asked, “How do you know?”
“I woke up a little while ago when I heard the neighbor’s dog barking. I looked out the window and mom’s car is gone – so I went to her room and she’s not there.”
He asked, “Where’d she go last night?”
“Mom told me she and Melissa were going to the Wednesday night meditation session at the Temple of the Cosmos.”
Mark believed he knew all about his ex-wife’s clandestine meditation sessions at the Temple. About a year ago, his wife Alice and her girlfriend Melissa began going to see some guru about spiritual growth and enlightenment. It was ok with him for a while because it seemed to get her out of the house and interested in something besides complaining about his long working hours. It was not long before she began telling him about her self-actualization and awareness. When she began telling him how shallow minded he was and how he needed to grow up and, “You need to learn who you are and where you’re going,” it got to be too much for him.
He soon learned exactly who he was – a divorced man and father, living alone and separated from his teenaged daughter.
“Ok, Jackie,” he tried to soothe her anxiety, “I’ll take care of everything. You just try to relax and get some more sleep. I’ll pick you up in time to take you to school and if your mother is not back home by then I’ll find out where she is, all right.”
“All right Daddy, I’ll try. See yo’ later.”
Mark arrived at the house to find Jackie standing by the curb waiting for him. As she open the passenger door and slid in close to him, he asked, “Has your mother come home yet?”
“No.” she replied.
He drove her to school without another word until she was about to get out. “What are we going to do? Life in that house without you is horrible.”
“I know Baby. I miss you too. Leave everything to me. I’ll pick you up after school.”
“Ok, Daddy, see you then.”
Mark went on to his drafting room office in the Bradford Industrial Design building where he had designed several of the Mall Complexes now erected throughout the city. He immediately called a longtime friend in the police department. “Hi Gary, its Mark, I’ve got a bit of a problem with Alice.”
“What kind of problem – did you finally throttle her?”
“That’s not funny. She’s missing.”
“Really, for how long?”
“She didn’t come home from one of her meetings with that Guru at the Temple of the Cosmos.”
After a short pause Gary said, “I’m not surprised, we’ve had several complaints of disappearances connected with that place.”
“What have you done about them?”
“Our investigations have all been blocked by their claim that everyone who attends their session does so freely and we can not interfere with anyone’s rights of religious freedom.”
“But, what about Alice?”
“After she’s been gone for 24 hours, you can file a missing persons report. If you know for sure she disappeared from the Temple of the Cosmos and sign a complaint, we can pick up Ali-Bubba for questioning.”
“Ali-Bubba – is that the crackpot’s name?”
“That’s him, straight out of the Texas plains.”
“Thanks, Gary. I’ll be staying at home to look after Jackie until Alice shows up – or not. I’ll keep you informed.”
Mark, being his own boss on whatever project he was working on, could pretty well write his own schedule. Temporarily setting aside his latest project, he called Melissa, Alice’s traveling companion to the Guru, Ali-Bubba.
When she answered the phone, he said, “Hi Melissa, this is Mark Donavon, Alice’s ex-husband. We met briefly several years ago.”
“Oh yes – Mark.” She added sarcastically, “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
Mark came directly to the point. “When did you last see Alice?”
“Last evening of course, why?”
“She didn’t come home all night and Jackie is….”
Melissa interrupted, “How is that sweet girl?”
“Very worried,” he snapped, and added, “She told me you and Alice were going to see that guru again.”
“That’s right – and he’s no guru, he’s a very gifted spiritual leader.”
“Call him whatever you like. What time did you leave there?”
“I left about 9:30.”
“Didn’t Alice leave with you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She never does.”
That just reinforced what he had suspected all along and asked, “If you go together, why don’t you leave together?”
“I think you know why. You accused her often enough.”
“Then it’s true.”
“Not until after your divorce, it wasn’t.”
That statement came as a surprise and Mark was silent momentarily then asked, “Who’s the man?”
Melissa, never missing an opportunity to joke around, said, “Why is it, insecure men always assume it’s got to be another man?”
Stunned again, he stammered, “W-What? Who is she?”
“There is no she. I was pulling your chain.”
“Then there is a man!”
“No, there’s no man either. She’s on a soul searching quest that requires solitude.”
“That’s just great, but it doesn’t explain where she is or why she didn’t come home last night.”
“You’ll have to talk to Ali-Bubba about that.”
“I’ll do just that,” and hung up the phone.
Mark left the office and drove to the Temple of the Cosmos. He was stopped just inside the door and challenged by a brute of a man, “What’s your business here?”
“I’ve come to see Ali-Bubba.”
“Is he expecting you?”
“No, but I have to see him.”
“Why?”
Agitated by the man’s arrogance, Mark said. “That’s no concern of yours. My concerns are only between me and him.”
“In that case, come back tomorrow Mr. Donavon. He will see you then.”
Mark was going to ask the man how he knew his name but let it drop. How else would he know him unless he was expected? And why would he be expected unless it had something to do with his wife’s disappearance. “I’ll be back,” Mark said as he left, went to his car and returned to work.
Later that day, he left the office again and was waiting for Jackie when she came out of school. He took her home and told her that he would stay there with her until her mother returned. He also explained the results of everything he had done that day.
After dropping Jackie off at school the next morning, Mark went to see Gary at the Municipal Police Station.
He told Gary about his conversation with Melissa and his confrontation with Ali-Bubba’s henchman. Then Mark said, “Since Alice is still missing this morning, I’m ready to sign that complaint.”
“Ok,” Gary said, “I see to it that old Bubba is picked up immediately. I suppose you’ll want to be here for the interrogation.”
“You bet I do.”
“I’ll give you a call just as soon as we have him in custody.”
Three hours later, Mark stood behind the one-way mirror observing Gary questioning Ali-Bubba. “Are you the leader of a group known as The Enlightened Ones at the Temple of the Cosmos?”
The tall man dressed in a white, ankle-length flowing robe sat straight upright in his chair and peered intently through coal-black eyes stating, “I am.”
“Do you know Alice Donavon?”
“I do.”
“Do you also know where she is?”
“I do.”
“Then tell us.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Her whereabouts only concerns her and the cosmos.”
“What the hell does that mean? Is she dead or alive?”
“The last I saw her, she was very much alive.”
“And when was that?”
“Last Wednesday, during our meditations.”
“Where did she go from there?”
“She was ready, so I sent her on her quest.”
“Quest! Quest for what?”
“To achieve oneness with the universe.”
Where did you send her?”
“I told you, I sent her on her quest.”
“Enough of this…. Tell me where she is.”
“No.”
Gary stood up and as he left the room, said, “Then you’re under arrest for obstruction of justice, suspicion of kidnapping, and possibly murder.”
When Gary came out of the room, Mark asked, “Is that all you’re going to do? Just hold him on suspicion – he just admitted knowing where she is.”
“Actually, that’s all we can do at this point. And if we don’t discover a body in the next 72 hours, we’ve got to let him go.”
Three days later, Ali-Bubba was released. When Alice did not return, Mark gave up his apartment and came home on a permanent basis. During the next six months, four more women mysteriously disappeared. Everything involved with the disappearances pointed to Ali-Bubba and the Temple of the Cosmos, but nothing could be proven. All attempts to close the facility failed because of constitutional rights to religious freedom.