GODDESS OF THE MOON (A Diana Racine Psychic Suspense) (14 page)

“Yeah, but now that you’ve retired, I didn’t think you’d have any need for me.”

“Ah, surprise. I do need you. How
’s
your new job?”

“Boring computer crap.
Nothing like the excitement of working for you, but it’s a job that pays the bills.”

“I’ve got an assignment for you. I want you to research a guy by the name of Edward Slater. I need to know everything about him, especially medical records. Also, while you’re at it, do a number on Silas Compton. When you finish, send me a bill.”

“Compton, the billionaire?”

“Yeah.
I know you’ll find a lot of anti-government dogma, but it’s his religious views I’m most interested in. I don’t want the standard
Googling
; anyone can get that. I want what isn’t attainable.”

“He’s
gonna
be tough. From what I’ve read about him, his privacy is guarded like Fort Knox. I doubt I can break into his system. It’s probably tighter than cracking the
Pentagon,
and that was the hardest crack ever.”

Diana chuckled. Jason
had
hacked into the Pentagon to see if he could do it. Fortunately, hackers who knew what they were doing also knew how to use backdoor programs to cover their tracks
, and Jason was one of the best
.

“I know, but for you it should be a snap. Start with Slater first.
” She gave him all the basic information she had. “
There are ten years when you might not be able to find anything on him except some
drunk
charges. Those are the years I want. See if you can find out where he was during that time. He tried to commit suicide a few times, so there should be records.”

“You don’t make it easy.”

“If it were easy, I wouldn’t need you.”

* * * * *

B
ecause of the warning note Diana received in the mail, Lucier begged her to be careful when she went out. After an hour and a half of performing at the children’s ward of the hospital,
s
he picked up some groceries, then locked herself securely inside her house, made lunch, and settled on the sofa with a book.
N
o matter how hard she tried, her thoughts wandered back to her bizarre experience in the nursing chair, knowing that
the incident
frightened her but acknowledging, in a sliver of reality, it also intrigued her. She still felt the phantom hardening of her breasts, the sensation of nursing a baby. Her hand
un
consciously moved to her chest, and her fingers caressed her sore nipples. She smiled at the maternal feeling it generated
―
until she thought of Edward Slater.

If that strange and wondrous
event
occupied part of her thoughts, Slater dominated the rest. His confession confirmed her original impression of a conflicted persona. There were rare times when she couldn’t separate intuition from her highly receptive sensory channels
―
those things she
envisioned
―
as one overlapped the other. Slater confused her because emotions got in the way. Even though he’d come to terms with his situation, she felt sorry for the life he didn’t have
and
for the tor
ture he’d endured.

In the past, her psychic abilities connected her to missing persons, audience participants looking for fun, or wealthy patrons planning their lives by what she sensed in their futures. With the exception of relating to a death, rarely did those associations delve any deeper or develop into anything more personal.

Slater wasn’t a subject, not overtly, and he’d been careful not to put himself in that position. Nevertheless, he confided in her as one would to a close friend, and that touched her deeply. She thought of what he’d gone through, and before long she was sobbing like a baby, while scolding herself for becoming emotionally involved.

* * * * *

“S
ilas Compton, for
all his notoriety, is a hard man to get a handle on,” Jason said when he called back a couple of days later. “He hasn’t given an interview in over twenty years, only statements, and every article about him is pure research on the part of the journalist. He never even comments on them. His financials are off limits because his holdings are privately held.
B
ecause
Compton International
has the resources to do what few others
can
,
his
bids on government contracts
are the only
bids.
Everything is in the control of the Compton family. No shareholders. Forbes estimates
his
to be the largest privately held company in the States, maybe the world, and Compton to be one of the richest men.”

Diana held the phone to her ear and circled the room, walking off the
tension
that
had her strung tight
. “What else?”

“That’s the easy stuff. You know, Diana, I can usually hack into anything, but his computer system is ironclad. I got what anyone with minor hacking abilities could get.”

“Give me what you have
.
I
doubt anyone
else could do better.”

“Okay, here goes. I
know you asked for Slater first, but I
’ll start with Compton
, because h
e’
s more complicated
.
Born in Oklahoma to dirt poor farmers in 1950.
He worked his way through the University of Oklahoma in the engineering program and got a job with Barton Oil and Petroleum. Before long, he was running the place. When he tendered his resignation ten years later, he was a multi-millionaire. Then he started Compton International. A few years before, he purchased a parcel of land in Southern Oklahoma. Compton perfected new methods of deep drilling, making him a billionaire a few times over and one of the most powerful men in the state. Behind the scenes, he back
s
political candidates who promote his agenda
―fiscally right, socially left, and he’ll ruin anyone who gets in the way of his business.
If he could start his own government, he’d be God and Master.”

“How’d he get to Louisiana?”

“Offshore drilling, oil, and gas.
Made him billions more and expanded his political clout. Of course, all the dollar amounts are supposition
because no one really knows
his worth
.”

“What about religious affiliations?
Any contributions to any particular church or religious organization?”

“
H
e’s covered every base into heaven
,” Jason said
.
“
Donates to all of them: Jewish philanthropies, Christian charities, even Muslim awareness programs.
Not millions, mind you, but enough to build allies against government’s intrusion into an individual’s personal business, more specifically, his personal business. Those donations are a matter of public record, so no way he can hide the information. If he’s funded other organizations, he’s done it
under the radar
through a PAC
, because I couldn’t find
them
.
”

Diana marveled at Compton’s ingenuity. He’d made sure everyone was on his side.
Hard to go against someone whose deep pockets fill your coffers.

“
He
’s a strange dichotomy
,” Jason continued
.
“
Against government.
T
hinks
social work should be the domain of the private sector and
that
people
need to
raise themselves
up
by their bootstraps like he did, without the help of government handouts. ’Course, he forgot that he went through college on government loans, but that’s another story.
”

“That seems to be a common occurrence these days. I got mine; you’re on your own, kid. What else?”

“
He’s publicly condemned the IRS as a tool of government waste and feels that people should be free to invest or spend as they see fit. I’m sure he’s
finagled his
taxes to
pay as little as possible, all legally, of course.
Probably
stashed
money offshore, where the government
can’t
touch
it
.
”

“I’m sure he’s not the only rich guy doing that.”

“You do that, Diana?”

She laughed. “No.
I d
on’t have that much money, and even if I did, I would
n’t
stash it. I believe in government. Keep going.”

“
Here’s what I meant about the dichotomy.
H
e’s made
comments that
label him
socially liberal.
Doesn’t care who marries whom, believes in a woman’s right to choose, and
is in favor of a separation of church and state.”

“
Interesting,” Diana said. “Not the average right-winger.
What about family?”

“Married in 1971 to Eliza
Fannon
, daughter of
Gault
Fannon
.”

The name struck a familiar note.
“The senator?”

“Same. She and Compton had three children, two girls and a boy. The boy was retarded. He
drowned in the family swimming pool
at age five
.
Shortly after, Mrs. Compton committed suicide.
The articles written at the time
implied
the guilt was too much for her
.
Nothing suspicious, but that didn’t stop tongues from wagging.”

“What do you mean?” Diana asked. “Did the articles
imply
that
Compton had anything to do with his wife’s suicide?”

“No, but
not long af
ter he appeared in the society columns with Selene Crane, daughter of Phillip Crane. Name
mean
anything to you?”

Diana whistled through her teeth. “I’ll say. Looks like
Compton
knows how to
pick the women in his life. Crane’s a multi-
gazillionaire
.”

“Yup.
His grandfather struck oil. Crane was raised in enormous wealth, as were his children, and
both he and his father
increased the fortune tenfold. He’s not only Compton’s father-in-law, they’re best buddies.”

“This is getting more interesting by the minute,” Diana said.

“When they married, Compton was thirty-nine, Selene Crane twenty-one, with a degree in philosophy from Harvard. Early
photographs
show a beautiful young woman.
Reading between the lines,
Phillip Crane brokered the marriage.”

“Why do you say that?”

“
Tabloids
show the three of them before Compton and Selene were married. If his daughter marrying a much older man bothered Crane, it didn’t show in the photographs.”

“Hmm,
this is getting better with every revelation
. Do these two have any children?”

Jason hesitated. “Um, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? Do they or don’t they?”

“The second marriage is where Compton’s private life gets
really
private. Selene is rarely seen in public and there’s no record of any children.”

“How does he manage to keep that under the radar? They’d have to have social security numbers and all that.”

“There’s a doctor on staff. Maybe everything happens
in house
, so to speak. I don’t know
, but if they have kids, he’s found a way to keep their existence secret
.
Researching
unearthed
plenty of
Comptons
, but none trace
d
back to Silas, other than the two daughters from his first marriage.

“
W
hat about them?” Diana asked.

“Maia and Dione.
Both graduated from LSU, but while there, they returned to the Compton compound every night like good little girls. Compton keeps his family close.
The daughters
are said to be smart, beautiful, and unmarried. They
hold
positions in his companies
but
still live
at home
, except for the times they travel as troubleshooters for their father’s business. They go overseas for months at a time to take care of foreign investments
, both in
the Middle East
and
Europe.
”