Desert Lost (9781615952229) Read Online Free PDF

this.
    Lined with lofty palms and blooming flowers, Scottsdale city center is called Old Town, a determinedly Old West neighborhood which has sung its siren song to Minnesota and Canadian tourists for decades. Jammed up against the art galleries and Indian jewelry boutiques were a full assortment of upscale bars and restaurants. Walking Old Town’s streets—where Desert Investigations happens to be located—can be a joy because this oddball conglomeration of the old and the new somehow works. However, just before you turn north off McDowell and head into Old Town, you have to confront SkySong, the City Council’s current financial darling. A one-point-two million-square-foot cathedral dedicated to the combined religions of modern technology and gimmee-gimmee retail, this architectural sour note looked more like two huge caskets fronted by four equally-huge, upside-down toilet plungers.
    This is what can happen when you let beauty-blind politicians make artistic decisions.
    I winced my way past SkySong and headed toward Desert Investigations. There I found Jimmy still working his way through background checks for Southwest MicroSystems. He switched gears the moment I asked him to look up Prophet Hiram Shupe. Having once loved a polygamy runaway and experienced firsthand the damage that had been done to her, he hated the prophets as much as I did.
    Less than a half hour later, he slapped a thick printout of articles on my desk.
    It made for grim reading.
    According to some compound escapees, Prophet Shupe had recently stepped up blood atonement enforcement for anyone sinning against him personally or against compound rules. Those rules encompassed everything from diet (meat no more than once a week, except for Shupe and his God Squad); sexual behavior (missionary position only, husband on top of wives); to financial misdeeds (men attempting to hang onto their salaries, women to their welfare checks). Blood atonement meant death, but since Second Zion was surrounded by vast, empty desert, no bodies had ever been found.
    As I read on, I grew more and more alarmed.
    Not content with ruling over the intimidated citizens of Second Zion, Shupe had stepped up the establishment of new compounds, and was even rumored to be in the planning stages of yet another in central Arizona. Supposedly, a senior member of his God Squad had been dispatched to help. This flurry of expansion was necessary, one newspaper article claimed, because given Second Zion’s high birth rate, it was bursting at the seams.
    â€œJimmy? Did you read this stuff before you printed it?”
    â€œThat last line’s the kicker, isn’t it? A satellite compound in Central Arizona could mean anywhere from Wickenburg to Casa Grande. Or any place in between.”
    â€œLike Scottsdale.”
    I couldn’t let that happen.
    ***
    I was still studying Jimmy’s printout when the door opened and Warren walked in carrying a clipboard. As always, he looked good. Honey-colored hair, sky-blue eyes, and a fit, nervy build. Even on close inspection he appeared closer to thirty than the forty-one he admitted to.
    â€œReady, Lena?”
    â€œReady for what?”
    His perfect mouth twisted into a wry smile as he tapped the clipboard. “It’s three o’clock. Time for our appointment with the realtor to take measurements at the house. Don’t tell me you forgot.”
    It’s possible that forgot wasn’t the right word. Somehow I just couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around the fact that I was moving in with him. “Can we do this tomorrow, instead?”
    The smile disappeared. “Apparently you’ve also forgotten that I’m flying back to L.A. tonight to spend a long weekend with the twins. It’s their birthday. You promised you’d use the time to get things organized.”
    I took care not to let my discomfort show. “Me? Get organized? I can hardly organize an apartment, let alone an entire