Read Last Writes for Free Online

ballroom door.Three smiling women sat there, conservatively uniformed in ecru-colored linen jackets over plain white dresses, handing out glossy brochures. They were encouraging visitors to add their names and addresses to a sign-in sheet at the end of the table.
    “Watch out,” Kelly hissed. “Mary Poppins at twelve o’clock.”
    “Keep it up, Kel, you’ll get us kicked out before we find James Miller.” Claudia grabbed a couple of brochures. Temple of Brighter Light propaganda . Happy, contented faces beamed from the front panel; dire warnings of the end of the world inside. On the back, information about how to join and be saved.
    Claudia made for the open ballroom doors with Kelly in tow. A clean-cut young man in a neatly pressed suit blocked the entrance. “Good evening, sisters. Have you signed in yet?”
    “We have to sign in to attend the meeting?” Claudia asked.
    The young man showed her a friendly smile that matched the registration ladies’. “We like to know who attended and how they came to hear about us.”
    From her vantage point of five foot three, Kelly gazed up at him. “But we could write down anything, couldn’t we? Make stuff up.”
    His smile never faltered. “I guess you could, sister, but if you’ve come here tonight because you’re searching for the road to salvation, why wouldn’t you want to tell the truth?”
    “You’ve got a point there, smiley.” Kelly grinned and turned to Claudia. “Come on, sistah. Seeing how you and I seriously need to get saved, we’d better take our evil, wicked, no good, very bad souls and sign in, doncha think?”
    They returned to the registration desk and took their places in the lines of seekers adding their contact information to the sign-in sheet. When Claudia got to the front of the line she scrawled an illegible signature, declining to include an e-mail address. She scanned the list of names, checking out the handwriting to see what types of people had been attracted to the TBL event: a gamut of personalities from shy and retiring to gregarious to just plain odd.
    Smiley seemed to have been watching for them and offered another warm welcome as he ushered them into the ballroom, where rows of chairs had been arranged in front of a curtained stage. Claudia’s glance flicked over the crowd congregated in the vast assembly room. “There has to be at least a couple hundred people in here, maybe more. How in hell are we supposed to find James Miller?”
    “Don’t be so damned negative. Look at all the shiny TBLers busy recruiting. Ever see so many white teeth?” Kelly leaned close and spoke in Claudia’s ear. “Yoohoo! Message for spawn of Satan, right over here!”
    Claudia ignored her banter. “What did Erin say he looked like? Mid-thirties, red hair, skinny. C’mon, let’s walk around. We might learn something useful.”
    Kelly was right about the recruiting. At least a dozen earnest-faced young people wearing name badges were busy working the crowd. Neatly dressed in business suits and dresses like the women at the registration desk, their clothing was inexpensive and conservative. They all looked clean and well groomed, the men’s hair trimmed short.
    “I think these guys all have the same barber,” said Claudia, strolling in the direction of the stage. “Erin said James Miller would be working the AV. Hey”—she nodded in the direction of a man in shirtsleeves working at the left of the stage, setting up electronic equipment—“what are the odds that’s him?”
    “Red hair. Looks like he could use a good meal,” Kelly remarked. “Maybe we should go over and offer him a spiritual hamburger.”
    Claudia sized up the skinny arms; the large hands expertly sorting out wires and plugging them into electronic equipment. “He’s a computer geek. I can picture his handwriting: absentminded professor; probably forgets to eat. I wonder what they’re using the Elmo for.”
    “Elmo? Like the Elmo we use in court?” Kelly