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what happened to Flame at the turn of the century to make him turn to religion. I mean, we’re talking about a guy who was into drugs and groupies and the whole rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for years . Why did he make such a drastic change?”
    Rudy shrugged. “Maybe he just saw the error of his ways?”
    Briggs said, “You gotta remember that the operative words here are ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘cult.’ It’s just my opinion but there’s nothing wrong with Christian rock or being Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu or whatever you want to be. It’s the fundamentalist and cult parts of it that put it into questionable territory. From what I understand, the Messengers use Christianity as a starting place and then take it into outer space, like those wackos in California that believed they were all aliens and that a great big spaceship was going to come down and take them all to Heaven. They ended up killing themselves in a gigantic religious ritual.”
    “I totally agree,” Berenger said. “It’s always the cult sectors of religions that cause controversy.”
    “And often violence,” Briggs added.
    “Do we know if Flame ever had a medical emergency related to drugs?” Suzanne asked. “Did something happen that scared him?”
    “Good question,” Berenger noted. “Not that we know of, but they could have kept it quiet. I’ll look into that. In fact, I’m going to tackle the families and the former bands. I know Gina already and can look at her side of things. I’ve met Carol, too, and hopefully she’ll cooperate with me. Dave Bristol and I go way back. Tomorrow I’m going with the lawyer to see Adrian at Rikers. I’m very interested in hearing his side of the story. There’s some indication that the guy was involved with the Jimmys.”
    “Uh oh,” Briggs said.
    “Yeah,” Berenger nodded. “Not good.”
    “Hey, have you heard their latest CD?” Remix asked.
    “No,” Berenger said, rolling his eyes. “But I’m sure you were the first on your block to have it.”
    “As a matter of fact, I was. Man, it kicks ass.”
    “They’re thugs, Remix,” Briggs said. “Throw it away.”
    “No way, man. Just because you don’t like their politics don’t mean you can’t like their music.”
    “Politics my ass. The Jimmys are not about politics, they’re about crime!”
    “Okay, okay,” Berenger said. “I think we all know that the Jimmys are not the best role models these days. We’ll have to evaluate their involvement in the case when we learn more about it. Anyway, first I’m going to pay a visit to our friend Lieutenant Detective McTiernan.”
    There was a collective groan from the group.
    Berenger slipped into his low-voiced imitation of the man. “Yeah, he’s in charge of the goddamned investigation.” This elicited a laugh from the group and then he switched back to his normal voice. “So they’ve got to have the wrong guy in custody, wouldn’t you say?”
    “What if they’re right, though?” Suzanne asked. “What if Adrian did kill his father? I mean, what’s all this with the Jimmys?”
    Berenger gestured with his hands. “I don’t know yet. Look, if he’s guilty, then there’s not a lot we can do about it, is there? Suzanne, I want you to start looking into Brenda Twist. Find out more about her. Flame did a good job keeping her personal life out of the press. We don’t know very much about her, so let’s educate ourselves.”
    “I guess that means looking into the Messengers, too,” she said.
    “I guess you’re right.” He looked at Briggs. “Tommy, I want you to use your sources at the Bureau and see what you can find out about all the interested parties in this case. Especially the Messengers.”
    Briggs tapped a legal pad full of scrawls that sat on the desk before him. “I’ve already done a little digging and I’ll tell you what I know so far.”
    “All right.”
    “The Messengers are an elite ultra-conservative religious cult that began here in