AZOTUSLAND chapter Forty Eight

Jim had gone in every day for a half hour and just sat with Rev. Tanka. Sometimes he would pray for him, or would read him selections from the Psalms that dealt with adversity.

They had never really talked, but he was a regular customer...somewhat of a fixture, and despite his rather strange versions of reality he never did anyone any harm.

It seemed Rev. Tanka was alone and had no family. When he got sick no one from his "radio congregation" had bothered to visit.

Jim was happy to see him awake and alert when he came in the room on Saturday afternoon.

"Rev. Tanka!" Jim said as he crossed the room and took his hand.

"Well now Jim-bo. Ahah-ah. How-ah very niceah to see ah-yoo."

Jim took a seat next to him and asked how he was feeling and how long had he been doing better.

"Oh the Good Lord-ah hasah been watching over me," he said. "Buttah the food in here is an atroc-city dear Jim-Bo. It is infested-ah with da white shooger and poly-sunsatured-ah fat."

"Look, I brought in this book to read to you," Jim said. "But now I will just leave it for you."

They chatted about pretty much nothing for 20 minutes then Jim said his good byes and said he'd come back the next day if he could. When he left Tanka had picked up the copy of Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies and began to read.

*******

Maugham had decided to take some of the guesswork out of his investigation. So on Saturday he followed Ted after he left Azotus, and on Sunday he tailed Jacob. He didn;t like doing it, and on purpose, he did not tell Jim. He just said he had lots of errands and needed some time off.

Ted simply went to his apartment and Maugham gave up after an hour. Jacob, on the other hand, made several stops. One to a stationary store, then to a pay phone at an Arco station, and finally he swung back around and went back to the Azotus.

Maugham wondered what Jacob did for a living. He had heard that he was a handyman, but it was always Jonathan that was the most help on projects around Azotus. Of course, Jonathan was an employee, of sorts, so maybe it was nothing.

Maugham kept going back to motive. What could Rnonymous want? Was it money? Jim was not rich by any means, though Maugham admitted that the revelation of Silo 1 & 2 had made him wonder what assets Jim really had. How did one create such an elaborate place unknown to anyone else? Obviously contractors and workers had created it as the massive renovation of the whole complex was under way...but unknown to the regular contractors?

Who had those kind of resources and where had Jim gotten them if he had them?

When Maugham first met Jim we had a small house that he rented in Land Park. He knew that Jim dealt in art and was part owner of a small gallery, but there was not any sign that he had means.

When he had purchased the property in Marin all Jim had said was he had found a few investors, but Maugham had never met one. No investor had ever graced the place and Maugham had been there since day one. Jim seemed to hold all the cards to Azotus and someone wanted to extract a pound of flesh from him for it.

That was all Maugham could figure.