“Well, you were a bit of extra trouble.” Anis Tera kept his voice cheerful. A soldier of the Lord didn’t complain about doing God’s work. “But the rental car came in handy. This van would have been much more visible in that dark alley.”

He’d secured his guest to the chair in the van, her mouth taped shut for the moment. He’d had plenty of time to hide the car away in some nearby brush once he’d gotten her safely inside the larger vehicle. The storage garages were in as remote an area as he could find, worth the extra time traveling because he’d never seen anyone around at night. Although he’d had Jeanette Lawler’s demise planned for nearly a year, the car wasn’t the only deviation he was contemplating.

His pulse raced as he considered the enormity of the change. Was it worth the risk? Was he allowing his newest obsession to counter his usual reason?

It was a real possibility. Anis’s crusade required focus and strict adherence to the plan. Already he’d used more time than he could afford to discover everything he could learn about Dr. Alexa Hayden because he knew the Lord had put her in his path for a reason. Just as he’d realized the meaning of the boy’s appearance in the river, and immediately recognized what God meant him to do, there had been a similar zap of rightness when he’d seen Hayden on TV today. It had only grown stronger the more he learned about her.

God had sent him a helpmate. Lawler started struggling, trying to call for help, but he paid her no mind as he drew his favorite scalpel from its sheath. What else could Hayden’s sudden arrival in his life mean? A woman trained in the insect field he loved. One who knew how to look into a man’s deepest heart and see the pain that had set him on his path.

One who would stand beside him once she came to understand the holiness of his mission.

“There’s still much to be done,” he murmured, as he approached the woman in the chair. Not so much more for Jeanette Lawler, of course, but he needed to learn everything he could about Alexa Hayden. Each new detail that emerged from his research just seemed more preordained. So, he was going to allow himself a small variance from his previous plan tonight. Alexa Hayden had once lived in Truro, so that’d be Jeanette Lawler’s final resting place. Hayden wouldn’t recognize the significance. Not yet. But he’d soon change that.

“Maybe I slipped too much into your drink.” Lawler’s struggles were weak, futile. When he occasionally used the liquid Scopolamine before the injection, the kidnapping went more smoothly. But it was hard to judge the proper dosage for someone who had drunk as much as Lawler had this evening.

He pulled up a metal stool and sat down in front of her. Watched her eyes try to focus on the instruments in his hand. “We’ve had dealings before, Jeanette. I tried to keep my word, but you…you did not. Once you paid the fifty thousand four years ago, I never bothered you again, did I? But I watched you, just as I said I would. After your penance, you were to turn away from your sins forever. But you’re still finding young vulnerable girls, aren’t you? So easy in your profession. Because you’re a seedy celebrity of sorts, they contact you, filling your ears with hero worship. And you. So altruistic. You get close to the girls, act as a mentor. And then provide their names and addresses to a man who’ll scoop them up for use in the sex market.”

She was crying now, fat tears that traced down her cheeks. Anis watched her, unmoved. The satisfaction he usually felt while carrying out his mission was strangely absent. Instead, the thrum of excitement in his veins was reserved for the woman who would gaze upon Lawler’s body. And try to make sense of it.

Did Alexa realize the holiness of his cause? Did she guess at his noble calling? He ripped the duct tape off Lawler’s mouth. Immediately she opened her mouth to scream, and he leaned forward to jam the stainless steel dental gag inside it. She reared back, tried to spit it out, but her head was held in place by the binding around her neck and the large blocks on either side of her face. It was a struggle, but he managed to work the instrument into place. Then he picked up the next two tools. He reached into her mouth with the forceps to clamp on her tongue. Drew it out.

The guttural sounds she was making were lost on Anis. As he sliced at her tongue with the scalpel, he could only think of Alexa Hayden.