Keith LeBeau and Jeremy Bandjough flew the Storm Breaker over Warren County. Their passenger, Michael Lenox, sat in the back of the helicopter, waiting to arrive at their destination. He had received a call from Randy Groh with a request. The detective and his partner were working on a case and they wanted his help.
Lenox saw no reason to decline the offer, so he hitched a ride with LeBeau and Bandjough. Less than an hour later, he looked out the window and discovered that they were over the crime scene as described by Groh. There were several sheriff patrol cars, Groh’s car, and a large van. Deputies looked over the crime scene as Groh and Yorke waited for the helicopter to land. Lenox saw that the bodies of the victims had not yet been removed. He saw them laying on the ground with their arms outstretched to either side and their legs were together.
“We’re settin’ down,” LeBeau called to him. “Do you want us to hang around and wait for you?”
Lenox shook his head. “No. Go on back to the Federal Building. Director Fuller may need you.”
“Okay.”
The Storm Breaker hovered low above the ground and Lenox pulled open the door to climb out. Once he was on the ground, he moved toward the two detectives. As he did, the Storm Breaker took to the skies and headed back for Albany.
“Glad you could make it,” Groh said as he shook hands with Lenox.
“Yeah,” Yorke replied. “Another pair of eyes on this might help us find this guy before he kills again.”
Lenox shook hands with Yorke and looked around. “Tell me what you have. All your partner told me over the phone was that you needed help catching a serial killer you’ve nicknamed Cross, and you were at a new crime scene.” He looked down the hill at where the four victims lay. Yellow tape marked Crime Scene, Do Not Cross was around the area where the bodies were found. Clues were still being searched for. “Who found them?”
Groh and Yorke exchanged looks.
Lenox watched them. “Is there a problem?”
“No,” Yorke said. “It’s just that it would probably be a good idea if we start at the beginning. This guy - Cross - has done this before. Only not this many at the same time.”
“Why do you call the killer Cross?”
“Because he’s a sick son-of-a-gun,” Groh commented. “As you can tell, he arranges the body of each victim as a cross. Arms flat out. Legs placed together. He started this a few years ago, well before the vanishings. Back then, it was always one victim at a time.”
Yorke glanced at him. “With the one exception,” he said, as if to remind his partner.
“Right,” Groh responded grimly, nodding once. “Just before the vanishings, he did kill two. Right in their own home.”
“Each victim varied,” Yorke said, looking down at the latest victims. “At first, we thought he only targeted women, but that isn’t the case. To date, he has killed three women and two men. Not counting these poor souls here. The two Randy mentioned were a married couple who wanted to start a family.”
“Are the victims all killed in the same way?” Lenox asked.
“Yeah. Their heads are bashed in by a rock,” Groh responded. “The rock used in each crime is always left behind, but we can never take any prints off from them.” He shrugged helplessly. “He just doesn’t leave any.”
Lenox began to make his way down the hill, the two detectives followed. They went under the tape and Lenox began to walk slowly around the bodies, studying the scene for clues. He noticed that the ground beneath the heads of the victims appeared to be soaked with blood. Something about that seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn’t yet understand why.
“They were all struck from behind,” Lenox pointed out. Then, he nodded his head toward one of the victims, a male. “Except for this one. Each one of them - except for him - have their ankles tied together.”
“If you notice the markings on their wrists,” Yorke said, “you can tell they’ve also been bound.”
“Again, all except for this guy. He has no markings on his wrists either.”
Groh nodded grimly. “We think he may have tried to fight off Cross. He was struck not only in the back of the head, but right in the face, too.” He shook his head and muttered a curse. “The poor guy wasn’t able to fend off the killer though.”
Lenox was silent for a moment as he surveyed the crime scene. Finally, he looked at Yorke. “There’s something you haven’t told me, but I can speculate.”
Yorke nodded at him. “Go ahead.”
He paused in thought. “It’s personal to you now, isn’t it? The way you talked about the married couple who wanted to start a family…Friends?”
The two detectives exchanged looks.
Finally, Yorke nodded. “Yeah. They were friends of mine.” He let out a sigh. “Very good friends. We were close. My wife and I…” He stopped. Then, he shrugged. “Well, you get the idea.”
Lenox nodded. “Yeah. You spent a lot of time with them, and then this guy goes into their house and kills them.” He regarded the two detectives. “Has he ever done that with the other victims? Killed them in their own home?”
Groh shook his head. “No. He takes them out in remote areas like this one and kills them. The only time he’s killed in someone’s home were when he killed Brian’s friends.”
“You’re certain that it was Cross who killed your friends?”
Yorke nodded. “Yeah.”
“How can you be? Maybe it was someone else?”
Yorke shook his head. “He laid them out in the living room, just like he laid out all of his victims.”
Lenox paused. “Could have been a copy cat.”
“No. It was him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he called me on my phone.”
Lenox paused to consider what he was being told. “Did he call this one in, too?”
Yorke nodded.
“And he called you directly?”
Yorke nodded again.
Lenox nodded thoughtfully. “So it is personal, then, isn’t it? What did you do to make him take it personally against you?”
Yorke shook his head. “How should I know? He could be doing it because I’m on the case. Because I’ve been after him since the murders began. I don’t know why, and personally, I don’t care. All I’m concerned about is catching him and bringing him to justice.” He looked at him. “If you can offer any help to that end, that would be great, but I’d really like to catch him before he kills somebody else.”
“I’ll help in anyway I can.” Lenox looked around, focusing on the woods around them.
“What’s the matter?” Groh asked, looking around.
Lenox glanced at him. “Nothing. Just…looking. So…Cross is killing people at random…Why?”
“We don’t really know,” Groh told him, “but we can speculate that he’s killing people because of religious reasons. Those reasons could be that he hates God. He hates Christians. Who knows? What we do know is that he poses each victim like they’re crosses, and every victim is…involved in the church in some way.”
“They’re Christians,” Yorke said.
“Yeah, well, they’re people who are involved in the churches they attend. All of them would be considered as Christians. Whether they’re Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Buddhists -”
Yorke shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous. These victims are true Christians. They’re not into religion for traditional reasons. They’re into a relationship with a living God.”
Groh snorted. “Yeah. Isn’t that the denominations I mentioned, plus all of the others I didn’t?”
“No. A Christian isn’t labeled, Randy. A Christian is one who places his faith in Christ and strives to live his life…” He stopped. “Never mind. The point is Cross kills Christians. So whether he hates God or Christians…or both…that’s all we’ve got on him.”
At that moment, there was what seemed to be a sudden tremor all around them. But it happened so quickly, it was over before it started.
Groh, Yorke and Lenox exchanged looks.
“Did you feel that?” Groh asked.
Lenox shrugged. “I felt something.” He paused. “It can’t be enough to give us any reason for concern.”
“It was an earthquake,” Yorke said, looking around.
Groh rolled his eyes. “It was not. And so what if it was? It wasn’t enough to stop our investigation so let’s not get all worked up about it. Alright?”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Yorke turned to Lenox. “So, what do you think about our case? Do you have any thoughts?”
Lenox nodded. “Actually, I do. If these crimes are religious related…then we should get an observer who is a Christian. Maybe we can get some insights by letting her in on the investigation.”
“Her?” Yorke regarded him. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring in a civilian, man. Especially a Christian. She’ll become a target.”
“I won’t let her out of my sight.” He reached for his cell phone.
“Who is this woman you want to call?” Groh asked.
“Her name is Staci Cohen.” He flipped open his cell phone and speed-dialed a number. “She’s a Medical Doctor…and she’s a Christian. I’m sure she can help us out with the investigation.” As he listened to the ringing in his phone, he determined that he would let nothing happen to Staci while they sought for the killer.
Albert Barrington sipped his coffee as he watched Staci Cohen across the table. She had asked a lot of questions - even though she had appeared hesitant to ask them at first - and he had answered every one of them. Now she was trying to digest all she had been told. He hoped he hadn’t discouraged her in anyway because he knew how she felt about Lenox, but there were things she had to know if she intended to pursue a relationship with the man. What she did with that knowledge was her own business.
“Well,” she finally said, “I guess that explains a lot, doesn’t it?”
Barrington couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah. I’ll bet it does.”
She put her hands around her coffee cup and leaned forward. “I don‘t think he knows how blessed he is to have a friend like you.” She shook her head. “What he’s been through…wow. He really has a lot of anger built up in him, doesn’t he? I mean, I knew he did. I just didn‘t know why.”
“Now you do.”
She nodded. “Yes. Now I do know…and he’s going to know, too, when he looks at me.” She closed her eyes. “He’s going to be mad at you.”
“Staci, I’m not afraid of him. I can take it.”
“We gossiped about him, Albert.”
He let out a chuckle and shook his head. “We did not.”
“We sat at a table in a coffee shop and talked about Michael without him being here. Isn’t that gossip?”
“I didn’t make anything up about him.”
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to make anything up to gossip! All you have to do is sit down and talk about someone you know, knowing he wouldn’t like it if he knew that’s what we were doing. That’s gossip.” She put her hand over her mouth, incredulous. “And we just gossiped!”
Barrington couldn’t help it. He laughed.
“That’s not funny. I don’t think God wants us to gossip.”
“Staci,” Barrington said as he tried to stop laughing. He took a deep breath and leaned forward. “You really have to stop being so serious about this.” He looked at her. “Do I look like a man who gives in to gossip?”
“Well…you didn’t until we had this conversation.”
“We had to have this conversation. You needed to know these things about Michael.” He paused. “If the Rapture had not yet occurred, then things would have been different. I wouldn’t have willingly betrayed the trust of my best friend like I did just now if we weren’t living in the last days. You need to know these things because it will help you witness more effectively to Michael when the opportunity rises. We‘ve got less than seven years to win him to Christ, so if telling you things about his past will help, I‘m only glad to do it.”
She tilted her head and sighed. “I didn’t want you to betray his trust. This could also backfire and turn him away from God.”
“He’s stubborn, but I believe he’ll come around.” He paused. “Eventually.” He looked at his coffee cup and noticed that it was shaking.
Staci’s hands were still around her cup and she felt it shaking. She sat back as the table trembled, and then it abruptly stopped. “Uhm…” she began, “what was that?”
Barrington looked at her. “That felt like a tremor.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pocket New Testament. He began to flip through the pages.
“Doesn’t the Bible warn that there is going to be a big earthquake in the last days?”
“No.”
Staci regarded him. “No? Really? It doesn‘t?” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I thought it did.”
“Not one big earthquake, Staci.” He shook his head, smiling at her. “The Bible mentions that there will be a lot of earthquakes in the last days. And one of them will be a world wide earthquake.”
“You mean…the entire world?”
“Yes.”
“All of it…at the same time?”
Barrington found what he was looking for in the Book of Revelation. “All of it.”
She shuddered. “That’s scary to think about…What’s even more scary is you smiling about it.”
“I’m sorry. I just find this exciting. Staci, I know that during this time in the Tribulation period, our lives could end in an instant. I simply find great comfort knowing that my eternity is secure. If He takes us right now, I’m ready. But if He doesn’t…” He shrugged. “If God lets us live right up to the end, we will see things we have never seen before. That‘s exciting.”
She nodded. “I agree. It is exciting.” She paused. “But it’s also still scary.” She looked at him. “What have you got?”
“In Revelation, it says, ‘and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 1’ ” He smiled at her. “That’s the big one. Can you imagine a quake so big that it literally surpasses all of the earthquakes throughout history? None of them will ever compare to this one. The thing is that if you try to explain this to most people, they’ll just scoff at you and call you loony.” He turned the pages back. “Now listen to the many… ‘And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. 2’ That earthquake is plural.”
“Earthquakes cause famines and pestilences,” Staci replied softly. “I mean, I know other things do, too…but an earthquake is a pretty big factor to take into consideration about that.”
He nodded.
She opened her mouth to ask a question about the sights from heaven when her cell phone rang. She took it out from her purse and flipped it open.
“Hello…”
Barrington watched her. He had a feeling she was talking to Lenox because a look of guilt passed across her face. Then, she just listened intently.
“Oh, yes…Yes, I’ll help if I can…No, you don’t need to go into it over the phone. Just tell me about it when I see you…Okay…I’m at a coffee shop…Yes, the one across from the Federal Building.” She looked at Barrington and that guilty look passed across her face again. “No, I’m with Albert…”
There was a pause.
“Okay…I’ll wait for you here. Bye.”
She closed her cell phone and dropped it into her purse.
“Everything okay?” Barrington inquired. “You were starting to look so guilty there, I thought I’d have to come see you while you were behind bars.”
She looked at him. “Everything’s fine. Well, I mean…actually I guess it isn’t. Michael is helping the police track somebody down and he wants me to help by answering questions. He wants me to be a consultant on the case.”
He sat up and looked at her with concern. “Who are they tracking down?”
“Oh, well…he didn’t say. He wanted to, but I told him he could just tell me in person.”
“Staci…you just told him you’d help because it gives you an excuse to be with him.”
Staci paused. “That may be true…but maybe this is also an opportunity to witness to him, too.”
“I’m a little concerned about this person they’re after. Maybe I’d better stick around and help.”
“No. You can leave. I’ll be okay. You know Michael wouldn’t let anything happen to me. Besides, I’m only consulting. I’m not doing anything to catch anyone.”
Barrington paused. “I’ll just stay and help you. Just incase you start to look guilty and make Michael wonder what you did.”
“Albert, if you stay, you’ll only make me look guiltier!”
He couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing.
Camp Wood was once a thriving campground for children of any age. It was a place to go when it was time for fellowship and fun with family and friends. All summer long, the beach at the Verdana Lake was alive with activity, the trails were being hiked on, volley ball was being played, and many camp activities were being enjoyed.
Since the vanishings, however, all was quiet at Camp Wood.
Six months later, people were once again coming to Camp Wood. But many of the people who came were Christians, and they were coming to Camp Wood to find refuge for the days ahead. Some were lost and on the brink of making a final decision for Christ. Many of them came from the shelter on Donna Perkins farmland. Others had found their way because they had been led.
David King was simply awed by Verdana Lake.
Across the Lake as he stood on the beach, he could see a huge wall of rock reaching for the sky. A person who was conditioned to swim for a real long stretch could swim across the Lake and touch the rock wall. Climbing it would be another matter altogether. From where he was standing, it looked very smooth. He estimated it to be about eight stories high.
He found it to be symbolic.
A great big rock overlooking the beach…and a lake perfect for committing the ultimate command.
Baptism.
John Saint found him on the beach staring across the lake. “Hey, Kemosabi…the grub is ready and if you don’t come in there, lead us in prayer, and help us eat…it’s all going to be gone.”
“The Lord led us here,” King said softly. Then, he turned to look at Saint. “After all this time…it never even occurred to me to follow our Lord’s example by baptism. At least, not until we came here.”
Saint followed the man’s gaze out across the lake. “David, you’re right. The opportunity here is fantastic! Man, throughout all we’ve faced, I hadn’t thought about it either.”
“We should do it tomorrow.”
“That’s a lot of people to baptize, David. More than fifty of us now. Almost a hundred! We keep growing in number, which is one of the reasons it was great for Larry to come along when he did. Thanks to God bringing him to us, this place will hold ten times that number. And with the money we got from Amber, we’ll be able to see to our needs for quite a while.” He shook his head in awe. “Man, isn’t God good?”
King laughed with joy. “Indeed He is, my brother.”
“Man, let’s just go inside the mess hall, feast and fellowship, sing praises and make plans for tomorrow’s great big celebration. I don’t know about you, but this feels like a huge victory, doesn’t it?”
“It does. I only hope it will help in persuading Robert to accept our Lord as we did.” He fell silent for a moment. “I also feel it will show us the true motives behind why James is really here among us.”
Saint nodded thoughtfully. Sheriff Robert Hoag was an angry man looking for answers. He had come to the shelter with intentions of killing King, but instead the two men had talked for a long time. King had convinced Hoag that he was no longer a terrorist but a man of God who desired to gather souls for his Lord and Savior. King had prayed with Hoag and asked God to soften his heart. Hoag hadn’t yet made a decision to accept Christ, but he did come to Camp Wood with the others and his heart was still receptive.
James Bollinger, however, was another matter. King personally knew Bollinger. The man was a double agent. He had played the FBI and the al-Queda like a fine tuned piano. He was a man who enjoyed the game of manipulation, and the sad fact of the matter was that he was good at it. Yet now Bollinger had arrived at the shelter, claiming to be a child of God and expressing his desire to get involved.
King had his doubts about him, and he felt guilty about having those doubts. Bollinger had asked him if it were possible for a man like himself to be saved, and King had said that it were as possible for him to be saved as it was for an Islamic terrorist to be.
And yet, he still had his doubts.
Perhaps the Baptism would reveal the truth of the matter.
King turned to face Saint. “But you’re right. This is a time for celebration. Let us go inside and -”
The ground rumbled beneath their feet.
It didn’t throw them off balance, but they could feel it nonetheless. The ground rumbled and shook briefly, and then it abruptly stopped.
The two men exchanged looks.
“That…was interesting,” Saint replied.
King only nodded and waited to see if the tremor would come back.
It didn’t.
“When was the last time you’ve felt a tremor?” King asked.
Saint shook his head. “I don’t remember ever feeling a tremor before now. As far as I know, it’s not a common thing around here.”
“Hmm. Perhaps this is only the beginning.”
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, too.”
King clapped Saint on the shoulder. “Then, come, my brother. We have much work to do for our King before the end.”
Together, the two of them headed for the main building where the mess hall was. The mess hall was almost full, but not to capacity. More people could still be brought in, but they just had to go out and find them. Until then, they would continue the work that had only just begun.
Director Darren T. Fuller let out a sigh as he sat at his desk in his office on the fifth floor of the Federal Building in Albany, New York. Most if not all of the reports that came across his desk that morning disturbed him greatly. Every day, each report only got worst. If people didn’t realize that they were living in the last days, he couldn’t understand how that could be. It should be obvious to all.
But it wasn’t.
People either didn’t want to see the truth or they were blinded from it by the Enemy. They were deceived.
Most of the reports Fuller viewed made a lot of reference to the Jewish people as being fully responsible for past terrorist attacks in the free world. Fuller almost scoffed at the term free world. The world was no longer free, especially to the Jewish people. Not even to Christians. The reports further stated that Jewish sympathizers were also responsible for terrorist attacks in the past. In the past, meaning just before the vanishings.
It was absurd.
Fuller knew that the reports were full of lies. The Jews were not responsible for terrorist attacks, nor were the Jewish sympathizers, whom he knew was a reference to those coming to Christ. The reports were just lies meant to deceive the public who didn’t know any better.
Unfortunately, it made Fuller angry and he tried desperately not to loose his cool.
Another report that came across his desk was about the incident at Allentown and how a woman named Danielle Marie Dozois - who was responsible for the release of a toxin known as the X-24 - escaped with the help of unknown agents. If any report was enough to cause him to explode, it was that one. Danielle, he recently discovered, was his daughter. She was also completely innocent of this ridiculous charge just as he and his fellow Gatherers were, for it was he and his men who had helped her get away from Ed Carr. Danielle was not guilty of releasing the toxin. Fuller knew in his heart that it was Carr who was responsible.
He set down the most recent reports and turned in his chair to look out the window of his office. He wondered if Danielle had made it safely home. Does she even know who I am? he wondered. Why didn’t Katherine tell me?
He wasn’t able to talk to Danielle before she left and tell her who he was. Not with Carr around. If the Director of Justice even knew he had a daughter, the man would find a way to use her as leverage against him.
Fuller couldn’t risk that.
So he kept his silence.
There were two others who knew his secret as well. William “Crazy Man” Fronk and Erin Greye. They were two of his most trusted friends and he knew they would never reveal his secret either.
He picked up his phone and dialed an extension number. On the second ring, Fronk’s voice responded with, “Yo!”
“William, I need you to come to my office,” Fuller said. “Is Erin with you?”
“Yepper, Skipper.”
“Good. Bring her with you.” He paused. “I’d like to have a talk with you.” He wanted to ask them to pray with him but was suspicious that Carr had the phones bugged. Carr knew where he stood, but that didn’t mean Fuller wanted to give the man ammunition for his campaign.
“Coitenly,” Fronk responded in his imitation of Curly from the Three Stooges. “We’re on our way! Nyuck, nyuck!”
Fuller hung up the phone. A small smile touched his lips. Throughout all they’ve been through, it amazed him that Fronk somehow had maintained and kept his sense of humor, odd as it was.
Suddenly, he felt as if he were being watched. When he looked toward the open doorway of his office, he realized why.
Ed Carr was leaning against the doorframe, watching him.
“Is there something I can do for you, Carr?” Fuller asked impatiently. He couldn’t help the harsh tone in his voice. He knew he needed a lot of help from God to curb his temper. He was getting almost as bad as Lenox was.
Carr paused for a moment. “I just wanted to know if you were in your office.”
“Okay. So now you know. Anything else?”
Carr smiled as if he had a secret. “No.” He began to turn away. “Not yet, anyway. You’ll know soon enough.” With that, he turned away.
Fuller began to wonder what that had been all about when he felt the tremor.
1 - Revelation 16:18
2 - Luke 21:11
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