Book Five: Part 9 - Raging Evil - Chapter 1
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible
New Living Testament, copyright ©1996, 2021.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishing, Inc.
Quotations used by permission from Bartleby.com ©1993-2004
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Prelude
Lee Austin and Freddy come head to head with one another. Convicts break out of prison. A rapist/killer is on the loose. The basketball team goes to the state finals, but will they capture the championship?
Take all this and new characters coming into the mix, and new love interests are sparked. Other love triangles deepen; and Leon has returned. What will become of him, and how will this affect Baker. Freddy sets the time for a final meeting with Baker. What will all of this do to the city of Montie?
Excerpt
Somewhere in Columbus, Ohio -11:03 a.m.
A tall man jumped out from behind a clump of bushes from the side of Mackinaw Road. At one time it was a hundred-mile stretch of blacktop that used to be a trail that would lead you from Columbus to Cincinnati back in the day. Almost seventy years ago, three large sinkholes ended that idea. Now, if it’s used for anything, it’s either to bring a date there to make out with or dump your trash.
In this case, Johnny “Baby Boy” Jackson, just finished making out with a chubby sixteen-year-old girl who begged and pleaded with him not to hurt her.
Johnny had snatched her from a bus station in Columbus, punched her in the mouth to shut her up until he got to Mackinaw Road.
He kept his promise not to hurt her after he raped her brutally. To Johnny, sex isn’t brutal, sex is all about feeling good, and when he gets rough; to him, that feels wonderful.
But he kept his promise not to hurt her anymore. He broke her neck.
In a notebook in his car, he wrote her name down: Natalie. 16. Number 41. The first one? Ellaine Mae Jackson. 62.
His mother.
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If you try to hang onto your life you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Matthew - 16: 25
Painful for man is rebellious independence when it has become inevitable; only in loving companionship with his fellows does he feel safe; only in reverently bowing down before the Higher does he feel himself exalted – Thomas Carlyle
The way I see it, no sense in hanging onto a life that’s going to end one way or the other. After all; like taxes, death is inevitable, and if you get on my radar—trust me, it will happen, and it won’t be pretty – Freddy
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Lee followed George Lassiter from the Hightower Inn, one of the better hotel’s in Ankara. There were four high-priced hotels. Lee had called all four, asking if either a Lassiter, Jerry Miller or Tracey McPhearson had registered.
When he found out George Lassiter had been staying at the Hightower for two days, Lee suspected he might not have much time to hunt him down before he would be out of the Turkey and onto someplace else.
It wasn’t until Saturday night when he spotted his target making his way across cobblestone streets, passing under brightly lit windows holding glassware (hand blown), clothing shops, or a local food or fruit store with people inside, seemingly all talking at once, each bartering for a good deal.
Lee followed at what he considered to be at a safe distance and would do so until he knew the time was right to make his move. He didn’t want any of the locals to get in the way or killed.
Lee continued to watch as George slipped through a doorway and went up a single flight of steps.
Lee waited twenty minutes. He then watched as George retraced the steps he had climbed until he reached the open doorway. Quickly, George looked left, then to his right.
Lee pulled out his Styler 9mm, cocked the hammer ever so lightly and fired point blank at George’s head. But it was the surrounding silence and the slight tick of the hammer pulled back that gave George a half-second edge, for he literally dodged a bullet.
Lee was angry at himself. He should have known better.
He saw George duck down into the shadows around the doorway, and then he heard what sounded like police sirens. He ditched the Styler in a place where he would later come back for it. He still had his .38 on him. He could carry in Turkey and it hadn’t been fired.
“Freddy,” he whispered, “you got a free pass this time.”
What Lee didn’t know was that Freddy had circled around Lee and took up a position neither Lee nor the Kurdish police knew of.
As Lee was questioned by the police for his name, passport, and gun permit, and as to why he is in the area at such a late time of night and had he heard any gunfire. His responses well-rehearsed were, “I’m a tourist from the United States and just exploring. I thought I heard a loud bang, but I didn’t hear any shooting.”
Freddy committed to memory all he heard and saw.
When he arrived in Rome. He would look into this Lee Austin.