Free The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker Page A

with them, killed them, and then disposed of their bodies in landfills.
    Danny first learned about Kellerman when he’d confronted his eleventh subject, Keith Hammond, about his nasty habit of pummeling
     his wife. Danny convinced Hammond that he would get a first-class ticket to hell if he ever again so much as frowned at a
     woman. So far the man had not relapsed.
    During the confrontation, Danny learned disturbing details about the attorney who’d defended Keith on a charge of spousal
     abuse. This lawyer, one Cain Kellerman, had threatened Keith’s wife with the lives of her children if they did not recant
     their stories of their father’s abuse. Naturally, they changed their stories, and Keith was acquitted.
    Danny had begun his investigation into Kellerman the very next day, and what he learned convinced him that the only hope for
     such a vile creature was surely a bullet to the head.
    He slipped the photograph into his bag and dropped the Chevy into gear, lost in the consideration of the facts. A loud thump from behind startled him.
    He twisted his neck and saw that he’d backed into another car. Ellen Bennett’s gray Lincoln crowded his own.
    He shoved his gearshift back into park and jumped out as the older woman pushed her door open. “Are you okay?” he asked. No
     damage to their bumpers that he could see. “I’m so sorry, how careless of me!”
    “It’s you, Danny!” Ellen stepped out of her car. “Dear me, I didn’t see you!”
    “No, it was me who didn’t see you.” He took her hand and guided her a few steps from the car. “The important question is,
     are you all right?”
    “Of course. It was hardly a tap.” The midday sun turned her white curls into a halo. She’d become a mother figure to him,
     which suited him well because he had no other family in the United States. It was good to have a neighbor to care for, even
     if that care amounted only to mowing the yard once a week and making the occasional repair around the house. Ellen’s husband
     had died four years ago, at about the same time Danny moved into the neighborhood.
    She chuckled. “My, my, what a fright that was. You sure there’s no damage?” She eyed the kissing bumpers.
    “Maybe a scratch, but that’s it.”
    She looked him up and down. “You’re smashing today. Hal used to wear khaki slacks, too.” She reached for his hair and touched
     it gingerly. “Have I told you his hair was as dark as yours before it went gray?”
    “Yes, more than once.”
    “You’re not working today?”
    I have work to do that you’ll never know about.
    “I have an appointment,” Danny said. “Just an errand to help out a friend.”
    His name is Cain Kellerman and he is a viper .
    “Good for you. I have to make this up to you. Let me make you lunch.”
    “No, there’s no need—”
    “I insist! I practically demolished your car!”
    Danny hesitated only a moment. “Well, if you insist.” He offered her a wide smile and dipped his head. “I would love that.
     I could join you tomorrow.”
    Ellen looked back at the cars and shook her head. “My, my, my. I think I’m getting old.” Her eyes darted up to him. “Tomorrow?
     No, my dear, now! I put out a fresh jar of sun tea this morning, and I can make up some sandwiches in a jiffy. Have you eaten?
     It’s past noon.”
    “No, but I really should—”
    “Please, it would make me feel so much better.”
    Choice: A bite with Ellen, or directly to the scene to kill Cain Kellerman.
    Consider: Once Ellen got something in her head, it was easier to go with her than to change her.
    Consider: Danny’s plans could accommodate a quick lunch if it brought the woman peace of mind.
    Consider: He liked Ellen very much.
    “You talked me into it. Let me just pull my car into my drive.”
    “Wonderful.”
    Ten minutes later, he was seated at her kitchen table, marking the condensation on an ice-cold glass of tea with a lazy finger
     as she told him yet another story about her late