“Ah, and you know me—prayer is the first best answer for everything. Though you might not agree, I saw it work with Don Cherry, and he was a much harder case than Garrett Cooper.”

For him, prayer was always the answer—the first step at least, and at best the tonic that solved the problem. Would he ever be able to get Tess to see it that way too?

Tess bit her lower lip, and Oliver feared that she’d be cynical about Cherry. But she threw him a curve.

“What about someone like Cyrus Beck?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you pray for him?”

“Wouldn’t you say he needs prayer?”

“I’d say that his victims need prayer.”

Oliver remembered Cherry’s words about justice and mercy. Tess was all about justice, but Oliver didn’t believe you could have one without the other.

“Like all of us, Beck is a sinner—I would never deny that. But he’s no less deserving of salvation. So, yes, I do pray for him.”

Tess sighed. “I know that’s the way I should feel, but I don’t. He’s pure evil. Oliver, he’s been victimizing women for twenty-five years. You truly believe there’s something redeemable there?”

He reached across the table again and squeezed her hand. “There is no matter of degree to sin. All of us have our own baggage. Let me ask you this: If Cyrus Beck were the victim of a homicide here in Rogue’s Hollow, would you be less inclined to find his killer than, say, if a law-abiding resident were murdered?”

She frowned. “Aw, that’s not fair. Murder is murder.”

“Even if someone like Beck is the victim?”

She rolled her eyes. “You got me. Even Beck. Even if some vigilante killed him thinking they were dispensing justice. I would work just as hard to put his killer behind bars. But it would be for the law, for true justice, not for him.”

“But there is a principle there, I think. Everyone matters under the law, or nobody matters. If under man’s law, everyone matters, how much more to God does everyone matter? God’s offer of grace is made to everyone. Not everyone accepts it, but nonetheless, the offer is free to all and covers all.” He released her hand and leaned back, watching her features soften.

“You believe Don Cherry is really a changed man? That he accepted the grace God offered?” she asked.

“I do. I’ve seen the change in the man, real change. He’s not faking.”