Why give God only one side of the equation? Could he heal her? Sure. Would he? Who knows? But why didn’t he stop this from happening in the first place? Well, that was the question at the heart of all suffering, wasn’t it?

Christie thought of Pat mourning her, of her daughter growing into adulthood without a mother. Pat was a man of passion and resolve, he had a good heart, but he often kept his emotions closed in, and she wasn’t sure how well that heart would heal after it was broken, after it was pierced by her death. His work might consume him, and both he and Tessa would suffer the consequences.

Christie let the tears come and did not try to stop them. And there at the feet of her silent Savior, there at the feet of her slaughtered Lord, she buried her face in her hands and wept.

10

We came up empty in the neighborhood.

DeYoung had been on board with us searching the residences looking for Blake and the unidentified woman, but since we had no solid evidence that Blake was in the area, the assistant director didn’t approve us setting up a roadblock or investigating vehicles leaving the funeral.

Which, honestly, despite my desire to bring Blake in, I understood.

I checked the woman’s jacket for any identifying pocket litter and found a ring of four keys, a still-wrapped lemon cough drop, and a crumpled-up receipt from a parking garage less than two blocks from the federal building where the Field Office was located.

Okay. That was interesting.

My shirt was smeared with mud and my pants were ripped from when I’d fallen chasing the woman through the forest, not to mention the fact that I was splattered with the driver’s blood. After we cleared the neighborhood, Greer, who’d taken Mannie in to be processed, called me and encouraged me rather bluntly to head out and change clothes.

“Mannie’s not talking and there’s nothing more for you to do at the graveyard. I’ll be in touch later this afternoon when I’m done with all this paperwork.”

I thought about just buying some clothes somewhere, but the blood was another matter—I did need to get cleaned up. And icing that tweaked wrist would keep it from swelling up too much. The driver was in stable condition in the hospital—no neck or back injuries, and the doctors were able to treat his leg without the need for amputation.

The mystery of where the woman had gone and where Mannie had come from were still all too present, but at least it looked like that driver would recover from the crash.