Cover

Other Books by This Author

Also by John Verdon

Think of a Number

Shut Your Eyes Tight

Title Page

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by John Verdon

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Crown and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Verdon, John.
Let the devil sleep / by John Verdon.—1st ed.
p. cm.
The third novel in the Dave Gurney mystery series.
1. Detectives—New York (State)—New York—Fiction.
2. Serial murderers—Fiction. 3. Criminal behavior, Prediction of—Fiction. 4. Cold cases (Criminal investigation)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3622.E736L48 2012
813′.6—dc22      2012018564

eISBN: 978-0-307-71794-8

Jacket photographs: Ruggero Maramotti/Gallery Stock (front road);
Martin Barraud/The Image Bank/Getty Images (front shadow)

v3.1

Dedication

For Naomi

Part One: The Orphans of Murder

Prologue

She had to be stopped.

Hints had not worked. Subtle nudges had been ignored. Firmer action was called for. Something dramatic and unmistakable, accompanied by a clear explanation.

The clarity of the explanation was crucial. It could leave no room for doubt, no room for questions. The police, the media, and the naïve little meddler herself must be made to understand his message, to agree on its significance.

He stared down thoughtfully at the yellow pad in front of him and began to write:

You must abandon your ill-conceived project immediately. What you are proposing to do is intolerable. It glorifies the most destructive people on earth. It ridicules my pursuit of justice by exalting the criminals I have executed. It creates undeserved sympathy for the vilest of the vile. This cannot happen. This I will not permit. I have slept for ten years in the peace of my achievement, in the peace of my message to the world, in the peace of my justice. Force me to take up arms again and the price will be terrible.

He read what he had written. He shook his head slowly. He was not satisfied with the tone. He tore the page from the pad and slipped it into the slot of the document shredder by his chair. He began again on a fresh page:

Stop what you are doing. Stop now and walk away. Or there will be blood again, and more blood. Be warned. Do not disturb my peace.

That was better. But not quite good enough.

He’d have to work on it. Sharpen the point. Leave no doubt. Make it perfect.

And there was so little time.

Chapter 1

Spring

The French doors were open.