Read Online The Lord Is My Shepherd by Debbie Viguié - Free Book Online

lobby.
    She crossed over to the window and looked down on the street. A church and a few businesses were scattered on the other side of the road. One church had a large, blazing cross on the front of it. It was situated next door to a strip mall where a check cashing place flashed its open sign next to a laundromat that was closed.
    After she pulled the curtains to shut out the world, she undressed in the darkness and gratefully slipped between clean sheets. She prayed for safety and for the police to catch the murderer.
    As she tried to fall asleep she couldn't block the image of the murdered man from her mind. She shivered as it played again and again in her memory. Then she thought of Jeremiah, swooping in to save her like some avenging angel. Although, she had to admit, she had thought him a demon when she first saw him.
    She wondered why he had moved to America and resolved to ask him later. If I even see him again. They weren't even friends. It was unlikely Jeremiah would want to continue with their rescuer/rescuee relationship.
    Cindy flipped onto her side and pounded her pillow into submission. She didn't normally like hotels. Only a thin bit of wood separated her from countless strangers. She always felt so exposed sleeping in a hotel, and she had no idea how Kyle did it as part of his job. Then again, they had always been opposites.
    She turned to her other side, trying not to think about her brother. From where she lay she could see the door of the room. In the dim light she stared at the doorknob, and half a dozen times she started up, thinking she saw it move.
    “Stop being an idiot,” she told herself. She forced herself to close her eyes even as her mind tried to figure out how many hotel workers had a key to her room. There were probably as many keys to her room as there were to the church sanctuary.
    Please, God, let it not be Harold. She couldn't cope if it was. He had a key to her house. If she found out he was a murderer, she was sure she would never feel safe in any house she rented.
    She finally drifted to sleep. Her dreams were filled with dark figures that lurked in the shadows, wanting to hurt her. Mocking laughter filled her nightmares, and someone chased her, a key ring jangling on his belt.

    He stood in the shadows, watching. It wasn't quite time, but he could wait. Just a little longer. He stared intently atthe building. The neon sign blazed out, identifying and distinguishing the small shop from the buildings on either side. “CHECKS CASHED” it screamed for all the world to see. A young woman, her frail arms shaking from the effort, pushed open the barred door and staggered outside. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She deserved better, and so did the other wretched examples of humanity that passed through its doors every day. It was time to put an end to it.
    He moved toward the door and pulled it open, the bell chiming as he stepped inside. The owner stood behind the counter, cold eyes sweeping over him, sizing him up.
    “What can I do for you this evening, sir?”
    “The question is what can I do for society?”

    Mark stood in the middle of a sea of glass and wood shards and for a moment believed he had stumbled into a war zone. He walked slowly into the building, glass crunching beneath his shoes, and looked around. What once had been a long counter had been hacked to pieces with an axe and the remnants scattered through the room, out the door, and onto the street outside. Every fixture had been destroyed. Even the fluorescent lights had been shattered. Illumination came from some portable lights the uniformed officers had set up. Money had been flung around the room, and he noted that much of it was covered in blood.
    He thought briefly of the scene at the church, where the secretary's cards had landed on and around the body. Only here, there was no body. He turned as Paul walked up beside him.
    “Unhappy customer?”
    Mark shook his head slowly. “Angry customer kills the guy, runs