VESPER

Book #6 of the Willow Darby Series

Willow Darby hasn’t stepped inside a church since her childhood.  A recent pair of gruesome murders has shocked one religious community reopening its scandalous wounds.  The high-profile crimes have caused the Vatican to send a mysterious emissary to assist Willow with her investigation.  But now this has forced her into walking a diplomatic tight rope between church and state to catch a killer.

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Prologue

The pounding of metal that violently pierced a solid beam of wood echoed throughout abandoned dust filled hallways.  It was an arduous task and more physically challenging than expected.  Perspiration dripped steadily from a crinkled brow.  The salty liquid stung his eyes but did not deter a laser focus on a moment that had been a culmination of perfect planning.  Even a skilled surgeon couldn’t compensate exactly how each metal spike would’ve interacted with live flesh and sinew. 

History books tried to describe such pain but truly couldn’t approach the physical reality of it.  The Romans had franchised the Persian method of execution centuries ago but now he was going to perfect it.  Clayton Menke was determined to purge the sins of a religious institution that had purposefully concealed their atrocities from the world.

Consciousness gave way to an inverted blood-soaked agonizing scream above him.  The healing had begun.