You Only Die Twice

Chapter NINETEEN





Ted Carpenter stood deep in the woods, his gun at his side, his breathing labored, his heart slamming against his chest as if it wanted out every bit as much as Cheryl Dunning wanted out of these woods.

He was lost.

Before he was chased by the moose, everything was going as planned. Everything was under control. She was in his sights. He was scaring the hell out of her just as he and Kenneth did with everyone they eventually murdered.

And then she disappeared.

She probably saw the moose herself and ducked behind some trees. If that was the case, then she set him up. She intentionally hadn’t warned him. She let him run straight into that moose’s path―not to mention its wrath―as if his life meant nothing to her. As if he wasn’t there to serve the Lord. As if he wasn’t there to represent the Lord. Didn’t she get it?

Obviously not.

If she was in front of him now, he’d take her without Kenneth―who demanded to be present for every sacrifice―and he’d kill her without hesitation. Right now, he didn’t really care that Kenneth would be angry with him. This was about him now. He was the elder. He was the one who was nearly run down by a moose. If he had the chance―which he eventually would―he’d lift his gun to her face and pump enough bullets into it until it slid off her skull.

The moose was gone, but instead of a short run meant to frighten him off, the beast wanted a piece of him and drove him far into the woods before, after what seemed to him like an eternity, it gave up the chase and wandered off.

He and Kenneth had been over these woods dozens of times, but who was he kidding? He didn’t know them as well as Kenneth thought he should know them. These woods were massive. He obviously knew the path when he saw it. And he knew where the wetlands were in association with the path. But right now? After taking so many turns and jumping over all of those fallen trees? Right now everything looked the same―an enclosure of fir and pine trees, the crooked skeletons of twisted dead trees, the brightly colored seasonal trees, a blue sky overhead, the sun square in the middle of it.

And no feasible way out.

Earlier, he tried to follow his tracks out of the woods, but they were so jumbled in his effort to evade the moose, they didn’t make any logical sense. Sometimes, the tracks went around in circles. Often, they criss-crossed when he dodged the animal. They were such a mass of confusion, he couldn’t rely on them to get him out.

He’d need to call Kenneth for help.

He reached for his phone and first decided to text her. “You think you won, but know that you didn’t. You will die. I’m coming for you.”

He sent it and then dialed Kenneth’s number. It was a moment before he answered.

“What is it?” Kenneth said.

“I’m lost.”

“How can you be lost? We know these woods. We spent weeks in these woods.”

“Apparently, I don’t know them as well as I thought I did, because when we were studying the land, neither of us was being chased by a moose. That’s what just happened to me. A moose chased me, which drove me into a place that looks like every other f*cking place in these woods. Now, I have no idea where I am.”

A silence passed.

“Are you saying you lost her, Ted?”

“I had a moose on my ass, Kenneth. Was I supposed to just stand there and let it trample me? Kill me? Because that’s what would have happened. It would have killed me.”

“God wouldn’t have let that happen. You and I both know that. Have you lost your faith? The moose is nature. The moose is an extension of God. It would have stopped and beheld you. I can’t believe you’d let her get out of your sight over of a moose.”

“Well, that’s what happened. And if God separated me from her, then He also will bring me to her.”

“He will bring us to her. Where are you?”

“I told you. I don’t know where I am. I ran to avoid it, and now everything looks the same. I’m not near any path. I’m just in the middle of the forest. People do get lost in the woods, Kenneth.”

“I don’t. Use your maps function on your phone. Mark your location. I’ll come for you.”

“You’re here now?”

“Of course, I’m here. I followed your tracks off the path.”

“She’s somewhere near you, then.”

“Is that your way of saying that you’d like me to find her and kill her? Are you backing out on me now? Really? At this point in the game? Has this become too much for you to handle?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Sure sounded like it.”

“Look, this is a blip, Kenneth. We’ll find her. She’s not that bright. She’s a stupid whore. And she doesn’t have Him on her side like we do.”

“Whatever. I’m disappointed in you. Mark your location, give me time and I’ll track you down. When you start to hear my footfalls, call out softly to me. Do not expose your location to her. Just say my name quietly. Eventually, I’ll find you. The maps on our phones will assist in that effort.”

“You used to say that technology is a sin.”

“I used to say a lot of things, Ted, but we evolve, don’t we? Of course, we do. We evolve. And I certainly haven’t said that in years because we changed our minds on technology, which He gave us. Do you remember that? Are we clear on that? We grow with the times. We use what we have at our hands to bring down the damned and then we move forward to the next one. If that means using technology built into our phones, then we received that technology for a reason. Got it?”

“Fine.”

“Mark your location.”

“If you’d take the time to look at your maps, you’ll find that I already have.”

“Don’t take an edge with me, Ted. I won’t have it.”

“You won’t have it? What the f*ck does that mean? Here’s the deal, boy. Don’t you ever have an edge in your voice when you talk to me. Is that clear? I’m older than you. My soul is older than yours. I’ve been at this longer than you. I’ve been worshipping God longer than you. We have a relationship you two will never have. If the Lord Jesus Christ God Almighty is on anyone’s side, it’s mine.”

“Bullshit.”

“That’s your interpretation.”

“No, it isn’t. It’s a fact. I’m the Chosen One. He told me so Himself. I’m also not the one who f*cked up. I’m not the one who lost her. That would be you, Ted. Because of some damned moose that turned you into a p-ssy, that would be you. It’s all on you. You lost her. You. Not me. And He knows it should she somehow escape.”

“She’s not going to escape.”

“And you know that how?”

“Because she’s still in the woods.”

“And you know that how?”

“Because He told me so.”

“No, He hasn’t. Don’t lie, Teddy. When you lie to me, you lie to Him.”

“I’m telling you, she’s still in the woods. Nobody has lost―”

The line went dead. Unbelieving, Ted Carpenter stared blankly at the phone. Kenneth Berkowitz had just severed their connection. He actually dared to hang up on him.

Furious, he put the phone back into his pocket and swung around to listen for his footfalls. They should be coming at any moment, shouldn’t they? After all, if God had Berkowitz’s back, he should be hearing them right now because the goal was to kill Cheryl Dunning and time was of the essence. God knew that. If He was watching this―and of course, He was―then Kenneth should be at his side now.

Only he wasn’t.

There was no sound of anyone rushing toward him. No hero to save the day. So, Berkowitz was full of shit. He hung up on him out of arrogance, which Ted Carpenter considered a sin. And what was this crap about him being the Chosen One?

He wondered if it was better to go forward alone. He’d certainly done God’s work on his own before. But until this moment, he’d always respected Kenneth. They shared the same ideals. They got each other and worked well together. Without him, Ted knew that he never would have made the sort of progress they were making now.

Still, that conversation crossed a line. He couldn’t tolerate being hung up on or treated as if he was second rate. Kenneth had taken things too far. He was trying to assume the lead. By hanging up on him, he essentially said that he considered him incompetent, something Ted had heard from his father since he was a boy and one of the main reasons he killed him when he turned seventeen.

Certainly, cutting his father’s throat while the man was shaving in front of his bathroom mirror, where he could witness his own death unravelling before him in fans of blood, proved that his son wasn’t completely incompetent. He was, after all, capable of cutting a man’s throat and taking his life.

Those were the words he whispered in his father’s ear as the blood jetted onto the mirror, shock registered in his eyes, his knees buckled and he dropped to the tile floor, where Ted watched him bleed out while his father reached for his throat to stop the torrent of blood spraying him, his son and the room, and where he kicked and writhed until his sorry, miserable life left him and he was dead.

He thought of a quote from Deuteronomy 23:1: “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose organ has been cut off may become a member of the Assembly of God.”

If Kenneth challenged him when he arrived, if he came to argue with him or to belittle him, he at least knew one way to keep him out of God’s arms forever. He was the elder and the elder was to be respected, not shut down or shit on, as Kenneth just tried to do to him. So, if he came with the same attitude, Ted would knock Kenneth hard to the ground, repeat the scripture before Kenneth could compose himself, and then he’d do as the scripture advised. Kenneth would die knowing that he’d been cheated out of spending eternity with God.

As he stood there, waiting for Kenneth to arrive, he thought of Cheryl Dunning and wondered where she was and what she was doing. Had she escaped. Not a chance. He believed that unconditionally. God had plans for her and Ted was ready to deliver those plans when He decided the time was right.

At that moment, what he didn’t know is that a God he didn’t understand was working other avenues.

Because of efforts made by Patty Jennings and James Coleman, the Maine State Police now was searching for a young male, approximately thirty, who was muscular, had short dark hair, and who stood approximately six feet tall. He was last seen wearing jeans, boots and a flannel shirt around midnight the night before at a Bangor dance club called The Grind. From memory, Patty Jennings gave information that resulted in a detailed composite of the individual, who was wanted for rape and a host of other crimes.

The media was on alert.

Stories with the composite already had appeared on television news shows, news blogs, social media sites and, tomorrow, they would appear in newspapers.

The composite also was shared with police and other law enforcement agencies around the state.

Now, all were working in unison in an effort to find the man and bring him in for questioning.