List of Secrets

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

Just after one a.m. on a typical November 2010 night in Tucson, Arizona, and the target was late. The killer had been given his prey’s schedule in advance, a schedule that usually had no variations whatsoever.

Until tonight it seemed.

The Raven, as he was called by those who hired him, was not the least bit bothered by this. One could not be in this line of work and last long at all if impatience or other infirmities could not be controlled. He was among the best at his craft; with over a hundred kills to his credit already, and with zero success of any law enforcement agency worldwide at even identifying, much less catching, him, he deserved both the rating and the respect he held.

He was engaged by his clientele through extremely anonymous means – typically through interestingly worded ads – and maintained a very high moral standard of which jobs he accepted. Only those truly deserving of death at his hand, such as d**g dealers and s*x traffickers, needed to fear a visit from him. And because he didn’t deal out random judgement for dollars, the Raven slept just fine at night.

He was truly ready for this one to be over with, though. The Raven didn’t need to take on any new jobs for a while; his financial status these days, unlike when he first started, was such that he could walk away from this career any time he chose. No, it wasn’t money that had him ready to go home. He itched to get back to the hobby he’d taken up fifteen months earlier. While that too employed a certain framework of rules and a moral standard, it was much more personally satisfying.

Mentally he ran down the hobby checklist. New York was happening next. It wasn’t where she was supposed to be, but evidently something had happened that had drawn her there. No matter. From the research that had been done, it was obvious she was terrified of crowds. That would make her even easier to deal with in a city that size.

He checked his watch. Almost one-thirty a.m. now. At last, the vehicle he’d been waiting on approached. As it swung past him, he slipped on his gloves, verifying a lone occupant as expected. Good, he thought. No collateral damage to worry about. He moved quickly but quietly toward the car as it came to a halt about ten feet from him.

The driver put the car in park. He looked right, to retrieve his briefcase from the passenger seat, so he didn’t notice the approach from his left side. Before he could open his driver’s door, the Raven was in the back seat right behind him, pulling the man’s head backward with his left hand, his right hand running the scalpel deep across the exposed throat.

Raven exited the car and faded away into the dark, leaving one of the Southwest’s biggest kiddie p**n distributors to spend his last few seconds on earth gurgling blood and wondering what the hell had just happened.