Chapter 8: The Park Rescue

The crosshairs of the rifle scope were steady on the side of the man's head. Jonas couldn't take the shot because the man was walking and holding the 15 year old girl tight against his chest. The man's head was pressed against the side of her head and if Jonas pulled the trigger there was a high probability that the girl would be killed too. The man was walking along one of the many forest trails that bordered the river in the Shawnee Mission Park in Kansas City. The sun had just set and it was nearing dusk. The light would be fading in moments. Jonas was a little over 100 yards away on a little rise. He was right where Joe had told him to be and that he needed to save the girl.

Jonas could see the man's aura through the scope. It was such a putrid dark yellow-black color that it would have turned most men's stomachs. Jonas had been looking at auras since the night he died in an effort to learn how to decipher their secrets quicker. Joe called the ability to see auras a unique advantage to Jonas in his battle to gain redemption. Jonas wasn't so sure. The auras could be very disconcerting when he walked into a crowd. Jonas had spent the last few days among the crowds of the city to learn more about his 'advantage.' He was glad he hadn't had that insight into human nature before he gained his direct connection to God. The range of human cruelty, depravity and self centered selfishness Jonas saw in the crowds had been astonishing and depressing. Joe pointed out that as flawed as mankind was, their capacity for love and kindness made them truly marvelous creatures. Each man and woman could decide for themselves if they wanted to learn and change. Men and women have free will and could love with the same ferocity and intensity that Jonas was seeing as the dark side of the human psyche. His understanding of auras had grown rapidly over the last few days and what Jonas was seeing in the man's aura now was sickening.

"I could use a little help here," Jonas muttered.

"Take your shot in three more steps," the voice in his head said.

Jonas's time sense stretched. The man's fast walk changed to a slow motion crawl from Jonas's perspective. One step and the man looked over his left shoulder. The cross hairs seemed locked on the man's head. Two steps and the man looked back over his other shoulder. Jonas took up the trigger slack. The man's foot came up for the third step. Jonas's finger started squeezing the trigger. The trigger was calibrated to an exact four pound pull and Jonas had just over two pounds pressure on it. A covey of quail flew from bushes to the man's left. At the same moment a siren from a police car shrieked from the road about a quarter mile away to the man's left. The man didn't hesitate. The man pivoted in mid step and he turned right to leave the trail. At the same time a knife appeared in his hand and it was moving towards the girl's throat. The man had turned directly towards Jonas. The remainder of the four pounds of pressure was applied as the man's foot struck the ground on the third step. The rifle bucked gently against Jonas's shoulder. Jonas thought he could almost see the bullet in flight as it traveled over 3000 feet per second to its target. The red dot that appeared on the man's forehead was almost an afterthought. His head snapped back. His arms went slack and the girl staggered away. She fell to her knees screaming. The man didn't even stagger under the impact of the bullet. He simply lay back onto a thicket of blackberry brambles and didn't move again. Jonas had the added proof that he was dead when the sickly yellow aura disappeared as if it was putrid water being sucked up by a shop vac.

Time snapped back to normal speed and Jonas heard the sound of the shot echoing over the gentle woodlands that surrounded the area. Police erupted from a tree line about 500 feet from where the girl was kneeling and crying hysterically. Most were uniformed police but they were led by a man in a suit coat. Jonas looked through the scope and had to smile to himself. The round shouldered figure with a paunch in a rumpled suit was an unlikely sight running across the field. The fact that he was outdistancing the younger men was even more astonishing. Detective Clevis Jordan was racing across the field because Jonas had called him about two hours before. Jonas smiled at the memory.

"Detective Jordan speaking," the detective briskly answered the phone on his cluttered desk. His voice sounded rushed and harassed.

"Clevis, it's me. There's a girl that's been kidnapped. I don't have her name but I've, ah, I've been ordered to protect her," Jonas had told the detective. He didn't need to identify himself. Jonas knew that Clevis Jordan would recognize his voice.

"How the hell," Clevis started then stopped what he was saying. He knew how Jonas knew. As improbable as it was, he knew that Jonas had a direct line to the guy upstairs. "This isn't even on the wire yet. It was just reported. We haven't even had time to post an Amber Alert," Clevis said lamely.

"Yeah, well, I guess I have a faster mode of communication," Jonas said. "Anyway, I've got to go. There isn't much time but I could use your help after I take the kidnapper down."

"What kind of help?" Clevis asked.

"Well, Joe said someone would need to calm the girl after I'm done. He, ah, he suggested you," Jonas replied hesitantly.

"Me?" Clevis yelled in shock.

Jonas heard his voice drop to a whisper on the phone.