They exploded from the car, guns drawn. Goren shouted, "Police! Stop right there and hold your hands where we can see them!"

The figure froze for half a second, then ran up the steps, across the front of the church and down the steps to the alley that ran along the side of the building. They took off after him, Eames pulling the radio from her belt. "Suspect is running toward the back of the church! We're in pursuit!"

Sirens rent the night air and she pushed herself harder to catch up to her partner. She ran through a doorway in a stone wall and slid to a halt beside him. Stone walls surrounded them, enclosing a well-landscaped courtyard between the church and the rectory. Stone benches were scattered about the area. In this place of peace and contemplation, they faced a man who had killed and mutilated at least eight others, assuming the body he unloaded on the church steps followed his pattern.

There was only one other entrance, across the courtyard, similar in size and shape to the doorway they had just passed through. Both detectives had their guns trained on the suspect. As the moon emerged from behind the clouds, he stepped back two steps, into a shaft of moonlight. He was a young man, a teenager, no older than twenty. His face was filled with terror and he held a knife in front of him.

Goren stepped toward him. "Calm down. I don't want to hurt you."

Eames looked over her shoulder when she heard the door creak behind her. Two uniformed patrolmen entered the courtyard, guns also drawn. She motioned for them to stay put, to give her partner a chance to talk the killer down. She'd seen him do it many times.

"How did you know I was here? Did Father Sean tell you..."

His voice was filled with panic and betrayal; tears were streaming down his face. "No," Goren told him, his voice calm, reassuring. "Father Sean never told us anything. He couldn't. When you confessed to him, he was bound by Church law not to tell us anything. That's an unbreakable vow for a priest. He never told us."

"Then why are you here?"

"You led us here."

"I…no…you're trying to trick me."

"No trick. You dumped your last two bodies here, because you feel safe here. This is like home to you. Dumping the bodies around the city became too stressful, so you came here."

"No…" he whimpered, his body sagging.

Goren took a couple of slow steps toward him. The young man jumped back, raising his arm, moonlight glinting off the steel of the knife he held in his trembling hand. "Stay back!"

He stopped, but didn't lower the Glock pointed at the man's head. "I don't want to hurt you," Goren repeated gently. "What's your name?"

"Rodney. Rodney Morrison."

"Rodney...you didn't mean to hurt anyone. You were just doing God's will."

"Yes! God told me to eliminate the sinners. He led me to those men."

"When they came to talk to Father Sean...you found out what they had done, who they were, and God told you to set them as examples..."

"Yes! He did! Did God talk to you, too?"

Goren smiled and shook his head. "Not directly. But I know why you did what you did. Why don't you give me that knife, Rodney? God didn't tell you to hurt us."

"He told me to eliminate the sinners. I had to do it. I have more to do."

"No, Rodney. You made your point. Let us help you finish your job without hurting anyone else."

Slowly, Goren worked his way, bit by bit, closer to the distraught, frightened and dangerous young man. Eames stayed back behind her partner, so Rodney could focus on Goren. But she kept a clear line of sight to the killer, concentrating on his movements so Goren could concentrate on disarming him. "You want me to put my knife down and then you'll shoot me."

"No," Goren said calmly. "That's not how I do things. Look..." He held his gun out to the side, stepping closer. "I'll put my gun down."

Stepping back again, Rodney shook his head. "No!" he screamed. "No! God will protect me so I can finish what I have to do! You can't stop me!" Goren brought his gun back to bear on the screaming man. Rodney had slipped beyond his reach.

Rodney backed up again, dropping the knife and raising his hands to his head. He screamed, bending over, folding his arms across his stomach. As the big detective moved toward him, he straightened up, a gun in his hand. He leveled the gun at Goren, and gunfire erupted, shattering the silence of the night.