Dominion (120 page)

If the shrink heard me say this, he’d think I was an obsessive-compulsive passive-aggressive dysfunctional codependent enabler…what we used to just call a jerk.

But what I really held back from telling him was that I once sent a man to jail for a double murder he didn’t commit. Bradford Downs. I know his face well. Three witnesses, at least two of them completely credible, offered convincing testimony to back up some physical evidence. Naturally, he claimed he was innocent, but his criminal record made that hard to believe. After ten years of appeals he was executed by lethal injection. Turned out that two of the witnesses were the real killers. We’d never have known if the one who was dying hadn’t confessed, and offered us proof…three years after an innocent man had been put to death.

See why I didn’t tell this to Dr. Freud-face?

Maybe there is something as bad as murder and getting away with murder—being murdered for a murder you didn’t commit. And because I put him away, that makes me an accessory to murder, doesn’t it?

I don’t need more reasons for sleepless nights. Bradford Downs wouldn’t be my first choice for a face to fill the back of my eyelids every time the lights go out.

So why am I telling you what I wouldn’t tell the shrink?

Because what I didn’t realize that morning as I breathed fresh air on the fire escape outside Jimmy Ross’s apartment—what I didn’t realize until just a little while ago—was that nothing was as it appeared. That case was open and shut all right…it had been set up to open and shut on a conclusion that was dead wrong. I fell for it. And that makes me mad. It makes me even madder that it was only fate or circumstances or luck or providence—whichever you believe in doesn’t matter to me—that made me realize it. Otherwise, I could have been seeing Lincoln Caldwell’s face every night, alongside Bradford Downs.

There are five teams in Portland homicide, so my partner Manny and I get every fifth murder. It was our next murder, the one two weeks and three days later, that pulled the rug out from under me. Eventually it woke me up to a shocking truth that radically revised the story of Jimmy Ross and Lincoln Caldwell.

That next murder turned me, my job, and my friendships upside down. It shook all the change out of my pockets. It threatened to bring down an entire police department, end my career, and place me inside a white chalk outline with some other homicide detective trying to figure out who murdered me. (Even now, I’m not convinced it still won’t.)

Not one of those 204 cases prepared me for that next murder, where someone sinister hid in the shadows of a violated house, gazing out at me through a broken window. It was the most radical and unconventional and baffling case I’ve ever worked.

If that’s not enough, my investigation threatened to end the lives of some people I really cared about.

And, ultimately, that’s exactly what it did.

RANDY ALCORN FICTION

DEADLINE

When tragedy strikes those closest to him, award-winning journalist Jake Woods must draw upon all his resources to uncover the truth about their suspicious accident. Soon he finds himself swept up in a murder investigation that is both complex and dangerous. Unaware of the threat to his own life, Jake is drawn in deeper and deeper as he desperately searches for the answers to the immediate mystery at hand and—ultimately—the deeper meaning of his own existence.

DOMINION

When two senseless killings hit close to home, columnist Clarence Abernathy seeks revenge for the murders—and, ultimately, answers to his own struggles regarding race and faith. After being dragged into the world of inner-city gangs and racial conflict, Clarence is encouraged by fellow columnist Jake Woods (from the bestseller
Deadline
) to forge an unlikely partnership with a redneck homicide detective. Soon the two find themselves facing the powers of darkness that threaten the dominion of earth, while unseen eyes watch from above.

READERS RESPOND TO RANDY ALCORN’S BEST-SELLING NOVEL
DEADLINE:

“This is the finest work of fiction I have ever read. And I read a lot of fiction!”

—
BATH, NEW YORK

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Deadline
is without a doubt the best Christian fiction I have read. The characters are well developed and the plot is excellent. For three days I rarely put the book down.”

—
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Deadline
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—
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Deadline
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I have not read it once but twice, and plan to keep it in my treasure of books that are to be reread and savored anew each reading. Never have I read fiction that touched me in thought and spiritual contemplation. I must say this is the best book I’ve ever read.”

—
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Deadline
was one of the most powerful, eye-opening, stop-and-make-you-think books I have ever read. This is one book I’ll be recommending to all my friends. I sure hope there will be a sequel to
Deadline.
I’ll be watching the shelves.”

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novels and rave about it with family, pastors, friends, etc. Thank you! I continue to laugh and cry through this book.”

—
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It is the best piece of fiction I have read. I have been in the Christian bookstore business for fourteen years and am thrilled to introduce readers to your book. I am currently featuring it in the store.”

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I will never forget this book.”

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Deadline
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

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Deadline.
The suspense, the humor, the spiritual insights were refreshing and inspiring. I no sooner finished the book than I wanted to read it again and get it to everyone I know.”

—
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Deadline
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RANDY ALCORN
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