Chapter 67

He did it for the children.

Before his first liberation, he gave this careful consideration. He had to get rid of both parents, get a fresh start for the children. He knew full well from his own family. Marital discord is never one-sided. It always takes two. Fathers aren’t around, wives have affairs, fathers never wanted children to start with, wives nag. The whole air of the household is poisoned. Neither parent could remain. The children deserved a clean break.

Take Dylan. He might be a different boy if he’d left his father sooner. Not the disillusioned, dejected, angry, hopeless, broken teen who arrived, barely speaking, using drugs, drinking alcohol, involved in petty crime, arrested for possession. That was Dylan then. Now look, sober for years, a job giving him a purpose in life, surrounded by beauty and love.

He’d had nothing to do with Dylan leaving his father. But what an opportunity to see if his theories were correct, to see how a child could change if given different circumstances, different parenting. An experiment playing out before his very eyes. And Dylan had indeed changed.

It would be satisfying to finish things off with Helen now, but that was not his style. Patience.

Though he’d covered his tracks, with enough digging, the police could find his travel to Philadelphia, his connection to Chicago and San Antonio.

He wasn’t afraid to die, but he was terrified of getting caught. If his deeds were discovered, the surviving parents would go free. Then all his work would be in vain.

These babies were important. Two more young souls to free. He would wait.