“STUNG! A Theophilus Hornby Mystery” (Ch. 16)

~~ Ch. 16 ~~
“There is no accountability today!”, John Smith said outloud to himself. He was watching the evening news and its report of another school shooting. “There needs to be justice! Sin must be punished! Evil must be confronted!”

As he had his morning devotions, Smith gravitated to his favorite verses about God being an avenging God, a wrathful God, a God who cannot overlook sin.

“We have no ‘cities of refuge today,’” he said to himself. “So there’s no possibility of those who deserve wrath to hide themselves and wait for a trial. And that’s where I come in!” Smith smiled to himself as he began his plans of meting out God’s righteous punishment on wrong-doers.

He reread the obituary for Bubba Delvaney, noticing that there was one brother who was living somewhere in North Carolina. “I just may have to pay him a little visit,” Smith said as he packed a small travel bag. “It is,” he said, “a ‘fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,’” quoting one of his best-loved verses from the King James’ version of Hebrews 10. “It’s also a fearful thing to fall . . . into my hands!”