The Next Best Thing

Joey Jackson's life story is complicated. His mom, a shipyard worker in Melaka, Malaysia, had a reckless weekend fling with a British sailor in port for a few days. Several weeks later, with the Brit long gone, she found herself pregnant. Her muslim family and friends shunned her and her little boy. When she died in an accident, Joey, only 7, had to live on the street.
Then something wonderful happened. An American missionary's wife saw the dirty little boy and fell in love with him on the spot. She and her pastor husband took him in and raised him as their own. He thrived. Then, without telling him why, his "mom" quickly left. A month later, the pastor closed the school and joined his wife back in North Carolina. They'd return, his "dad" promised. But weeks turned into months. Once again, he was alone. His life choices after that grew worse and worse.
Mason Ray was a promising CIA agent posted to Vientiane, Laos in the closing years of the Vietnam War. He was young and in love. Sylvie was a US AID worker also stationed in Vientiane. One night when he was away, a North Vietnamese hit squad blew up his house. What they didn't know was the person inside was Sylvie, not Mason. His heart broke. He filled the emptiness with revenge. He learned the name of the general who ordered the bombing and plotted to take him out. He took his revenge. But the way he did it was ugly. The collateral damage was too much for the agency to accept. The CIA quietly pushed him out.
Mason stayed in Southeast Asia. Based in Bangkok, he did well for years working mostly for American companies or rich individuals. Life was good. And he never thought about the enormity of what he had done.
In Malaysia, Joey evolved from a petty thief to a cold-blooded killer. Amanda was his sixth victim. But she was unlike his other victims in a key way. Her daddy was a rich, politically connected businessman. He used the State Department to find and hire Mason. He would spare no expense to catch the guy who killed his little girl.
The case unlocked something deep inside Mason. It started the night he bolted upright in bed. The nightmare was about the day he killed the general. But the vision was not of the general. It was of the innocent waiter serving the man and his mistress. Almost every night a different nightmare would end his sleep. With each bad dream, he would meet another victim. Soon, vivid flashbacks would find their ways into his days. They took a toll.
Mason, hot on Joey's trail, was falling apart.
After Amanda, Joey started thinking about his future. He had a dream. All he needed was about $50,000. To get that much, he'd need to graduate to an older woman. She would need money back home to tap. To get her to do it, he'd have to win her trust. That would take time. But Joey was sure he could do it.
Jessica was perfect. A 33-year-old surgical nurse from Seattle, she was a widow trying to put life back into her being. He knew he had won her trust when she asked if he would tour Malaysia with her. Now it was only a matter of time.
Or was it?