Sheriff Haynes Dearing

Sheriff Haynes Dearing is the hidden, yet main antagonist in RJ Ellory's novel A Quiet Belief in Angels. He is a police officer of the law in Augusta town in Arkansas in the United States of America, yet he is in reality a brutal, sick, twisted serial killer who attacks, sexually assaults and then murders innocent young girls.

Biography
Haynes Dearing first appears as the kindly, good-natured, affable, likeable and generous Sheriff of Augusta Falls town in the years before 1940. He is well-respected and well-liked by the numerous citizens.

The protagonist of the novel, Joseph Vaughn, is having a relatively normal life, that is apart from the death of his father, he still has friends at school, and his mother seems, to him, the perfect human being. However, all this falls apart quickly when Alice Ruth van Horne, a girl whom Joseph had grown up with, is found brutally raped and murdered in a field one Summer day. No one is sure who has done such a horrific thing, and Sheriff Haynes Dearing makes it his selfless duty to protect the town. However, months afterwards, another innocent girl is found murdered, named Laverna Stowell, and she has also been sexually assaulted, which soon becomes a trademark of the evil killer behind this, whoever he is.

Haynes Dearing is seemignly making no progress by the time Catherine McRae and Virginia Grace are found raped and murdered, and the frustrated and angry townsfolk want to kill Gunther Kruger, a German man, because by now the Second World War is in full swing, and the townsfolk of Augusta Falls, sickened by Hitler and the Nazis, believe that all Germans are evil men.

However, Gunther Kruger is (at the time) well liked by Joseph, who secretly loves his daughter, Elena, who has epileptic fits Joseph forms the Guardians, consisting of Maurice, Daniel McRae (brother of murdered Catherine), Hans Kruger, (Gunther's son and Elena's brother) and Ronnie Duggan. The Guardians are kind of remniscient of the Losers Club from Stephen King's IT. The group vow to defend the town against whomever the Killer may be - unbeknowest to them, all this time it is in fact the loveable Sheriff who is raping, butchering and killing girls.

Unfortunately, Elena dies in the worst way possible, in a house fire. This totally devastates Joseph because mere days before he had vowed to protect her and she fell in love with him because of what he'd promised. He feels haunted by her ghost and confesses his feelings to his teacher, Alexandra Webber, whom Joseph also falls in love with. Eventually, Haynes Dearing catches the Guardians out at night, but despite both teams getting the fright of their lives because the boys believed Haynes was the Killer (as they only saw a man's silhouette before it was revealed who it really was) nothing comes of it.

Eventually, Joseph's mother goes mad after the Kruger house is burned down and the surviving Kruger family move after fearing for their lives. Haynes Dearing tries to track the Krugers, to no avail.

Joseph's mother is locked up in the hospital because of her decreasing sanity, and Joseph grows up, becoming mature before his time. By the age of seventeen he is visited by Alexandra Webber, who he confesses his love to and they both form a relationship. Eventually, Alexandra becomes pregnant and they are engaged, and, shortly after their marriage, the worst thing occurs - Alexandra falls downstairs and has a concussion, eventually killing her.

Joseph is so distraught he speaks to Sheriff Haynes Dearing, just before the man's retirement, and he convinces the Sheriff it is Gunther behind the killings - so Joseph tracks the Kruger family to their new home and, despite his previous inclinations to convict Gunther, convinces the man he is innocent of any crime. He reports his findings to the Sheriff, yet Dearing wants to end the case - so he discreetly convinces Gunther to hang himself. Gunther obliges.

A distraught Joseph finds that not only did he lose his beloved wife, yet he also lost an unborn son. He leaves Augusta and goes to New York, where he becomes an eccentric recluse. He no longer cares what people think of him. He does join a writers club, as it was always his dream to be a writer.

In the library one day, he meets an attractive girl named Bridget, and, inspired by what Paul Hennesey, a recent friend, said about needing cheek to get through one's life, Joseph admits his love for Bridget, and eventually asks her out, leading to their eventual relationship.

Joseph is content again - losing his shame for Alexandra. However, tragedy strikes, as Sheriff Haynes Dearing had tracked Joseph to New York, and he brutally executes Bridget in her flat room, murdering the third lover of Joseph's. Dearing is so evil he even framed Joseph for the murder, and got the poor man locked up for life.

However, Dearing had seen Joseoh as a friendless man, and had ignored the fact Joseph talked to Paul Hennesey, who came to visit him in jail. Paul convinced Joseph to write his next book, and eventually Joseph wrote it in jail, smuggling it to Paul, who published it. A Quiet Belief in Angels broke records and people got furious about Joseph's miscarriage of justice and demanded his release. Eventually, the courts relented their harsh system and Joseph was released - sparing the innocent man from further prison time, yet robbing Joseph of thirteen years of his life.

By now it was 1966, and Joseph had seen the Vietnam War and the Moon landings in jail. Joseph was so scared of everybody upon release, and torn up about all his lovers dying, he became a hermit in his flat. However, upon remembering Sheriff Haynes Dearing, Joseph tracks him down throughout the United States of America, finding endless child murders at each site.

Finally, Joseph calls Sheriff Dearing, inviting him out to New York to finish the investigation and find the Killer. However, Joseph knows by now that Dearing was the Killer, he must have been, because wherever he went, death followed. Dearing shows up at Joseph's flat in New York, removes his coat, and points his pistol at Joseph, saying that they must eliminate the ghosts of the past. Sheriff Haynes Dearing shoots Joseph in the lung, yet Joseph is quick and shoots Sheriff Haynes Dearing dead, much to the man's surprise, and finally ending his reign of terror.

Joseph is rescued by Paul Hennesey and Joseph goes on to become a successful novelist, already famous for ending Sheriff Dearing's killing spree.

Personality
Sheriff Haynes Dearing was disturbing, because he was well liked and well respected by members of the community, he could present himself as a well meaning officer of the law, however, he was a true monster, and cared nothing for human life. He presumably killed for the fun of it, Joseph speculated various reasons a man would end up like Dearing. Throughout the novel, flashes present Joseph speaking to the dead Dearing as his own life slips away, yet these are revealed to be mere speculations as to why Sheriff Dearing was as terrifying and as evil as he was. Perhaps, like many serial killers, Dearing only wanted to make his own sick, evil mark on the world - a feat he most certainly accomplished, because he tore apsrt dozens of American towns by killing innocent girls before he was stopped. What is so terrifying is that he almost got away with it.

VICTIMS

 * Alice Ruth van Horne
 * Larvena Stowell
 * Catherine McRae
 * Virginia Grace
 * Elena Kruger (suspected by Joseph to have been an inardverdent victim)
 * Gunther Kruger (persuaded into hanging himself)
 * Virginia Perlman
 * Ellen May Levine
 * Lucy Bradford
 * Mary Tait
 * Keppler
 * Bridget Sarah McCormack