Jared headed the two miles back at a brisk pace, spurred by a sense of urgency he couldn’t qualify. He was still two blocks away when he heard a gunshot. He broke into a run. The house came into sight and he drew his weapon, racing past curious neighbors who straggled onto the sidewalk.
“Get back in your homes,” he shouted. “Call nine-one-one.”
He’d just reached the lawn when the door to Miller’s house burst open and Darcy stumbled out, her wrists handcuffed in front of her. Relief burst through him, followed immediately by blood-chilling fear.
He darted forward, catching her and pulling her to the side of the house, out of the line of fire. “Are you hurt?”
“N-No…no, I’m okay.”
“Where’s Miller?”
“I don’t know.” Her lower lip quivered. “It’s Jim. He did it all. Everything.”
Peering around the corner, he eyed the porch. “Where is he?”
“I tackled him into the closet in a bedroom on the right side of the hallway.”
He glanced at her, his heart finally slowing from its frantic pounding. “A fucking crazy thing to do.”
She sucked in a rasping, shaky breath. “God, I’m glad to see you.”
Another shot rent the quiet.
“Oh, no…” she breathed. “Columbo.”
He stood in a rush. “Someone else is in there?”
“Yes. No. It’s Jim’s dog. I tripped on a runner in the hall and Jim was behind me with the gun…Columbo took him down. The gun went off and shot into the wall, but Columbo had his arm and he was snarling—”
Cupping her nape, he gave her a quick hard kiss. “Stay down.”
Jared moved quickly and silently down the side of the house, looking in each window. The silence was brutal. When he saw blood and gray matter spattered on a paned window, he knew what the crime scene unit would find inside.
The dog was fine. It was his owner they’d have to scrape off the walls.
DARCY WATCHED THE frenzy in the police station with an odd detachment. Jared was bent over a desk, talking with the federal agents who’d arrived just a few minutes before. Outside, night had fallen and she was cold, but she suspected that came more from the inside than out.
“Coffee?” Deputy Morales sank into the seat beside her and held out a paper cup filled halfway with steaming java.
“Thank you.”
“I checked with the hospital. Sheriff Miller’s fine. He has a nasty concussion, so they’re going to keep him overnight, but he’ll be good as new after a little time off.”
Exhaling in a rush, Darcy’s eyes stung with grateful tears. “I’m glad.”
“Cameron’s going to drive you home in a bit.” Morales studied her. “Are you all right? I mean, as much as you can be under the circumstances?”
It took Darcy a moment to gather her thoughts into something coherent. “I don’t know how I feel about what Jim did…today.”
“It was pretty much inevitable that he’d self-destruct. I don’t know if that’s any comfort or not. There’s nothing you could have done differently. You’re alive, that’s what matters.”
Darcy rolled the warm cup between her bloodless hands. “I expected to feel a sense of justice when I found Dani’s killer. Instead I still can’t believe it was Jim. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand it. And Columbo…That dog loved Jim, but he turned on him like he was a stranger.”
“Dogs are smarter than we are. They sense things we can’t.”
“Dani used to say that she couldn’t trust people who didn’t like animals, but more than that, she couldn’t trust people that animals didn’t like.”
Morales patted her knee, then excused herself, getting back to work.