lack of significant casualties. And, though it was never widely known outside the law enforcement community, Sheriff Buck Lawson of Hanover County, North Carolina, could be thanked for alerting local authorities to the likely whereabouts and intentions of the perpetrator.
Jeremiah Allen Berman was taken down by a single bullet to the head seventeen seconds after his shooting rampage began. It seemed much longer than that.
“The browser history on his stolen cell phone showed he’d been stalking you for weeks,” Agent Ledbetter explained. He’d been our liaison for information, keeping Miles and Cisco and me separated from the others while still making sure we were informed. “Probably since he got out of prison. You’ve had links to this dog show on your website since February, and it was easy to track your movements on Facebook.”
Though the April afternoon was at least as mild as it had been yesterday, it was cold in the shadows where we sat on the bleachers, or at least it seemed so to me. Even with the jacket Miles had draped over my shoulders and the paper cup of coffee that warmed my hands, even with the gentle happy heat of the golden retriever who pressed against my legs, I couldn’t stop the occasional shiver.
“Berman acquired some basic computer skills in prison,” Ledbetter went on, “and probably picked up the rest while he was living with his brother in Georgia. The phone belonged to his fourteen-year-old niece. But there’s no doubt he’d been planning this for a long time.”
I had managed to get a call through to Buck. He explained that Berman had sworn vengeance on my father, who was the judge who sent him to prison, but he’d been annoyingly vague on the details. I supposed he was right—details didn’t matter. What mattered was that no one had been seriously hurt, and Berman would never threaten anyone else again.
Miles said, “So it was Berman who tried to get Raine to leave her room last night?”
Ledbetter nodded somberly. “Most likely. One of the hotel guests was able to identify him as the man who tried to get her to let him into the building yesterday, as well.”
“Sarah,” I said softly, repressing a shudder. “She was so lucky he didn’t hurt her.”
“There were quite a few people around yesterday evening, and he probably wasn’t willing to take that chance. If he could’ve gotten her alone inside the building, though, it might have been another story.”
His face tightened, though whether the white lines that appeared around his lips were from the pain associated with his wound or from the memory of Marcie, I couldn’t tell. “Apparently,” he went on, “Marcie left her room to walk her dog shortly after Berman called your room last night. We’re still matching DNA, but I suspect it will show it was Berman who attacked her. He had a picture of you on his phone with Marcie’s dog, and she was wearing a sweatshirt and baseball cap just like yours. In the dark, he may have mistaken her for you.”
I closed my eyes and had to take long, deep breaths to keep down the bitter gorge that wanted to rise in my throat. Miles’s arm went around my shoulders.
“He had a dog bite on his hand,” Agent Ledbetter added. When I opened my eyes, I saw the faintest ghost of a wan smile touch his lips. “It’s likely that might have affected his aim. The dog might not have been able to save her mistress, but who knows how many other lives she saved today.”
I entwined my fingers in Cisco’s fur, leaned my head into Miles’s shoulder, and tried very hard not to cry.
* * *
“Thank God,” Wyn kept saying. “Thank God no one was killed. Do you know how many of these things don’t end that way? Just… thank God you were able to get the police there in time.” She reached across and squeezed Buck’s hand.
They sat on the small deck Buck had constructed on the back of his house, sipping beers and watching the sun go down over the treetops. Soon he would fire up the grill and take some steaks out of the fridge, but not yet. For the moment, he just wanted to be still and be with her, and be glad that this time, this time everything had turned out all right.
He had turned off the television news and the computer and put his phone on “emergency only.” He had talked to Raine, he had talked to Roe;