“At least it’s only the one window this time, and I can drive it home. If they’d have made good with that second shot, it would have been all over but the shoutin’ for yours truly,” I replied.

I peered into the back window of the Chevy and surveyed the damage. Amazingly, the back glass had absorbed the full impact of the shotgun blast, and though shattered glass was scattered all over the interior of the car, there was no further damage.

If he had fired an immediate second shot, things would have turned out differently, I thought. It had been close. I reached up, touched the pendant that hung from my neck, and said a silent prayer of thanks.

“It was good of you to come down, Patricia. I thought things were about to get a little iffy with that investigator. You were just the sort of personal reference I really needed.”

“You want to tell me what this was all about?” she asked in a concerned voice.

“Tonya Causey, Leon Wren, and a lot more stuff besides that. But let’s get out of here, and I’ll fill you in completely. What say we get back to town and find a place where we can talk. For some reason or other, I don’t feel all that welcome here.”

“I know an all-night joint on Abercorn, near the mall,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll follow you,” I replied.

It was after four in the morning as we left the town of Hinesville fading in the rearview mirror. The air blowing in through the open back of my car was very cold on my neck. But at least it wasn’t raining. Less than an hour later we were sitting in a booth at the Waffle House.

The waitress set two cups of coffee on the table and walked away. As I reached for a packet of sweetener to put in my coffee I looked at my hand—it was trembling.

I poured the contents of the packet into the cup, and as I stirred I took a survey of myself. The muscles of my chest and abdomen were rigid, my shoulders were knotted with tension, and my jaw was clenched.

Breathe, Tanner. Take a deep breath, and now take another one. Relax, relax. Let your muscles sag. Let them go limp and rest. Let it go—let it all go.

My body was reacting to the stress. I had come close to being killed and had also come close to taking two lives—maybe even a third, counting Dewayne. It’s not like in the movies, where someone commits all sorts of mayhem and walks away as if nothing happened. You cannot come away from such an experience unaffected. The only person who could do so is a psychopath. When I lifted the cup to my lips my hand was steady again.