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“Yes.”
“Then your mistake is understandable. I’m Cameron Pope, his cousin.”
“I’m Dani Owens. I’ve just moved here to teach first grade this fall.”
Cameron’s smiled widened. “Welcome to Jubilee,” he said.
“Thank you,” Dani said. “I saw your dog, and I have to ask. What breed is it? I have never seen a dog that size in my life.”
“Oh, that’s Ghost. He’s just an overgrown German shepherd.”
Dani laughed. “Overgrownis an understatement. I didn’t know white was a color of that breed, either. I’ve learned two new things today.”
“And you’ve met another member of the Pope family,” Cameron said. “Nice to meet you, Dani.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Dani said, and moved on.
She put her purchases in the car and headed home,keeping an eye on the cars behind her and the cars who were coming toward her, looking at the faces as she went. Alex Bing was here somewhere, and she needed to see him before he saw her.
Now that Rance Woodley had received the info regarding the identification of their suspected shooter, the sheriff’s department was in a constant state of turmoil. It was like walking into a den of red ants. Every visible employee was in motion, fielding phone calls, running searches, following up on leads.
Having the tag number of the car was a huge lead, and their expectations were high until the information came back. The car had been rented in a suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, by a man named Dirk Conrad, but it had already been returned, and the street and number the rental car company gave them was for an address that did not exist.
Rance groaned. They had fingerprints and DNA for a man who was not in the system, and now they learned he’d pulled the whole thing off under an assumed name.
If they hadn’t had the security footage, it could have been claimed that the man did not exist, so they ran another story, adding clips from the security footage when it aired anew, hoping someone, somewhere, would recognize him.
Sonny Warren was as disappointed as Rance Woodley about the recent twist to the investigation. Woodley had requested security footage from the car rental agency, only to learn their security system was out of order, and had been for the better part of a week.
“I’m running the story again, but this time adding footage we got from the hotel security cameras, rather than the composite sketch. Hopefully, someone will recognize him,” Rance said.
“I have the journal back now,” Sonny said. “If it’s okay with you, I’m going to call in the Pope families and see if anyone has knowledge about this journal and who might have had it.”
“Yes, good idea,” Rance said. “Just update me afterward.”
“Absolutely. I’ll make some calls to find out when I can get them in here for an interview. I’ll be in touch.”
As soon as they disconnected, Sonny called Cameron. So far, the only member of the Pope family who knew anything about the journal’s existence was Aaron. It was time to find out how much, if anything, they knew.
Cameron and Rusty were outside, with Ghost running between the flower bed Rusty was weeding andthe fence Cameron was building around the backyard. She’d never gotten over the wounded bear coming into the yard before they were married and Cameron having to put it down.
Then last week, Rusty took a pregnancy test, and it was positive. The utter joy Cameron felt turned into instant protective mode. He remembered her fears of raising children with a forest full of wild animals able to walk into their backyard at free will, and ordered fencing.
It was delivered yesterday, and except for a quick trip to town this morning, Cameron had been in the backyard digging holes to set posts. He was measuring the distance needed to dig the next posthole when his phone rang. He saw Jubilee PD come up on caller ID and put down the posthole digger to answer.
“Hello?”
“Cameron, it’s Sonny. Got a minute?”
“Sure. What’s up?” Cameron asked.
“I need a favor,” Sonny said, and began to explain, then wound up with a question. “Did you have any knowledge of the existence of such a journal?”
Cameron was stunned. “No, never.”
“Do you think some of the elders might?” Sonny asked.
“Possibly, but I can’t say for certain,” Cameron said.
