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Jeri’s private investigator tracks down Officer Ozment, who now works at the Pelican Point hotel. The investigator shows Ozment a photocopy of the Lanny Verno case report. Ozment does not remember anything about the case until the investigator asks him whether a lawyer, Ross Bannick, might have been the alleged victim whose name was blacked out. That triggers Ozment’s memory. Thirteen years ago, Lanny painted Bannick’s house and claimed Bannick did not pay him. Bannick claimed Lanny did not finish the job. Lanny pulled a gun on Bannick. With no witnesses or evidence, the judge dismissed the case, enraging Bannick.
While the investigator is speaking with Ozment, the hotel staff record the license number on the investigator’s car and trace it back to Hertz rentals.
Lacy meets with Jeri at a hotel. Jeri gives her the complaint about the judge, calling herself “Betty Roe”. She has included only three of the murders in the complaint: Lanny Verno, Lanny’s supervisor Dunwoody, and Perry Kronke. Those seem to be the ones most directly connected to the judge. Now the BJC has 45 days to investigate the complaint before they deliver it to Bannick. If they find evidence for the murders, they will have to go to the police. The BJC does not have the authority to arrest anyone.
Jeri begins to cry from relief. She is almost at the end of her rope. Lacy feels guilty that she has not been more sympathetic. She promises to do everything she can to bring the judge to justice and to protect Jeri.
Jeri tells Lacy about the two women murdered by Bannick. One was Eileen Nickleberry, a sorority girl who humiliated him at a party and was murdered 13 years later. The other was Ashley Barrasso, who had classes with Bannick in law school and was murdered six years after graduation. Lacy asks Jeri how she got the information about the women. Jeri tells her about an informant who collects crime data and passes Jeri anything that seems to match Bannick’s MO. Lacy finally promises Jeri she will file her complaint and launch the investigation.
Lacy presents Jeri’s case to Sadelle—who has an encyclopedic memory of most of the cases that BJC has investigated in the last 50 years—and Darren Trope, one of the junior investigators. They both have doubts. This is not the kind of investigation they typically do. Lacy’s plan is to work on the case very quietly for 30 days, reevaluate matters, and if necessary turn it over to the police.
Tuesday morning, Lacy and Darren drive to Harrison County to speak to Sheriff Napier about the Verno-Dunwoody murders five months earlier. They confirm that the details match the judge’s previous kills.
On day ten, the investigation is moving slowly. Lacy and her team discover that Ross Bannick purchased a gray pickup matching the one seen at the post office the night of the Verno-Dunwoody murders. He sold it one month after the murders. The judge apparently has a long history of buying and selling nondescript vehicles.
On day 13 of the investigation, Lacy and Darren fly to Marathon, Florida to investigate the murder of Perry Kronke, the lawyer who did not hire Bannick 20 years ago. Once again, they confirm that the details match Bannick’s MO.
The story jumps back in time two years and switches to Bannick’s point of view on the day he kills Kronke. Bannick had purchased a boat the year before and rented the slip for it nearby, establishing himself as a familiar face in the area. On the day, he had run his boat up close to Kronke’s, jumped aboard, and crushed Kronke’s skull with his telescoping baton. Bannick then strangled him, thinking all the while of the letter in which Kronke informed him that he would not be hired. All the other summer interns were offered jobs. Bannick believes the reason he was rejected was a rumor that he was gay.
Jeri is at loose ends. She has filed her complaint, and she has nothing else to do. She no longer has any control over the thing that consumed her life for 20 years. Jeri cannot get it out of her head. From her decades of research into serial killers, she feels sure that Bannick does not want to be caught, but he does want someone to know what he is doing. He loves the game, and he thrives on the planning and perfect execution. Jeri fears Bannick will keep killing if he is not stopped, and she wonders how many people are still on his list.
Jeri gets out an old word processor and types out a letter to the judge, telling him that the BJC is investigating his last three murders. She debates the pros and cons of exposing Lacy to the judge, but she decides Bannick is too smart to attack Lacy directly, and Lacy can obviously take care of herself.
She types a second note: a poem containing details about the murder of Eileen, the girl who embarrassed Bannick at the frat party. Delivering the letters, Jeri basks in the satisfaction of knowing that the hunt is over and the endgame is in motion. She figures Lacy will eventually turn the case over to the state police or the FBI, and Bannick will never know who had been stalking him.
That night, Jeri receives a message from one of her informants telling her that he may have found another of Bannick’s victims killed four months ago, but Jeri does not have the energy to pursue it. He tells her the killer must be stopped, and she assures him that the investigation is underway.
On day 20 of the investigation, Lacy and her team are still spinning their wheels. They have no motive or concrete evidence to link Bannick to the victims beyond the mere coincidence of his having had contact with all of them. It looks more and more like they will have to give up and send the case to law enforcement.
Later the same day, Lacy meets with the lawyer representing her in a claim against the crooked land developer who killed her partner Hugo in a staged car crash and almost killed her. If the case is ever resolved, Lacy is likely to walk away with millions. She wonders what she would do with that much money.
This section launches the second act of the story and the rising action. Once Jeri delivers the complaint, Lacy has no choice but to investigate. Her only decision is whether she and the BJC will do the initial investigation themselves or turn it over directly to formal law enforcement. Lacy decides to take it on herself for two reasons: First, Jeri and Lacy are working out the beginnings of a friendship. That proto-friendship inspires Lacy with a degree of loyalty. Lacy’s second reason for taking on the case is that she still possesses a craving for novelty and excitement that mirrors that of her brother Gunther, though in Lacy’s case, it is less often expressed than it should be.
Jeri’s life has revolved around her pursuit of justice and vengeance for so long that without that impetus, she–like the judge–has few internal resources to fall back on. Like him, she seeks out a stimulus to relieve her internal pressure. Bannick has been escalating his activities over the last few years, as his kills come closer together. Now Jeri escalates her behavior as well, illustrating the theme of Gazing into the Abyss. She goes from an investigation of the past to engaging the judge directly. She justifies herself with the thought that catching and stopping him is worth putting herself and Lacy at risk. Her unacknowledged motive may be that, just as he wants someone to know that he is out there, she wants him to know that someone has found him.
The author leaves more loose ends. Jeri never finds a motive for the murder of Ashley Barrasso, and later Bannick will claim that he was not the one who killed her. One of Jeri’s contacts also tells her about a murder matching Bannick’s MO that takes place after Verno. Jeri chooses not to follow up, and the identity of the latest victim is never confirmed. The author’s intention in leaving out the solutions to those murders may be to accurately reflect the process of the legal system, in which loose ends are not always tied up in a neat bow. Some mysteries go forever unsolved.
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By John Grisham