 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Kellyanne Berg is being stalked by Oscar Gallagher, a deranged fan of her trendy comic book, SHELEEN. He is arrested after punching her cousin, contractor Dick Taylor, at her mother Elise’s funeral. Berg also takes out a restraining order on Gallagher, but after he is released he busts in her Rosemont studio apartment in a drunken rage. Gallagher is arrested a second time and the police issue Berg a direct beeper to their switchboard. "Use it if Gallagher bothers you again."
Berg’s story makes The Chicago Tribune because of SHELEEN’S popularity. Pete Curtain, an intimidating rent-a-cop with delusions of becoming a celebrity bodyguard, reads it and offers to help Berg.
"The thing is, stalkers are obsessed," he tells Berg. "Now, I was in Ranger school in the Army. I flunked out, but I learned enough so I can dispose of Gallagher but make it look like I scared him off. We both win! This nut-bar’s history, and I make a splash in the news." Berg wants no part of murder, but Curtain has other ideas and pays a call on Gallagher in jail.
When Gallagher is released after a 48-hour psychiatric evaluation, he is waylaid by Taylor. "Hurt my cousin again, I’ll kill you." The next evening Berg is shanghaied from her apartment and awakes in her mother’s empty Evanston home, where Gallagher tortures her then activates the beeper as he leaves; at the same time Taylor dies in a suspicious fall while working alone at his McKinley park job site.
The police arrest Gallagher but can’t prevent him from writing and calling Berg from jail. She moves in with her agent, Marcia Holmes, but Gallagher finds out and harasses her there. All the police can suggest is Berg leave Illinois until Gallagher’s trial. She reluctantly agrees, unaware that Curtain follows her to her grandfather Osgood’s hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Taylor still owned a bungalow built by Osgood in 1922.
Berg turns into a hermit, terrified Gallagher will track her down. Desperate to figure out why her life has frayed, she spends weeks studying stalkers on the internet, particular a local story about a patrolman, Jeb Harvey, who quit his job after his sister Tess was harassed and killed at work by her ex-boyfriend. Harvey: "There’s something wrong with the law when a cop can’t even protect his family from a maniac." Soon after Berg receives e-mail: "I’ve missed you. See you soon. Troy." (Troy is the name of Sheleen’s boyfriend.) The Chicago police verify Gallagher is free, released on a technicality. Terrified, Berg is tempted to call Curtain, but decides to visit Harvey and ask his advice, hoping the ex-cop can sympathize with her dilemma.
Harvey, disillusioned by Tess’ murder, refuses to see Berg, but her plight haunts him. He changes his mind and makes Berg an offer: "You can’t rely on others to protect you. That’s your job. Tess was too scared to learn, but if you want, I can show you how." He trains Berg on firearms and concealed weapons, and Harvey’s friend, Danny Rand, a karate teacher and the CRPD defense tactics instructor, introduces her to self-defense. Berg grows more confident the more she learns; even nicer, Berg and Rand take a shine to each other.
One evening Berg’s bungalow is ransacked while she is studying with Rand. The CRPD telephone Harvey looking for Berg, and he calls Rand’s dojo to warn Berg that Gallagher may be in town. Rand answers, then there is gunfire. Harvey beats the police to the dojo, where Rand has been shot in the back and Gallagher has Berg at gunpoint. Gallagher tries to escape by using Berg as a shield, but when he wraps his arm around her neck she risks disarming him with a concealed knife. Gallagher tries to retrieve his weapon and Harvey shoots him in the head.
Rand survives but will need extensive physical therapy. Berg tells him, "You’re not going through this alone. You helped me, now I’m gong to help you." Later, strolling outside the hospital, she senses someone following her. It’s Curtain. Security questions him and Curtain confesses he was shadowing Berg. "But only because Gallagher hired me to prove she was making false accusations against him while threatening his life. Now that he’s dead, I owe it to him to find if he was set up or not." Curtain claims he never offered to kill Gallagher, and security has no reason to doubt him, but Berg suspects her troubles are not over.
That night Berg returns to the bungalow after visiting hours and Curtain accosts her in her bedroom. The man brags about helping Gallagher terrorize Berg after she rejected his help. "I was ready to whack him the second you said so, but you never did. Not even after I killed your cousin, or I helped Gallagher send that e-mail from `Troy’." Now Curtain seeks satisfaction by finishing what Gallagher started, but Berg puts up a savage struggle. Her neighbors overhear and call the police. When Curtain hears their sirens he stops, content to try again another day, but Berg shoves him out a window and Curtain cracks his skull open on the sidewalk.
Berg is taken to the trauma center. She claims Curtain’s death was an accident caused by the struggle, but tells Harvey the truth when he comes to see her. "Let’s just keep this our secret," Harvey suggests. "But, in my book, you did what you did to survive, and that’s all right by me."
