“I think you already know the answer.”

“Give me a guess.”

He sat down. “It’s been several months now. Unless you have some sort of massive trigger event, I doubt you’ll recover many more memories.”

“That’s not written in stone.”

“No it’s not. It’s not even written in pencil. It’s possible you could wake up tomorrow with everything intact. It’s also possible I’ll hit the lotto Saturday night.”

“Not very probable though.”

“I’m afraid not.”

* * *

The next afternoon, Sarah brought the shop mail in and laid it on Laura’s desk. Around closing time Laura finally got a chance to go through it. Sifting through the envelopes one in particular caught her attention.

The unstamped, uncancelled manila envelope bore the shop’s address but no return label. The font looked computer-generated and it was addressed to “Laura Spaulding.”

A cold chill crept through her as she grabbed a letter opener. After poking at it and determining it didn’t appear to contain anything but paper, she carefully slit the end open. She carefully held the opposite end with just the tips of her fingers and shook the paper out onto her desk where it landed print side up.

It was set in large-scale print in landscape mode.


TAG! I’M CLOSER THAN YOU THINK! ;)


She screamed for Steve.

* * *

Thomas donned a latex glove to pick up the envelope and paper and put them in an evidence bag. Rob was comforting Laura in the other corner of the office.

“He had to put it right in the mailbox. That means he was outside. He could have been one of our customers today!”

“I know, honey. I know.” Rob was out of words and wishing he’d never took their peace for granted. The idea of the attacker being that close to Laura both scared and infuriated him.

“Laura, have you checked your email lately?” Thomas asked.

She shook her head.

“Could you, please?”

She nodded and sat down in front of the laptop. Sure enough.


So how’d you like it?


Thomas ordered another trace of the message and told her to send a reply.

Laura thought about it. “What do I say? That he’d succeeded in freaking me out? That I’m scared again?”

“Say whatever you want, Laura,” Thomas urged. “I’ll tell you if it needs to be changed.”

“Maybe his game isn’t to finish me off, but to keep me in terror for years unless I regained my memory.”

Rob watched her set her chin and start typing. He read over her shoulder while she composed and Thomas approved it before she hit send.


Hey, chickenshit. Why didn’t you just come in and say hi? I’ve been looking forward to having a talk with you.


If she’d written any more her rage would have spilled out into the message and the stalker would have the satisfaction of seeing how disturbed she really was. As she’d left it, she came off only sounding really pissed.

“It’s bad enough I feel like a prisoner.”

“Then you give any ground and reveal how you truly feel,” Thomas said.

They provided Thomas with a list of all the day’s customers before Rob followed Laura home and waited for her to lock the door and arm the alarm. He had to return to work for a couple of hours, although he was beginning to wonder if he shouldn’t look into paramedic jobs in Montana.

* * *

Laura tried watching TV before she finally gave up and went to bed. Exhaustion took over and she dropped off in a few minutes.

The condo dream returned. This time the shadowy form solidified a little more.

Not enough for her to recognize.

Over the next couple of nights, the dream reoccurred until, finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

Laura wanted the condo emptied, and whatever wouldn’t fit in the house they packed and moved to the warehouse. Before closing the door one last time she completely searched every cabinet and closet just to make sure the journals weren’t there. Lately, she spent every spare moment she could looking for the journals.

A week later, and still no reply from the stalker.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Sir.”

Rob wrapped his arms around her, trying to comfort her. “I wish I had answers for you. Hang in there, baby girl. They’ll catch him.”

“I wish I believed that.”

There’d been several false alarms. Once, Thomas told her, they had a lead in Michigan, just to discover the computer they tracked the email to was owned by a single, elderly, retired woman who used to teach biology in a middle school. Not only did she not know Laura, she’d never been to Florida, and she was the only one who ever used or had access to her computer.

When Rob suggested delaying their wedding party plans, Laura nearly took his head off.

“I’m not living my life around what could happen!”

“Laur, all I’m suggesting is we take some time—”

“Look, we changed our life because of this madman. We live in a friggin’ fortress, I can’t even walk my dog without having a loaded gun in my hand. I am not giving up our wedding party!”

She stormed down the hall, slamming the bedroom door behind her hard enough to rattle the windows.

Rob went after her and found her lying facedown on the bed, sobbing.

He lay down next to her and rubbed her back. “That’s three with a cane. In the morning.”

She nodded. “Yes, Sir,” she whispered before she rolled over and curled up next to him, eventually falling asleep in his arms.

* * *

The dream came again. This time she didn’t wait for the shadow to appear. Storming down the hallway, she stood in the spot where the shadow always appeared.

“Well, come on! What’s wrong? Are you afraid of me?”

The shadow began to coalesce and she reached out, grabbing for it. When her arm passed through thin air she screamed, “Come on, you bastard! What are you waiting for?”

The shadow drifted back out the door, wafting away into sunlight.

Rob startled when she sat up, now wide awake.

“Honey, are you okay?”

She nodded, slightly disoriented. “I’m okay.”

He watched her. “You don’t look okay.”

“I’m fine.” She wasn’t. Stress ate away at her and she knew she wouldn’t rest in peace until she had some sort of resolution.

Or maybe she would be resting in peace if she didn’t find some sort of resolution.

* * *

Outside of spending time alone with Rob and work, her writing was Laura’s only true relief. With other people around her all day and customers to take care of, she could shuffle her problems and stress to the side.

She was teaching a Saturday afternoon class when Don Kern walked in. The students were watching a video about underwater navigation in the darkened classroom. Laura scooched her chair back a little so she could observe him through the darkened classroom window without being seen.

She watched as Sarah talked with him. He appeared to ask her a question and she answered, pointing to the regulators. He smiled and walked over to the display and browsed.

Laura knew there were only a few minutes left on the video.

Wait a minute. This is my shop. Why should I be nervous?

When the video ended, she covered the rest of the material. Then she followed the students out into the showroom after class and headed for the counter.

“Laura.”

She fought the urge to stiffen and turned to face him. “Yes?”

The green eyes still struck her as odd, indefinable. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks. What can I do for you, Mr. Kern?”

“I wanted to get some class information for a friend of mine.”

“Oh, that’s good. Did Sarah get you set up?”

“Yes, she gave me the information.” He glanced at his watch. “Listen, how are you doing?”

Haven’t we covered that question? “I’m just fine. Got married a few weeks ago.”

“Oh? Congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

He acted like he wanted to say something else. Then, “How are you doing with that other—”

“I’m sorry, was there anything else you needed, Mr. Kern? I have a lot to get done today.”

His brow furrowed, but he shook his head. “No, just wanted to say hi.”

“Thanks.”

He left and Sarah walked over to her. “Well?”

Laura shrugged. “I chopped him off at the knees. I didn’t give him a chance to say much.”

“Didn’t hit on you or anything?”

“Nope. Said he just needed some information.”

“Yeah, I gave him a class schedule.” She looked out the window. “Hey, he drives a Beemer.”

Laura dismissed the incident and went back to work. She still had several details to finalize for the wedding party. Rob met her at the shop and they went out to dinner. She filled him in on the day’s events, culminating with her visit from Don Kern.

Rob got “that look” on his face, the one Laura knew meant he was going to delve into super-protective Sir mode. “I really don’t like the idea of that guy in the shop.”

“He’s a customer.” She regretted saying anything to Rob about the visit.

“I don’t like him.”

“Getting jealous are we?” She knew what buttons to push.

“No. You know me better than that.”

Yes, she did.

She smiled. “Don’t worry, Sir. I’m staying safe.”

He smiled. “Good girl.”

* * *

She spent the rest of the day working on finishing paperwork for the shop. Bill was due to arrive in three days. Laura wanted to spend her time with him, not worrying about work.

She also knew Rob was counting down the days until Bill’s arrival, glad to have one more set of eyes watching over her. They had no way of knowing if MedicineMan would really attack again or not, but he wasn’t willing to take chances with her safety.

It also meant they hadn’t gone up to the club or over to their friend’s houses since their return from Montana. They were afraid if MedicineMan was paying close attention to Laura that he might start stalking them, too, as a way to get to her.

Or as a way to gain information to blackmail Rob and cost him his job.

Laura settled for lots of phone conversations with Shayla and the others.

The day before Bill’s scheduled arrival, Laura set out to clean the house. With a young Labbybrat around, it didn’t take long for fur balls to breed under the sofa. The kitchen first, and she worked her way through the living and dining rooms, their bedroom, the spare bedroom, and finally to the office where the greatest clutter accumulated.

She’d tried to put the missing journals out of her mind, but they were always there, close to the surface.

What the hell did I do with them?

For the first time, another answer occurred. What if somehow her attacker had them? But that didn’t make sense. How would he have gotten them?

Unless he knew what he was looking for.

Once again that brought her around to the possibility the attacker was someone close to her. And that just didn’t seem possible.

* * *

Rob drove Laura to Tampa to meet Bill’s plane. She took a notepad along to work but got carsick and had to put it aside. By the time they arrived in Tampa she felt better, and when Bill arrived she was overjoyed to see him. They ate dinner with Steve and Carol. The next day, Rob was relieved to leave for work and not have Laura alone.

Laura decided to take time off from the shop. Probably a good thing, because with the stress she thought she was coming down with something. After dinner that night, she hugged her brother and Rob good night and headed for bed.

The condo dream returned. This time she started out with the condo clean and tidy, carpet runner in place on the floor. There was a knock on the door and she went to answer it. A voice she couldn’t understand said something, and when she opened the door a black shadow raced in.

She screamed, waking both Rob and herself. Bill knocked on their bedroom door a moment later.

Rob went to the door. “She’s okay. Just a dream.”

Rob blocked her view, but Laura knew from Bill’s stance he held a handgun.

“Sure?”

Rob nodded. “She’s okay.”

Rob closed the door and sat next to her. “Don’t you think it’s time you went back to Dr. Collins or Dr. Simpson?”

“I don’t have time.”