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table beside the phone. She called the shop and waited for the message
to play. It rang twice and then her own voice came on.
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 Hello, you ve reached Fields of Flowers. I m unavailable right now,
but if you leave your name and number, I ll get back to you as soon as
possible. Thanks and have a nice day.
She waited for the beep, and then left a message.  Hi! Just doing a
test hope this works. After hanging up she redialled to check if the
message had recorded and if she could retrieve it. Yep, there was her
voice but& Oh another message had been recorded as well. Might as
well listen and see what work awaited her tomorrow. A raspy voice
came over the phone.  Stephanie, I know where you are and I m coming
for you soon. Next time the blood will be real.
Screaming, she dropped the phone. Waves of hot and then cold
washed over her. Her heart was pounding and she couldn t think,
couldn t breathe. Be calm, be calm, she told herself. Breathe like Jake
showed you& Random thoughts ricocheted through her mind and she
struggled to focus on even one of them. Oh God, he knew where she
was! What was she going to do? She had to find Jake but where was
he? He hadn t said anything this morning. Looking frantically around
the room, she wondered if there was a business card with his cell phone
number. There was nothing in the living room, but maybe in the bed-
room. Hurrying into the next room, she scanned the night table and
pulled open the drawer. A gun was laying there. She froze and stared at
it she hated guns, but lots of people had them for protection. Her hand
hovered over it. Should she take it? No. She d never even held a real
gun, let alone used one. She d probably shoot herself. But, once Jake
was here& Well, he d know what to do with it.
Continuing her search, she checked on top of the dresser before start-
ing to pull open drawers. Socks, underwear, T-shirts& Yes! There was
large file folder. Maybe she d find a letter head with his number on it.
She glanced at the label and then did a double take. Her name was on
the top.
That s strange, she said to herself, opening the file and randomly
pulling out a page. Her own likeness stared back at her. Trembling, she
sat down on the bed and began to look through the file. There was a
copy of her birth certificate, the notice of her parents death, her high
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school diploma& Flipping over more pages, she found a stack of pho-
tos all of her and all taken without her knowledge. Her hands started to
shake and she could barely pick up the pictures. There she was the gro-
cery store, in the mall, walking down the street, unlocking her front
door&
Pushing the file off her lap she back away from the incriminating evid-
ence. Oh no, oh no& Jake was the stalker! This couldn t be happening
to her. Not Jake& Please God, not Jake& It couldn t be real& But it
was. Why else would he have all these pictures of her?
Suddenly, she recalled the phone message and knew she had to get
away before Jake returned, but where could she go? Paula s house was
the only place she could think of& And what about Coco? She couldn t
leave the cat here. What if he hurt her? And she had to tell the police.
Grabbing her purse, she slung it over her shoulder and then stuffed Coco
into her pet crate. As fast as possible she hurried down the hallway and
into the elevator. The floor numbers seemed to move by so slowly.
Five& Four& Three& Two& Main floor!
Almost running across the lobby and parking lot, she headed for her
car, the cat carrier bumping against her thigh and Coco yowling in
protest inside. Once in the car, she quickly pulled out of the parking lot
and onto the street. Just as she was turning the corner, she saw Jake s car
coming down the road.
 Please, please, please don t let him see me. she prayed. Taking the
corner too quickly, Coco s pet crate slipped across the seat and another
sad wail emitted from the cage.  I m sorry baby, I m sorry, but we have
to get away. Fumbling in her purse, she found her cell phone and
called the police.
 Hello? This is Stephanie Fields. Is Officer Carter in? No? Then can
you give him this message? Tell him I called and there was another
threatening message, this time on my answering machine at work. The
stalker is Jake. She thought she d choke on the words. Another turn
was coming up and she was going too fast. She dropped the phone,
needing both hands on the wheel to manoeuvre the corner. Glancing
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into the rear view mirror, she didn t see anyone behind her. Possibly
Jake hadn t noticed her car. Maybe she was safe, after all. A shiver
swept over her somehow she doubted that.
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Chapter 17
Jake headed for home both frustrated and excited. The frustration
stemmed from the fact that several leads he d been following had turned
into dead ends. With all of the experience he had in hiding information
and creating bogus identities, he d erroneously assumed his task would
be easy. He had been wrong and it didn t sit well with him. His hands
flexed on the steering wheel as his thoughts drifted to what had
happened at Stephanie s house last night. The police had questioned
him extensively. When people started questioning his background too
much he got nervous. He d never slipped up before but there was al-
ways a chance& Pushing the problem from his mind, he decided to
concentrate on a more pleasing topic.
In the back seat of the car, he had grocery bags filled with the neces-
sary ingredients for a special meal. He was planning on telling
Stephanie the whole truth tonight and figured a nice dinner and a little [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]