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He held her gaze, his expression concerned. Worried, as if he really wanted to know, so Zoe shrugged one shoulder and took a deep breath to steady herself. “I’m shaken,” she admitted. “Terrified, if you want the truth. I knew he’d been released from the psychiatric facility eight years ago, but when I didn’t hear from him in all that time, I relaxed my guard. I figured he’d been cured of his obsession. This morning, I got the package with the charm in it.”
“Because you figured if he was still obsessed with you, he would have contacted you after he was released from the facility?” Spence asked gently.
“Exactly,” Zoe said, staring at the floor, lost in her memories, none of them good ones. Finally she looked up at him. “When we were in school together, I didn’t understand how obsessed he was with me,” she said quietly. “I was… naïve. Oblivious.” She sighed. “All I thought about was coding. The programs I created on my own. My plans to start my own business. Ethan was just the guy who sat next to me in coding class. He was pleasant. Friendly. I was the same to him. He told me stupid jokes that made me smile. I told him stupid jokes, too.
“Then he killed my father because my dad stopped him from kidnapping me.”
“He didn’t go to prison, right? He went to a psychiatric hospital instead?”
Zoe nodded. “He didn’t deliberately kill my father. He brought a gun when he came to kidnap me, and it went off accidentally. And with the way he was obsessed with me, he was clearly mentally ill.”
“How did he get hold of your bracelet?” Spence asked.
“I’d taken it off and left it on my desk during a test because it was clattering against my keyboard, then forgot to grab it because I was late for my next class. I was pretty sure Ethan’d taken it, but after he killed my father, I was too… distraught to pursue it. They’d searched his house and it wasn’t there.”
“So he’d hidden it somewhere,” Spence said.
Zoe shrugged. “Apparently.”
“Any idea how he got your current address?”
Zoe shook her head slowly. “Not a clue. Other than he knew I was into computers and knew that I loved writing programs.” She shrugged. “You can do a lot of internet surfing in eight years, and he’s a smart guy. Maybe he searched online for Zoe Peyton. Or just Zoe, until he found me. Once he knew my new last name, it would have been pretty easy to find Melbourne Solutions.” She sighed. “I probably should have changed my first name, too.” She hadn’t wanted to lose the last piece of her identity, and that had led Ethan to her door.
“Until the police catch him, we’ll never know exactly how he found you,” Spence said.
“And it doesn’t matter now,” Zoe said, lifting her head to stare at Spence. “He’s in Seattle.”
She took a deep breath to steady herself. She felt Spence’s gaze on her, and goosebumps shivered up her arms. Swallowing, she faced him again. Cleared her throat. “So what’s the plan?” she asked. “What do I have to do?”
He nodded toward the table in the eating area beside the kitchen. “Let’s sit down and talk.”
Chilled, Zoe rubbed her hands up and down her arms. Then she let her hands drop away and stood taller. She’d face this threat head on.
“I haven’t eaten yet,” she said. “I was too upset. Too worried. All I could do was pace. Are you hungry? I am, and I’m ordering pizza.”
“Pizza sounds great,” he said. “Get me pepperoni with giardiniera and I’ll be a happy man.”
Her mouth curved up in a smile. “You from Chicago or something?” It seemed odd to be discussing pizza, knowing Ethan was in Seattle, but they had to eat.
“I did a job there a while ago,” he said. “Alessandro, my principal, loved that pizza combo. Once I tried it, I realized why. Been ordering it ever since.”
Zoe nodded. “You got it.” She pulled out her phone and opened an app. Tapped in an order, then closed it and shoved the phone into her pocket. “It’ll be here in forty minutes.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “You want a beer or a glass of wine?”
“I’d love a beer, but I’m working. No alcohol.”
The reminder wiped away any comfort she’d felt as they talked about pizza. “Right. This isn’t a social call.” She grabbed a bottle of wine from the rack in the dining area and retrieved a corkscrew from a kitchen drawer. Opened the bottle, then reached for a glass from the cabinet above the wine rack. Poured in the dark red wine.
Took one sip, then sat down at the table across from him. “Sorry, but after the day I’ve had, I’m having a glass of wine.”
“Knock yourself out. But I don’t drink on the job.”
“I get it. You want a soft drink? Iced tea? Something else?” She took another sip of wine then set the glass on the table.
“Water would be great, but I’ll get it.” He held up his hand as she stood up. “I might be here a while. I need to know my way around.”
Once he’d found a glass and poured himself water, he sat back down. “Tell me everything you know about Ethan Davies.”
Zoe turned her stemless wine glass around and around as she stared at the red liquid sloshing up the sides. “I don’t know all that much,” she finally said. Looking up at him, she continued, “Like I said, we had the one coding class together. He sat down next to me the first day and said hi. Told me his name was Ethan. He didn’t talk much, but he seemed…” She shrugged. “Nice. Normal. Not a creeper. Not weird. But, as I said, I was naïve. Whenever I passed him in the hall, he said hello.” She frowned, as if remembering. “He never walked to class with anyone, though. I noticed that after a while. Thought it was a little strange, but I figured his friends weren’t in his classes. It was a big high school.”
