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Chapter 3
Zoe looked up from her computer as someone knocked, then opened her office door. Her assistant Janet walked into her office. “Got the mail, boss,” she said, setting a thin pile of envelopes on top of the bigger stack on her desk. “These looked like they needed your attention.”
Zoe nodded without looking at the growing mound of envelopes. “Thanks, Janet,” she said, glancing up with a smile. “I’ll look at them as soon as I finish this one thing for the new program.”
“Do you need anything?” Janet asked.
“Not a thing,” Zoe said without lifting her head. She was already deep into the program open on her screen.
She didn’t even notice when Janet walked out of the office and closed the door. She was so close to a solution for this bug. It was hovering at the edge of her brain, and she closed her eyes. Tried to picture what the code would look like.
Ten minutes later, she was typing furiously. This was it. She knew it. The piece she’d been missing. Smiling to herself, she stared at the screen until all the lines of code were on it. Then she leaned back in her chair and blew out a breath.
“I nailed it, you son of a bitch,” she said to the computer. It didn’t answer her. The screen just blinked steadily. Waiting for her next command.
She’d been working on this program for two months. It was the latest product in her lineup of security systems for computers, and it was going to be her best product yet. Her smile widened. Kent Dawson, aka Jeff Stewart, would be pissed as hell that she’d used the foundation of one of his programs to create the new product. But Stewart had sold the rights to all his programs when he dismantled his company.
Zoe suspected he needed the money to defend himself from murder and attempted murder charges. His attempt to murder her friend Julia hadn’t succeeded, but the whole mess had been traumatic for her friend.
Zoe had seen immediately that this particular program was exactly what she needed, so she’d bought it from the company that had acquired Stewart’s intellectual property. And the money that company had paid for Stewart’s IP hadn’t helped Stewart. Jeff had been convicted on all the charges and would spend the rest of his life in prison.
Her mouth curled up in a smile. She couldn’t wait to tell Julia what she’d done with the program. She and Julia would raise a glass of wine in celebration.
Sliding out of her Aeron chair, Zoe stretched and walked to her coffee machine. As she waited for her latte, she stared out the window at Puget Sound. A few boats were out on the sunny spring day, but she shivered as she watched them glide through the water. As far as she was concerned, March was too cold for boating.
Sliding back into her chair, she reached for the stack of envelopes on the corner of her desk. Janet dealt with most of the mail, but there were always a few things Zoe had to look at.
The top piece of mail was a small box, with her name and address printed neatly on the brown paper covering it. No return address. Postmarked Seattle.
Frowning, she turned it over. Studied it. Shook it, and it rattled. She had no idea what it could be. She hadn’t bought anything recently that was this shape or size.
She grabbed her letter opener and sliced through the tape at one end of the package. Shaking it, she watched as a small box fell out, wrapped tightly in bubble wrap.
Puzzled, she spread the pieces of bubble wrap and opened the box. Dread washed over her as she stared at the tiny silver shoe inside it.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered, slapping a hand over her mouth. She didn’t touch the shoe charm. But she couldn’t stop staring at it.
She hadn’t seen that shoe, or the charm bracelet it had been attached to, since a couple of days before her father had been killed. She’d remembered afterward that she’d taken it off during her coding test because the rattle of the charms on her keyboard had distracted her. Late for her next class, she’d forgotten about it as she bolted out of the classroom. She’d gone back to the computer classroom later, but it was gone.
She’d suspected that Ethan Davies had taken it, but she’d never had the chance to ask him. The loss of her bracelet was swept away by the trauma and pain of her father’s murder.
And this package had been mailed from Seattle. Which meant Ethan was here.
Sliding her chair away from her desk, she grabbed her phone and touched the speed dial for her sister. Zoe breathed deeply as she waited for Mel to answer, trying in vain to calm herself. To tell herself there must be another explanation.
But in her heart, she knew there wasn’t. Ethan had to be the one who’d sent her the charm. He was still obsessed with her.
After she, her mother and her sister had changed their last name and moved to Seattle thirteen years ago, Zoe hadn’t kept in contact with any of her old friends. It was hard, but she didn’t want anyone from her old life to know her new name and location.
Mel finally picked up. “Zo, I’ll call you back in a few minutes,” her sister said.
“No! This can’t wait! I got…”
“Thirty seconds, Zoe,” her sister said, ending the call.
Zoe stumbled out of her chair and paced her office, avoiding looking at her desk and the shoe glittering in the sunlight. The tiny charm flashed a warning at her. He’s here. He’s come for you.
Finally the phone she had gripped tightly in her hand rang. Her finger shaking, she pressed the button to connect the call.
