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“I’ll be right back,” he told her, running back downstairs. In the kitchen, he snatched up his phone and saw a text from an unknown number.
Even before he opened it, he knew.
On the screen was a picture of a middle-aged woman sitting in the window of what looked like a café.
The accompanying caption read, ‘Deliver Samara to me within the next hour or she dies’.
An hour.
Was that enough time for Tom and Chloe to find where this woman was and catch the stalker before he could kill her?
“Mike? What is it?”
Michael tried to turn the phone before Samara could see what was on it, but she must have followed him down because she was already right behind him and by her sharp intake of air, he knew she had already seen it.
“Don’t worry,” he said quickly. “I'm going to send this to Chloe and Tom. They have an hour. That should be enough time for them to track down this café.”
“Or I could just do what he said.” Her tone and her face were frantic. “We could set a trap. You could wire me, follow me, find out where he wants to meet, and then grab him when he comes for me.”
While that might work, they could never set all of that up in just sixty minutes. “I can't let you do that,” he said honestly. “Have faith, Samara. He messed up sending us a photo of his intended victim. We can find this café. We can find her. We can find him.”
“Michael,” she whimpered helplessly.
He could imagine what it felt like to be in Samara’s position. To know that an innocent woman was going to die just because someone wanted to emotionally blackmail her into giving up her life. He wanted to say something to take her fears and pain away. He wanted to promise her that this would be over today.
Since he couldn’t do any of those things, he did the only thing he could. He wrapped an arm around her, pulled her close, and held her tightly.
*****
10:10 A.M.
Maeve Franklin sipped her coffee and ran through the mental checklist of jobs she needed to get done between now and Christmas.
Finish the Christmas shopping.
Buy groceries for the Christmas day family lunch.
Put up the last of the decorations.
Prepare the house for visiting relatives.
Pick up her in-laws from the airport.
Start work on the mountain of laundry that had taken over her dining room table.
Wrap gifts.
Dust.
Vacuum.
Sweep.
Mop.
Roast the turkey.
Cook the vegetables.
