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“Because he was your boss?”
“So? I don’t have Hunter’s number.”
Keira rolls her eyes. “No, but he has yours, I’ll bet.” She looks over at Hunter.
“Of course I do.”
“Typical,” she says, and then turns back to me again. “Lucian told me that after you blocked his number, he realized his mistake. He was also worried his wife might find out what he was doing, so all the subsequent messages came from burners.”
“I can’t believe I went to him for help.”
“No, neither could he, evidently. He told me he panicked then, especially when you said you were gonna report it to the cops.”
“Is that why he played it down… tried to pretend it was all in my imagination?”
“Yeah. He got scared. That’s why he stopped sending the photographs… at least for a while. Just before you left SKJ Robotics, he sent a few more.”
“Why did he do that?” I ask.
“He claimed he wasn’t sure, but I got the feeling he was hoping you might turn to him for help again.”
“Why would I when he’d been so dismissive before?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “Don’t look for logical explanations here. There aren’t any. And like I say, that’s just my gut feeling. He never really explained why he did that… not with any degree of satisfaction, anyway.”
“Okay… but having stopped after I left, why did he start up again?”
“Because he didn’t really stop,” she says and I shake my head, feeling confused. It’s easily done. It comes from being so tired.
“What does that mean?” Hunter puts my question for me and we both stare at Keira, waiting.
“It means he carried on following you, taking photographs of you, and after a few days, he tried sending them. Except they bounced back.”
“Yeah, because I’d changed phones.”
“Exactly. He didn’t know that though, so he kept trying for a while, until he worked it out for himself. He said he was desolate after that, believing he’d never be able to communicate with you again. Until the discrepancy was found in your final paycheck.”
“What discrepancy?” Hunter looks from Keira to me, raising his eyebrows.
“It was nothing, really. They’d forgotten to pay me some vacation allowance, that’s all. I had to call them, and they sent me a check.”
“They couldn’t just pay you electronically?”
“No. My bank details were wiped from their system when I left.”
He nods his head and looks back at Keira. “Wicks wasn’t responsible for the problem with the paycheck,” she says. “But he found out about it, and overheard someone in the HR department saying they needed to contact you. He realized then that he might be able to get hold of your new number through them. He knew he was going too far with the whole thing… that he’d already gone too far, really, and that what he was doing was wrong. Only by that stage, he didn’t know how to stop. He said he knew he’d upset you, and asked if you could forgive him.”
“I—I don’t know if I can do that. I’ve spent the last three days living in fear, running to and from my apartment, barely sleeping, cowering every time I hear a door slam or a raised voice. He’s made me feel unsafe in my own home and in my own car, and pretty much everywhere else, too.”
Keira leans over, putting her hand on my arm. “Hey… don’t beat yourself up over it. He might want your forgiveness, but that doesn’t mean you have to grant it. He’s to blame for what’s happened, no-one else… certainly not you.”
“Why did he do it, though? I mean, if he was besotted, that’s one thing. I don’t understand why he would be, but if he says he was, then he was. But why send the photographs to me? Surely he had to realize they’d scare me? I’d already told him as much myself, when I went to him for help, so why would he want to do that? And keep doing it?”
“It wasn’t about scaring you, it was about getting your attention. It’s a stalker thing. They become obsessed. In his case, he followed you around, doted on you in his own way, and took photographs whenever he could.”
“I understand that, but why send them to me?”
“So you’d know he cared…”
