“Yes, of course. Thank you.”

“No problem.” He gave her a nod, then put one foot on the skateboard and rolled off down the street.

Emma pushed herself off the wall and headed back to Andy’s, forcing herself to walk rather than run. That scarf had been a Christmas gift from David.

One of the items that she’d boxed up last week and thrown away.

By the time she reached Andy’s, she was drenched with sweat and her pulse was racing. She pulled open the door to the shop and stepped into the tiny waiting area. A small refrigerator full of bottled water stood in the corner. She hurried over to grab one of the bottles, but her hands shook so badly that it slipped from her grasp twice before she got it out of the refrigerator and onto the end table located next to the fridge.

She managed to get the top off and chugged back a big gulp. The cold water burned as it ran down her dry throat. She plopped down on an old wooden chair with a red-and-white plaid cushion, then put the cap back on the bottle and rubbed the cold plastic across her forehead. Her heart pounded in her temples, causing her head to ache. She drew in a deep breath and slowly blew it out, trying to calm herself, but it wasn’t very effective.

Someone had gone through her garbage and taken the scarf. What the hell kind of person did that? Crazy. She answered her own question, and the answer didn’t do anything to calm her nerves. It only made things worse.

She sat the water on the table and pressed her hands to her temples, silently willing the pounding in her head to cease. The description of the man that the boy gave her fit David. But David was dead. She knew he was dead. The paramedics and the coroner knew he was dead.

But he was still attacking her, even from the grave.

Who was doing this? David had casual buddies, but no particular friends that she was aware of. No outraged person had contacted her after his death. In fact, no one had contacted her at all except the oil company he’d been working for, and all they wanted was to know where to send his final paycheck. Granted, the fact that she’d been the one to cause his demise probably prevented people from wanting to acknowledge his death at all, but surely if someone were angry enough to stalk her, they would have made themselves known before now.

She drew in a deep breath and huffed it out, feeling slightly dizzy. She leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees, still clutching her head. She closed her eyes and silently willed the pounding headache to subside and her racing pulse to slow the hell down.

“Miss Frederick?”

Her head flew up and her eyes crossed as a wave of dizziness washed over her. She blinked several times and finally Jimmy came into focus.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“It’s just a headache,” she said.

“I’ve got some aspirin if you need it.”

The amount of concern in his expression made her wonder just how bad she currently looked. Probably pretty awful. She struggled to get up from the chair and into a standing position, hoping that if she appeared more collected she might actually become more collected.

“No thanks,” she said. “I’ve got some in my purse. I was just resting for a minute to see if it would go away.”

Jimmy nodded. “Sometimes I get those bad ones…migraines they call them. I have to sit in a dark room with my eyes closed for a couple hours before they’ll go away.”

“You should try breathing pure oxygen from one of your tanks the next time it happens,” she said, automatically slipping back into nurse mode.

“Really? I ain’t never heard that, but I’ll sure give it a try. Thanks.”

Emma forced a small smile. “Have you looked at my car?”

“Yes, ma’am. I got your battery problem all fixed up. Good thinking using the chewing gum. I ain’t seen that one in a while.”

“I can’t take credit for that. The security guard at the hospital knew that trick.”

“It’s an old one, but it works. Anyway, you’re all nice and tight now, and I didn’t see any other problems with the car. Being that it’s only two years old and a Nissan, there’s usually not a lot that’s going to go wrong.”

“Could the battery cable have come loose by itself?”

“They don’t really do that, ma’am. When was the last time you had it worked on that they would have disconnected the battery?”

“About a month ago at the dealership. Could it have been loose then and finally came off last night?”

Jimmy frowned. “The chances of it happening that way are low. I mean really low. If it had been a day or two ago that they worked on the car, I’d say sure. But a month is a long time. You would have had problems a while back if the dealership had left it loose.”

Emma tried to absorb everything Jimmy was saying, but her pounding head was making connecting the dots hard. “So it probably wasn’t a mistake by the dealership, and it couldn’t haven’t come loose on its own accord.” She stared at him. “Are you saying someone did it intentionally?”

Jimmy shifted a bit, looking more than a little uncomfortable. “Given what you’ve told me about the last repair, that seems the most likely explanation.”

“He wanted me stranded in that parking lot.” Emma felt the blood drain from her face and she sank onto the chair again. “Oh my God.”

A million scenarios flashed through her mind, each one worse than the next. If Jeremy hadn’t been with her, would he have attacked her then? Or was he simply playing more games with her, like with the scarf?

“It’s none of my business,” Jimmy said, “but I have to say I don’t like the way this is headed. If someone’s bothering you, I think you should talk to the police.”

Suddenly, the walls of the tiny room felt as if they were closing in on her. She jumped up from the chair, desperate to get away from there. “What do I owe you?”

“No charge.”

“I have to pay you something for your time.”

Jimmy touched her arm. “You can pay me back by being careful and getting help.”

Her eyes stung with unshed tears. Everything—David’s death, the break-in, the scarf, the car, and now the concern of a stranger, had her completely undone. “I will,” she said. “And thank you. Thank you so much.”

“You let me know if you need anything.” He handed her the keys. “It’s parked up front.”

Emma took the keys and rushed out of the building. She jumped into the car and pulled away, the tires screeching as she rounded the corner. She turned the air on full blast and directed it toward her face. The overwhelming desire to run coursed through her, but the one thing that eluded her was where to run to. The only answer she could come up with was “somewhere safe.”

But she didn’t know where that was.

###

Shaye was looking up information on David’s employer when a call came in from Emma. If she hadn’t seen her client’s name in the display, she wouldn’t have known who it was. Emma’s voice, which had been low and smooth, even when she’d been obviously upset, was high-pitched and frantic.

Shaye gripped her phone. “Slow down so that I can understand you.”

“He disconnected my battery,” Emma said, slowing her pitch and pacing enough for Shaye to understand. “If the security guard hadn’t walked me to my car last night, I would have been a sitting duck. But that’s not the worst of it. Today when I took the car to be repaired, some kid on a skateboard gave me a scarf that some other guy told him I’d dropped.”

Shaye frowned, certain that between the car battery and the scarf, she’d missed something important, but she had no idea what. Although she could understand Emma now as far as speech went, she was making no sense. “I don’t understand the scarf part.”

“I know. Sorry. I had to stop talking for a minute so that I could breathe.”

Shaye heard Emma intake and blow out several breaths, and her concern ticked up another notch. If Emma had been frightened before, she was terrified now.