Stalker in the Shadows by Carla Cassidy

Author:Carla Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-11-24T20:44:31+00:00

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EARLY THURSDAY MORNING Ainsley and her daughter went into the café for breakfast. While they ate she became aware of Big Ed sounding angry as he called out orders.

“What’s up with the boss?” she asked Lana when she stopped to top off Ainsley’s coffee.

“Ted didn’t show up last night to do the cleaning,” Lana said.

“That’s a first. He’s always been so reliable,” Ainsley replied.

“Ed called his house this morning, and his wife said he’d left to meet a friend after dinner last night and she’d just assumed he’d gone ahead and come in to work after that. When she woke up this morning and he wasn’t home, I guess she called the sheriff.”

Ainsley shook her head. “I wonder what happened to him.”

“Hopefully, Sheriff Black will be able to figure it out,” Lana replied.

Ainsley found herself thinking about the missing janitor once Melinda had left for school and Ainsley was back in her apartment.

Even though she hadn’t had much contact with him, she’d always found Ted to be an affable man. She hoped nothing bad had happened to him. However, even her concern about Ted couldn’t halt the simmer of fear that had been her companion for what felt like forever.

Last night after Hunter had left, taking the horrendous “present” with him, she’d remained awake long into the night. There was no window in Melinda’s room, but there was one in the kitchen and one in Ainsley’s bedroom.

She’d spent half the night going back and forth between the two windows, peering out to see if anyone was lurking outside in the shadows of night. She saw nobody, but even when she got into bed, sleep continued to elude her.

She found herself going over everyone she had spoken to, all the people she had served since the moment she had landed in town and started working as a waitress.

There had to be somebody she had offended, somebody who now felt the right to torment and frighten her. Despite her need to identify somebody, she couldn’t.

She hadn’t spoken to Hunter yet today, although she knew they were still on to get pizza that evening. He’d been so sure in asserting to her that he was going to get to the bottom of this madness. But even though she believed he was a great deputy, he was only human, and if there were no clues to follow then how could anybody find the person responsible?

She tried to empty all that from her mind as she cleaned the apartment. Once she’d finished with her chores, it was just after noon. She made herself a tuna sandwich for lunch and then sank down on the sofa and tried to read a book.

No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on the words on the page, her thoughts kept going back to the dead rat that had been delivered to her doorstep.

What did it mean? Was it a warning to her? A warning about what? Aside from the horror of getting something like that was

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