“Come into the living room,” Olivia said again, turning and hoping Claire would follow.
When she heard footsteps behind her, she let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“What’s that noise?” Claire demanded to know, apparently just becoming aware of the alarm her arrival had triggered.
“Just something in the other room,” Olivia answered. “I’ll turn it off.”
She went into the office and disabled the beeper. When she returned, Claire was still standing, her hands clasped tightly in front of her.
“Let’s get comfortable.”
When Claire didn’t move, Olivia took one of the easy chairs and made a show of settling into the cushions.
Claire hesitated for a moment then dropped onto the sofa, leaning forward, every muscle in her body radiating tension
“What is it? What’s happening?” Olivia asked.
“Someone’s stalking me,” she said in a rush.
“How do you know?”
“You think I’m lying?”
“No. No. Of course not. Just tell me what’s happened.”
The other woman answered with a high-pitched laugh before she began to speak. “I started getting phone calls a couple of weeks ago. First hang-up calls when I said hello. Then it changed, and I could hear someone breathing on the other end of the line.”
“That is pretty scary. Did you call the police?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“When I went out to go to work one morning, there was a note under my windshield wiper. It said that if I contacted the police, I would be killed.”
Olivia sucked in a sharp breath. “That would have certainly made me call the cops,” she said.
“Maybe not if it was happening to you,” her visitor said in a strained voice. “How do you know how you would act?”
Not wanting to antagonize Claire, Olivia nodded. But she was pretty sure she wouldn’t have sat back and simply let someone systematically terrorize her. And although she hadn’t called the cops when Angela had been murdered, she’d taken action by looking up private detective agencies and settling on Rockfort Security.
After they had accepted the assignment, Max had been with her most of the time since she’d hired them. Too bad he’d chosen this afternoon to leave her alone. Should she call him? He’d seemed uptight when he’d left. Maybe she’d better try to handle this by herself right now and hope that he’d be home soon.
She had kept her gaze on Claire, noting the woman’s pale skin. As Olivia watched, her visitor lifted a hand to her mouth and began to chew on a hangnail. She seemed ready to fall apart, and Olivia knew that she was going to have to handle her gently.
“Was the note handwritten?”
“Typed. Or I guess from a printer.”
“Did you save it?”
“Yes.” She fumbled in her purse, pawing through the contents, then looked up. “I thought it was here.”
“That’s okay. What else happened?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I heard noises outside the house. In the morning there would be things on the doorstep.”
“Things?”
“Like little dead birds and animals.”
Olivia sucked in a sharp breath. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m not lying,” Claire insisted, her voice rising in desperation or outrage.
Olivia held up a hand. “Okay. I’m sorry. It just seems so…” She didn’t finish the sentence. What did it seem like, exactly? She’d been about to say crazy, but stopped herself in time. Now she was thinking that someone was trying to intimidate and scare the wits out of Claire Lowden, and it looked like they had done a very good job. Maybe they’d somehow even intensified the effects with drugs—if that was possible.
“Why did you come to me?” Olivia asked, trying not to sound like she was making an accusation and praying that she could get the situation under control.
“He said you were the only person who could help.”
“He? Who are you talking about?”
“The guy who’s been after me. This afternoon, he finally said something over the phone. He told me to come to you—or I’d be sorry.”
As she took in the distraught woman’s words, Olivia felt as though she’d suddenly stepped off a high cliff into empty air, and now she was plunging downward at a terrifying speed. “Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You’re saying the guy who was stalking you sent you to me?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Like I said, this afternoon. Just a little while ago. I was so scared. I came straight over.”
“Okay, that’s good,” she said automatically. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she remembered the way Max had taken off on some mysterious errand. Did that mean the man had found a way to get Max out of the house before sending Claire here? It sounded like a complicated maneuver, but unfortunately it fit the situation. Which meant that they were both in danger.