Five minutes later, she drove onto the highway and sped away from the mall.
If she’d thought it would help, she’d have gone faster.
She frowned. Matt knew she was a creature of habit, and typically went out shopping every Saturday around the same time. She wasn’t sure why he had been at the mall last week, but she was sure this week it was because he’d been watching for her.
But why?
* * *
When Kate arrived at her apartment, she heard the phone ringing. She unlocked the door and rushed inside to snatch up the handset.
“Kate, thank goodness you’re home.” Ellen’s voice on the other end, out of breath, almost frantic, accelerated Kate’s heartbeat. Her fingers flexed tightly around the phone.
“What’s wrong, Ellen?”
“You’re asking me what’s wrong? For heaven’s sake, I saw you racing through Cavendish Mall with that guy right behind you. What the heck was going on?”
She struggled for something to say that would satisfy her friend, but failed miserably. She pressed her hand to her forehead and shoved her hair back. “Ellen, it was nothing.”
“I don’t believe you. Look, I’ll be right over and we’ll talk. It’ll take a few minutes because I’m just leaving the mall now. Is there anything you want me to tell mall security about him?”
“About who?” Kate asked, afraid of Ellen’s answer.
&nb
sp; “The guy who was after you, who else? Come on, Kate. Get with it.”
Kate sank onto a dining room chair. “Why would security—”
“Are you kidding? When I saw you in trouble, I raced straight to get help.”
Oh, God, Ellen hadn’t really reported Matt, had she? Images of Matt being handcuffed and dragged off to jail flared in Kate’s mind.
“Did they … go after him?”
“No, mall security isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. I was a few minutes from calling the real police. If you hadn’t picked up…” She heard her friend take a deep calming breath.
It was just as well. Even if the police had apprehended Matt, he would have had them apologizing profusely for detaining him, and probably offering to help find her. He had a knack for turning every situation to his own advantage.
“Do you know this guy?” Ellen asked.
“Ellen, I just … really don’t want to talk about this.”
“Okay, not over the phone.” Ellen’s frustration was clear.
Kate could imagine her friend’s face puckered into a scowl.
“But I’m coming over there right now so we can talk in person,” Ellen continued.
By the time Ellen rapped on Kate’s door, she’d pulled together a pot of coffee and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, desperate to distract herself from agitated thoughts of Matt.
“So,” Ellen said as she strode into the room, “tell me what that was all about. Who was that guy?”
Kate waved her to a chair and sat across from her. She poured some coffee for both of them from the thermal jug she’d set on the table, then added cream and sugar to her own cup. Ellen sipped her black coffee, watching Kate carefully.
“Remember I told you that just before I moved here, I was in a relationship, but it didn’t work out?”
That’s all she’d told Ellen about it. Just the bare facts.