“She is.It’s just that she went off and got herself famous.That’s real different from the rest of us.Not too many folk around here with that sort of high profile.Our faces don’t get plastered on thirty-foot billboards.”She flung up a hand and knocked a spoon to the floor.She had to bend out of the booth to retrieve it.
Looking down, he noticed her pink shoes were high-top tennies dusted with equally bright pink glitter.Ben felt his eyebrows raise.Other than her unusual choice in footwear, Milly appeared to be what she was, a small-town diner owner, often serving her food with a quick tongue.Fortunately for him, she seemed to know everyone and everything that went on around Mountain Wood.
“Those are some nice shoes there, Milly,” Ben said.
“Like em?”She glanced down.“I don’t care for high heels.They hurt my feet.And I really hate those nurse-style shoes a lot of waitresses wear.Still, I do like colorful tennis shoes.”
A commotion at the door pulled Ben’s attention from Milly.
Sarah burst inside breathless, her hair flying behind her back in a gold banner.Her eyes were wide, her movements jerky.She swung her face wildly around the diner.
As Ben began to rise, she spotted him and rushed over.
“Ben!”she exclaimed, “where have you been?”
On his feet now, he frowned, studying her flushed features.“I told you to text me when you wanted to leave your meeting, remember?I don’t want you walking the streets alone.”
“Oh, yeah.”Clearly frazzled, she glanced around.
Milly got up to fuss over Sarah.“Sit down, honey.I’ll get you your tea.”With a quick rub of Sarah’s shoulder, Milly rushed off.
Ben waited for Sarah to sink into the booth.Making a thorough visual sweep of the restaurant and the street outside, and seeing nothing alarming, he took his seat.He wondered if somehow she’d caught wind about Ridley Kemper’s release.“What’s upset you?”
“Um ...I ...I freaked out.”She hunched her shoulders.
Milly arrived and set a delicately flowered teacup and saucer with a dangling string hanging over the edge.“Here,” she said, edging the cup close to Sarah.“It’s your favorite, Earl Grey.Now, I’ve got to serve, but we’ll talk later, okay?”
Sarah nodded.
“Tell me,” Ben urged Sarah.
“It’s nothing really.I totally overacted.I saw a knife,” she said, “on the office desk just now.“A—a dagger.It made me think that maybe it’s Donovan Sinclair.Maybe he’s the one threatening me.”
“The building owner—the one you’re negotiating with for the lease?”
She sighed.“Yes.Of course it’s not him.I just ...I’m afraid of knifes.I wasn’t like this before.Growing up on a ranch, well, everybody has some sort of knife in his pocket.It’s just lately, I don’t like them.”
From a sheath on his belt, Ben withdrew a fixed blade knife.He held up his Ka-bar.“Like this?”The blade glinted.
Sarah’s eyes widened.She gulped.“Yes.Just like that.”
“What about them bothers you?”
“It’s the nightmares.I dream of sharp objects coming at me, of swords and spears, of daggers and knives.From the dark.I know they’re going to stab me, kill me.”
“Odd,” Ben said.“Why do you fear them so much?Must be a good reason.”
Sarah bowed her head.“The guy that stalked me and went to prison?He used knives on his victims.That day in my apartment hallway, he held one to my neck.Later on, I found out he’d cut his rape victims.”She swallowed hard.
“I see.”He replaced his knife in its sheath.He didn’t like being in this position, but he had to tell her.“Sarah, I just found out that Ridley Kemper is out of prison.”
Her head snapped up.“He’s out?When?When did he get released?”
“A month ago.And he never reported to his probation officer.No one knows where he is.”
“A month ago,” she breathed.She clutched her teacup and it rattled in its saucer.“That’s about the same time I started getting the awful emails.”
