She stopped pulling her backpack onto her shoulders.
“Caleb’s showing me their email. Do you want to see it?”
With a quick nod, she followed him into the living room.
Caleb’s laptop sat on the table. “I connected all my devices to the satellite phone. It makes it easier to download information.” He pulled out a chair and started typing on his keyboard. “The email was sent an hour ago.” He moved out of his seat.
Gabe held the chair out for Natalie, then read the email over her shoulder. “I’ve never heard of Leith Chapman.”
“Your friend in the NYPD would have.” Caleb pointed to the screen. “When you’ve finished the email, open the attachment.”
Natalie looked up at Gabe.
He nodded and she clicked on the file. The document listed Leith Chapman’s convictions from the last seven years. “He’s been busy.” Burglary and aggravated assault charges slotted between two prison sentences. “Are Fletcher Security sure he’s the stalker?”
“The fingerprints at the cottage match a set that was found at the warehouse.”
Natalie scrolled to the next page.
Chapman’s photo stared back at them. He had the sort of face you could easily forget. Blue eyes, dirty blond hair to his shoulders, and a mouth that didn’t look as though it smiled often. No standout features that stuck in your mind, nothing to make you think he was trouble.
“He’s from Staten Island,” Natalie said. “Isn’t that where Zac Connelly was born?”
Gabe nodded.
Caleb pulled their spreadsheet off a shelf. “That’s not the only similarity between the hero of your books and Chapman. They both served in the military. But unlike Zac, Chapman was dishonorably discharged.”
Natalie moved to the next page and read Chapman’s family history. “How did Fletcher Security find all this information?”
“It’s better not to ask,” Caleb muttered. He pointed to the spreadsheet. “I’ve added more information to what we’ve already collected. Chapman spent fifteen years in the foster care system. When he was eighteen, he enlisted with the Army. Five years later he was discharged and not long after that was arrested for burglary. Not much was stolen, but it was enough to send him to prison for a year. His life went downhill after that.”
Gabe frowned. “He was released from his second prison sentence two years ago.”
“Fletcher Security don’t know what he did after that. They couldn’t find his current address, but they did track down his stepbrother. I’m assuming the NYPD will try and find him. Open the second email.”
Natalie closed the attachment and frowned at the screen. “Which one?”
Caleb pointed to an email below the one they’d seen. “It was just as well Gabe told his agent to send any messages to me.”
Gabe moved closer. He’d spent enough time with Caleb to know when life was about to go from bad to worse.
As soon as Natalie opened the email, a picture of her appeared on the screen.
She looked at Gabe. “Why did you send your literary agent a photo of me?”
“I didn’t.” He glanced at Caleb.
“Chapman sent it yesterday.”
Gabe barely managed to hold back a curse. Chapman was getting closer. If they didn’t find him, what he did next would only lead to disaster.
He leaned over Natalie’s shoulder and took a closer look at the photo. “That’s at the Cherry Festival.”
Natalie’s face was white. “The photo was taken when we first arrived. I’m not wearing the earrings mom bought me.”
“He must have followed us to the festival, then driven back to Sapphire Bay.” Gabe looked at their spreadsheet. “It was a good opportunity to break into the cottage. With both of us at the festival, he must have thought he’d have more time to cause havoc.”
“He forgot about the security system,” Natalie said. “If he was watching the cottage, he would have known I had one installed.”
