Hayley had meetings out of the house all day, with Steve accompanying her as a personal bodyguard, and Nash and Bryce finished installing the home security measures and training a group of new hires at their security firm who would take on Hayley’s protective detail when she did concerts and went on her next tour.
Bryce didn’t have as much time to himself to work at his makeshift command center as he had planned, but he made the most of the time he had. He used the OSINT (open-source intelligence) Framework for data collection from social media networks and the dark web. He crossed-referenced all data points and the stalker’s profile slowly began to emerge. And there it was. One name fit the profile better than any other. He printed everything he had on the man: William Callow. Callow was indeed in tech, just as Bryce suspected. He worked at a server farm in California, but moonlit harassing celebrities and commenting on porn sites. Bryce had addresses, employment history, and even membership records for the church Callow recently joined – a fringe congregation that emphasized a man’s right to have authority over his wife and one that didn’t recognize divorce. Callow had a litany of restraining orders against him. Bryce had everything he needed, except Callow’s whereabouts at that very moment.
It was late in the evening and Steve’s car pulled into the driveway with Hayley inside.
Bryce didn’t want to seem too eager to see her – they had agreed not to reveal their relationship, yet – so he waited until he knew she made it inside to the kitchen, before walking slowly and deliberately across the back patio. He expected her face to light up when he entered, but instead, he found Hayley hugging her mother, her face tearstained.
“What happened?” Bryce said.
Linda stroked Hayley’s hair as Hayley pulled away, sniffling.
“She got another message today,” Linda explained. “Through her personal account this time.”
“Let me see it.” Bryce followed Hayley into the office, as she pulled up her email account on the computer and clicked on the message.
Wear my ring if you love your sister, the message read.
The sender’s address was a nonsense string of numbers and letters from a server in India. “He sent this from here,” Bryce said. “He’s still in town; I know it. He knows you aren’t wearing the ring – he saw you today. I’ll need access to your account.”
Hayley shook her head. “He threatened Valerie. He needs to be drawn out, caught and caged.”
“That’s what we’ll do,” Bryce said. “I can locate him from this; I just need a little time. He covers his tracks…”
“No,” Hayley interrupted. “I’ll draw him out.”
Bryce shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“You won’t let anything happen to me,” Hayley countered. “I trust you.”
“And I’ll do that by keeping you out of harm’s way,” Bryce said.
Hayley kissed him, before pulling back and staring into his eyes. “This isn’t just about me, anymore. Now my family’s in danger. Please understand.”
Bryce squeezed her arms. “I’m guessing you thought of a plan?”
“I have a lake house,” she said. “Not many people know about it. I didn’t buy it in my name, specifically to keep it as private as possible. I’ll let it leak that I’m going there to write songs, alone. He’ll show up. I don’t see why he wouldn’t. But you’ll already be there, and you’ll catch him.”
“What if he gets to you first?” Bryce said, concerned.
“He won’t. I want to end this. Now.”
“Your mother won’t agree.”
“She won’t know,” Hayley replied. “I’ll tell her I’m going up there to calm down. Focus. I do it all the time. I’ll tell her you, Steve, and Nash will come along.”
“That will be way too many people,” Bryce said. “This guy does his homework before striking. He’ll notice something is up.”
“Just you then,” Hayley said. “You can take him out.”
“And if I don’t? I’d never forgive myself if…”
Hayley kissed him to stop him from finishing that sentence. “Don’t even think about that. It won’t happen. You’ll get him. I know you will. Valerie will be safe, I’ll be safe, and you…”
“And I’ll have to go back to New York.”
“We can figure it out later,” she said. “I can’t shake this feeling…”
“What kind of feeling?”
