“It kept happening, but none of the girls heard anything the men said,” she explained, toying with the handle of the mug. “Then yesterday, Anna called and told me that those same men met with her employer, John Fredrickson. She slipped in close enough to eavesdrop and heard oen of them threaten Fredrickson. Anna said it sounded like they wanted something from him. Something related to his international shipping fleet. She got the feeling that the Fredricksons owed the men for something they’d done for them in the past, but she didn’t knowfor sure. Anna was going to snoop around her boss’s office today to see what she could find and when she didn’t show up at the park for the party, I was worried Fredrickson caught her. I only got more concerned when I couldn’t reach her by phone. Anna wouldn’t ignore me like that. That’s when I went to her apartment, hoping to find her.” She made a face. “You know how that ended.”
“I don’t,” Lennox admitted. “Detective Green was vague when it came to the details about what happened earlier. His description was little more thanMs. Holland was chased through some dark alleys by a big man in dark clothes.”
Talia sighed. She’d hoped to avoid talking about this part. She had no desire to relive those terrifying events, already expecting to see them replay over and over in her nightmares. But Lennox had come to help when she called. He deserved to know what he was getting himself involved in.
“I recognized the man the moment I got off the bus near Anna’s apartment,” Talia said, reaching for another cookie just to have something to do with her hands so they wouldn’t shake so badly. “I saw him standing near where we were having the birthday party at Waterfront Park. And before you ask, yes, there were a lot of people at the park this afternoon, but this guy stands out.”
“How so?” Lennox asked. “Green mentioned he was big.”
“Understatement there,” Talia muttered, nibbling on the cookie. “The guy is almost seven feet tall and built like a football player. He was wearing a suit too, which I thought was kind of weird. Who wears a suit to a park?”
“What was he doing at the park?” Lennox asked. “I mean, was he watching you, Fredrickson’s kid, or maybe one of the others? Green mentioned that the kid showed up without Anna.”
Talia thought back, trying to remember exactly when she’d seen the man and what he’d been doing. It was definitely afterJessica Fredrickson had arrived, but she’d already been worried about Anna being missing at that point.
“I’m not sure, but I think he was focused mostly on me,” Talia said slowly, shuddering at the idea that the man had been stalking her the whole time. “But he disappeared at some point and I stopped thinking about him. Until I saw him near Anna’s apartment.”
Lennox sipped his cocoa as he considered that. “So I guess the question is, did this guy follow you from the park or was he there looking for Anna and you simply got in the way?”
She frowned. “I never thought that far ahead. The guy chased me so I assumed he followed me.”
“That’s okay. I’m not sure it’s a question we need to answer right now. What happened after you got off the bus? Did this guy say anything before he started chasing you?”
“Nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. “He locked eyes with me and then started following me. There was no one else around, so I panicked a little. Okay, maybe more than a little. I started walking faster, then broke into a run. I intended to make a dash for the front door of Anna’s apartment building, but the guy was too fast. He caught up to me and I had to dart down a side alley. I’m not even sure what happened after that. I simply ran.”
“How’d you end up getting away?” Lennox asked, his gaze catching hers, somehow conveying without words that he believed everything she’d said.
She couldn’t begin to describe how relieved she was at that.
“Luck mostly,” she told him. “I ran down a narrow alley behind a restaurant. Someone had left a delivery truck right in the middle of it and there was barely any space left to get around it. I was small enough to fit, but the guy chasing me had to crawl under it. Thankfully, that slowed him down long enough for me to run down another alley and hide behind a dumpster. I calledthe police and stayed there until a cop found me an hour later. The guy who’d been chasing me was nowhere to be found by then.”
He nodded. “That was smart thinking. Did you ever get a chance to stop by Anna’s apartment to check on her?”
Talia shook her head. “No. But when I told Detective Green about my concerns, he sent a patrol unit over to check. Anna wasn’t there.”
“Green said Fredrickson said she flew back to Bolivia for a family emergency, but something tells me you aren’t buying that.”
“No way. Anna isn’t only my friend. She’s friends with half a dozen other au pairs too. She wouldn’t up and leave without tellinganyof us.”
Lennox didn’t say anything to that, but at least he didn’t snort in disbelief the way Detective Green had. That was a drastic improvement as far as she was concerned.
Across from her, Lennox sighed. “There’s nothing more we can do tonight, but tomorrow, we’ll start calling people, see what we can find out about Anna and that flight to Bolivia.”
Reaching out, he picked up both of their mugs, then went over to the sink to rinse them out. Talia sat there in silence, stunned at the casual way Lennox had announced he was going to help her find Anna. She felt like crying in relief, because truthfully, she’d had no idea what she was going to do next.
When he was finished cleaning the mugs, he came back over to the table to put the pack of cookies away, talking the whole time about some people he knew who could help track down Anna. As his voice began to grow distant, Talia realized she was practically falling asleep in her chair. No shock there. She’s been running on adrenaline for hours. Now that it was gone, she was wiped out.
“I should probably go to bed,” she said.
Even though she wasn’t sure how well she’d sleep. More likely, she’d have nightmares about that big, scary guy chasing her.
Lennox’s mouth edged up. “You do look tired. There are fresh towels in the linen closet in the bathroom if you want to take a shower first.”
She was exhausted but she supposed she should probably take a shower. She could still smell the dumpster stench lingering on her skin from all the time she’d spent hiding behind it.
“We’re going to figure this all out,” Lennox promised softly. “I promise I’m going to help you find out what happened to Anna.”
Talia nodded and gave him a small smile. “Thank you.”
