Page 51 of K-9 Prime Target

“Derek knew about your previous stalking,” Liam said. “He could have read about the notes Nicholson sent you and copied them. Anyone could.”

She closed her eyes. “I hate to think that, but you’re right. I’ll talk to the sheriff. But this still feels like Nicholson to me.” She couldn’t explain the sensation, of having lived through all of this before.

Liam sat on the side of the bed, facing her. “I’ve been trying to think of some way to trap the stalker. We need to lure him into a situation where we would be waiting for him.”

“He wants me,” she said. “If we could make him think he could have me…”

“No! I’m not going to put you in any danger.”

“If you were there—with other people, maybe even law enforcement—you could protect me.” But she couldn’t keep the doubt and fear from her voice.

“I’m talking about a situation where Nicholson—or whoever—thinks you’re there, but you’re not,” he said. “Something where you’d be guaranteed to be safe.”

“Yeah, that sounds better to me, too,” she said. “But we don’t know how to contact him. We don’t know where he’s staying or what he’s thinking. How do you lure someone like that?”

“If both of us work on the problem together, maybe we can come up with something,” he said.

“At least it would feel like I was doing something to defend myself,” she said. “Instead of lying here, waiting for him to strike again.” She bit her lower lip. “Do you know one of the worst things about not being able to go to work every day?”

“What is that?”

“I’m stuck at home. He’ll find out I’m there, I’m sure. That would probably be a tempting enough target for him.”

“You’re not going to be alone,” Liam said. “I’m going to be there with you.”

“You can’t guard me twenty-four hours a day,” she said. “You have a life.”

“I have some time off built into my schedule,” he said. “And we won’t have to be this vigilant forever. Just until this person is stopped.”

She wanted to believe that her tormentor could be captured and sent back to jail, but each time he approached her, he seemed to grow bolder. Today’s attack could have killed her, though if he had wanted her to die, why not stab her in the back or slash her throat? He seemed to be playing a high-stakes game of chicken, seeing how much closer he could come to her each time. But what did he hope to accomplish in the end? She didn’t like to ponder the answer too closely. She only wanted to find a way to prevent him from achieving that goal.

Chapter Fourteen

Liam waited a full day after Nina arrived home before he brought up the idea of setting a trap for her stalker again. “For a trap, you need bait,” she said. “That’s me.”

“We make him think it’s you,” he said. “But you’d be somewhere else. Safe.”

“So you’d use a decoy? Who? And why put someone else at risk?”

“I could be the decoy,” he said.

She laughed. “You! You don’t look anything like me. You’re taller and broader, and no one is ever going to mistake you for a woman.”

He pretended to take offense. “You don’t think if I wore a blond wig and makeup and a dress I could pass as you?”

She laughed harder. “You’d probably make a lovely drag queen, but you wouldn’t look like me. Remember, Nicholson has spent a lot of time studying me. He won’t be easy to fool.”

“We could ask one of your friends to help. Lily might be mistaken for you.”

“She’s at least five inches shorter than me. And I’m not going to put my friends in danger.”

“What about using a dummy?” he asked.

She looked doubtful.

“Hear me out.” He leaned toward her. The idea was taking shape in his mind. “I’d pack a suitcase and put it in my SUV, then make a big show of leaving, maybe say something about heading to Spain on a photo assignment. I’d stash the car somewhere and hike back to the house to keep an eye on you, and hide somewhere inside. We’d set the dummy, dressed in your clothes, on the sofa, watching TV.”

“All right. Go on. What happens next?”