Chapter 12

“The envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped... with the date of that very day... ‘Coarse writing,’ murmured Holmes.”

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Man With the Twisted Lip

There was no doubt. Someone had left the note overnight while I was sleeping. Who was doing this? And why? Statistics say one in twenty adults is stalked in their lifetimes - that’s one-fifth of the population. And in my case, it wasn’t over. They say you should firmly communicate to the stalker that you don’t want any contact with him or her. But how can you do that when you don’t know who the stalker is? I didn’t even have a suspect. I HAD to find the bastard and deal with him.

My hands shook as I stuffed the card into my jacket pocket. I was more angry than upset when I suddenly remembered the hidden “nanny cam” in my hallway. I had forgotten all about it last night. I’d installed it after receiving the second threatening note. It’s equipped with a built-in SD card that holds 12 hours of good resolution video, and it’s motion sensitive. Hopefully it should be clear enough to recognize the creep.

The tingle down my spine was strong as I plugged the SD card into my computer. I was about to see the jerk in living color.

I clicked on play. After a pause, there was a funny sound.

Then a message appeared on screen that the disc could not read or play due to damaged sectors.

Somebody had tampered with it. Dammit. I wasn’t going

to see my tormenter today after all. Somebody knew my schedule, knew about the nanny cam, and knew how to switch the SD card with one that was damaged and wouldn’t record. At least now there were a few clues, but I would have to wait to investigate until after I dealt with Tom and the Grange diary and the Conan Doyle notes and manuscript.