Elizabeth Stewart - Harm’s Way

“He was just voicing a sentiment,” Sheila offered.

“ His sentiment,” Elgin shot back. “He sounded as if he expected me to sit down then and there and cross stitch him a sampler of the damn thing! Well you know what? Fuck Mr. C. A. Harm and his pithy little saying and his pissy little geek toad and the horse he rode in on!” For emphasis, a small sofa pillow sailed past Sheila’s head.

“Are you through?”

“No, God damn it! Not by a long shot! If that arrogant, know-it-all gorilla thinks for an instant that I’m going to turn my life inside out for him, not only is he stupider than he looks…a neat trick in itself…but he’s going to be bitterly disappointed in the bargain! I will go where I choose, when I choose. I will not allow some phantom to hang over my life like a childish Boogey Man and I will most definitely not roll over and play dead for some chest thumping, self-delusional alpha male, who by the way should check his calendar to see what millennium this is.”

“You might as well stop this tantrum,” Sheila told her quietly. “I meant what I said about your contract. And Mr. Harm isn’t suggesting you crawl under your bed and hide. He only said you have to change your schedule a little and let them know where you’re going to be.

“This stalker is absolutely real. You saw the whatchamacallit on your e-mail. He knows your whole life. There’s every reason to think he’s been close enough to grab your ass and he may very well have killed a total stranger for you. God only knows what he might be capable of.”

“Sheila…”

“No, I mean it.” She shook her head firmly, put down her cup and came to where her friend stood.

“If nothing else, think about me,” she cajoled. “How the hell do you think I’d feel if you disappeared and they found your body raped and mutilated? Or it was never found at all? How do you think I’d live with myself if I knew that I could have done something and didn’t because of your mule-headed, obstinate Irish temper?”

Elgin’s faced screwed into a defiant pout.

“You’d collect that fat insurance policy you have on me, go to the south of France with some good looking nineteen-year old stud for a month and then come back and re-issue all my books in special limited-edition collectable volumes for which you’d charge twice the price and for which you wouldn’t have to fork out any royalties.”

“ Ooooh, ” Sheila pretended to agree. “Special limited-edition collectable volumes. I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe even hardback if I could get a good deal on the printing.”

“You would, too,” Elgin commented sourly.

“Damn straight.” She grinned wickedly. “God knows just because you’d be dead doesn’t mean I should suffer too.”

“If I did die, I’d come back and haunt you except you’d probably want me to keep ‘ghost writing’ Gillian Shelby.”

Knowing that the storm had passed, Sheila put her arms around her friend and they hugged.

“It’s only for ten more days. I hired Harm’s Way for two weeks and with the tap on your computer, I’m sure they’ll be able to catch this nut in that time. Probably sooner and then we can all get back normal. Surely you can put up with Campbell Harm that long.”

“I suppose,” Elgin conceded grudgingly. “But I’m serious too. In ten more days, he’s outta here. By then, I should be pretty much finished with the re-writes and then three months in the country. Promise?”

“Pinky swear.”

“You’re sure?”

Billy nodded glumly. “I triple checked.”

Harm exhaled a deep, frustrated sigh and threw the stapled pages on his desk. The young man standing in front of his desk shifted his weight nervously.

“And you’re positive this is our boy?”

“Yes sir,” he replied apologetically. “He’s the only one of Ms. Collier’s computer ‘visitors’ who can’t be accounted for legitimately. He’s tried to log on at various times, mostly between two and five a.m. and has been very persistent in his attempts.”

“You think he knows we’re on to him?”

“Hard to say, sir,” he shrugged slightly, “but I’d guess not, just from the fact that he kept trying. Building a ‘blind’ isn’t all that hard. Wouldn’t take a whole lot of smarts or technology. And if I was stalking someone from cyberspace, I sure as heck’d have someplace to hide, just in case.”

“All right, Billy. Thanks for the report. As always, it’s complete and thorough.”

“I just wish I could have been more help.”

“I know you did everything humanly possibly. Did you give your time sheet for this project to Jessica?”

The young man nodded.

“Okay then. You better get on back to the monitoring station. I know this isn’t your only case.”

Alone again, Harm reread the report carefully, frowning as he did so. At last, he set the papers down again and reached for his phone.

“Jessica, please get me Ms. Forbes at Fantasy Publishing. Tell her it’s important.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Harm, I still don’t think I understand.” Elgin looked at him; those huge dark eyes filled with questions and he thought, a tinge of alarm.

“I know it’s a little complicated,” he explained patiently, “but the gist is that everyone who tried to log on to your computer, either by e-mail or alternate method, has been identified and tracked. All of them could be accounted for as friends, fans, business, etc. Except one. We believe he’s the stalker. He tried several methods of entry and his times were always between midnight and five a.m.”

“But if you know all this, why weren’t you able to locate him?”

“Because he has what is known as a ‘blind.’ You know, the little camouflage huts that duck hunters use so the ducks won’t see them. He managed to route through another ISP address.”

“Well,” Elgin pressed nervously, “how do you know it’s a ‘blind?’ Maybe it really is his address. Did you check?”

“Yes, Ms. Collier,” Harm replied, slightly annoyed that she thought him stupid or incompetent, “we checked. The ISP account belongs to a convent of nuns in Belgium. They make pottery and candy and have recently moved to the Internet to increase their sales. Apparently our stalker hacked into their system so that he could hide his own address.”

“But can’t you tap into their computer?”

“He’s gone. More than likely, he’s got several of these ‘blinds’ scattered around and probably knows how to build more.”

“So…so he knows you’re on to him?” The tiniest tremor appeared at the edge of her voice.

“We just don’t know. Building a ‘blind’ or even several isn’t that hard. Ours is the most sophisticated, cutting-edge technology available. It’s designed to track without being tracked. I find it difficult to believe that our stalker has either the technology or the expertise to evade it.”

“But he did evade it.”

“He didn’t evade it, Ms. Collier.” She made him hot under the collar again.

“He just covered his tracks. My personal opinion is that he’s either lost interest in the game or been scared off. At any rate, Harm’s Way will continue to monitor the situation and provide personal security for the rest of the agreed upon period. At the end of that time, I’d say that you can call it a day and consider the problem solved.”

Unexpectedly, he smiled. A warm, genuine, very nice smile. Elgin felt her anxiety disappear like vanilla ice cream under a summer sun.

“I really don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”

Relieved both at the thought that the stalker had gone and that she would soon have her life back, Elgin smiled too. At least, that’s what she told herself, hastily trying to squash the unexpected tingle his smile produced.