Chapter 1

Sierra’s shoulders relaxed as she turned her car onto the stretch of road winding through Iverson Woods Forest Preserve near Evanston.  Street-light free, the dense trees blurring shadows flashing past her.  Their branches were leafing out, and the emerging leaves fluttered in the wind.  She always loved this spooky drive.  For some contradictory reason, the darkness, the trees arching into a canopy over Harvey Road, eased the tension in her shoulders after a long day at work.  If she looked up, she might even see a few stars between the branches.

She’d left work later than usual, so there were no other cars on this stretch of road.  Her partner Alex Conway was out of town, and Sierra had been slammed with work.  She had back-to-back appointments tomorrow, so she’d wanted to clear her desk before the busy day.

Sierra was framing her pitch for her first appointment, a client she and Alex had courted, when she noticed the flashing lights of a patrol car behind her.  She glanced at her speedometer – two miles over the limit.  Within the margin of error for radar.  The cop wasn’t pulling her over for speeding.

What did he want?

As she continued to drive, slowing down, he beeped his siren twice.  Definitely a signal to pull over.

Fear shivered over her.  Had something happened to Jack?  Was that why the police needed to stop her?  Her brother was a graduate student at Northwestern, but he was only eighteen and wasn’t always as careful as he should be.  Anxiety gripped her chest, choking off her air.

Swallowing hard, she pulled onto the shoulder, bumping along until she stopped.  The Evanston police cruiser pulled in behind her and left the lights flashing.  Compounding her worries about Jack, the pulsing red and blue in her rearview mirror made her jittery.  Nervous.  As if she were a criminal.

The police officer sat in his car as several vehicles roared past them.  Finally, when there were no oncoming headlights in either direction, he exited his car.  Sierra watched in the mirror as he adjusted his belt.  Set his hand on the gun in its holster as he approached the car.

What the hell?  Why would he need his gun for a traffic stop?

As he neared the car, she sucked in a deep breath to settle herself.  The officer wore an Evanston police uniform, but there was no badge or name tag on his shirt.  Frowning, she watched as he stopped outside her window.

She rolled down the window just far enough to speak to him.  “What’s the problem, Officer?”  She sounded strong.  No wavering in her voice, thank God.

“Step out of the car, Ma’am,” he said.

“What?”  She stared at him, shocked.  “Why do I need to get out of the car?”

“Obey orders, Ma’am.  Step out of the car.”  His hand tightened on the gun at his hip.

“All right, but where’s your badge and your name tag?” she asked, studying his face.  The darkness of the forest preserve and the brim of his hat concealed his features, but she noticed a small scar on the left side of his chin.

“One last time, Ma’am.”  He flipped off the restraining strap on his gun.  “Get out of the car.”

“Why did you stop me?” she asked.  “What was I doing?” she asked.

His jaw clenched.  “Step out of the car.”

His voice was heavy with warning, and Sierra pushed the button to roll up her window.  Her doors locked automatically when she started the car, so he couldn’t yank it open and drag her out.

Instead of getting out of the car, she pulled out her cell phone.  Dialed 911.

“Evanston dispatch.  What is your emergency?” a woman said.

“This is Sierra Baker.  I’m on Harvey Road in Iverson Woods and an Evanston police officer just pulled me over.  He won’t tell me why he stopped me and he ordered me out of the car.  But he’s not wearing his badge or his name tag.  Can you tell me if you have an officer patrolling this stretch of Harvey?”

The officer next to her car rapped hard on the window, but Sierra didn’t look at him.  She focused on her phone and the dispatcher on the other end of the call.

“I’m sending another officer to the scene,” she said.  “Keep your doors closed and locked until he gets there.  In the meantime, I’ll check to see which officer is patrolling that area.”

Sierra gripped the phone tightly.  She glanced at the police officer on the other side of her door and saw that he’d drawn his gun.  He was pointing it at her head from the other side of the window.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed, staring at the gun.  “He’s pointing his gun at me.”

She turned toward the man and yelled, “I’m not getting out of this car until you show me your badge and name tag.”

“The responding officer is less than two minutes away,” the dispatcher said, her voice calm.  Oddly reassuring, even though there was nothing more the woman could do.  “She’s running with lights and sirens.  You should hear her any minute.  Do not get out of the car until she arrives.”

Suddenly the cop outside her car jerked his head to the side.  Stared down the road, then swore.  She couldn’t hear him, but she had no trouble reading his lips.

With a cold, furious glare at Sierra, he jogged to his car, got in and pulled onto the road.  He turned off his headlights and sped away in the direction opposite the lights and sirens.  His police cruiser was a dark blur that blended into the dark woods.

What seemed like an eternity, but was probably less than a minute later, another Evanston police cruiser pulled up behind her.  A uniformed, badged and tagged officer.  She hurried to Sierra’s window, and Sierra lowered her window far enough to speak.

“Ms. Baker?  I’m Officer Barnes.”  The woman scanned Sierra’s face, as if looking for damage.  “Are you all right?”

Sierra drew a deep, relieved breath.  Nodded.  “I guess so.  He didn’t touch me.  Just scared the crap out of me.”

Officer Barnes pulled a small notebook out of her pocket.  “Can you tell me what happened?”

Sierra started at the beginning and gave a step-by-step description of what the nameless officer had done.  What he’d said.  Finally, she said, “When he heard the sirens and saw the flashing lights in the distance, he ran back to his cruiser and drove away.  He turned off his headlights first, though.”

Barnes frowned.  “You mean when he heard me coming?”

“Yes,” Sierra said.  “And his car looked like an Evanston PD cruiser.  Identical to yours.”

“Any chance you caught the number on the squad car?” Barnes asked.

“No.  His headlights were blinding me, and when he pulled away, I was too shaken to pay attention.  Sorry.”  Sierra inhaled a deep breath of the loamy, damp air of the forest preserve.

Barnes clenched her teeth and shoved her notebook into her pocket.  “Nothing to be sorry about.  Anything else you can tell me about the officer who stopped you?”

“It was definitely a man,” Sierra said.  She thought back to his face.  “His hat brim was low over his face, but I did see something on the left side of his chin.”  She re-played the moment in her mind.  She’d been too terrified to remember exactly what she’d seen.  “A scar, maybe?  Could have been a wrinkle, though.”

“Anything else you noticed about him?”

Sierra stared at the steering wheel, desperately trying to remember anything that could identify the man.  Finally she shook her head slowly.  “I don’t think so.  He wasn’t overweight, but not thin, either.  Muscled.  Yeah.  Built.”

“What about his voice?” Barnes asked.  “Low?  High?  Hoarse?  Accented?”

Sierra shook her head again.  “No accent.  And nothing distinctive.  Just a… a male voice.”

Barnes nodded.  “You’re doing fine.  Anything else you noticed?”

“No,” Sierra said.  “I was startled to see the lights behind me, because I was going about two miles over the speed limit.  Too dark along this road to speed, you know?

“But I did notice he wasn’t wearing his badge or a name tag.  Which made me suspicious right off the bat.”

“You were right to stay safe.  Not open your window too much.  And you didn’t get out of your car, which is the most important thing.”  Barnes sighed.  “I’ll go back to the station and see if I can figure out who might have been driving that car.  Before I do that, I’ll follow you home.  Make sure you get into your house safely.  Give me your address.”

Sierra recited it, then said, “Thank you,” her shoulders finally relaxing.  “Appreciate it.”

Barnes nodded.  “You have a garage?”

“I do,” Sierra said.  “A small house, attached garage.”

“Don’t get out of your car until I’m parked behind you and give you an all-clear.”

“I won’t,” Sierra assured the cop.  She watched as Barnes hurried to her car and slid behind the wheel.  When the police officer closed her door, Sierra pulled onto the road.  Barnes followed her the two miles to her house.

When Sierra turned into her driveway, she opened the garage door and waited for it to lumber open.  There was nothing in the garage big enough to hide a person, and she relaxed even more.  But she waited until Barnes was behind her on the driveway.  The cop searched the garage, then walked around her house.  Finally she nodded at Sierra, who pulled into the garage and got out of her car.

“Do you want me to check the house for you?” Barnes asked.

Sierra sucked in a breath.  The man who’d pulled her over could have gone to her house.  “I would appreciate that,” she said.  She nodded at the door into the house from the garage.  “Go in that way.  The door’s unlocked.”

Barnes frowned.  “You should keep that door locked, especially since you have a window in your garage.”

“Don’t worry,” Sierra said, hearing the tiny tremor of fear in her voice.  “From now on, I will.”

Barnes nodded.  “Get back in your car.  Keep the doors locked and the windows up until I clear your house.”

Sierra nodded, swallowing hard.

As the police officer headed for the door into the house, she unbuckled the restraint strap on her gun holster.  Rested her hand on the grip as she opened the door into the kitchen.

She disappeared from sight, and Sierra glanced at the side mirror.  The other side mirror.  The rearview mirror.  No movement in the darkness.

She lowered her window a crack, just enough to hear outside the car.  Straining to listen, she heard nothing.  Not even a night bird calling.  She was close enough to the woods to hear owls, but they were silent tonight.

It seemed like an eternity, but was probably less than five minutes before Barnes emerged from her house.  “You’re clear,” she said.  “But make sure all your doors and windows are locked.  And if you hear anything unusual during the night, call 911 right away.”

“Don’t worry,” she said.  “I will.”

Barnes nodded at her.  “Have a good night, Ms. Baker.  Sorry about what happened.  I’ll do my best to get to the bottom of it.”

“Thanks, Officer Barnes,” Sierra said.  “I appreciate that.”

Sierra waited until Barnes’ patrol car had backed down her driveway, then exited her car.  Once inside the house, she double-locked the door.  Checked every window and the front door.  All locked.

She poured water into a glass and gulped it down.  Then she retrieved her cell phone from her pocket.  She needed to make sure Jack was okay.

No one but her parents knew she had a brother at Northwestern.  Not even Alex.  She’d been tempted to tell her law partner often, but she couldn’t take the chance.  The only way to keep a secret was not to tell a soul.  Not even your best friend and partner.

She pulled her secure cell phone out of her bag and scrolled to Jack’s contact information.  Hit the icon to make a call.  Held her breath until Jack answered.

“What’s up, See?  Everything okay?”

“Are you all right, Jack?  Safe?”  Sierra spoke too fast, her words tumbling over each other.

“I’m fine.  In my apartment.  Hell’s going on?”

“Thank God,” she said, exhaling hard.  “A weird thing just happened to me.  I’m okay, safe in my house, but I’m going to call mom and dad.  Make sure they’re okay.  Just needed to check on you first.  Sit tight until I get back to you.”

“Sair, it’s almost eleven o’clock at night.  I’m not going anywhere.  I’m a growing boy.  I need my sleep.”

For the first time since Sierra saw the squad car in her rearview mirror, she smiled.  “Don’t give me that crap, Jack.  You’re just starting to work now.  You’re a night owl, like all the other nerds.”

“Figure of speech, Sis.  I’m not going to bed, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good.  Stay put until I talk to mom and dad.”

She disconnected the call and tapped her parents’ contact information.  Her mother answered on the third ring.  “Fran… Sierra,” she said, stumbling a little at the name, just as she always did when caught off guard.  “Are you okay, honey?”

“I’m fine, Mom.  Just checking on you and dad.”

“We’re both fine.  Finishing our wine and reading by the fire.  Nothing exciting going on.”  She sucked in a breath.  “Why?  What’s happened?”

“Just a strange traffic stop.  But I’m fine.  Home and safe.  I checked with Jack and he’s safe, too.  Go back to your books and your wine.  I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Do you need anything?” her mom asked.  “Should we send a bodyguard?  Do you need to get out of town?”

“Everything’s okay, Mom,” Sierra insisted.  “I’m just a little jumpy.  Alex is off on a… a business trip and I’m handling the office by myself.  I stayed too late, and now I’m tired.”  She doubted she’d sleep tonight.

“Okay, honey, go get some sleep.  I’ll talk to you in a few days.”

“Will do, Mom.  I love you.”

“Love you too.  Talk soon.”

Sierra ended the call.  Took a deep breath and looked out the window at the dark night.  What had that police officer wanted with her?

Would he come to her house tonight?

She searched the shadows, but didn’t spot a thing.  But her instincts told her someone was out there.  Watching her.

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