Page 7 of Look for Me

He wondered if he should follow them.

I’m not a stalker.

“Sir, please,” someone said to him. “Customers are not supposed to be on this side.”

“Ah. Sorry. I was trying to help Corinne…” Martin backed away toward the aisle that led to the front of the store.

“Who?”

“Dinah. Must’ve gotten her mixed up with someone else.” He had forgotten that she was living under an alias.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s probably just the heat, like she said. I told her not to sit outside in the sun.”

“She does like the sunshine.”

The girl gave Martin an odd look. “You know her? How?”

“We’re old friends. Could you tell me when she works?”

“We don’t give out employee hours.”

“Okay. How early are you open in the morning?”

The woman pointed to the sign on the glass windows. The words and hours were printed in reverse.

“Thank you.” Martin wanted to be on good terms with the people who work here. He didn’t want anyone to get in his way of another meeting with Corinne.

“What’s good in here?” He asked.

“Everything is good.” She pointed to chunks of fudge. “Would you like some samples to help you decide?”

Martin salivated at the array of choices. He picked all dark chocolate, but in at least five different flavors. Then he felt bad he couldn’t make up his mind. So he bought a quarter pound of each of the five fudge types.

Across the street, he ate half of them before he put his car in gear.

That was when he spotted Hardin at the gas station next to where he parked. Hardin was getting gas for his vehicle. Inside the car was a passenger who looked like Corinne from the back. She must have her window rolled down, because Hardin was talking in an animated fashion.

Something pulled at Martin’s heart.

He put on his safety belt, and cranked up his Shelby.

Chapter Four

The last person Corinne expected to see in Key Largo was Martin MacFarland. Even though they were on the same Atlantic Coast, Corinne had a new life now. For all practical purposes, Martin was dead to her.

She felt her baby kick.

Flavian’s baby.

It wasn’t the baby’s fault, Corinne kept telling herself.

Corinne stopped at the edge of the patch of grass and looked out to sea. She breathed in the afternoon air, hot and swirling around her. It wasn’t cooled down yet by the breeze from the Atlantic Ocean.

She had asked Hardin to drop her off by the roadside several blocks away so that she could clear her head as she walked home the rest of the way. It was daylight, and she was in open space.

Corinne felt safe.

She hadn’t been assaulted in two months.

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