The detectives lingered for a while near the front entrance looking at socks until Zoe and Sean walked out the door shrugging their shoulders. The two detectives looked at each other and shook their heads. “This is such a waste of time,” said Heather under her breath.

“One more store,” said Daryl, “then we’re done. I promise.”

The four drove to an Upper West Side store where they examined and had a brief conversation with another saleswoman, Maria Gonzalez. Once again, she looked very much like the other two. Small to average height, long, dark-brown hair, thin and most of her face covered by a mask.

“Anything familiar?” said Daryl once they were outside and half a block from the store.

“I’m sorry. All the women looked the same,” said Zoe. “I couldn’t identify any of them.”

“Me neither,” said Sean shaking his head.

“Where do we go from here?” asked Zoe.

“We’ve gone as far as we can go, given the information we have,” said Daryl.

“So, that’s it?” said Zoe. “We’re just going to let him die?”

“Ms. Brandt,” said Heather losing her patience, “Do you realize what’s going on in this city right now? Take a look around. The streets are practically empty. Everyone is in masks. We shouldn’t have given you as much time as we did. You provided information that was absolutely impossible to follow up on and yet, my partner has been up late at night trying to figure it all out. Detective Williams is correct, we’ve run down all the info and until there’s something new, there’s nothing more we can do with your story.”

“But—” said Zoe.

“Come on, Zoe,” said Sean pulling her arm. “It’s time for us to go. Thank you for trying, detectives. It was a long shot and we appreciate what you’ve done.”

“If anything else comes up, you know where to find us,” Daryl said as Zoe and Sean walked away.

“You need to cut back on all that coffee,” said Daryl to Heather as he watched Zoe and Sean turn the corner.

“I shouldn’t have lost my temper but that woman got under my skin. She’s like a rabid dog with a bone.”

“She’s persistent, I’ll give her that. I’m satisfied we did all we could with what we had. Let’s get back to our other case. June 15th is only twelve days away.”

36

After leaving the detectives, Zoe and Sean went to Central Park. It was nearly 6pm when they stopped and sat on the same bench where Zoe had witnessed the masked woman plotting her husband’s demise.

“We’re at the end of the road,” said Sean. “I don’t know what else we can do.”