“We can’t give up. A man’s life is in our hands,” said Zoe. “What about trying to track down the husband through eBay from when he bid on that antique lamp? If we can find the item, maybe we could get his name from eBay and warn him?”

“eBay is not going to release that kind of personal information,” said Sean. “Even if the police ask for it, they’d need to get a court order first and there’s no time left for that. If what you saw through your binoculars was correct, the hit on the husband is going down in less than forty-eight hours.”

“We’ve got to do something,” said Zoe, biting her lip. “What if we try the Gucci store again tomorrow morning?”

“That salesperson wouldn’t give us the information the last time we were there, why do you think she’ll give it to us tomorrow?”

“Because, I have a brilliant idea.”

“I’ve got to hear this,” said Sean with one raised eyebrow.

“We’ll tell her the truth. The whole thing, the masked woman, the murder plot, the binoculars, the works.”

“On Monday we told her you were looking to purchase a Gucci bag because you admired one a friend had,” said Sean. “Now, it’s because of a murder plot you learned about using binoculars from your apartment window.”

“Exactly,” said Zoe, her eyes afire, a huge smile on her face.

“You’re delusional,” said Sean. “No way that store clerk is going to risk her job over that story.”

Zoe groaned. “You’re right. I was desperate. Maybe Detective Williams will still come up with something.”

“There’s still one more option you haven’t tried,” said Sean. “You could ask your husband, aka the FBI agent, to help us.”

“I could never,” said Zoe. “If Conner had any idea I’ve been all over New York asking questions, trying to get confidential data from companies, talking to detectives and reporters, it would be the end of my marriage.”

At 7:15pm that night, eating broiled salmon and a spinach salad, Zoe took a sip of her white wine while she watched the local evening news. The weatherman had predicted a heatwave starting that coming Saturday. The weather report was followed by an update on the West Side Strangler case. Detective Williams and Kim’s faces were suddenly in the center of her TV screen.

“It’s still unclear whether there is any connection between the young teacher found in Central Park this past Tuesday and the murders of six women on the west side of Manhattan,” said Detective Williams into a microphone as a map of all the murder locations flashed across the left half of the screen.

Heather Kim stepped up to the podium. “We’re doing everything we can to stop this predator. We’ve got officers working in twenty-four-hour shifts and that will continue until we catch him.”