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Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. Love best-selling fiction?
  3. Also by McGarvey Black
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. 29
  35. 30
  36. 31
  37. 32
  38. 33
  39. 34
  40. 35
  41. 36
  42. 37
  43. 38
  44. 39
  45. 40
  46. 41
  47. 42
  48. 43
  49. 44
  50. 45
  51. 46
  52. 47
  53. 48
  54. 49
  55. 50
  56. 51
  57. 52
  58. 53
  59. Acknowledgements
  60. A note from the publisher
  61. Love best-selling fiction?
  62. You will also enjoy:

The dry cleaner was standing in the doorway watching her walk away.

She smiled. Couldn’t resist another look, could you?

40

When Zoe woke that same Thursday morning, she reached for her phone on the nightstand. Fishing around, she knocked over two half-filled iced-tea glasses. Jumping out of bed, she looked down at the tea seeping onto some clothes piled on the wooden floor.

“Shit,” she said as she looked around for something to mop it up.

Picking up one of her dirty sweatshirts off a doorknob, she threw it on top of the tea to soak it up. At 7:15am, after cleaning up the mess, she walked to the living-room window to look out at the park and city street below. It was another beautiful sunny day. Though it had been three months since the city had gone into lockdown, it still shocked her to see so few cars and hardly any pedestrians outside.

Back in her bedroom, she picked her white cotton robe off the floor and noticed it was covered with stains. Still good for one more wear. Putting the soiled robe on, she shuffled into the kitchen, fixed herself a cup of coffee and settled in by the living-room window to FaceTime with Sean.

Moments later, his groggy and unshaven face appeared on her phone.

“What?” he said, obviously still in bed half asleep. “It’s not even 9am yet. I didn’t sleep well last night. Right before I went to bed I was examining my face in the bathroom mirror and noticed that there’s a little ding on the inside of my lower right eyelid. Look.” Sean moved the camera of his phone up to his eye so it filled Zoe’s entire screen. “What if it’s that flesh-eating disease? What if it eats my eye?”

“Your eye looks bloodshot, but other than that, I don’t see any evidence of flesh-eating bacteria,” said Zoe. “Can we get back to business? Today is Thursday. We’re nearly out of time. We’ve got less than twenty-four hours left.”

Sean ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s a lost cause.”

“We have to try. You promised.”

Sean let out a breath of surrender knowing Zoe wasn’t about to let this go. “Okay, what’s our first move?”

“I was thinking,” said Zoe, taking a sip of her coffee and glancing out the window, “we should go back downtown and walk the blocks between the 14th Street subway stop and Bleecker Street. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll run into him and can warn him.”

“The odds of us bumping into him on the street are slim to none,” said Sean. “Besides, the restaurant is opening on Monday and I’ve got a ton of things to do before we go back to work. This investigation has consumed my whole week.”

“We can’t just do nothing.”

“We’ve talked to the police numerous times. What else can we do?”