Seconds later and out of breath, she flew past the lobby doorman and out to the street. Now at ground level, she couldn’t see the bench where the woman had been sitting. Dodging the few cars driving on Central Park West, she ran across the street and into the park. The bench was empty and the masked woman was gone. No!

Looking up and down Central Park West, she jogged south on one of the walking paths inside the park. With no sign of the woman, she turned in the opposite direction and ran frenetically north. Minutes later, sweating, gasping for air and not knowing which way to turn, she pivoted again and ran head first into Sean.

“What the hell are you doing?” he said after she nearly knocked him over. “I saw you from across the street running in circles.”

Tears of defeat welled up in Zoe’s eyes. “I lost her. I couldn’t find my bag and when I finally did my wallet was missing. I finally found my wallet under my bed and by the time I got out here, she was gone.”

“Following her was a terrible idea anyway,” said Sean. “Remember what the detectives said? The masked woman could be dangerous.”

“It’s over then,” said Zoe, sitting down on the same bench the woman had been perched on only fifteen minutes before. She buried her head in her hands. “We’re out of time. We didn’t stop it. How can we live with ourselves?”

“I’m not owning that,” said Sean sitting down next to her. “We did everything possible. Even the cops said there was nowhere else to go. Besides, we don’t even know if he’s still alive or not. From the texts you saw, it didn’t sound like the woman was going to do it herself, so following her wouldn’t have led us to the murder.”

Zoe rubbed her eyes. “I really thought we were going to save him. What if he was a scientist just about to find the cure for cancer or the coronavirus? He’ll never have the chance to complete his experiments because we failed and now, millions will die.”

“Seriously?” said Sean incredulous as he looked at her. “If he were a scientist working on a vaccine for Covid-19 or a cancer cure, I don’t think he would have been hanging out in Central Park on Monday bidding for hideous lamps on eBay.”

They sat without speaking for a minute until Zoe broke the silence. “Let me ask you something. If the masked woman lives all the way down on 14th Street why would she come all the way up to the north end of Central Park to hang out. There are plenty of parks downtown like Washington Square. Why does she come up here?”