“I know. Jack, I feel like there’s more here. And it has to do with something within your company.”

“Alex. Listen to me. I don’t want you working on this anymore. Let the FBI do their job. Leave it alone. It’s not worth it. Besides, Sophia wants to see you. She’s where our focus should be.”

“I want to see her, too.” He’s correct. My primary concern should be Sophia. Cassie would want me to be there for her.

“Maybe next week? Can you come down?”

“I don’t teach class on Thursday. Let me know if that works.”

“Will do. And Alex? Just drop this case. It’s not worth it. The FBI can pursue it, but I don’t want any harm coming to you. Cassandra would not want that. Can you let it go? Just plan to be here for Sophia. She thinks of you as her aunt.”

“Of course.” The lie comes easily. I don’t touch my mouth or scratch my nose. I would probably pass a polygraph. Because it’s a partial truth. I will be there for Sophia.

“She’s not ready for visitors yet. But her doctors think by next week, so Thursday could work.”

“Is she still going through withdrawals?”

“Somewhat. But she’s getting stronger.”

When I end the call with Jack, I settle back into Ryan.

“I can only imagine what Sophia has gone through.” He cups my elbow and caresses my arm.

“What about you? How are you doing? You had a dramatic day.”

He’s right. I did. And the spike in adrenaline followed by a slow, winding decline has misted my eyes at times as emotions welled up. But I’m okay. Perhaps growing up with a father who worked on cases and hearing about tragic situations steeled me for this. I can’t say I don’t feel it, that I don’t tremble when the memory of my panicked climb up the stairs hits. But I’m okay. And when I think back on it, the man in the stairwell didn’t have a well-thought-out plan. He didn’t shoot at me as I ran. He followed me, attempted to catch me, but he was careless. It’s almost like he lifted that arm so I would see his gun. To give me a head start running.

“Do you think it’s possible that someone just wanted to scare me? That today wasn’t about actually catching me?”

“If the FBI wasn’t on the case, I might say yes. But scaring you off doesn’t make sense. The FBI hasn’t closed the case. There’s a team of investigators still looking for the man who escaped. And now they’re looking for this guy.”

“Right. It just feels too easy. And now Jack is telling me to drop it.”

“Jack doesn’t want you hurt. And his focus is on his daughter.” As it should be. “You feel like it was too easy because you escaped. You are observant. Your gut told you something was off about him. You noticed his eyes, his body posture. You froze long before you saw the gun. And then you reacted and ran. You survived. There’s nothing easy about what you did. Some people would have remained frozen on the stairs. Some wouldn’t have been able to comprehend the danger. You ran, protected yourself, and called for help. You’re also lucky. If he had broken into that office before campus security scared him off, the results of today could have been very different. Nothing about today was too easy.”