Her first reaction was fright. It was, after all, in the dead of night and the house was deathly quiet. But then she remembered some of the posts shed seen on the neighborhood Facebook page. People had been posting pictures of the deer that had started wandering in from the rural areas outside of the city. It was certainly strange to see deer in Baltimore, even in the more rural areas, but the Facebook pictures had proven it was real. Apparently, they were eating some peoples bushes and roses. Some very uppity people on the Facebook page were asking if the POA should get involved, or maybe even the game warden

Hannah thought all of that was just a bit much, though. Thinking she might get her own sighting, she hurried to the back door. She quickly disarmed the alarm, which went active after ten p.m. and walked out to the back porch. She looked around the yard and didnt see a deeror anything else that would have caused a blur of motion through the window. She then thought that if there was as deer, it had likely moved to the side yard to snack on her azalea bushes. She smiled as she thought of how she might sarcastically bemoan such an atrocity on the neighborhood Facebook page.

She hurried quietly down the porch stairs, not wanting to spook the deer. Passing through the grass in the quiet of the night in her bare feet was pleasant in a way she had not expected. It made her feel like a kid again, like she was sneaking around and getting into mischief.

She came to the edge of the house and there it was. A shape in the darkness, against the side of the house.

Hannah discovered that it wasnt a deer just a moment too late.

By the time she recognized that the shape was very much human, there was a hand clamped around her mouth and a knife slamming into her ribs.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

When Rachels phone rang, stirring her awake, she was coming out some half-remembered dream that had featured the peering eyes of Alex Lynch, looking at her as if she were a specimen under a microscope. When she reached for the phone, Rachel was certain it was going to be the doctors office calling to tell her that theyd misread her results and that there was no tumor after all.

Sorry for the mix-up. Whoops. Our bad.

But then she realized she was not in her bedroom, but a motel room. And then reality came flooding back and she loathed her phone for making her face it all again. She did not recognize the number, but knew it was a Baltimore area code. She also noted that it was 5:02 in the morning. With a bad feeling already forming in her guts, she answered it. She tried not to sound tired and discombobulated, but failed miserably.

This is Agent Gift.