He passed the photo to Matthew. “Who is this?” he asked as he stood and crossed to the giant dry erase board that covered the far wall of Matthew’s office.

“Joanna Stein,” he said. “She’s one of my assistants.”

“She a member of the club?”

Matthew’s eyes widened. “Not as far as I know, but she went a few times with me.”

“Interesting extracurricular to share with an employee.”

“We went out socially a few times,” Matthew admitted. “But after a while, I thought better of it. Told her that I couldn’t date someone on my staff. But honestly, that was just an excuse. The truth is we didn’t connect. She was too…”

He trailed off, obviously searching for a word.

“What?”

“I’m not sure how to describe it. I just felt that she focused on me—on us—too quickly. That she’d be clingy, except that’s not right either. I guess I just had a bad feeling. Why? Surely you don’t think Joanna knows who’s stalking Natasha.”

“She knows all right,” Riley said, using the dry erase marker to draw a small mole above Joanna’s lip. Then he passed the image back to Matthew. “She is the stalker. And I think you’re the reason.”

“Me?”

“You went to the club with Tasha. She saw you. And now she’s pissed that you have a new girlfriend.”

“Dear God.”

“Is she here today? Can you call her into your office?”

“Of course.” He pressed the intercom button. “Lisa, can you ask Joanna to step into my office?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Holt. She’s already left with your delivery.”

“Delivery?” He met Riley’s eyes. “What delivery?”

“The one for Mr. Tarpin. The additional research material for the erotic thriller. She’s on her way to his office right now.”

* * * *

I’m sitting on the floor with the laptop on the coffee table in front of the window and three boxes’ worth of backlogged filing spread out around me. I’m determined to get through all of this before Lyle comes back, mostly because once he does return, all of this non-priority work will get pushed to the background.

But Lyle insists on keeping old call sheets, fan mail, reviews, articles, interviews, the whole nine yards. Some of it I can save directly into our digital filing system. But some of it—like the stuff in these boxes—has to be sorted and filed. Do I scan it? Or is it cool enough that years from now, Lyle might want the actual magazine? Like the first time he made the cover of People. That’s a no-brainer. But what about the other two times? Scan or keep a hard copy?