Gertie slid out of the booth as well. She did not pick up the glass for one last swig.

They walked together toward the restaurant exit.

* * *

Gertie wanted to throw up.

She wouldn't have drank from a glass that she left unattended anyway. And the fact that his eyes kept darting to her glass didn't necessarily mean that he'd done anything to it. He'd have to be incredibly bold to drug her drink right here in a restaurant, with other diners around. What if the ladies' restroom had been occupied and she'd come right back to the table?

So she wasn't too concerned about her drink, although of course she was going to leave it untouched. A slight uneasy feeling and nothing more.

When they walked away from the table, she got frightened.

He hadn't taken his receipt.

How was he expensing this meal if he paid in cash and left his receipt behind? Did his investors work on the honor system? Business people dining with clients always wanted their receipts.

Eyes darting to her drink and an abandoned receipt weren't enough for her to point at him and scream "Killer! Killer!" But it was enough to scare her.

Was this the man who'd abducted Kimberly? Or was he just some guy who wanted to rape her? Or was she making a mistake?

She'd spent many hours walking the streets of Hornbeam Ridge after dark, hoping he'd show up to try to make her his prey. Now that he might very well be walking right next to her, she didn't think she wanted that at all. She wanted to be as far away from him as she could get.

Yet she did have her stun gun.

If he made a move, any move, she could zap the shit out of him and then make him tell her what he'd done with her cousin.

The smart plan would be to not walk out to the parking lot with him. Come up with an excuse to stay behind, then call the police. They might decide that she had too little to go on, but surely they would agree that the abductor had a motive to come after her. If she got back to the table before the server cleared it, she could turn her drink over to the authorities and let them test it.

Gertie knew what he looked like, though she suddenly thought the beard might be fake. She would be able to easily pick him out in a police lineup, but she might not be able to help create a police sketch that was good enough for them to catch him.

They'd exchanged e-mails. Surely he'd covered his tracks there. He wouldn't be dumb enough to communicate with a victim using an e-mail address that could be traced back to him.