Dani nodded. “I was always closer to her than to my parents. It’s hard to believe that my mother was raised by her. My mother was so completely different than she was.” She held up the pendant. “It broke a few months ago. I asked him to fix the clasp instead of replacing it. I guess that was a mistake. It would have killed me if I’d have lost it.” She squeezed her hand around it. “This locket means more to me than anything.”

Harper was staring at her, her eyebrows drawn together. “And you never take it off,” she murmured, almost to herself.

Dani opened her hand, looking at the locket. “No. Why?”

“‘All I have to do is follow your heart,’” Harper said. “The note he left. All he has to do is follow your heart.”

Dani’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. You don’t think…?”

“How did it break the first time?”

Dani shook her head. “I don’t know, really. I was at my house. The detective was there, I remember. It just fell off.”

“Okay, let’s start at the beginning.” Harper guided her into the chair, then sat down next to her. “Your stalker was already in the picture when it broke?”

“Yes.” Dani held up her hand. “And no offense, because I love you in the robe and you know, you’re naked and everything…but if you want to have a serious conversation with me, you should probably put some clothes on.”

* * *

Harper came out of the bathroom—fully clothed—her mind reeling with questions. Could it really have been the locket all along? But they’d scanned it. They’d scanned everything.

“You’re frowning.”

“I know.” She held her hand out. “Let me see it.”

Dani handed over the locket and Harper tried to pry it open. “Is it usually this hard?”

“No. But then, I rarely open it. There’s not much left of the picture inside.”

Harper finally got it to open and she spread the heart apart, revealing an old, faded picture. It was so old and frayed, she couldn’t make out the image. “Your grandmother?” she guessed.

“Yes. Her wedding day.”

Harper went over to the desk and, using a pen, pushed the picture out of the locket. Behind it was a tiny square of blue, not much bigger than a piece of glitter.

“Oh, my God,” Dani whispered. “Is that…is that something?”

“I imagine so.” She put the locket down, leaving the tracking device inside. “Okay, it broke. You did what? Took it somewhere to get it fixed?”

“Yes. I would normally have sent Shelly but…well, honestly, I didn’t trust her with the locket. It was all I could do to leave it to be repaired. It’s that precious to me.”

“How long was it out of your possession?”

“Not long. I think three or four days.”