“I don’t mean to be rude,” Letty said, stopping in the middle of the aisle. “But I’m trying to teach her not to speak to strangers. So I’d appreciate it if you’d just move along. Okay?”

“Wow!” the man said with a smirk. “Sorry if I was trying to be pleasant. Excuse me!”

Letty felt a chill run all the way down her spine. She was sure she’d seen this man before. In fact, just the night before in the nanny-cam video, not to mention his booking photo. She rolled the cart out of the produce section, nearly running in her haste to get away from him. The store was crowded with people getting an early start to their weekend shopping, so she had to dodge and weave and swerve.

When she got to the next aisle, she turned around and saw that the stranger was at the back of the store, leaning over, pretending to examine a display of ground chuck. She whipped out her phone, snapped a couple of photos of him, then hurried to the front of the store. She left her cart outside the women’s bathroom and took Maya inside.

Her hands were shaking as she called the motel. She started speaking as soon as Ava picked up. “Ava, is Joe around?”

“Haven’t seen him this morning,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I’ll explain later,” Letty said. “Can you please text me his phone number?”

“Doing it right now.”

As soon as the number popped up on her phone screen, Letty texted him. Call me back, please. Important.

Her phone rang a moment later. “Letty? What’s wrong?”

“I’m at the Publix in Madeira Beach, and Maya’s with me. We were in the produce department when I noticed this strange man staring at us. It creeped me out. He wanted to know how old Maya was, and said he had a four-year-old at home too. Then he tried to get her to say her name, but I stopped her, and basically told him to back off. Joe, maybe I’m being paranoid, but I think it’s Declan Rooney. I think he was stalking us. I took a couple photos of him when he was pretending not to watch us.”

“Text me the photos. But what makes you think this isn’t just some garden-variety perv? Rooney’s never seen you or Maya.”

“Maybe it is just some random creep. He was wearing a baseball cap that obscured his face. But Joe, I think he has seen Maya before. I’ll explain it later.”

“Where is this guy now? And where are you?”

“I’m hiding out in the ladies’ room. He was trolling around in the meat department. He’s wearing black jeans and a black zip-neck pullover, and some kind of navy-blue baseball cap. I’d say he’s about six-two.”

“Okay, sit tight. I’m headed your way.”