When the first note shows up at the restaurant where he works -- when he isn't designing costumes for a local theater -- Jim Foster laughs it off. When the notes keep coming, he doesn't find the fact that he might have a secret admirer quite so amusing. Alan North, a lonely, bookish customer at the restaurant, is too shy to even think of talking to Jim -- as much as he wants to. Then the killings begin. Two of Jim's friends are murdered in what appear to be muggings. However, the detective in charge of the cases believes they're more than that, and that Jim is either the killer ... or being stalked by one. When Jim and Alan finally connect, can they help find and stop the stalker, or will Alan end up dead before their budding relationship can become more than friendship?

His Secret Admirer

Since the theater had a resident company, there was no need to spend Tuesday taking the actors’ measurements. Jim had them on file, and unless he thought someone had gained, or lost, weight since the previous show they’d been in, he worked from the measurement sheets. The only ones he didn’t have on file were for the kids. One of the seamstresses had spent part of Saturday getting them during the first meeting of the cast.


By Friday afternoon, he and his crew were well on their way to having the basics of the costumes sewn, or pulled from stock. He arrived home Friday night feeling as if he’d managed to accomplish everything he’d planned for the week.


He fixed dinner, with Callie following his every move, obviously hoping he’d drop something—which he did, on purpose. It was their normal routine at mealtimes and had been since the day he’d first brought her home from the shelter.


Chapter 4