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

“One of the actors at the theater. We were at the cast party after opening night, about a month ago. Neil saw a story in the paper about Vic’s murder, and wanted me to know my name had been mentioned in it. He followed me outside as I was leaving the party, to tell me. I was…upset. He gave me a hug, then he went back inside. He was killed a few hours later, the same way Vic had been, in his car, in the parking lot behind his apartment building. He’d been beaten to death. His partner was the one who found him.”


“Damn.” Alan reached for Jim’s hand then drew back. “Do the police have any idea who killed them?”


Chapter 24