And he was almost a perfect twin of the man in the police sketch.
Lara had to admit, it was chilling. But, as Agent Cody had said, they could exhume Randy Nicholson’s body and put to rest the “Miami Zombie Rage” that was now quickly seizing the city.
She was tempted to turn the television off and force herself to think pleasant thoughts, but she wasn’t sure she could manage that.
And then she glanced out the sliding glass doors into her overgrown backyard.
There was a medium-size mango tree in one corner, bougainvillea draped over the stone wall and small plants she couldn’t identify lining the short path that led to a table with an umbrella and a few chairs.
She started. Standing on the path, staring at the house, was the same man she had seen standing in her office doorway.
Fear instantly seized her. She hurried over to her phone and dialed 911. When the operator came on, she quickly gave her location and explained that a man was in her walled yard, and that he could only have gotten onto the property via a locked gate, and that she’d seen him earlier at work. “I’m afraid I’m being stalked.”
“We have someone on the way to your address right now. You can stay on the phone with me. Officers will be there momentarily. What is the man doing now?” the operator asked.
“Just standing there, staring at me.”
“Can you describe him?”
“He looks Hispanic. Fiftyish, with a well-manicured mustache and goatee. Medium build and maybe five-eight to five-ten. He’s wearing gray trousers and a guayabera shirt, beige.”
She heard the buzzer from her gate. The cops had already arrived, which didn’t surprise her since she was right down the street from Cocowalk, one of the area’s malls, and the whole Coconut Grove area.
“They’re here, I think,” she told the operator.
“You can stay on with me while you let them in,” the operator said.
Lara looked out the window, just to be safe, then went out to the gate to greet the two policemen waiting there.
“Someone’s in your yard?” one of them asked her. “Is he threatening you?”
“No, he’s just standing there. But I don’t know how he got in, and he came to my office earlier today, then left without saying anything,” she said.
“I’ll go in with her,” the second officer said to the one who’d spoken.
“Get back in the house and I’ll see what’s going on,” the first man, whose badge identified him as Officer Dewey, said.
Lara nodded and thanked him. The second officer, badge identification Martino, followed her into the house.
“Maybe I’m being a little paranoid,” she said. “He’s not doing anything, in fact he looks a little lost. But I saw him before, and now he’s in my yard, and the gate was locked! He might have scaled the wall, but it’s pretty high, plus it’s covered with bougainvillea.” She realized she was babbling and stopped.
“It’s okay. Better to be safe than sorry, right?” Martino asked.
“Miss? Miss?”
Lara dimly heard herself being called and realized she was still holding her cell phone, and the emergency operator was still on the line. She quickly thanked the woman, told her that the police had arrived and hung up. Then she headed toward the back of the house, followed by Martino, and looked out the window.
Officer Dewey was there, looking puzzled. He walked toward the back door, and she quickly let him in.
“I looked everywhere, but there’s nobody back here,” he said.
Lara looked at him, dumbfounded. “He was there. I swear he was.”
Both officers looked at her with polite curiosity.
“I’m telling you, there was a man in my yard, staring in my back windows,” Lara said.
“Well, whoever he was, he’s gone now. We can check out the house for you, if you want,” Dewey said.
“Thank you.” She knew they were both doubting her sanity right about now. Well, why not? The gate had been locked, the wall around her property was at least seven feet high. It would have taken a gymnast to scale it.
The officers went through the house. It was empty, of course.
Dewey asked her, “Were the locks changed when you moved in?”
She nodded. “I was here when they changed them,” she said.
“And no one else has keys?”
“My boss has a set in his desk,” she said.
“Any way someone could have gotten them?” Martino asked her. “You did say you saw the man at your office earlier. Maybe he is stalking you. Maybe he’s been watching you and knew that your boss had your keys. Where do you work, and how tight is the security there?”
“I work at Sea Life. We don’t have private security, but we do have cameras and alarms.”
“What about you? Any enemies?” Dewey asked.
She opened her mouth to answer, then realized the truth was just too complex.
“Not that I know of now,” she murmured.