Dead Certain - Mariah Stewart [40]
CHAPTER
TEN
Sean settled into the back row of the small lecture hall at the Avon County Community Center, where Amanda Crosby was speaking, glad that he’d taken the time to change from his uniform to street clothes even though the stop at home had made him late by several minutes. As one of the few men in the crowd of roughly fifty people, he stood out enough as it was.
At the front of the narrow room, Amanda was already speaking, leaning back against a wooden table. He appreciated the opportunity to observe her without those green eyes boring into him, to look at her as something other than a suspect.
Her short dark hair spiked a little higher than he’d ever seen it, she wore trim black pants and a white shirt, shiny round silver earrings, a thin band on the middle finger of her right hand, and a silver watch with a narrow black leather strap on her left wrist. Though he couldn’t see them from this distance, he knew her eyes were flecked with gold and outlined by dark lashes. She looked relaxed and casual, almost elegant. And totally in charge.
“. . . on the handout to see the statistics. One out of every twelve women—one out of forty-five men—will be the victim of a stalker at some time in their life. If you are a woman, there is a seventy-seven percent chance that you will know your stalker—sixty-four percent if you are a man. Ladies, if you are a victim, you have a sixty percent chance of being stalked by an intimate partner. Men, almost the opposite is true. Thirty percent of men who are stalked, are stalked by an intimate partner.”
Her hands slid into the pockets of her pants as she paced slowly, walking the distance between one end of the table and the other with measured steps.
“How will a stalker most likely try to get your attention? He’ll place unwanted calls to your house, to your place of business. Sometimes he’ll breathe into the phone. Sometimes he’ll just hang up when you answer, or he’ll leave messages on your answering machine. If you have email, he might send you cryptic messages or e-cards. Maybe he’ll vandalize your property—scratch your car or break a window in your house. Maybe he’ll threaten harm to you or someone you love, maybe your pet. He might leave you gifts, anonymously or not. He will watch you at all hours of the day or night. He’ll know where you go, and he’ll go there, too. He’ll show up at your home, your work, your favorite restaurant, your friends’ homes. Sometimes you won’t even know he’s been there. Until he calls you later to describe what you were wearing.”
Amanda leaned against the table again and planted both feet in front of her.
“Why does he do these things?”
Sean glanced around the room. The crowd was hanging on her every word. Some were taking notes.
“He does these things because he doesn’t seem to be able to not do them. There are different degrees of behavior, of course, and different types of stalkers. But they all share certain characteristics.” She cleared her throat.
“As a general rule, all stalkers suffer from some mental or personality disorder. They may be obsessive-compulsive, schizophrenic, paranoid, delusional, socially maladjusted with low self-esteem—or a combination of some one or several. Sometimes they will fixate on a famous person—a celebrity or an athlete—and will fantasize about a relationship that doesn’t exist except in the mind of the stalker. Sometimes he or she will imagine a personal relationship with a stranger or an acquaintance. Or maybe the stalker will have had a past relationship with the victim. Some stalkers are violent; some are not. Some are likely to come no closer to their victim than the telephone. Others are capable of the most vicious attacks. Some are even capable of murder. Over the course of the next hour and a half, we’ll talk about what steps you can take to protect yourself and what to do if you think you are being stalked.”
She walked behind the table, took a sip of water from a bottle, then searched through a pile of papers until she