Although Vance and Shepherd could not know it, the killer was about to extricate him from the unpleasant creek they had drifted into. Not that the stalker conceived any plan herself – the faceless men behind the scenes provided everything on a silver platter. Opening an unsettling combination of circumstances, she received a small package from a courier containing a brusque note with printed anonymous but clear instructions, details of a false identity and a safe-deposit key.
With more than a smattering of curiosity, she inserted the key as ordered into one of the medium-size safe-deposit boxes at the Holborn bank while a bank employee simultaneously inserted the bank’s own key. Opening the door, he withdrew the closed box and carried it ceremoniously into a private room before discreetly
