“Not until Wednesday.”

“Can you tell us if she was in court last Thursday afternoon?” I asked.

She looked a little concerned by my question. “May I ask what this is regarding?”

Davis showed her badge. “I’m Marshal Davis. This is Alec Stover. We’re searching for a man who is in our witness protection program. Another Marshal has also been searching for this man and we have reason to believe he contacted Mrs. Baker on Thursday, as she was leaving court. We need to speak with her about that meeting.”

The woman looked from Davis to me and back to Davis again.

“She was in court Thursday afternoon but I left the office before she returned. She called Friday morning and cancelled all her appointments until Wednesday. She said she’d let me know if she was going to be out beyond Wednesday but I haven’t heard from her today. You don’t think she’s in some kind of trouble do you?”

“Not necessarily, no,” Davis said. “We would just like to talk to her. Can you give us her home address?”

The woman shook her head. “I’m not comfortable giving out that information without speaking with her first. But if you want to give me a number where she can reach you I’ll ask her to call you when I talk to her again.”

“I’ll give you my cell number,” Davis said.

The woman wrote down the number and promised to give our message to Mrs. Baker the next time she talked with her.

****

Back on the street again it was beginning to get dark and a cold wind was blowing.

“Now what?” Davis asked as she turned up the collar of her coat up and shoved her hands in her pockets.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry. Why don’t we grab a bite to eat? We can reassess where we are and plan our next move over dinner.”