She bit her nails and looked at him. Then she remembered and pulled her hand away. “I know it sounds a little strange, but when you said they might get my address out of the records...“ She shook her head and turned away.

“Beth, he really scared you, didn’t he? I don’t blame you. If it would be all right I’d like to sit outside your door for a while. I don’t think he’ll try anything, but with scum like him, you just can’t tell.”

“Oh, no! You don’t have to stay outside!” she said, suddenly aware he knew exactly what she was thinking. “It’s just that...” She sighed and touched his shoulder. “If you’re going to come and be my bodyguard for a while, at least I should know your name.”

“I’m Mack Scott,” he said, giving her an alias that he had used before.

“Hi, Mack,” she said, smiling brightly and extending her hand. They shook. “Now, that we’re officially friends, I can make you a cup of coffee.”

Bolan smiled, locked his rental and they went up to her apartment. It was a small studio apartment on the second floor — one big room with a kitchenette, a bathroom and a let-down bed. The place was neat and clean. “I go to school during the day and work nights to get my bills paid. I came here from Iowa to go to school. Don’t ask me why I chose the University of Baltimore. Maybe so I could get out of Iowa. I’d lived there all my life. Am I talking too much? I do when I get nervous.”

When the coffee was ready she found some grocery-store doughnuts that were two days old but still good. She said she was an only child and she was taking a course in television journalism, hoping to get into newscasting. She hoped the doughnut was okay. After ten minutes she ran out of small talk, excused herself and went to the bathroom. When she returned he saw that she had been crying.

She sat across the small coffee table from him, her eyes bright.

“So what kind of work are you in?”

“Insurance. I have clients all around the country.”