“Er, uh…” I struggled for something to say, something other than: excuse me, I have a homicidal zombie to catch.

The women were all beaming my way, ready to welcome a temporary addition to their clique, and I realized just how much I was not going to be “moms and tots” playgroup material. Had I already doomed my child to life as a social misfit? A father who’d never coach Little League…a mother who’d never host PTA bake sales…an entire family whose idea of an exciting summer getaway was chasing down zombies? Which reminded me…

“Excuse me-” I began.

“Oh, speaking of warm, show her the sweater set.”

The first woman, the one with the baby, lifted a paper from her stroller and held it out. On it was a picture of a matching knit sweater, booties and hat.

“That’s…cute,” I said, scanning over their heads for Rose. “Great idea for winter. Maybe I’ll buy one. Now if I could-”

“Buy one?” The second woman laughed. “It’s a pattern. For knitting. Old-fashioned, I know, but it’s a great way to relieve stress.”

Knitting? I stared in horror at the outstretched pattern, mumbled my excuses and finally squeezed through, hurrying back to less terrifying pursuits.

I rounded the corner at the same time as Clay came barreling around the other side. We stopped, twenty feet apart, looked at each other, then searched the gap between us, our lips forming a silent curse-probably the same curse.

We strode forward and met in the middle.

“She didn’t get past me,” I whispered.

“Me neither. It’s not crowded or dark enough to have missed her circling back.”

I looked for potential hiding places, but the layout was simple-too simple to misplace an entranced toddler, let alone a woman. Then I remembered the stroller barricade.

“I was stopped,” I said. “Back there. The hall was blocked. Maybe, when I got through, if she was right on the other side, in the shadows or something…”

“You could have missed her. Probably not, but…”

“We should check.”

The strollers were still there, the women now talking to a pair of preschoolers. Their faces lit up when they saw me again.

“Oh, is this your husband?” one said. “Lucky girl. I can never get mine anywhere near this place.”

“We were with another woman,” I said as I reached them. “A friend. We’ve lost her. Did anyone come back this way?”

“No one’s been by since you, hon,” said the oldest. “It’s dead in here today.”

As I thanked them and turned to go, the one with the baby grabbed the sweater set pattern and thrust it out.

“Here, take this. I have a copy.”

Clay glanced down.

“Isn’t it sweet?” she said. “I’m making one for Natalie.” She looked at me. “You’ll love knitting. It’s so relaxing…and you’re going to need all the relaxation you can get soon.”

As the women chuckled, Clay grabbed the pattern.

“Knitting?” He looked at me. “Yeah, I can see that.”

He thanked the woman and stuffed it into his pocket.

As we strode away, I muttered, “When that page leaves your pocket, it better be headed straight for a trash can.”

“You heard the lady. You’ll need relaxation. Knitting would be-” His lips twitched. “-fun.”

“You ever buy me knitting needles, and I’ll show you a whole new use for them.”

“I’ll remember that.” His grin vanished. “Now where the hell did-”

He stopped as our eyes traveled in the same direction…and reached the same destination. An exit door, concealed in the back wall.

“Shit.”

Clay jerked his chin at me. Not much of an instruction, but I understood it. Stay and watch while he opened the door.

I did, he did, and we slipped through the doorway and into a narrow service hall. There was no one in sight, so I dropped into an ungainly crouch and took a deep breath.

When I caught the scent, we set out, jogging quietly along the back hall. Patrons weren’t the only ones avoiding the museum that day. Only once did we hear footsteps echoing through the maze of corridors, and they turned off before getting anywhere near us.

At each doorway or branching hall, I stopped, dropped and sniffed. The trail stuck to the main passage. Did Rose know she was being followed? Or had her near-death upstairs spooked her into picking a back exit?

When we hit a flight of service stairs, the trail went down. She hadn’t stopped at the first floor, but had kept going, into the basement. All the better. I pulled out my cell phone and turned it on. Despite its tumble, it still worked. I called Nick and told him to meet us downstairs. As I hung up, I almost missed a step. Clay caught my arm. As he moved, I caught the scent of blood. I grabbed his wrist. He looked down at the dripping “scratch” and snorted, as if it was a cause for annoyance not concern.

“It’s deeper than I thought,” I said.

He shook his head. “Probably nicked a vein or something. No big deal. Jeremy will take care of it-later.”

“Maybe I should check-”

“Keep walking. I’ll fix it.”

He stripped off his T-shirt and tore a few inches from the bottom. I tried to get a better look at the scratch, but then we hit the bottom step and he swung around me to take the lead.

Hull