Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(2)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

“And how did he force you?”

 

“He had guns, lots and lots of guns,” she said. “At least what I first saw. Then I had the blindfold on, and I never saw anything else again.”

 

“Okay, did you tell anybody this at the hospital?”

 

She shook her head. “No, he dropped me off there and gave me a message.”

 

“A message? So what was in this message?”

 

The woman held up a piece of paper for her. “I don’t know what it means, but he told me to give it to you.”

 

Kate carefully took the paper from her hand and read the message out loud, so Rodney heard. “Kate, see if Simon can do this.” She flipped the paper forward and backward and then looked over at the woman. “Does this message mean anything to you?”

 

The other woman shook her head, with tears in her eyes. “No, I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know who Simon is, and I don’t know what he’s supposed to do,” she murmured. “But I think it has to do with the game because he used to laugh all the time. He said something about Simon thinks he’s so fucking good, but I don’t think he’s got answers for this.”

 

“And do you know who this Simon guy is?” Kate asked, her heart sinking, as she shot a look at Rodney, who now sat beside her, studying the note in her hand.

 

“No, but he made it sound like it was an old friend. Yet I got the feeling that maybe it wasn’t so much of a friend as an old enemy.”

 

“An enemy might sound better,” Kate noted, “or at least a frenemy, a friend that became an enemy.”

 

“Maybe,” the young woman agreed, as she wrapped her arms around her chest.

 

Kate looked at her and frowned. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be in the hospital?”

 

“He didn’t hurt me,” she whispered. “At least not this time. He said, if I didn’t deliver the message, he’d show up, standing at the end of my bed, and I would know it’s time to start the game all over again.”

 

Kate winced. “Well, I sure as hell hope not. I think you’ve been through enough.”

 

She nodded. “He did say,” she added, then stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, which caught in her throat, before she exhaled noisily. “He did say that he likes to keep his pets.”

 

Kate stared at her in shock. “What pets?”

 

The young woman looked up and stared at her, tears in her eyes, then replied, “I think he meant human pets. You have to stop him. Before he comes after me, please, please stop him.”

 

Kate looked over at the young woman, now sobbing quietly, then got up, wrapped her arms around her, and whispered, “I will, sweetie. I will.” And she sure as hell hoped that she wasn’t lying.

 

I’ll need Simon on this one in a big way, she thought to herself. Unfortunately he didn’t yet know that he would play an integral part in this investigation because it could be all about his life. She knew that wasn’t something Simon would be okay with, but he had to be, this time, because lives were at stake.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

 

 

 

 

Detective Kate Morgan dropped into the seat behind her desk.

 

Colby marched over and glowered at her. “Why is one of my detectives, plus my confidential psychic source, linked to a kidnapping?”

 

Kate shook her head. “We just got this dropped in our laps minutes ago, sir.”

 

“Well, find out, damn it. You got twenty-four hours, before we turn this over to Missing Persons.” Then Colby stormed off.

 

Kate sighed and stared at the note. Her mind raced to what lay ahead. Simon will not be impressed.

 

Almost as if reading her thoughts, Rodney said, “Simon will so not like this.”

 

She winced and nodded. “We’ll have to tear apart his private life.”

 

“Yet … we have no choice,” Rodney noted.

 

She frowned at him, her lips twitching in a wry look. “Yeah, you want to be the one who tells Simon that?”

 

Rodney’s grin flashed brightly, and, with a booming laugh, he gave her a snarky reply. “Hell no. That’s your department.”

 

The others on her team walked in then—minus Andy, who was off duty on medical leave—and all focused on Kate.

 

“How bad was it?” Lilliana asked, as she walked to her desk and picked up her empty coffee cup, as if intent on refilling it.

 

“It was bad,” Rodney stated.

 

Owen shifted in his chair to look at both of them. “When you say bad, what does that look like?”

 

By way of explanation, Rodney handed him the note that the woman brought with her.

 

Owen read it out loud and then whistled, his gaze immediately jumping to Kate. “Good God, is this for real?”

 

Kate nodded. “You should have seen her. She was scratched up, bruised, in tears, … terrified. She looked as if she’d been to hell and back. And, Rodney, did you see how she limped out of here, seemingly on both feet? She could have more injuries that we just didn’t see in the interview.”

 

Rodney nodded, with a grimace.

 

Kate added, “I don’t think she faked any of it.”

 

“No, I don’t think so either,” Rodney murmured, as he sat nearby. “Whoever did this to her, either he did this with the full intention of Simon being brought into it …”

 

“Or hoping,” Kate interrupted immediately, “that Simon would get brought into it.”

 

“Probably more to the point,” Owen cut in the two of them, “the kidnapper did this so that he would get brought into it.”

 

She nodded. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

 

“Which also means that we have no choice but to bring Simon into it as well,” Rodney stated, his gaze steady on Kate.

 

She groaned. “Which is the point that we were discussing. He … won’t like this.”

 

Rodney snorted. “None of us like it, and that woman who just walked out of here, looking like a ghost, liked it even less.”

 

Kate couldn’t say a whole lot to that. She stared down at the note. “He gave the message to her so it’ll have prints, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t wear gloves or something else. He made it fairly clear to that woman—should she not deliver this message—she would wake up one night to find him standing at the end of her bed, ready to start the game all over again.”