Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(3)
Author: Dale Mayer
Lilliana slowly sank into her chair, glaring at Kate intently. “Maybe you should tell us what that game was.”
Kate explained what the woman had told them.
Eyes wide, Lilliana whispered, “Seriously?”
“Yeah, she is,” Kate confirmed carefully. “Relatively she’s unhurt, in that it could have been so much worse physically.”
“Of course.” Lilliana seemed dazed, as she looked around. “What kind of insanity is this?”
“I’m thinking,” Rodney suggested, “it’s whatever insanity her kidnapper thought would bring Simon into his orbit.”
“Meaning, the kidnapper can’t bring Simon into his orbit, won’t bring him into his orbit, or, no matter what he does, it doesn’t end up with Simon in his orbit, so he’s doing something drastic, somehow knowing,” Kate theorized, “that Simon’s in my world and has been helping out on some of these cases.”
The note was passed around from person to person on the team, as each studied it carefully, already in a plastic bag, knowing that any forensic evidence needed to be preserved.
“Remember what I just said about another psycho coming out of the woodwork?” Lilliana murmured. “Because it does seem as if we do get a regular run of people who have a weird idea of what proper and normal behavior is,” she explained, looking over at the others. “In this case, somebody’s … determined to involve Simon.”
“And you also know that there is no way we cannot involve him,” Owen acknowledged from the side. “He’s got to be involved.”
She stared down at her phone, as if it would reach out and bite her.
Rodney watched her hesitate and offered, “You want me to call him?”
Startled, she looked up and shook her head. “That won’t help much,” she pointed out. “He’ll want to know why I didn’t do the phoning.”
Rodney grinned at her. “Hey, I would have said the same thing.” He now chuckled. “I’m just telling you that you’re not alone.”
She smiled, for the first time in a long time realizing that she really wasn’t alone anymore. Somehow as the newcomer, she had managed to fit into this craziness and become one of the team. The team itself had started to jell and had become something important. “I’m glad to hear that,” she finally said, “because I’m not sure what’ll be involved in this, but I highly suspect it won’t have a quick and easy solution.”
“Ooh, don’t say that,” Owen replied. “You’re tempting fate with that one.”
She again stared at her cell phone, as if it would bite her, and just then it rang. An eerie silence fell around the room almost immediately. Rodney eyed her, one of his eyebrows quirked. Her shoulders sagged, and she nodded. “Yes, it’s Simon.”
He and everybody else would be listening in, at least somewhat. She answered the call in a quiet tone of voice.
Simon immediately asked, “What’s the matter?”
She winced. “Why does something always have to be the matter?” she muttered.
“Well, today it is,” he snapped, his tone impatient, yet she sensed the worry in it.
She asked, “Why did you call?”
“Because I could sense something was wrong,” he growled, “and nothing you tell me will change that.”
“No, it won’t change it.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I need to talk to you,” she stated abruptly. Rodney mouthed something at her. She nodded. “I need to talk to you down here.”
Simon abruptly asked, “What’s going on?”
“It’s better if you come down.” Then, in a soft voice, she added, “Please.”
“You think I will come down there because you added the word please?” he asked in a taunting tone. Not hearing anything back, he groaned. “Fine, but I’m also busy, you know?”
And just enough crossness had been added to his tone for her to realize that he’d already made time in his day to call her because he was worried, so this was probably beyond a break in his day. “I’m sorry, but it’s important.”
She heard him mumble something in the background, and then he declared, “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.” After some shuffling in the background, he added, “I can give you maybe thirty more, but then I have another meeting.”
“Fine,” she said, “hopefully we can get it done within your schedule.”
At that wording, he froze for a moment. “Get what done?”
She hesitated, then replied, “It’s better if you are here. I’ll see you in twenty.” She quickly disconnected. She stared down at the phone and then swore. “No other way to handle it. But damn …”
Lilliana spoke up. “You did the right thing. It needs to be here.”
“I know. I know, but it feels … not exactly as a betrayal—because he didn’t do anything—but still he’ll be so upset when he finds out.”
“And again, not half as upset as the next person will be, if this guy decides to repeat his game.”
“Speaking of which,” Lilliana said, “give us the report as you have it right now, and we’ll start running down the victim. Plus we can take a look at anything and everything in terms of forensic information.”
Kate nodded. “She went to the hospital, but she didn’t tell them about the kidnapper and his game, so that’s a problem.” Kate turned to face Lilliana. “She didn’t think anybody would believe her. She told one of the nurses, but she’d already showered and been cleaned up at the hospital, never telling them about her kidnapping event, … so probably no forensic evidence is on her.”
Lilliana swore at that. “Why do people do that shit?” she asked, staring at Kate in frustration. “Without forensic data, … it’s hard to get a case to hold up in court.”
Kate agreed with her but no point in arguing now. The woman had done what she’d done, and, to a certain extent, Kate understood. “I can talk to her again, once we collect a bit more evidence.”
“Or lack thereof,” Lilliana grumbled.
“We have a few more questions to ask her, but essentially the gist of the interview was, she doesn’t know who her kidnapper was. He grabbed her while she was getting out of her vehicle at her own residential parking lot, heading home from work. He held her captive for a couple days. He did give her food and water, but he stripped her down to her underwear to keep her from taking off and kept her blindfolded.”