Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(4)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

“How was she released?” Owen asked, writing down notes.

 

“According to her, the kidnapper dropped her off at the hospital, via a side trip to point out her apartment to her.”

 

“That’s not good.”

 

“Nope, it really is not. So, of course, he knows where she lives, so she’s terrified that he is coming back, as he threatened to already.”

 

“I don’t think she would have come to us if he hadn’t threatened her, if she didn’t deliver the message,” Rodney muttered.

 

“She was terrified of him,” Kate shared.

 

“With good reason,” Lilliana noted. “Christ, a psycho like this? … That’s the last thing the city needs right now.” She looked over at Kate intently this time. “The last thing you need either.”

 

“Oh, I won’t argue with you there,” she declared, as she stared over at the woman who maybe wasn’t a friend yet but at least had become a coworker Kate could respect. “I really don’t need any Simon involvement either.”

 

“And yet it’s not Simon involvement per se. This seems to be because of Simon.”

 

“I know that,” Kate admitted. “He won’t be happy when he finds out what’s happened.” Nobody wanted to imagine that happening because of them, or for them, or in any way a thing even remotely related to them. Kate grabbed her pen and paper and announced, “It’s almost time. I’ll let Sergeant Colby know what’s happening.”

 

“Good idea,” Rodney agreed. “Do you want me to come in with you, when you talk to Simon?”

 

She swore. “I guess I need to make it official and on the books, so then, yes.”

 

“Still, you can have a few minutes to explain to him what’s going on first,” Rodney offered. “If I come in, then you have a witness to everything that’s being said, and that should help, or at least temper some of this.”

 

“Sure,” she noted, with a wry look in his direction. “We know how Simon doesn’t love police stations.”

 

“And yet he spends an awful lot of time here,” Owen stated in a teasing tone.

 

She flushed at that. “Maybe. I suspect this will all completely shift things now though.”

 

“It’s not your fault,” Rodney claimed, turning to look at her. “He won’t blame you.”

 

She nodded. “Yet somehow it feels as if I’m to blame.”

 

Lilliana stepped forward. “I will say it once, and you better hear me. … Just because your name is on that envelope, you are not responsible for this. When you get a psycho, you get a psycho. They have their means. They have their motivations. They have everything under the sun, and usually common sense and any sanity aren’t part of it.” Lilliana shrugged. “You are a means to an end in this case. You are a tool to be used to hurt Simon.” Lilliana was nothing if not blunt, and she was never shy about digging in and digging deep. “Remember that. It’ll make it easier on you.”

 

Lilliana was right, but there was no better way to handle this. It would be Kate’s words hurting Simon that really struck home because this note was what it was all about. This asshole was doing this because he wanted something from Simon. What he wanted was a whole different story and that, as she checked the clock, she’d find out. Hopefully soon too.

 

*

 

Simon St. Laurent pocketed his phone, turned to his foreman, barked off a few orders, and then added, “Unfortunately I’ve got a change of plans. I’ll be back …” He checked his watch and frowned. “I won’t be back until later this afternoon.” He mentally calculated it—a sense of shifting his appointments around, clocking if he could still meet his other responsibilities for the day. He looked over at his foreman, but then thought better of it because this sense of lateness had settled in. “Maybe not even then.”

 

At that, his foreman nodded. “We’ll be fine,” he shared comfortably. “You know that.”

 

And he did know that. Simon was the one who liked to stay on top of things. Always that sense of not wanting to hand over complete control because that’s when people took advantage of you, and that was hard for him—relinquishing control. He’d never had a problem with this guy before, and he’d worked with him for years, but that didn’t change the worry that this time would be when something could go wrong. Simon nodded. “Anyway, I’ll see you when I can get back.”

 

“Good enough.”

 

And, with that, Simon picked up his pace and headed to the police station. He contemplated his travel options as he got outside. He was a little too far away to walk there and make it in time, and maybe he could catch a cab—but, given the location, the cab itself would likely get snarled up in traffic. Simon quickly hopped the little ferry and ended up on the far side of the station and still had about a mile to go. With that, he flagged a cab and arrived at the station almost perfectly on time. He smiled as he got out.

 

It was one of the things that he did pride himself on. He often felt the people who were deliberately late could be because they cared about themselves more than they cared about the deadline or about anybody else. It didn’t matter to them about making other people wait, and Simon was not that kind of person. He wasn’t late in business matters, and he wasn’t late in his personal life either.

 

At that, his thoughts immediately turned to the odd tone in Kate’s voice when he’d talked to her. Something was definitely up. That it involved him wasn’t a surprise, given the amount of police cases he’d become involved in recently. He frowned, as he walked up the front steps to the station. Simon had noted not just worry in her voice but fear.

 

For whatever reason she was afraid for him. Although that should make him feel better, not knowing what the circumstances were and wondering how he could possibly be sideways of the law, he headed to the front reception and was immediately told to take a seat. Kate would be with him in a minute.

 

Instead of sitting, he stood here and studied the small confined area, refraining from picking up his phone—which had almost became an instinctive habit—to check his messages and the weather and anything else to keep his mind off what was ahead of him.

 

Instead he calmed his mind in order to evaluate some of the crazy energy going on around him. But being in a police station made that hard to do. It was already difficult at any time, especially when fear, anger, and frustration all rolled into a maelstrom of energy. However, being here was harder on him, as a psychic, so he quickly built a few walls to keep some of the sensations back and away.