Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(8)
Author: Dale Mayer
Kate woke the next morning, alone in her own bed. She had decided to get a good night’s sleep and had stayed in her own place, particularly when Simon had had a late day, full of meetings. She got up, quickly showered, decided to forego breakfast and coffee, and headed into the office. She kept hoping that she’d wake up with some idea of who had done this to Patricia, but nothing came to mind. As Kate walked in the station, Owen was already there. She stared at him.
He shrugged. “We requested the camera surveillance from Patricia’s apartment building and some in the adjacent area,” he explained, “but the cameras don’t cover that corner.”
“Of course they don’t,” she muttered. “However, the kidnapper was looking for a response from Simon somehow, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he is watching the police station to see if Simon showed up.”
“Oh, that’s a good thought too,” Rodney noted behind her. “If that were the case, our kidnapper would have seen Simon show up yesterday, probably expecting something, or is quite happy to sit and chortle in his own little world, thinking that we were spinning on our heels and didn’t have a clue what we were doing because he’s so clever.”
Owen offered to take a look at those cams too.
“Thanks, Owen.” She nodded, as she walked over to her desk. “And that fits too, doesn’t it? I kept thinking that there had to be more. It is likely Patricia doesn’t know what she knows. Like possibly the kidnapper’s voice.”
She took time to consider her own words. “I’ll have to keep on her and keep talking to her to see what else this guy may have slipped up on, even if she didn’t recognize it at the time.”
“She’s also delicate,” Owen added, “and we don’t want her to run or to do anything that puts her life in danger or makes her clam up because she doesn’t want anything more to do with this.”
“Right, that’s also a possibility.” Kate frowned, her fingers tapping her desktop, as she picked up a pen and now started tapping the desk with it. “Rodney, while we were interviewing Patricia, did you ever get the feeling at any time that she was lying or holding anything back?”
He turned to face Kate and then slowly nodded. “Yes, but nothing that I could ask her about.” Kate nodded. He asked her, “What are you thinking?”
“I wonder. … This guy held a woman captive for days, in her underwear, but he didn’t rape her,” she noted.
“Right.” Rodney nodded. “Maybe she was withholding that info. Many women hide a rape.”
Kate picked up her notes and then read through them. “She’s not married.”
“But she does have … or had a boyfriend,” Rodney shared, thinking back to the info they had. “Maybe she thinks he won’t stick around, if that’s the case.”
Kate frowned, as she continued to review her notes.
“How is that even a thing, bailing on a sick loved one?” Owen asked from the sidelines. “When women get breast cancer, apparently they’re told during one of their first oncology visits to get prepared for a divorce because most men bail.” Owen shook his head. “I just … don’t understand. Why does some guy bail because a woman’s been raped? Why does some guy bail because his partner has breast cancer?” He raised his palms, frowning. “I don’t understand that psychology.”
“That’s because they’re not there for a long time,” Kate replied. “They’re there for a good time. They didn’t sign up for this kind of support, and they’re out.” She sighed. “However, you could be right, Rodney. She could be trying to hide this from her partner.”
“Or,” Rodney added, “Patricia could be trying to hide this from the world, if she feels that the world would look at her differently because of this.”
“Good point,” Kate muttered. “So I definitely need to talk to her again.” She found Patricia’s home address in her notes and tapped the entry. “I think I’ll drive over there and talk to her in person. She might be more comfortable at home. Open up a little more.”
“What? You drove this morning?”
She glared at him. “I do drive sometimes, you know.” She reached for her cell phone to look up the address. “I want to see her parking lot.”
“Oh? What’ll the parking lot tell you?” Rodney asked curiously.
“Maybe nothing, maybe nothing that Google won’t show me on my monitor.” She shrugged. “On the other hand, it will give me a feel for the area, where her kidnapper could be sitting and watching for her. So I want to see the lay of the land.”
“I’ll come with you.” Rodney stood, gathering his jacket.
She looked over and frowned. “You don’t have to. I can go alone.”
“No, in this case, I’m coming,” Rodney stated with finality.
Immediately Owen nodded. “Yeah, let’s not play Lone Ranger on this one.”
Startled, she looked back at him. “That wasn’t my intention at all. I just didn’t figure that you guys would see any point in it.”
Rodney laughed. “We’re not stupid,” he replied, with a grin. “We all think differently, and there’s something unique about your processes—which I think we’d all like to understand because, let’s face it, that is closing cases, and that is a good thing. Anyway,” he said, “I’ll pull as much information as I can before we go.”
“I thought Lilliana was on it yesterday.”
“She was, until she had to leave the office early for an appointment,” he told Kate, with a pointed look. “I took over at that point in time, but some of Patricia’s history is hard to get a hold of.”
“In what way?” Kate asked. “And did it have anything to do with why the kidnapper chose her? We need to know about the victim, what brought our kidnapper to Patricia.”
Rodney tilted his head, with a knowing look. “I think she used to work the streets.”
“Oh, interesting,” Kate noted, as she walked closer to look at the information on his monitor. “She’s in our system, isn’t she? She had to be.”
He nodded. “And that’ll be another reason why she wouldn’t want to mention any rape. Nobody, … in her mind, would believe her because of the work she does or did do.” He shook his head. “Absolutely nothing here on her record recently. The last entry was from a couple years ago.”