Page 15 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)

“Nobody has answers,” she declared, “at least not all the time. I just want to know what you heard.”

He thought about it and nodded. “It didn’t hear much, just the sounds of somebody getting beat up,” he muttered, “and something about,… just voices, urging, taunting someone to fight.”

“Right,” she replied. “Did you recognize the voices?”

He shook his head.

“Did you ever see any faces?”

He shook his head again. “I try hard to stay away from everybody,” he explained. “Most of them are much more likely to send a boot in my direction than any act of kindness. Simon appears to be very different.”

Kate nodded. “He is because he comes from the heart.”

“That will get your ass kicked,” Arnie muttered.

“And it might,” she agreed, “but, if that were to happen, I would be the one right at his side to make sure that I punished that person.”

Arnie looked at her and laughed. “I know what you think you’ll see,” Arnie stated, with an odd look, “but it’s an ugly world out there.”

“I know, and I deal in it every day. I’m in the trenches with all kinds of ugliness that you don’t even want to think about.

Although you’ve seen a lot of it, you haven’t seen all of it, and you don’t see the level that I see, any more than I’ve experienced what you’ve seen,” she shared. “Back to the fighting, any idea who?”

“No, I don’t know,” he replied. “Honestly, I don’t want to know. Something damn scary is going on in that building.”

“Why that building?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “except it’s was slated for demolition at one time but nothing happened.

It’s really not safe to even be in there.

I guess maybe half of me was hoping it would come down while I was in there, and I wouldn’t have to worry because the old girl and I could go at the same time.

” He looked over at Elsie, a sad look on his face.

“We’ll go pretty close to the same time but not the exact same. ”

Kate nodded and just sat here and waited.

He frowned and then shrugged. “In theory I won’t be around in case somebody ever does get caught for this.

So no good reason not to tell you what I heard.

The last time some man said he wasn’t a fighter and didn’t understand why he was there.

Somewhere around that statement I eased out of the building and left.

No good can come from hearing comments like that. ”

“No, of course not,” she agreed. “It does imply that somebody was being coerced.”

“People are always being coerced,” Arnie declared, staring at her.

She nodded. “True, but I do have an interest in this,” she stated, “and it’s something I can’t just let rest.”

He frowned. “Might be better if you did.”

“Maybe,” she acknowledged.

“You can get killed yourself too, you know?”

“Maybe,” she conceded, sending a wry smile in his direction. “Still doesn’t mean I can stand by and let other people get killed as well. So, what’s the talk on the street? You seem to be doing a good job of avoiding telling me something.”

He frowned. “I don’t know about the rest of the street,” he began, and again that same tone creeped up. “I just think some weird person out there is wreaking havoc.”

“Have you seen him?”

He hesitated, then sighed. “I could say, yes, but, in truth,… I wouldn’t recognize him. He always wears a hoodie pulled up over his head, always looking like a ninja—you know, black hoodie, black sweats, black shoes, and black gloves.”

He shook his head at that. “I swear to God those damn gloves always give me nightmares. I try to avoid him, but I did get stuck inside that warehouse after a storm broke. It’s not a good place for us to be.” He looked over at Simon. “You’ve been very kind. This is much nicer.”

Simon nodded, giving Arnie a smile.

“It’s a lovely boat and…” Arnie hesitated.

Simon added, “You aren’t leaving today or tomorrow.”

The old man relaxed visibly. “Seriously? Elsie and I can stay?”

“Yes, I’m trying to find a place where you can go permanently.”

“They won’t take my girl,” he reminded him, patting Elsie. “So, I’ve just been waiting.”

“I understand,” Simon replied, “and she’s suffering while the waiting is going on.”

“I thought maybe she would just not wake up one morning,” he explained, tears coming to his eyes. “And I know that’s probably not something I should wish for. I just thought it would be easier on her.”

“I’m sure it would be,” Simon noted, “but that doesn’t mean that’s the only answer available to you.”

“As long as I don’t want to leave her, it is,” Arnie declared, staring at him. “There’s really no place for those of us with pets.”

Simon frowned, as he stared off in the distance. “There’s really not a whole lot of places for you anyway, is there?”

“There’s the shelter,” he replied. “If I get in early enough, I can get a meal and a bed. But there’s never enough beds, so you have to line up.

As soon as you’re moved back out, you have to start lining back up again.

And, most of the time, I’m okay to do that because the food is there, but not everybody in that line is decent. ”

“Does the line give you trouble?” she asked curiously.

He shrugged. “Sometimes lots of people are down on their luck, lots of people who haven’t had an easy time of it,” he described.

“That makes people desperate. I’m an old man and easily picked on.

I just don’t want to get picked on by the wrong people.

I know I’m dying, and I was just hoping to go out on my own. ”

“Of course,” she murmured.

“You say of course ,” Arnie noted, with half a smile. “Yet it’s tough out there, and that makes it almost impossible for some of us.”

“Right now,” she pointed out, “you’re doing okay, and we’ll see what the morning brings.”

He looked at her and asked, “You won’t tell your guy here to not help me?”

“No, of course not. The Running Mate belongs to him,” she replied. “I would never interfere.”

He looked at her for a long moment and then nodded. “In that case, I really want to stay for a few days—until I can at least dry out enough to handle the weather again, plus for Elsie here. I don’t think she’ll make it even that long.”

Simon looked over at the dog, sleeping at Arnie’s side. “And then you’ll have to decide if it would be a kindness to not have her sleeping like this.”

“Thought of that too,” he muttered, “but there’s really no money to help her out in that way. And, honest to God, part of me is jealous. Why can’t we have something like that for people?”

“There is in Canada,” Kate shared, studying him, “and that is something you could pursue if you wanted to, but it won’t be fast and easy.”

He laughed. “Nothing in the medical system is. I’ll be dead beforehand.”

She smiled. “Or maybe not. Maybe you will make it past all this.”

He looked at her and shook his head. “No,” he stated forcefully. “I already know my time is coming. The question is whether I can make it until after my girl goes first.”