Page 27 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)

“No, I don’t,” Kate admitted, “but what I do know is I’ve got a very badly injured man and a devastated wife, who hasn’t yet found out the entirety of how bad this will be for her.”

Angela turned and slammed the door to her office.

Kate faced Tom. “I’ll need to know if a charge comes up over the next few days. Sometimes it can take a day or two.”

“You’re right. I should have thought of that.” He frowned. “I don’t know who else might have taken him. Usually I do the airport trips just because I live near there. Julian does too, but mostly it’s just me.”

She nodded. “I hear you, but any number of issues could be going on here.” The big one that wouldn’t leave her thoughts was the idea that this killer could be trapping his victims by posing as a cabbie, then locking them in the vehicle so they couldn’t get out.

She added, “I need a list of everybody who works here, and I will be in touch.”

“Can we contact his wife?” Tom asked.

“Can you?” she asked. “I don’t know, but I’m sure Anna would appreciate it if somebody did. You would think that somebody cared, and not just…” Then she stopped and shook her head. “This job never ceases to amaze me.” And, with that, she turned and walked out.

She wanted to say so much more, but, as she’d discovered long ago, her morals and ethics apparently didn’t match up with a lot of the world’s.

Now there would be one very devastated wife trying to figure out what had happened to her world, only to potentially find out what her husband had been up to beforehand.

With a sad sigh, she got into her vehicle and headed back to the office.

Later that evening, she walked into Simon’s apartment building, tired and frustrated, but also incredibly sad.

Harry took one look at her and frowned.

“I’m fine,” she muttered, with a wave of her hand. “Just a crap day.”

“Oh my,” Harry murmured. “You have way too many of those.”

“Isn’t that the truth?”

*

Simon had a hard time determining his mood.

As soon as he realized Kate was on her way up, he walked outside on the balcony and turned on the grill, wondering at the domestic inclination of wanting to cook a meal tonight.

And yet he felt just something about time going by too quickly, life happening when you weren’t looking, and any other clichéd comments that one could think of.

When she walked into his place, and he saw the fatigue on her shoulders, he nodded. “It’s just that kind of a day, isn’t it?”

“It’s definitely that kind of a day,” she noted.

“I shouldn’t be surprised, since I’ve seen it over and over, but it’s still frustrating that people screw around with other people’s lives, and they just don’t care.

They’re not even worried about getting caught, beyond the humiliation of people finding out what they’re up to,” she muttered.

“Oh, it sounds as if you had an afternoon.”

“Not in a good way,” she declared, shaking her head.

“Just people being people.” She explained about the man in the hospital and the affair he was having with somebody at work and the wife not knowing.

“She’s there at the hospital, breaking her heart over Sonny, who is fighting for his life.

Yet he had an affair with Angela, and Anna, the wife, has no idea. ”

“Or maybe she does,” he pointed out. “Have you talked to her?”

“I’ve talked to her, but not about that,” Kate clarified. “It’s just one of those things, but I’ll get there.”

“And do you have to tell her?”

“Is it a kindness to tell her?” she asked, looking at him. “Is it mean to tell her? In a way, I need to know. Did she arrange to have Sonny beaten like this because she knew of his infidelity?”

“Oh, right,” Simon muttered. “That would be shitty, wouldn’t it?”

“It would be shitty, but an awful lot of women are out there who would say it was totally justified.”

He nodded. “What was your take on her?”

“Exhausted, worn out, absolutely stunned at the change in her life,” Kate shared. “I don’t think she knows, but I’ll have to find out.” She shook her head at that thought.

“And his prognosis?”

“Not good,” she noted. “Obviously there’s always hope, but I don’t think the doctors are looking at a significant recovery. He’s had brain surgery, and still, there is a good chance that he will have brain deficits if he survives. And I don’t know that they’re looking much beyond that.”

“That’s crappy,” Simon whispered.

“He seemed somewhat cognizant when I spoke to him in the warehouse, and it sounds terrible, but it was probably one of his last-ditch efforts to get help.”

“And fear being the strong motivator that the guy who did this to Sonny was coming back.”

“I haven’t talked to the coroner yet, but I’m wondering if maybe this guy serves up his punishments, then leaves them there to die. And then comes back to gloat. Or, if something else entirely is going on, I have no clue at all.”

“Right,” Simon noted, “and has it got anything to do with the fighting?”

“I have no idea,” she admitted, turning to him.

“That’s another completely different issue that I haven’t gotten an answer for.

It would suck if it did because that’s just unbelievable, but it would also suck if it didn’t because that would mean we have two completely different murders to follow up on.

So, one is neither better nor worse than the other. They’re just both terrible options.”

Simon didn’t say anything for a moment and kept fussing with the grill. “I’ll put on the steaks, or do you want to shower first?”

“Yes,” she said, her eyes lighting up at the idea of a steak. “What got into you that you’re all of a sudden looking to cook?” Then she saw the expression on his face and nodded. “Arnie, right?”

“Arnie and Elsie of all things,” he shared, with a laugh. “Never had a pet, but, boy, did that man love his.”

She nodded. “I was thinking about that today myself. I never had a pet either.”

He frowned at her. “Not even when you were little?”

“Not that I remember,” she stated. “If a hamster or whatever showed up, honest to God, my mother would have just flushed it down the toilet.” He winced at that, and she nodded. “And it’s not as if she would have ever done right by it.”

“Sometimes people just suck, don’t they?”

“Yeah, they sure do,” she murmured. “I’ll go have a quick shower and see if I can shift my mood.”

“I’ll work on shifting mine while I’m outside dealing with the steaks.”

“Anything to go with the steaks is a good start,” she said hopefully.

He laughed. “There’s potatoes, and I have a few prawns here.”

“Ooh, now you’re talking,” she replied in delight. She turned and raced inside.

He had to laugh. In her case, the way to her heart was definitely through her stomach.

He’d never met anybody who loved food quite as much as she did, yet would be completely disinterested if it interfered with her work.

She was all about work, that one. And maybe it was a good thing, considering the work she did.

Still muddling through his thoughts on Arnie, Simon put some seasoning on the steaks, checked that the temperature was good, and tossed them on.

He glanced at his watch, knowing that he only had about four minutes a side on the steaks, which meant that he’d probably jumped the gun a little.

On the other hand, since steak was on the menu tonight, Kate would likely be superfast with her shower.

By the time he had them plated and a meal served, she was grabbing cutlery out of the drawer and coming to sit beside him.

“Too bad we can’t sit outside,” he said, with a smile, “but it’s way too cold.”

“I agree,” she murmured. “I was thinking about the Running Mate today too.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’ll have to take a look to see what needs to be done since Arnie was there.”

“Did he have any problem leaving?” she asked curiously.

“No, he was more than ready to go. I even offered him another night to get himself together, but he literally had just been trying to give Elsie time to complete her life,” he explained. “It was such an odd feeling to realize that he was serious about it too.”

“And what about his life?”

“He told me that he’s done, that he’ll be gone soon, and that gave me the weirdest feeling too.”

“That he knew he would be gone soon, or that he didn’t care and was happy about it?”

“All of it,” he said, looking at her. “I can’t say that life is always glorious, but I haven’t come to the point where I want to sit here and be complacent about it being over either.” She just nodded. He looked at her and added, “I know that you did come to that place at one time.”

“Sure,” she admitted. “I think we all get close to that at times, but that doesn’t mean we do something about it, and I’m not sure that very many of us who get there are truly serious.

It becomes something you always think about and can’t get out of your head, but…

it’s just an option, not a good one, but it’s an option. ”

“And Arnie asked about that too. Is there an option for that for humans?”

“You mean, is there medically assisted suicide, if that’s even what it’s called?” she asked. “Yes,… there is. Generally it’s reserved for serious cases, debilitating diseases with no cure, lots of pain, increasing costs, that sort of thing. So, at the end, it’s easier on everyone.”

“I would like to think something is out there,” he noted.

“I think about what Arnie’s facing, and he has zero resources, and I don’t even have a place to put him,” he noted, looking at her in a weird helpless way.

“And it occurred to me that I have all these buildings, and I’m doing all these rehabs.

” Then he fell silent, shaking his head.

She looked over at him intently. “Maybe it’s a good time for you to reconsider what you’re doing with them all,” she suggested.

“I don’t know what they’re slated for. I presume rentals or commercial or whatever.

” She shrugged. “I don’t know what it is you’re trying to do, besides buy the world, I gather. ”