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O nly as exhaustion hit did Kate choose to at least get outside and rejuvenate for a few minutes. Even if that meant sitting on the boat and having a bite to eat, that worked. As she walked closer to the Running Mate , she couldn’t believe what she’d overheard. She looked over at Simon. “Did he give you a message?”

“No, I guessed what it was,” he clarified, with half a smile. “And it was exactly as you would guess too.”

“ Think ?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, damn,” she muttered.

“And, no, he doesn’t know who sent the message, just that somebody paid him to deliver it. He thinks he didn’t get paid enough because it was kind of scary down here.”

“That weird light is out tonight,” she noted. “There’s a strange energy.” When he smiled at her terminology, she glared at him. “No, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know how you meant it,” he said, still chuckling. “Come on board and have some food.”

“I was kind of hoping it might be hot food.”

“We have both,” he stated.

“Good,” she muttered, as she hopped on board. “What the hell is he doing sending another messenger?”

“Obviously somebody wants you either out of something or into something. Your guess would be as good as mine.”

“That leaves an awful lot of leeway,” she pointed out, “and I’m already sure to get it wrong. So why would they do that? Why can’t they just be direct and succinct?”

“Maybe they’re already concerned, and that’s why they sent the second message,” he pointed out.

“Maybe,” she muttered, “it still sucks though.”

He laughed. “I won’t argue that, but at least we now know that an ongoing issue still exists and that you’re still at the center of it.”

“I am, but I don’t know why,” she murmured. “It makes no sense to me.”

“Nothing makes sense until it does. Remember that.”

She glared at him, but he just smiled and then asked, “How about some food?”

He pointed beside her. She smiled once she opened the basket, peering inside to then exclaim in joy. Instead of wine, she found a couple thermos bottles, and a big carafe of hopefully hot coffee.

“We have both coffee and tea,” he added.

“Lovely,” she murmured and reached for the first package. “Is this curry?” she asked.

“It’s something like a curry, but I’m not sure exactly what. I just asked them to pack us up both hot and cold food—enough for four.”

She laughed out loud at that. “And you didn’t think I would make it.”

“No,” he countered, with a smile. “I asked for enough for four because I was pretty sure that you would make it here,” he stated, chuckling. “The one thing I do know is that, particularly in the evening, when you need food,… you really need food.”

“I am hungry,” she admitted.

“Exactly,” he declared. “So now let’s park all the rest of this crap and put aside everything else from this day. We can deal with it all, starting tomorrow.”

“Is it that easy?” she asked, as she picked up a fork and looked over at him. “I have another connection between my current cases that is equally disturbing, equally upsetting, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the Timmy mess going on right now.”

“Good,” Simon said, “that will at least be something completely separate.”

“Maybe,” she murmured, “and yet it feels as if Timmy’s case shouldn’t be one of two strange cases that I currently have.”

“Right. The circumstances being what they are, we would probably assume that’s not the case.”

“Which means we would be looking at them as potentially connected.”

“But you don’t think they are?”

“No, I don’t think they are,” she replied, then stopped, “but considering my brother was a missing child, I can’t say they aren’t for sure.”

“Meaning these are other kids?”

“Yes, other kids, both dead, both with abusive fathers.”

He frowned at her. “Look. I know it’s not a topic you want to discuss, since you’ve never mentioned it. What the hell happened to your father? Was he ever in your life?”

She stared at him and slowly nodded. “I don’t know who my biological father was. He was never around that I knew of. My stepfather was there,… but he went to jail for domestic violence.” With those words, she dropped her fork and looked at the food, wanting to throw up.

How had she missed that?