Page 18

K ate burrowed deep into his arms and muttered, “It was a really ugly day.”

“I know. Rodney called me.”

She stiffened at that, then sagged and nodded. “I’m hungry,” she announced, as she pulled away, looking around. “Do you have anything to eat?”

“If I don’t, you know perfectly well that I’ll get something,” he stated, with a smile. “Actually I ordered something, and I was hoping maybe we could go to the boat with it.”

She looked at him in surprise and then delight. “Can we?” she asked. “Even just a few hours would be great.”

“Exactly what I was thinking.” He smiled as he handed her several bags. “We’ll take this stuff down and leave it on board.”

“Right—wintertime. I forgot about that,” she said.

“What about you? Do you want warmer clothes?”

“I don’t know about warmer clothes,” she murmured, as she stared down at her outfit, “but I definitely want to get changed. Give me a minute.” Then she disappeared from view.

In the meantime, dinner arrived. He didn’t even unpack it, since he had pretty well everything he needed to eat onboard, but no way they would eat outside, not given the weather right now. He just wanted to ensure they were cozy inside the boat. As he finished packing up, she stepped out in a heavy sweater. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in that before.”

She looked at him vaguely and shrugged. “Yeah, I’m not even sure where it came from.”

He hid a smile because he’d bought it for her but hadn’t mentioned it. He’d just added it to one of her drawers, and he was happy she chose to wear it.

She looked great in it too. It accented her long lean build and her short-cropped hair, which was literally a headshake away from being perfect, which was all she ever did with it. That completely amazed him because he’d only ever known women who spent hours on their appearance. Yet Kate just looked out at the world from a completely different lens, and still made it hers in a way he’d never seen before.

As he packed up the last of the items, he asked, “Are you ready?”

She nodded. “Sure, what do you want me to grab?”

“Anything and everything,” he replied cheerfully. “It’s all got to go.” And, with that, he handed her the dinner.

She immediately sniffed and groaned. “Oh my God.”

“The boat first,” he declared, with a word of warning in her direction.

She nodded. “Absolutely, but we’ve got to go now . I didn’t realize that you had food , food.”

He chuckled. “When do I never have food?”

“Before I came, I don’t know that you ever had food either,” she declared. “However, now it’s as if we can’t get enough of the damn stuff.”

“That’s because you’re always running on empty, and I just seem to be perpetually slammed at work now.”

“Yeah, in many ways we’re a bad pair.”

“No,” he argued, yet smiled. “Since we’ve come together, we both eat a lot better, and, even if it is takeout, at least we get good takeout,” he noted. “Plus, we’re both getting more rest, and we have each other.”

She looked over at him and then nodded. “I had to see the shrink today. He wanted to talk about you, and I wouldn’t let him,” she said immediately.

He studied her. “It’s probably better if you do talk about me.”

“Maybe,” she admitted. “I just wanted to keep that separate. I don’t want people to tear it apart and to analyze whether it was good or bad or indifferent. I just want it to be… ours .” She shrugged, then turned and walked out the front door, leaving him smiling in her wake.

She said the darndest things, at the darndest times, he thought to himself, as he quickly made his way down behind her.

Once the elevator opened on the first floor, and Harry took one look, he chuckled and raced over to help. “You know, if I could leave my post, I would walk you down to the boat and carry some of this stuff, but I’m the only one on shift right now.”

“You’re fine,” Kate replied, as she walked past him. “If we have to make two trips, we have to make two trips.”

“Are you that close?” he asked.

She looked back at him and nodded. “He changed the mooring, and that gave us another option.”

“Wow, that’s nice,” Harry said. Then he quickly raced to open the front door for them.

Within seconds, they were outside. Simon called back a thanks to Harry, then picked up the pace so he was even with Kate.

As he moved up beside her, she looked at him and asked, “Do I seem a little anxious?”

“You seem ready to get rid of everything in your world except this right now.”

“I am,” she admitted, “and I don’t think I hate anything more than having to open up, particularly to somebody I don’t trust or know.”

Simon just nodded and let her talk.

“I mean, it’s one thing if it’s an official thing, and I have to do it,” she shared, “which I do have to do. But it’s completely different when he doesn’t know my situation, although he wants to know. Still, I don’t feel like I should have to tell him.”

“But you made it through okay?”

“If that’s what you want to call it,” she muttered. “I don’t think I’ll be off the hook forever.”

“I thought it was an annual thing.”

She looked back at him and nodded. “I think part of it is. I’ve avoided all of it up until now.” When he smiled at that, she glared. “You think I’m foolish for avoiding it?”

“I think you can try to avoid it, but I think there’s a reason why it’s in place, and it’s to stop people from doing just that.”

Her shoulders slumped slightly at that.

“But once you’ve been through it the first time, every other time should be easier.”

“ Should ,” she muttered. “I just don’t understand why they have to dig into everything.”

“In this case, I do understand.”

She looked at him in surprise. “You’re on their side?”

Such a gasp of betrayal in her tone surprised him. “Look. There are no sides to this. It’s literally about you making it through a really difficult period in your life, and, if something could help you do that, I’m all for it.”

“But what if it doesn’t help?” she asked, glaring at him.

He smiled. “It looks to me as if it already has.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

He chuckled. “That’s because you don’t want to accept that even talking about this is a help.”

“Is it really, though?” she muttered. “It just seems as if all we do is move things around and around and get no answers.… I have cases like that, and I hate it. I don’t want to be a case.”

It took him a bit to work his way through that preamble in his head. “You’re linking this to a case?” he asked hesitantly.

She looked at him blankly for a minute. “I want a solution. I want closure, an end date,” she explained. “I have cases where that doesn’t exist. I don’t want whatever this is in my head to be the same.”

“Aah.” He nodded, finally understanding what she was working toward. “I’m not sure we ever have end dates for the stuff in our heads. I think we have until-the-next-time dates.”

She glared at him. “But those don’t work, and just brings it all back around again.”

“So, you get rid of what you can, while you can, and, the next time, if and when it comes back around again, it will be less.”

“Will it, though?” she asked, stopping to face him. “Will it really be less?”

“Yes,” he stated. “Deal with what you can deal with, and the next time it will be less.”

She frowned, but the Running Mate was up ahead, and she lit up like a Christmas tree and almost ran toward it. He smiled, never expecting anyone to share his love of boating the way that she did.

They hadn’t even had a chance to get out and sail very much, but just knowing that they had this place to go to, knowing that they had this escape, all seemed to have made a difference like none other. And, for that, he was absolutely delighted with his purchase.

As they walked up, and she hopped in, he immediately handed her the other bags, and she quickly took them and disappeared down below. He joined her a few minutes later and asked, “Do you want to sit down here to eat?”

“It’s pretty cold up there,” she noted, looking over at him. “Unless you want to try.”

He shook his head. “No. I did have heaters installed in here though.” And, with that, he went to the little fireplace, and, to his delight, it was already set up. He smiled when he turned it on, and she stepped up beside him, with a look of awe. “Can we have this on a boat?”

“Yes,” he confirmed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and tucking her up close. “Sometimes you just need to take the comforts where you can. And, when you can’t, you just need to understand that it’ll wait until next time.”

She winced. “You’re back to that next time thing already.”

“Yep, I sure am. This isn’t over right now, and it’s likely to be a rough day or two, or even a week or two.”

“A week or two?” she snapped, glaring at him. “God help me if it goes on any longer than today.”

He chuckled. “And that may well be,” he conceded, “but the good news is that, at some point in the future, it will end, and you will still be the same person you were before. Yet hopefully better, with fewer bad memories.”

*

The next day Simon was out walking, having just come from one rehab project and heading to the next, perusing his phone. That was something he tried to avoid, but sometimes he had to deal with just so many emails and things that it wasn’t an option. He did stop, look around, reorient himself, then quickly crossed the road and headed up on the other side.

Just as he got across the road, a timid voice whispered, Hello?

He stopped, looked around, then frowned and called out himself, “Hello?” He heard almost a sigh. He froze, turned around, and called out again, “Hello?” When he heard another sigh, he froze. Peter . “Where are you?” Simon asked. When the boy remained silent, Simon added, “Please, you need to tell me where you are.”

I don’t know .

It was little Peter’s voice. “Think,” Simon told the boy, his tone filled with frustration. “I can’t help if you don’t help me, Peter. So think. Think about where you were. Think about what you were doing and who you were with.”

Almost immediately, his voice shaking, the little boy wailed, I can’t. I can’t. I can’t , and, with that, he disappeared.

Simon leaned against the nearby building, cursing himself for having pushed Peter too hard. Simon realized that he was doing something not so different than what Kate’s asshole stepfather did to Kate, demanding that she think . Simon was asking this little boy to think, and yet Peter may have absolutely no access to usable information.

It was the same for Kate. Ken was telling her to think, but it required delving into thoughts and memories she wanted nothing to do with. Is that what was going on here with Peter? And, if so, how could Simon get this little guy to open up about it?

He stood here for the longest moment, frustrated at his inability to get the information that Kate needed, but it was always this way. How did one handle it? How did he not go crazy with the need to have information that apparently this little guy just couldn’t give him?

Almost immediately Peter came back and whispered through his mind, I’m trying .

Simon’s heart softened, and he murmured, “I’m sorry, Peter. I shouldn’t be yelling at you.”

Peter’s tone seemed surprised, as he replied, No, you shouldn’t .

That gave Simon a lot of insight into the life this boy had had when he was alive, presuming he was dead now, which was something Simon just didn’t know how to handle. And yet there was still a chance that Peter was alive, if only the little boy could share some information. “Peter, please think. Try to remember.”

Maybe I don’t want to remember , Peter muttered, his tone softening.

Simon winced. “Maybe you don’t,” he agreed. “Maybe it’s too painful. Maybe you know what happened, but you don’t want to remember.”

Maybe.… I think I was loved though.

That brought another wince to Simon’s face. “I’m sure you were,” he stated.

Then why am I in this position?

Such sadness filled Peter’s words that it almost brought tears to Simon’s eyes. “I don’t know. That’s one of the reasons I’m trying to help you, so we can figure this out together.”

I’ll think some more , Peter whispered, and suddenly he was gone.

Peter had left a lot for Simon to think about too. Ken, the stepfather from the past who was tormenting Kate even now, was asking for her to think. Had she blocked out something that she literally couldn’t bring to mind? Maybe it didn’t make sense to her as a child at that time.

Simon wasn’t even sure he could work out in his head exactly what he meant. So, walking to his next stop, he considered all that, while he thought about Peter. Then Simon added, “Think if you can, Peter, but maybe don’t think so hard. Don’t stress about it. Maybe that’s a better way to get any memories.”

Peter popped back into Simon’s head again. The fact that he was popping in and out could reveal something to Simon as well. He just didn’t understand what it meant. Did it mean that he was getting more adept at communicating? Did it mean that Peter was dead and was learning to better manage the world he was in? What did it mean?

Then Peter whispered, I’m trying to think .

“I know. Just maybe don’t try so hard.”

There was a short silence on the other end. No , Peter replied, it’s important. Something important is here .

“Is that why you haven’t left?”

Then in that same soft voice, he whispered, Yes .

“Are you alone over there?”

No, others like me are here.

And that was again likely more confirmation that Peter was dead. “Can you see anything around you?” Simon asked the little boy.

Darkness sometimes, sunshine sometimes.

“Can you see?… Can you see where your body is?”

Yes , he replied ever-so-softly. It’s here with me .

“And where is here ?” Simon thought he heard almost a gasp from Peter.

I’m close .

Something was off in Peter’s tone. “You’re close? Close to what?”

Close to home , he said. I want to go home . And then he started to bawl, great big terrible gasping sobs.

Simon was forced to stop his questions. Instead he whispered to Peter, “Hey, take it easy. Just take it easy.”

I want to go home. I just want to go home.

The litany didn’t stop until Simon somehow forced Peter into silence, both a gift and a curse because now Simon felt as if he had deserted poor Peter too. That wasn’t fair to that young boy who’d already been deserted by so many.

Simon sent Kate a text message, saying he’d heard from Peter again, asking if anybody had had a chance to look into it.

She immediately texted back. Rodney is, and I’ll check and see.

With that, Simon put away those thoughts of Peter and carried on to work. Yet it bothered him throughout the day, especially Simon asking Peter to think, just as Ken had asked Kate to think.

What could Ken possibly want her to think of? Was she to think she had done something wrong as a way for Ken to blackmail her? She had been a child at that point and couldn’t be held responsible for anything that had happened to her. It made no sense, and yet Simon knew he was missing something, and that made him frustrated.

When he finally got to his next jobsite, he saw Danny working off to the side. Danny lifted his head, half smiled, waved, and got back to work. Simon smiled at that. So far that situation was turning out okay. He looked over at Joe, the foreman, who was walking toward him. Simon nodded back at Danny.

“He’s doing fine,” Joe confirmed. “He’s a good kid.”

“I hear you. I’m just waiting for the but …”

“No buts,” he declared cheerfully. “At least not yet.”

“Good. Let’s hope he’s through the worst of it then.”

“I hope so. I hate to see anybody in that position. There’s an awful lot of life out there worth living.”

“Sure, but when you’ve been touched by some of the more difficult things in life that really suck, it makes it seem otherwise, and you start thinking everyone might be better off without you in the world.”

“I don’t know,” his foreman argued, with a headshake. “Everyone needs somebody to love.”

“And when you don’t have anybody to love,” Simon pointed out, “it feels really bad because you seem all alone in the big world out there—meaning that maybe you’re unlovable. So, if that’s true, the world is probably better off without your taking up space anymore.” His foreman stared at him, aghast. Simon just shrugged. “That’s the downhill struggle you can get into from being a victim to this bad stuff,” he explained. “It can be really ugly.”

“That’s beyond ugly,” Joe said, “I’ve never heard the likes of that.”

“No, but lots of people have,” Simon stated. “So, when we find somebody we can help, we do our best.”

“Oh, you’re not kidding there.” Joe smiled. “My wife is beyond upset to think that Danny came that close. And to think the doctor was charged for all those murders in that crazy center of his?”

“He won’t be convicted of anything because he wound up drowning,” Simon noted, “but I hear you. It’s all pretty unpleasant and ugly to even consider something like that happening.”

He nodded. “I just don’t understand why the doctor kept his brother in limbo like that. That kind of hate has got to rot away your insides.”

“Which some will say is exactly what happened,” Simon pointed out. “I don’t think anybody was thinking the doc was sane at the end.”

“No, of course not,” Joe muttered, with a headshake.

“The good news is that we’ll save this one.” Again Simon nodded in Danny’s direction. “Now I have to consider how many other people out there don’t have a chance because of something like this.”

“We’ll help the ones we can,” Joe repeated. “We can only do what we can do for now.”

“Sure, but this is starting to feel as if it’s not enough.”

With that, his foreman nodded and headed back to work.

Meanwhile Simon caught up on phone calls. When he headed back home again, he checked in with Peter.

Just before Simon reached his apartment building, Peter whispered, I’m thinking .

Simon winced. “Look. I didn’t mean to say that as an order or anything. It’s just that, if you remember anything else, it could help.”

I’m thinking , he snapped. And, with that, he disappeared again.

The trouble was, now that Peter was thinking, all Simon could do was consider how this think command would relate to Kate. And maybe it had no relationship at all, but Simon just couldn’t seem to let it go. And, just like Peter, it went around and around in his head. Think, think, think .

What the hell was wrong with him that he’d snapped at that poor little boy?

Stepping into his apartment building, he waved at Harry and headed upstairs. Simon had a quick shower before coming back out and putting on coffee. He had paperwork to do and a bunch of other crap to deal with before Kate got in, if she got in at all today. Usually, just as soon as he found a lull in his world, something in hers would burn up. Right now, a lot of that could just as easily be the mess she was dealing with in her own personal world. And that just kept his mind going round and round again.

As soon as he sat down with a cup of coffee, Peter popped in.

I’m thinking , he cried out, and then he disappeared again.

“Jesus,” Simon muttered, as he got up to pace. “Stop thinking then, Peter. Just let it go. Maybe it’s more about not thinking.”

Not thinking . Peter came back, his whisper tired and cranky now, as if he’d been given an assignment that he couldn’t do.

“Yes, maybe stop thinking and just let information float around. Let’s tell your mind that you need to know about what happened and let it go at that. Then see what it does.”

Okay , he whispered. Then he drifted out of Simon’s realm again.

Simon didn’t know if that was better or worse, but, dear God, he needed whatever was going on in Peter’s world to stop.

Almost immediately Peter came back and whispered, I think I got it .

“You think you’ve got what?” Simon asked.

I think I got it. I think I got it. I think I got it. I think I got it.

“Peter, Peter, talk to me. Just talk to me.”

I think I got it , and then he was gone.

“Good Christ,” Simon muttered with a groan, as he collapsed on his couch. This would drive him mental, and yet it was his own fault in a way. That didn’t make him feel any better. As he sat here, sipping his coffee, he wondered what he was supposed to do with this now.

Then Kate contacted him. “Hey,” she greeted him. “I’m heading over to the station to talk to a couple people involved in the one little boy’s death. I know it’s not quite my case anymore, but it is my case in a way. We’ve got the mother, the father, and the brother-in-law in for questioning.”

“Didn’t you already question them?”

“Yes,” she stated, “but we didn’t have the autopsy results at the time, and now we do.”

“Right, the designer drugs element.”

“Yes, the drugs. However, back then, I thought we were talking about a different delivery method—a syringe—but it seems he may have just ingested them, as in drugs loose on a surface.”

“Oh Christ,” Simon muttered. “To even think that something like that was available to a five-year-old kid…”

“I know,” she murmured. “And yet it happens. It happens all too often.”

“The mother will lose it. Isn’t this the second time she lost a son to drugs?”

“Yes, and I think she’s past losing it now. We just need to talk to her and to ensure she understands what happened. It took a while to find the husband. She had kicked him out, and he’d gone back home to his mother or some such thing. I don’t know exactly. Rodney rousted him out. The brother-in-law had been nowhere to be found, but Rodney’s got him now too. So, we’ll go in and talk to the three of them.”

“In other words, no dinner tonight.”

“Not for me,” she confirmed, “but ensure you eat.”

He laughed at that. “I’m supposed to eat, but you aren’t?”

She frowned. “One of us might as well enjoy food,” she stated crossly. As she went to hang up, she added, “Oh.”

“Oh what?” he muttered right back at her, still pissed at her comment about not having time to eat.

“We tracked my stepfather’s communication at the prison just before he left. He did send out a letter which was checked over, although he was in minimum security at that point in time. And he did have a couple people who he saw on a regular basis.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that we’re tracking it down as to whether he’s the one who sent the puzzle-box note, potentially wanting to blackmail me or something. It would have been easy enough for him to have gotten a friend to hire the kid to deliver the note.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Simon agreed.

“And Ken did have communication with people during that time, which he was entitled to,” she added, “since he was being released.”

“Right, so it easily could have been him.”

“That’s what we’re hoping for,… some kind of an answer on that.”

“Good, so you can let that part go.”

She chuckled. “Good, enjoy your dinner.” And, with that, she ended the call.

No sooner had she hung up than his doorman from downstairs contacted him. “Harry, what’s up?”

“Somebody is here to see you,… He mentioned he had dinner with you the other night.”

Simon froze and quickly gave a description of Kate’s stepfather. “Yeah, that’s him,” Harry confirmed, “You want me to send him up?”

“Hell no,” Simon said immediately. “I’ll come down.”

“Is this a problem?” Harry asked, ever aware of security issues.

“Maybe, so you stay close.”

“Will do,” he agreed, with a cheerful tone. “We don’t need any issues here.”

“No, especially since this one involves Kate.”

“Man, that girl does bring on trouble, doesn’t she?”

“She sure does,” Simon said, with a chuckle, even as he headed to the elevator. He disconnected and immediately put his phone on Record and got down to the main lobby, pocketing his cell. Sure enough, his visitor was Kate’s stepfather. Simon walked over to him. “What can I do for you, Mr. Reeves?”

Ken looked around and muttered, “Pretty fancy digs, Simon.”

“Yeah, Ken, and?” Simon kept his voice cool, but the stepfather gave one of those smiles that would make the blood of an ordinary man run cold. No way Simon would let this guy get to him. “What can I do for you?” he repeated.

“You can help Kate sign all those documents because that would be really helpful.”

“She already told you no. It’s not my decision to make. Plus, I haven’t talked to her about it. After all, she’s busy. She does have a job.”

“Yeah, she’s a cop,” Ken replied, with a creepy smile. “Who would have thunk it?” He just waited, and so did Simon. Ken finally added, “So, the thing is, I think it would be a really good idea for her to sign those documents.”

“Ah, here it comes. What kind of blackmail will you try?” He watched Harry shift ever-so-slightly, hearing the word blackmail .

“That girl’s got some making up to do,” Ken declared, with that same smarmy smile that Simon had seen from Ken in the restaurant. “I figured that would be an easy one for her, particularly as a cop, since she could just make all kinds of things go away. Yet, I suspect, she’s got whatever the hell that thing is called,… a conscience ,” he said, with a snort. “However, I am not deterred by that. I spent way-too-many years in prison for something I didn’t do, and it’s her fault.”

“Something you didn’t do?” Simon asked. “Meaning you didn’t assault her?”

“No, of course I didn’t,” he replied, anger in his tone. “What the hell? Why would I do that?”

Simon just waited, knowing Harry was sitting off to the side, listening in. Maybe not the best in terms of Kate’s privacy, but, if things went wrong, Simon would want Harry on his side. And this Ken guy in front of Simon was just a sleaze. “Kate makes her own decisions, and I stand by them,” Simon stated. “So I sure as hell won’t do anything to encourage her to sign documents recanting a truthful statement she made when she was seven.”

“I think she was close to eight at that time, or maybe six, I don’t know,” Ken said. “The thing is, she was too much of a child, and trust me. She didn’t know what she was talking about.”

“Really?” Simon asked, with a knowing smile. “You would say that now, of course.”

“Yeah, I would, and I said it back then.”

“And what did her mother say?”

He glared at him. “Selene thinks Kate won’t recant, but I’ve told Selene that her life would get a little rough if she doesn’t make it happen.”

“Considering that Selene’s not even talking to Kate, I highly doubt that her mother will help you in this situation.”

“That’s all in the past, so don’t be surprised if she calls and wants to talk to her daughter again.”

“What is this all about? You tried to get her mother to convince Kate before, didn’t you?”

“Selene set up the meeting, and then she backed out.” Ken frowned. “What’s up with that? I really don’t take that kind of shit well.”

“Sounds to me as if you haven’t really changed at all, Ken.”

“What do you mean?” he snapped.

“It’s pretty simple. Here you are, trying to threaten people into changing things into the way you want them.”

“If you realized that I didn’t do any of that shit Kate said I did, then it wouldn’t be an issue.”

“I don’t believe you, Ken. I believe Kate. So are you telling me that’s why her mom wanted to talk to her?”

“Yeah, it sure is, but she got cold feet and refused to go through with it at the last minute.”

“So, I suppose you’re the one who helped her have a drug overdose then?” Simon asked.

“Hell no.” He glared at Simon, not liking the direction the conversation was heading in. “She’s been a druggie all her life anyway, and that hasn’t changed.”

“ Hmm , I’m not so sure about that. Seems Selene has been staying out of trouble for more than ten years. You didn’t do anything to help her along?”

“No, of course not,” Ken snapped, but such a fake grin was on his face that Simon knew that’s exactly what happened.

“So, all of this is literally about you wanting Kate to recant her statement from so many years ago.”

“She was mistaken,” he stated, still smiling that fake grin, “and coerced, which is easy to do with a young child.”

“Right, like you coerced her as a young child, but it’s not so easy to do to an adult. Kate won’t recant. She was honest back then, and she remains honest today. She won’t say she was wrong because she wasn’t.”

“Yes, she can.” Then he frowned. “I’m sure she can. She can say it was somebody else entirely. Hell, I’ve got a whole bunch of guys I absolutely hate. I’m sure one of them was around back then. She can blame him.”

“Really?” Simon asked casually. “So, you are wasting your time here with me as you wasted your time with Kate at the restaurant. Nothing has changed. She will not lie. And I surely won’t ask her to lie either. I have a conscience too. As far as she’s concerned, it’s done and dusted. Completely over with.” At least he sincerely hoped that was the case.

“For her it may be. She got to make her statement that put my life on hold for all these years. So now the least she can do is make good on it now.”

“Make good on it?” Simon repeated.

“Yeah, make good on it. I promised her back then that she needed to think very clearly about what step she was about to take. To think hard before sending me to jail. And I made sure she remembered that.”

Simon stared at him. “I see,” he muttered. “So you sent her a note, telling her to think . And you figured she’d done something wrong that she owed you for, so she would just fall in line and do your bidding? Kate’s not a seven-year-old child anymore, Ken.”

“No, she sure isn’t, and, man, she grew up bony, didn’t she?” He shook his head. “Even a guy like you would appreciate more curves than she’s got.”

Simon stared at the asshole, feeling anger spark inside but desperate not to show it and not to give this asshole any leverage. Simon shook his head. “I don’t understand what you’re doing here.”

“I figured you would have more smarts than she did and would understand where her bread was buttered.”

“You think so?” Simon asked. “Do you think I give a crap which side her bread is buttered on?” He motioned around him. “Does anything here tell you that I care?”

“You’re not desperate at all, which is why I can’t figure out what the hell you’re even doing with her. There isn’t anything to her, and, Christ, she’s a cop. Why the hell would you want to bring that to your door?”

It was all Simon could do to hold back the temper sparking deep inside him. “You’ve wasted enough time here,” he announced. “Kate won’t recant because she did the right thing.”

“But she didn’t, that’s the thing,” Ken roared. “I didn’t fucking touch her.”

At that, Simon studied him. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously,” he spat, and then roared again. “Like what the hell? I didn’t rape her. I didn’t do any of that.”

“So, what did you do?”

“Nothing much at all,” he replied, giving him that smarmy smile again. “I mean, so I looked a bit. I dingled a bit,” he conceded, with a wave of his hand, “I put up a few cameras. I was looking at her brother as much as at her.” He shrugged. “Then she got all upset because of the videos. I was like, I’ll stop the damn videos from happening. I could have made a lot of money off them.”

Simon’s stomach wrenched, and he wanted to punch this guy until he was black and blue. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, of course I’m serious, and I won’t lie about this. She has the ability to turn my life around, and she damn-well fucking owes me.”

“I don’t understand the owes you part.”

“Are you that simple? She owes me because she’s the one who put me away.”

“What’s that got to do with her owing you?”

“I just told you. She’s the one who put me away. So how hard is that to understand?”

“But you’re the one who was dingling her , as you put so very eloquently,” Simon pointed out, staring at Ken. “The rest of us call it child abuse . She doesn’t owe you shit.”

“But if she hadn’t said anything, my life wouldn’t have gone to hell.”

“But if you hadn’t done what you’d done, it wouldn’t have gone to hell in the first place.”

The stepfather stared at him in frustration. “See? This is where we’ll have a problem,” he declared finally. “As far as I’m concerned, she owes me, and she needs to fix it.”

“Or else what?” Simon asked patiently.

“Or else I’ll make life difficult for her. And… I know she’s responsible for her brother going missing.”

Simon sighed. “You know that, do you?”

“I do know that,” he stated. “And you can sure as hell bet I’ll let the world know it too.”

Not sure what this threat meant exactly, or in what way a seven-year-old child could be responsible for disappearing her five-year-old brother, Simon said, “You got evidence? Bring it to the police.”

“Oh, you should listen to me,” he suggested, “because you should never touch that woman again. She’s just poison.”

Simon stared at him. “Are you talking about her mother or her?”

“Her mother is poison too,” Ken snapped, “and I’ve got enough on her to keep her in line for a long time.”

Simon winced. “That’s your system? You just blackmail people into doing what you want them to do?”

“You’ve got to have obedience,” he spat, staring at Simon. “Jesus Christ, don’t tell me that you’re one of those namby-pamby men who have the women’s hearts to consider because that’s complete BS.”

“Is it?” he murmured. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“God, man,” Ken muttered, with a headshake. “Keep them in line, and they don’t give you any trouble.”

“So, what part of all this do you consider that Kate screwed up on?”

“It wasn’t me,” he stated. “That’s all she needs to know.”

“So you told her at the restaurant, and she rejected you already. Now you’re telling me that Kate, as a seven-year-old girl, was supposedly responsible for her little brother going missing. I don’t believe it. So you need to give me a hell of a lot more than just your word.”

He glared at him. “I’m not giving up my ace in the hole.”

“I don’t believe you,” Simon repeated. “It’s just that simple.”

Ken stared at him for a long moment. “You really got it bad, don’t you, Simon? I can fix that for you,” he threatened, “and you won’t want nothing to do with her.”

“So far, all you’re doing is talking,” Simon noted, with a bored look on his face. “And I don’t deal with bullies or with empty threats.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Ken snorted and waved a hand around. “You’re one of those little rich boys, some trust fund baby who never had to work a day in his life.”

Simon laughed. “You don’t have a clue,” he muttered, “but whatever. You can keep thinking what you want. So far, all you’re doing is talking bullshit, trying to cause trouble, and defaming a person who doesn’t deserve it.”

“Oh, yes, she does,” Ken snapped. “She’s fucking responsible. I tell you that right now.”

“And why is that?”

“Because she told Timmy that she wished he would die. She got mad and told her five-year-old brother that she wished he would die and that he was too much effort to look after.”

“Are you sure she told him that, or did you tell Timmy that she said that?”

Instantly Ken’s expression turned to fury. “What the fuck?” he yelled, foam appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Why don’t you believe me?”

“Because I know Kate,” he shared. “I know kids can say all kinds of things when they’re frustrated and fed up, but she and Timmy were close. While I find it easy to believe that you might have told that little boy that’s what she said, I don’t for a minute believe Kate actually said it.”

Ken stared at him and then laughed. “You do know her then, don’t you?” he muttered. “That’s just too funny.”

“Why is it funny?”

“Just because you believe in her doesn’t mean it’s the truth.”

“Yeah? I know you’re full of shit too,” Simon added. “And I can see that you might have told Timmy that. What did he do, Ken? Did he take off from school on his own that day?”

Ken winced and nodded. “That’s what he did. I went there to get him, but he got mad and told me that I wasn’t supposed to even see him and Kate, and he was right. I wasn’t supposed to see him or Kate. That pissed me off, so I told him that his sister didn’t love him anymore. You should have seen him. His little face just cracked and filled with tears.”

Simon felt sick to his stomach as he listened to that. “And that was the last you saw of Timmy, I suppose.”

Ken shrugged. “Yeah, except for the vehicle I saw him get into.… Once I saw that, it was like, oh well, too bad.”

Ken had such a cavalier attitude when he said that. Immediately Simon took a step toward him, and Ken backed up real fast. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he muttered, his hands up. “I didn’t know who was in the vehicle, and I’m not to blame for that. For all I know, he was one of the kid’s friends.”

“One of the kid’s friends? A five-year-old driving a vehicle?”

“Yeah, the dad or whatever. It seemed to be one of the dad’s vehicles. So what else could I think?”

“But you didn’t think, did you?” Simon asked, staring him down this time. “You just stepped away and ignored it.”

“So, he got a ride home? What gives? Afterward I did consider it and realized that was probably the last person to see him alive.”

“And you were okay to let Kate and her mother worry all these years?”

Ken sneered. “I’m okay to let Kate,… let’s see. How shall I put it? I would be okay to let her worry for the rest of her life. And her mother too, for that matter. There’s nothing good about that pair of bitches.”

Simon snorted. “So, why now?”

“Because I’m out of that fucking prison, and I want her to do something for me. In order to do that, I’ll give her something.”

“Yet, if you were only interested in Kate being punished, what difference does that something make? Besides, any information coming from you is bogus anyway.”

Ken shrugged. “But I’m all she’s got, so there.”

“Maybe we’ll go talk to her mother. Besides, I thought they had people saying he’d gotten into a vehicle that day.”

“I wasn’t too worried about it. So Timmy got into a friend’s vehicle? The thing is, it wasn’t the friend’s vehicle at all,” he said, with a laugh. “And I didn’t say anything more.”

“But you do know who was in that vehicle, don’t you?” Simon asked, staring at him.

Ken shrugged. “I don’t know any such thing,” he snapped. “And I ain’t talking anymore.” With that, he headed toward the doorway.

Harry cleared his throat to get Simon’s attention. Harry had his hand on the button. He could stop Ken from leaving, if need be, but Simon knew the guy would just get more belligerent if he wasn’t allowed to leave.

Simon signaled to Harry to let Ken go for now. Then Simon shared with Ken, “We’ll speak to Kate’s mom again.”

“Oh, you go ahead and do that.” Ken laughed. “That should be fun to watch.”

“So you’ll get her to overdose again?” Simon asked.

“That’s pretty easy, now that she’s hooked again. She’ll do anything I say just to get her next fix.”

“These drugs that you’re getting,” Simon added, “you know they’re bad, right?”

He frowned. “I did hear something about that.” He turned to Simon, eyeing him oddly. “I’m not sure where you heard that though.”

“There have already been a couple deaths linked to that particular designer drug,” Simon shared.

Ken’s breath caught. “There shouldn’t have been. I didn’t sell to anybody.” And Ken raced out of the building.

That last part came out as a whisper. Simon sure hoped it was caught on his recording. He turned off that feature and immediately called Kate. “I’m sending you a recording. I’m not sure Ken said what I thought he said. Call me back as soon as you’ve heard all of it.” He sent her the audio file, then turned to Harry. “Please don’t ever mention any of that to anyone.”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, no way. Kate’s good people, and, if she put away that asshole, even at that young age, she was already destined to be a cop.”

Simon smiled at that. “She did, indeed, put away that asshole. However, her brother has been missing for many decades, and nobody’s ever been able to crack the case,” he shared. “It’s the one big wound in her heart that she would do anything to solve.”

Harry winced. “Taking children,… that’s just not cool, and that jerk seems to think he saw who did it.”

“I’m pretty sure he did,” Simon replied, “but, so typical of that breed of man, he wouldn’t hand over the information unless he gained something from it. Nobody even knew that Ken was there at the school either because he was already looking at jail time. His court case just hadn’t come up yet.”

“Christ.”

“So, he was mad at the police anyway.”

“Yeah, but just think about this,” Harry noted. “That was his son, and he was totally okay for that kid to never show up again. What does that say about him?”

“I’m not sure I’ve got words for a guy like that,” Simon muttered.

Harry nodded. “For now, slimy old bastard will do.”