Page 5

T he trio of detectives made the trip back to the office in silence. In the back seat, Kate smirked. The discussion with her mother had been much less than satisfactory. Her mother refused to let them inside, so it had all happened outside in the hallway, with her mother screeching about her rights and police harassment all the while. When they got back in their office, Colby happened to be standing there at the main entrance, talking to one of the other detectives. Colby looked up as they walked in, one eyebrow cocked with interest as he raised a hand. “How did that go?”

“Well,” Lilliana began, looking a bit embarrassed, “we can expect zero cooperation there.”

He shook his head. “I don’t understand. How can it be zero cooperation?”

Lilliana explained what had happened initially and how the woman had refused to even talk to them or to let them in. Then, when they brought Kate in, it went from bad to worse, and Kate’s mother had literally gone off the wall, screaming at Kate, after striking her. After all that, they asked a few questions of her, but she knew nothing, had heard nothing, had no idea on anything. “Even if she did,” Lilliana added, “I definitely got the feeling that she wouldn’t cooperate anyway. She wouldn’t tell us a thing.”

Colby’s gaze hardened, and he asked, “Do you think the issue was compounded by Kate’s presence?”

“I don’t think Kate’s presence would have changed her attitude,” she stated. “However, I can tell you, having Kate there completely sent her up the wall.”

“So, maybe Kate shouldn’t have been there,” Colby replied, his gaze studying Lilliana.

“We weren’t getting anywhere anyway. After Kate described their relationship, I wanted to see for myself what was going on, so I had Kate come up. You certainly can’t blame her for it, since I’m the one who told her to join us.”

“And then her mother completely lost it,” Rodney interjected. “Completely and totally lost it, screaming at Kate, saying no way she could be a cop because she was nothing but a loser and that this was all just bullshit.” Rodney shook his head. “I’ve seen some pretty shitty people in my life, but wow.” He walked over to his desk and dropped into his chair. “It was pretty heartbreaking to listen to.”

“As far as the Timmy case goes,” Lilliana began, bringing it back around, “Selene has had no updates, knows nothing, and, as far as she’s concerned, the reason she knows nothing is because Kate is the one who did something to her brother and hid it from everybody.”

Colby turned and looked at Kate.

Kate shrugged. “If you check the files, you’ll see that I was seven at the time, so I’m not sure what I was supposed to have done or how I could have completely hidden a body at that age.”

Colby frowned at her. “Seven?”

“Yes, seven. Timmy was five.” Then she went into a brief discussion of what had happened at the school.

“Good God,” Colby muttered, “and she blames you?”

“Yes, but really she’s blaming herself, yet can’t allow herself to be too blamed, so it’s much easier to blame me.”

“Right,” he murmured. “That’s generally the way it happens, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it sure is,” she muttered. “Anyway, so after that, life was pretty shitty, as you can imagine, until I became an adult.”

Rodney just shook his head. “I don’t know how anybody can even grow up in that kind of a scenario.”

She smiled at him. “If you mean grow up and be somewhat normal, I’m pretty sure you would say, I’m not normal.”

He flushed. “After meeting the woman who birthed you, I regret having thought anything the slightest bit negative about you in all this time we’ve worked together,” he admitted. “The fact that you came from such a disadvantaged start,… and built yourself up into this life? Like wow.”

“It was fine, up until we lost my brother,” she shared, “and that just finished everything.”

“But you couldn’t be blamed no matter what, not at seven.”

Kate nodded. “I think what my mother’s trying to get into everybody’s head is that somehow… I must have been working with somebody. In her mind, I was old enough to collude with what?… A pedophile, I guess, and do it knowingly.”

“Did you see anybody there at the time?” Colby asked. “I’m sure you’ve gone over it a million times.”

“Ten million times,” she muttered, facing him steadily. “I swear to God, if I had a way to freeze that information in my brain, I would have. But I’ve gone over every person I could even begin to remember who was anywhere around there, not to mention the dozens I assume I’ve created as possibly being there,… considering I was seven. I don’t know if anybody looked at school cameras. I don’t know if the school even had cameras back then. Even if they did, those films are long gone by now,” she noted, frustrated. “I do think that the loss of my brother started some changes in terms of school security, but I don’t think anything was in place before that.”

“Right,” Colby agreed, “and that makes a big difference, doesn’t it?”

“It all makes a difference,” she declared, “and yet none of it solves the problem. To even think that somebody could just pick up a child and walk away with him is crazy.” She shook her head.

“And yet,” Colby replied, “chances are, he didn’t just walk away with him. Maybe he knew him from some sport or something, or maybe he was a coach or the father of a friend,” Colby suggested.

“I don’t know,” she said. “All of those things are possible. Outside of the case files I have, I don’t know if anything else was ever done with the case. I was hoping at some point in time to bring it up to the cold case unit, but you know…”

“Did you ever try?” Colby asked.

“Of course I did,” she snapped, raising her hands. “I contacted the detectives back at the time, and they told me that they did everything they could. I contacted all kinds of private investigators, ever since I was old enough to hire anybody. Everybody said that they’d talked to everyone. And maybe they did, but obviously, since my brother hasn’t shown up yet, they didn’t talk to everybody.”

“It is pretty strange to think that somebody could have seen that and yet not realized what they’d seen.” Lilliana pointed out.

“And yet it happens all the time,” Kate pointed out. “I mean, in this case, what would somebody have seen? A child getting into a vehicle, maybe a man picking up a child, laughing, as the two of them run away, the witness thinking this was great fun, and then what? We don’t have any idea whether Timmy knew the person or not.”

Kate got up and started pacing around the small space they had. “For the longest time I wondered if somebody, such as a drunk driver, accidentally ran over Timmy in the parking lot, then hopped out and threw him in the back seat and drove off to dispose of his body,” she shared. “Every possible scenario that you can think of,… and plenty more I’ve already thought of.”

Colby scrubbed his face. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but we’ll go back over everything again.”

“Agreed,” she said, a smile on her face. “If nothing else, I guess I can thank this puzzle-box asshole for sending that, just so it brings my brother’s case back out into the open and into people’s minds. And, if we do another full check, and there’s still nothing, it gets parked again for however long until something breaks,” she conceded. “And I’ll be here when it breaks.”

When Colby hesitated, she shook her head. “I’m fine, and, no,… I had nothing to do with what was going on with my mother. She’s just… cranky .” Kate looked over at Lilliana, and she agreed immediately.

“Exactly. Kate’s right. Having Kate there didn’t hurt or help in any way,” Lilliana concluded. “What it did do was loosen her tongue so that we saw a clearer picture of her.”

Rodney snorted. “And we saw her haymaker, since she took a poke at Kate as soon as she saw her.”

“Jesus,” Colby muttered.

Rodney nodded. “When she calms down, she may or may not choose to have anything more to do with us. We did tell her to contact us if she hears anything. Yet the words she used as we walked away were similar to the fighting words I heard during hockey in high school,” Rodney noted, “when fuck you was a pretty popular phrase.”

Colby nodded. “So we have some scared witness, or someone up to no good who can’t have the cops around her own home, or just an uncooperative suspect.”

At the term suspect , Kate turned to him. “I guess she could be a suspect. For hell’s sake, I want her to be a suspect,” she announced, “but only because she’s made my life so miserable.”

“Where was she at the time of the kidnapping?” Colby asked.

“She was at work,” Kate replied, “so, in theory, she has an alibi.”

“ In theory ,” Lilliana repeated, “but we also know that sometimes you can get to and from work quickly, without ever being missed at work.”

“That’s true,” Kate agreed, “and work was close enough that she could normally walk, and most of the time she walked home. She supposedly was working that day, but I don’t have anything other than her own statement to confirm that.”

“Did she work most days?”

Kate frowned. “I can confirm that she was away from home most days. Did she work most days? That I’m not sure.”

“What do you think she was doing?”

“I know she had an affair with somebody, and having two kids at home cramped her style, so she used to leave us home alone to go off and be with this guy.” Then she winced and added, “Let me be clear that there were always guys. I have no idea how many or who. And, even though I was there, I wasn’t old enough to be aware.”

“No, of course not,” Colby replied, “however…”

“I know, if there’s anything I remember, I’ll let you know,” she said, with a nod. “I do have some notes that I’ve never really put much credence into, just because they’re the kind of thing that wake you up in the middle of the night, and you don’t know whether you’re remembering or it was just BS in your head because you’re desperate for answers. However, a couple names came up, though I only have first names. They were mostly from phone calls. She talked on the phone a lot.”

“What names?”

“Stanley was one,” she replied, “and I haven’t ever forgotten that name just because I always thought it was some tool—you know, the brand name for tools. As it turned out, he was a tool,” she muttered, with an eye roll, “just a different kind.” Rodney snorted at that, and Kate laughed. “Believe me, after all the shit I’ve been through, you find humor where you can, and, if it helps me remember names, I’m all for it.”

“Of course,” Colby agreed. “Christ, Kate. I can’t imagine what you went through. I’m so…”

“Don’t you start now,” she warned. “I don’t do the whole sympathy thing well, and I sure as hell don’t do the pity thing.”

“Yeah, no,… of course not,” he muttered, yet staring at her with sympathy.

She sighed. “Look. Just help me find Timmy and also whoever sent that puzzle box and why, and then we’re good,” she said. “The fact that somebody brought this up and that nothing else is even happening around town is what bothers me. Because, if this Timmy note was a distraction from the main event, or if it was meant to be something like that, you would think we would know something already, in the way of a crime wave or something.”

“You would think.” Colby frowned, while nodding.

“Have there been any new cases? Anything at all?” Kate asked.

“Of course,” Lilliana replied, “but, outside of several vehicular homicides and two drive-by shootings, which follow the same pattern as the others we’ve had, I see nothing majorly new to speak of that might fit your crime wave theory.”

“Does that surprise you?” Colby asked, eyeing Lilliana oddly.

“No, not really—unless we’re looking for something that connects to Kate, then maybe. Yet then it would be completely useless if it did connect to Kate when someone wanted it hidden, remember?”

“True,” Kate muttered. “Anyway… maybe take a look at the files of any cases that came in overnight.”

“Do you still think it could be a distraction?” Colby asked.

Kate sighed. “Thinking is one thing. Proving it is another. Considering that somebody is lying about having information on my missing brother, when it’s something I rather desperately want, is just cruel and mean,” she declared. “If somebody knows me well enough to understand that this would twist me apart and they’re having a real old heyday with it, that’s pretty upsetting,” she noted. “However, if they’ve been keeping up on the news, seen the number of cases we’ve solved, and are afraid I’m closing in on their case, then potentially bringing up Timmy now makes sense.”

Everybody stared at her for a long moment.

“You have had a ton of news coverage lately,” Rodney pointed out, with a nod. “So, in a way, you could be right. It does make a very strange sort of sense.”

“And that’s part of the problem,” she said, “but it also just confuses the issue, which is why I would just as soon not be dragged into all this publicity.”

Colby rolled his eyes. “It’s not as if any of us have much say in the matter,” he noted. “That comes from upstairs, and bigger than that is the fact that we, as a department, need the media.”

“Maybe so,” she muttered, “but, if it trickled down to having something to do with this, then it’s been a bad deal for me.”

“Something that we’ll keep in mind going forward,” Rodney said.

Colby announced, “First off, all of you need to start from the beginning with Kate’s brother’s case and see if we can come up with anything new.… Yet still be mindful of any other cases that show up as possibly Kate’s kind of cases, such as any strange murders, anything off ,” Colby noted, with another roll of his eyes. “We’ll continue to take this on as being a case that does surround your brother.”

“Good,” Kate declared. “And, for that, I owe this asshole my thanks.”

*

Simon walked back into his penthouse apartment and organized dinner for the night. He quickly sent Kate a text message, asking if there was any chance she would be coming home, and received a thumbs-up in response. That was good enough for him. If she needed a little extra care tonight, that would be totally okay.

When she walked in, not very much later, and caught sight of him, she immediately frowned.

He swore inside at that. She always knew. No matter what he did to hide these psychic events from her, she always knew.

She glared at him. “What happened?”

He stared at her, then walked over to the nearby mirror and looked to see just what it was that she saw in his facial expression.

“And, no,” she stated, “you can’t fob me off on this.”

“I wouldn’t even try,” he said, turning to her. “However, I really wish I understood how you always know.”

She frowned and repeated, “What happened?”

He sighed. “I don’t even know how to explain it, but it was as if I got sucker punched in the gut twice today.”

“You got into a fight?”

“No,” he countered, “that would be easier to reconcile.”

Quickly she hung up her coat and purse, dropping her keys and the small card case she carried on the nearby entry table, as she moved closer to him. “Explain, please.”

He gave a shout of laughter. “It would be so much easier if I could.”

“Tell me what you can,” she murmured. “Did somebody attack you? Did something come out of the blue and hit you?”

“Yes, that one.”

She studying him. “So psychically?”

“Something like that,” he replied warily. “I was just walking away from one of my foremen, when, all of a sudden, I was doubled over with pain. I didn’t have any idea what it was but thought it could be anything, a bad stomach even. Who knows? So I went to the park across the street to just rest a bit. When I went to stand up again, the same thing basically happened all over again. I got dropped.”

“ Dropped ,” she repeated, her tone rising in alarm. “As in knocked out?”

“No,” he stated immediately. “It dropped me to the ground, much like before. I stumbled back to my feet and sat back down again. I don’t think anybody even noticed, but it sure wasn’t what I expected.”

“Of course not,” she agreed, looking at him in concern.

“I’m fine now,” he added, with a wave of his hand.

“You’re obviously not fine,” she stated for the sake of clarity. “Something strange is going on.”

“Yes, something strange is always going on. That’s my life, remember?”

She winced and nodded. “And I’m sorry about that because there does seem to be a lack of clarity here all the time, even for me.”

“How did your day go?” he asked. He was happy that she was okay to pass by the subject of his strange events, and, if he could get her talking about her world, then maybe she would leave him alone, or at least he hoped so.

“I’m not sure that I have a whole lot to say,” she replied, “except that we did go to see my mother.” She snorted at that. “Poor Rodney, he believes in happy-ever-after, except not when my mother is involved.”

He raised one eyebrow. “You do too,” he pointed out.

She frowned, shrugged, and sighed. “I won’t argue the point right now, but let’s just say that meeting my mother was not something Rodney was prepared for.”

“How did Lilliana handle it?”

“I think she was half expecting exactly what she saw,” Kate shared. “Rodney always has that hope for… people being better than they are.”

“Right, so I presume your mother was not friendly.”

“Not friendly in any way,” Kate agreed cheerfully. “It was kind of funny actually.” And she gave him the play-by-play details of what had happened.

He shook his head. “I can just imagine you shoving your face into that door window.”

“Yep.” Kate grinned. “We sure got her attention fast after that.” She laughed, but a bitterness came with it. “She hasn’t changed a bit.”

He hesitated and then suggested, “Remember that she’s been just as affected by what happened to Timmy as you are.”

“Has she?” she asked, looking over at him. “I wonder.”

“I know, and I’m not surprised that you wonder,” he replied. “I would want to understand whether she’s really truly unaffected, or this is her defense and guilt for being the one who left you responsible.”

“Either way, she was not happy to see anybody.”

“Even though it meant potentially reopening your brother’s case?”

“I don’t think she even thought that was a possibility. She seemed to have a hate on for law enforcement.”

“And maybe that’s not all that surprising either,” he suggested, with a careful look at her. “The whole scenario is upsetting and difficult. They didn’t find any answers back then, and, in her eyes, maybe she doesn’t want any of it dragged back up to the surface. Maybe she’s, I don’t know, trying to rebuild her life in some way.”

She stared at him and then nodded slowly. “It could be any number of things,” she conceded. “Honestly, it was difficult to see her in many ways. Yet there was a childish vindication.”

“Of course.” He smiled at her. “You are only human.”

“Right, but somehow I feel as if I am supposed to be better than that.”

“Oh no, no you don’t,” he argued. “No sitting here chastising yourself for how you reacted to seeing your mother for the first time in what? Ten years?”

She shrugged. “More than that. She didn’t believe I was a cop either.”

“Did Lilliana explain it to her?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Kate frowned. “At least not from the part of the conversation that I heard. Lilliana probably considered it personal, so not any of her business. And, if I do have to go back to talk to Selene, well, that’s just something I have to do.”

“And you’ll handle it differently because you’re past that first painful meeting now.”

“Maybe.” She smiled, then nodded. “Yeah, I would. She’s obviously got her own issues to deal with.”

“Good,” he replied. “So now, I suggest that we stay here and have dinner or maybe we should take dinner down to the boat, where we can just sit and relax.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You moved the boat close enough where that is an option, isn’t it?”

He laughed. “Yes, I would think so. I do have everything ready to go. I just wasn’t thinking about where we should have dinner.”

“I like the idea about the boat,” she said immediately. “A change of pace, you know?”

He smiled. “In that case, let’s go.” He walked over to a large takeout bag.

“You knew I would say yes, didn’t you?”

“I was hoping you would say yes,” he clarified, chuckling. “But just because you did in the past didn’t mean that you would this time,” he noted, with a smile, “yet I hoped you might.”

And, with that, they walked downstairs, and once out on the street, headed to the area where he had the Running Mate moored. As she stepped up onto the deck of the boat, she smiled. “It’s a beautiful night for it.”

“Absolutely stunning,” he muttered. “We can sit up here and forget about all the other things in life that piss us off.”

She groaned. “If only.”

He smiled at her. “We have to allow things to happen. Otherwise, they never will.”

And, with that, he walked over to their large table. He set the food off to the side and popped into the galley and quickly brought up some dish towels and wiped down the surface. Within a few minutes, they were seated here, ready for dinner, with a wondrous view of the harbor around them.

“It’s absolutely beautiful,” she said. “You are truly blessed.”

He looked over at her and then nodded. “You’re right. I am. That is something I need to remind myself of sometimes.”

“You mean, like today, when you got attacked for no reason, by some mystery source that you couldn’t even see or remember?” she asked. “And, if you think I’ll forget about that, you’re wrong.” When he winced, she nodded. “Just as you look after me, I look after you.”

“What is that? Some relationship rule?”

“God only knows,” she muttered, raising both hands. “If there were ever a rule book for such things, I never saw it. And, if there is one, maybe somebody should get me a copy.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I think the very best thing for you would be to not have a rule book.” She frowned at him, so he added, “You’re doing just fine on your own.”

“Am I though?” she asked, staring at him. “It seems as if you get into more trouble and more issues than any partner should.”

“You mean because of you, on behalf of you, or what?” he asked, with a note of amusement. “Still, if you want to turn that around, I could say the exact same thing about you.”

“Maybe,” she conceded, with a smirk, “but you seem to get into trouble just fine on your own.”

He chuckled. “I do seem to know an awful lot of people who don’t care to be decent types in this world,” he admitted, with a nod. “Yet I was kind of hoping that would all change.”

“It might, I suppose,” she said, with a shrug, “but I don’t know that it’ll happen any time soon.”

He nudged her plate a little closer. “Eat up. You’re always cranky when you’re hungry.”

She glared at him but immediately started eating. “Gosh, this is really good.” She moaned as soon as the first bite went in. Her taste buds came alive.

“I know.” He laughed. “That’s why we’re having it.”

She shook her head. “You have an awful lot of takeout. Whatever happened to home-cooked meals?”

“Yeah? And what home-cooked meals do you prepare?”

She winced. “I don’t,” she muttered.

“So, why am I supposed to have home-cooked meals if you aren’t? Besides, most of these restaurants know me by now, and the meals I get are definitely a step above the average takeout.”

“They absolutely are,” she muttered. “They’re gorgeous, delicious, and again… you’re very lucky.”

He chuckled. “We’re both very lucky,” he pointed out.

“Yeah.” She wouldn’t argue with that. When she was done with her plate, she pushed it back, looked over at him, and asked, “So, who hit you?”

He stopped in the act of lifting a bite to his mouth and sighed. “It wasn’t physical so…”

She narrowed her gaze at him and nodded. “So, is it connected to my case?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t have an answer for you on that, even though I asked Timmy and then the angry spirit. Yet no answer from either. So I have no idea how I would even figure it out. At least not yet.”

“It’s the not yet part that’s interesting,” she murmured. “Because you would think, if it was connected, maybe there would be a little bit more information.”

“Not yet,” he stated, “and that’s one of the things you have to remember. Some of this takes time.” She winced, and he had to laugh. “And we know how much you love things that take time,” he pointed out, with a note of humor.

“I really don’t, do I?” She sagged back into her seat. “Can’t these ghosts or spirits or whatnot have another way to communicate without hurting you?” she cried out. “What the hell is that about?”

“I wasn’t sure if it was symbolic,” he replied.

“Symbolic?” she asked, staring at him. “Meaning?”

“Maybe the truth was something that would punch me in the gut.”

Her mouth formed a round O as she contemplated that idea. “Wow,” she murmured. “Just when I think I’ve figured out how all this crap with you works, you come up with this. It makes me think of all the layers and layers and how I just don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Not just you,” he quipped, with a wry smile. “Often it’s the same for me too.”

“And that’s one of the really horrifying parts about it,” she stated, “because, if we thought that we understood this stuff—”

He interrupted her with a chuckle. “If we thought we understood it, life would be easier, but we don’t really understand it, so…”

“So, it’s hard,” she declared. “I don’t want people hurting you like this.”

“What do you mean, like this ?” he asked, with a smile. “If ever people wanted to hurt me over something, let it be this. Let it be something important, something we can get answers to. I can handle that.”

“Can’t they find another way to communicate?”

“Maybe. I don’t know yet,” he admitted. “I tried to communicate back, telling them to just talk to me first, before resorting to violence. I figured two blows in the gut were enough for me for the day. If it comes a third time, I might just get angry, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing either.”

“That might be a good thing. Get angry.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not, Simon? You are the one hurting here.”

“Because if somebody is deliberately trying to get my attention, generally it’s because they need help,” he explained, “and I’m not sure what this is about yet.”

“Those gut punches are more like anger, much more like frustration,” she pointed out. “Maybe you aren’t listening.”

“Just like you,” he said, with a nod. “What was the message that you got out of the puzzle box note?”

She winced and said, “ Think . It’s always about think . And yet I’ve gone over and over that scenario in my brain so many times. I’m not sure it’s even possible for me to do anything differently now.”

“Maybe not differently ,” he pointed out, “but maybe you missed something.”

“Maybe, but, if I’m missing it, how am I ever supposed to find it?” she muttered. “It happened so long ago.”

“And that in itself,” he pointed out, “should help you with other cases because, if it’s hard for you to remember so long ago, how is it for other people who are in the same boat?”

They went to bed relatively early that night, both of them exhausted.