Page 7

T he rain had started at about two o’clock in the afternoon. So, by the time Kate made it back to the office, she was soaking wet, irritable, cranky, and fed up. She had just come back from a session at the morgue. Everyone in the department looked at her as she walked in, shaking her head like a wet dog, but nobody dared to mention anything. She knew she was running on empty, but some days that’s just what was required.

As she sat down at her desk, Rodney frowned at her. “I thought maybe you would take off the afternoon and work from home or something.”

“One completely contradicts the other,” she snapped, staring at him. “I could take off the afternoon and work from home, but that would not be taking off.”

He blinked and then nodded. “Okay, you’re in that kind of a mood.”

“No, not really,” she muttered. “I was thinking about my mother.”

“Oh, ouch,” he muttered. “That’s definitely not a topic I would want to work on.”

“Last I heard, she was in a full care facility.” When he frowned at her, she nodded. “So, the question is, how did she get out? When did she get out? And why did she get out? How can she afford any of this?”

Lilliana spoke up. “That’s a really good point. I’ll check into that.”

“Thank you,” Kate said, turning to her. “It’s not that I’m trying to get her locked up again, but I want to know that the world is safe from her particular brand of poison.”

“Is she that difficult with others?” Rodney asked, with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Kate looked over at him, one eyebrow raised, and he nodded. “Okay, point taken, not a good time for humor.”

“It would be interesting to know,” Kate added, “considering it was a change in her residence, and a change that might affect the case.”

“You’re right,” Lilliana agreed. “It is a change, and anything that’s a change in this world right now, we need to keep track of.” And, with that, she added, “I will get the details and am pulling the files right now.” She got up, and, as she walked past Rodney, she nodded to him. “You can come help.”

“Sure,” he replied, as he hopped up and followed her.

Kate wasn’t sure whether they were deliberately trying to stay out of her way or just generally giving her a bit of a space. She didn’t really need either. Yet having both was very helpful. She groaned at the thought because she didn’t really want anybody on her team avoiding her while she was here at work. That wouldn’t be the answer that she needed.

However, something had occurred to her as she walked back into the office. If her mother had been here all this time, what was she doing, and how was she doing it? Was it wrong to track down her past?

No, not at all.

If it were any other suspect, Kate would have done this already. It just never occurred to her and, therefore, gave her insight into what else didn’t occur to her when it came to suspects. Did she really think her mother was behind this? She didn’t think so, but her mother was a wild card, and that wild card could often cause trouble.

When Lilliana and Rodney returned not very long later, they stopped at her desk.

“What’s up?” Kate asked, lifting her head from the notes in front of her.

“Your mother was released from a facility a good thirteen years ago,” Lilliana stated.

She stared at them and nodded. “Wow, that’s interesting. That’s way longer than I expected you to find, so obviously I didn’t get updated information myself.” She frowned at that. “Honestly, it sounds as if I didn’t get any updated information at all. I guess they weren’t required to tell me when she got out, and obviously she didn’t contact me herself.”

“Which in this case is probably a blessing,” Lilliana noted.

“Possibly for me,” Kate agreed, with a nod. “Yet nothing good could be happening in that scenario.”

“Exactly,” Lilliana replied. “Your mother was kept under the supervision of a halfway house for quite a while, two years, and then she was released on her own.”

Kate nodded. “Good, sounds as if she has come a long way.”

“And yet look at how she was when we saw her, uncooperative and belligerent.” Rodney chimed in, at her side. “And combative when she saw you.”

“Maybe,” Kate pointed out, “she was incarcerated against her will and holds it against anybody in authority, just on principle.”

Lilliana nodded. “And that’s a good point too, and it’s definitely something we need to consider. If she is clear from this mess, then it’s not an issue at all. And I guess that’s one of the questions. Do you think she could be involved in the puzzle box note?” Lilliana asked, and Rodney watched Kate like a hawk.

Kate winced at that. “I was really hoping that wouldn’t even come up,” she muttered. “Yet I suspect that it needs to be discussed. Do I think she could have done this? Yes. Do I think she has the craftiness to do this?” She pondered it for a moment, then replied, “I don’t know. I only have a child’s view of her. Do I think she would want to relive everything that happened with her son? Only if for revenge, if she thinks that I did something to my brother and that I’ve gotten away scot-free,” she suggested.

“Then maybe revenge would be enough of a motive for her,” Lilliana noted.

“But you were seven,” Rodney reminded them, staring at Kate in disbelief. “That’s hardly fair.”

She nodded. “I was seven, but, for some people, with the loss of a child,… there’s no time frame, no age distinction, there is only I did something ,” she shared, looking at him. “And, for my mother, that could be a mental block she never really got past.”

“It is an interesting concept though, isn’t it?” Lilliana asked, looking at Kate. “I mean, if Selene was so fixated on your paying a price, she would have lost track of everything else.”

“And that could be,” Kate acknowledged. “I don’t know. You saw her reaction to me when she saw me at the door.”

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Believe me that it’ll be a long time before Rodney ever sees that in a very different light,” Lilliana said, giving Rodney an eye.

“It’s hard,” Kate admitted. “I would just as soon not have any of you see anything to do with my world,” she muttered. “Yet I also can’t stop the fact that my mother is who my mother is, and maybe she does still have some major hate on for me. I have no way of knowing.”

Lilliana pointed out, “You are not responsible for your parents.”

“I know,” Kate replied, with a nod, “but I’m still a private person.”

“And you’re entitled to your privacy, until you get targeted, and then all bets are off.”

“Which is also something I thought might be deliberate.”

At that, Lilliana turned to eye her in surprise.

Kate shrugged. “Anybody who knows me is aware that I’m a really private person. Anybody who wants to make me uncomfortable would expose whatever it is to make my personal and private world very public.”

Lilliana pondered that and nodded. “That is a pretty ugly thought.”

“I’ve put a lot of consideration into it,” Kate said, shaking her head. “And, no, I don’t have an answer. I wish I did.”

“Of course you do,” Lilliana agreed. “We all would. That’s just life. So, let’s get past that part fairly quickly.”

“If you say so,” Kate muttered, with a note of humor. “Is there any getting past it?”

“There is,” Lilliana declared. “Forensics came back. The note’s clear of any forensics, as is the puzzle box itself.”

“Of course.” Kate groaned. “No reason for the sender to do this if they’ll get caught.”

Lilliana laughed, “Exactly, but what is interesting was that it was hand-delivered, and we do have the kid who was paid to deliver it, and both Rodney and I interviewed him. The kid told us how he was given fifty bucks to drop it off at the station.”

“And, of course, he can’t really identify who asked him to drop it off, right?” Kate asked.

Lilliana gave her a smile. “Let’s just say that the information he gave us isn’t very helpful, in that the guy wore a baseball cap, he was about medium height, and the kid couldn’t tell about the hair. He noted it was a white man, with a smoker’s voice, and that was about it.”

“Right,” Kate muttered, “so not exactly helpful.”

“And yet, in its own way not unhelpful .”

“Keep me posted, please.”

“Will do.”

Kate buried herself in her own case on the little boy whose father claimed that he had nothing to do with his son Andrew’s death. She was still waiting for forensics from Smidge, and, of course, the more she pushed in that direction, the less she would get. So sitting back and waiting was the best course of action. It was also the hardest.

She got up for more coffee and walked past Rodney’s desk, accidentally hitting a corner of it and making a file fall to the floor. She bent to pick it up, only to freeze when she realized it was a file on her brother’s case and within it were pictures.

She reached out a finger and slowly traced her brother’s face, looking at it with tears in her eyes, realizing what she was up against. Of course they would have pictures of him. It was part of the case file. Rodney immediately dropped down and scooped up the pages. She held on to the picture of her brother for a long moment.

“Those were the days,” she murmured. “Days of innocence, days of thinking that the world was your oyster and that nothing bad could ever happen.” She shook her head. “They sure didn’t last.”

“Not in your case, no,” he agreed, “but, for a lot of children, they do.”

She nodded and straightened up, then handed him the photo. “I want copies of these, if you have any more. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one before,” she said, tapping it.

He looked at her in surprise. “And yet you have a file.”

“I do have a file, but this wasn’t in it.” Frowning, she walked over to the file she had, opened it up, and double-checked, then nodded. “Not in here.”

“Sure, you can have a copy,” Rodney replied. “It’s your brother after all.”

Kate frowned. “Now I’m wondering why I don’t already have it.”

Rodney smiled. “Some of the stuff was archived, and some of it’s been brought online. So a few pieces may need to be added to your file, as everything gets digitized and updated.”

“That’s possible,” she noted, yet still frowning at him. “Actually it’s quite feasible, isn’t it?” She walked over to his file, and, taking a deep breath, she flipped it open and checked everything in there. She frowned at a couple spots, stopping to read the notes before carrying on.

Rodney didn’t say anything and just watched as she went through it.

When she got to the last page, she found several more photos. She picked a couple of them, staring at them for a long moment, trying not to shatter with pain at some of them. When she got to the last one, she frowned at it, long and hard.

“Why that one?” he asked.

“Again, it’s one I don’t remember, one I hadn’t seen,” she murmured, as she stared at it. “These are different, and that makes me want to know why and how.”

“Of course,” he agreed, looking at her. “Maybe you forgot.”

“No, I haven’t forgotten,” she stated immediately. “It’s different.” She tapped the picture. “This is six of us. Six innocent children from way back then.”

“Sure,” he replied, “and do any of those faces mean anything?”

She tapped one of them. “This one, I don’t remember who he was, but we used to play with him a lot.”

Rodney looked down at the person she tapped in the photo and noted, “He looks much older.”

“He is much older, was much older,” she corrected. “He was a neighbor kid. He got along better with the younger kids than the older ones. The older ones used to bug him.”

“Was there a reason for that?”

“I’m sure there was,” she stated, “but you know what kids are like. As long as they have a reason to dis somebody, they’ll go in there and do it in a big way.”

“Of course,” he murmured. “Do you remember what this kid was like?”

“Nope, I sure don’t.” She stared at the photo, turning it sideways.

“And yet something about it bothers you.”

“I presume that everybody back then was spoken to,” she shared, shaking her head. “The kids themselves might have a better recollection now, but then memory plays tricks on all of us over time.”

“And yet, if they had something to hide, you would think that maybe time would also loosen their tongues.”

“Absolutely,” she agreed. “Have you spoken to any of them?”

“No, not yet. I’m going out tomorrow to talk to a couple.” She nodded, then hesitated. He immediately spoke up. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

She looked up at him. “Maybe not, but, if they see me, it might loosen their tongues.”

“And it might clam them up,” he pointed out. “It seems as if not everybody is happy that this case is being looked at.”

“Of course not,” she muttered ruefully. “The ones who are unhappy will be the ones who have something to hide. Who would have thought that it would take some asshole to bring this case back up into the eyes of the police again?” she muttered.

“Did you ever ask to have it opened?”

“I did,” she confirmed, “and I was always told that nothing was new, so there was no reason to open it and to waste the man-hours.”

“And that’s not wrong,” Lilliana interjected, as she stopped by.

“No, it wasn’t wrong,” Kate murmured. “Yet now apparently it is reopened, and that’s the part I don’t understand.”

“What part is that?”

“Did they know that this would open it all up again, and that partly was why it was done this way?”

“I don’t know,” Lilliana replied, looking at her, “but it would seem to imply that they wanted it open.”

“Exactly,” Kate stated. “We’re always looking at these cases as if they’re wanting to be closed, but what if that isn’t it? What if, in this case, somebody wants it opened for answers.”

“And that would bring us back to your mother again.”

She winced at that and nodded. “I’m not saying my mother couldn’t be behind it. I’m just saying that it would be unusual for her to care at this stage.… If she’s healing, if she’s gone through any kind of therapy, maybe it was her back then. If not, maybe she is still looking for answers. Maybe,… maybe she needs answers in order to move on,” Kate suggested.

“Just because she’s my mother doesn’t mean she’s not a human being who also lost a child. The fact that I was the one who ended up losing my childhood is not her fault. It’s purely the fault of whoever kidnapped my brother.” Just then her phone rang. She looked down, frowning, as she didn’t recognize the number but answered it. “Hello,” she said, her gaze on the other two as they waited for her to get off the phone and to continue the conversation.

“I need to talk to you.” The hoarse voice from years of smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse sounded like stones grating. “And this time without your pokey little friends.” And, with that, she hung up.

Kate sucked in her breath and looked over at the other two. “That was my mother. She wants to talk to me.”

Lilliana immediately shook her head. “That’s not a good idea.”

Kate nodded but sighed. “I know that, but I’m not sure how to handle this.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lilliana offered. “This is not something to mess around with,… particularly if it’s related to the case. You definitely shouldn’t be there alone.”

“She did say to come without my pokey friends ,” Kate shared, with an eye roll.

“Of course she did. She obviously has zero respect for the law.”

“I think that zero respect for authority comes after a decade of trying to avoid them,” Kate pointed out. “Or a lifetime of trying to avoid them,” she corrected. “I’m just not sure what the answer is right now.”

At that, Colby walked in, right on time. “What’s going on?”

When she told him about the phone call, he frowned. “You’re definitely not going alone. Honestly, I would just as soon that we brought her in and spoke to her here.”

“And I think, if you did that,” Kate suggested, “she would clam up and would stay that way.”

“Do you really think she’ll be of any help now?” he asked, studying Kate intently.

She hesitated before responding. “I doubt it, but can we take that chance?”

“Then you need to go with somebody we trust.”

“That’s great, but, if Lilliana comes with me, or Rodney,… my mother won’t open up.”

“Maybe not,” Colby conceded, looking around the office as if trying to decide.

“She should take Simon,” Rodney suggested.

Colby turned to him first, then faced Kate and asked, “How do you feel about that?”

She opened her eyes wider. “Are we really thinking that a civilian is the best person to go with me?” she asked in astonishment.

Her boss frowned. “The thing is, you can’t be alone, and he is at least somebody who… we do trust.”

“That’s something,” Kate muttered in a dry tone. “I’m sure he would be thrilled to hear that.”

Colby flushed. “It would also give you some backup, if she turns out to be completely off her rocker.”

Kate frowned as she considered it and then nodded. “Fine, I’ll take Simon.”

“And you’re to report in immediately afterward,” Colby ordered, giving her a stare. “No going off and thinking this is all about you.”

She laughed. “It’s not about me at all,” she declared, staring right back. “This is about my brother.”

*

Frustrated, Simon got up and poured himself a second cup of coffee. He made several more attempts to contact either person, the older-sounding voice or the young timid one. But nothing.

It was always nothing, as if everything happened on someone else’s time. That was one of the most frustrating things about any of this psychic work. He wanted answers, so why couldn’t he get answers? Instead, it seemed, if anybody else wanted answers, they reached out, and they got them. He knew it didn’t quite work that way either, but it sure wasn’t easy for him. It was damn frustrating.

As he took his coffee and sat back down on the couch, his phone rang. It was Kate. He immediately answered it. “Hey,” he greeted her. “Are you coming home anytime soon?” When she hesitated, he replied to his own question, “I’ll take that as a no,” a note of humor in his tone.

“Actually, I have a request, but it’s Colby’s suggestion.”

“Oh,” he replied warily. “What does that mean?”

“That they trust you, at least to a certain extent,” she quipped, humor seeping through her tone as well.

“Okay, he trusts me about what?” When she explained, he immediately agreed. She winced. “It won’t be nice, and it could get really ugly, pretty fast.”

“And you want to keep me out of that. I get it,” he said, “but, if your mother has answers, we need to find out.”

“Maybe, but she might not have answers. This could just be her yanking my chain to get another chance to blame me for all those years that she spent in the psych ward.”

“Did you have anything to do with it?” he asked in astonishment.

“No, of course not,” she stated, with apprehension, “but I was fairly truthful as to my childhood when it came to my mother.… So, I’m sure they took a lot of that into account.”

“Of course they did,” he muttered, “but that’s not your fault. She was a useless parent. Even worse, she was abusive.”

“I don’t think she would consider herself abusive,” Kate noted calmly. “Anyway, if you’re okay with it, I suppose I owe you dinner afterward.”

He wanted to laugh out loud at her sorting through the debits and credits that were in her mind, in terms of favors. “There’s no debit or credit for this one,” he declared. “We help each other because we need help.”

“Maybe,” she said crossly, “but you know how I feel about that.”

“I know you don’t want to feel beholden to anybody,” he stated. “Still, I would think that this situation completely eclipses any of that.”

“Maybe,” she muttered.

“Besides, a couple new restaurants are in that area, so, if you want, we can go try them out afterward.”

“Okay, that would be good,” she agreed, “and gives us a good reason to not want to scream for hours on end instead.”

He chuckled.

“Do you want to meet me there?” she asked.

“No. Why don’t I swing by and grab you at work. Then we can both go there, have a meal, and I’ll give you a ride back to work in the morning.” She hemmed and hawed, and he offered, “Or, you can drive here, and we can leave from here.”

“Or you can drive me back to work, and I can bring the car home afterward.”

“That too,” he replied agreeably. “Whatever makes you comfortable.”

“None of it makes me comfortable,” she muttered.

“I know, so… whatever makes it easier, let’s put it that way.”

“You’re always so damn accommodating,” she snapped, and then she groaned. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Maybe you need to go to the dojo and… kick a few butts after this.”

“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea.… I’m sure they’re wondering what happened to me.”

“It hasn’t been that long, has it?”

“Maybe not, but I used to go all the time, back before you were in my life. Now I spend a lot of my off time with you instead,” she pointed out. “So, less going to the dojo and kicking ass.”

“I won’t say I’m sad about that,” he admitted, smiling, “I’ll be there in”—he checked his watch—“say, twenty minutes?”

“Good enough. I may or may not be outside, depending on how buried into work I get.”

“I’ll assume you won’t be outside,” he replied, with a chuckle. And, with that, he ended the call and headed to pick up his keys.

The thought of meeting her mother was something he was innately curious about. He knew Kate wouldn’t appreciate it, but her mother would say an awful lot about Kate. If the situation were reversed, and Kate had a chance to meet his mother, he knew she too would say an awful lot about him as well. Those times had come and gone, but, in Kate’s life, some remnants were still there. At least if he saw her mom, he might understand Kate a little bit more.

Then again, knowing her, Kate would probably block him completely out, so he couldn’t get any further understanding as to any of what her mother said. He figured he was more or less there as a safety line, just in case her mom got physical. But then again, Kate was quite capable of kicking ass if she wanted to. Not exactly a good thing in this case either. He was still thinking about it when he drove into the police parking lot. As he hopped out, he saw Colby standing there, talking with Kate. She walked closer to Simon, and Colby came with her.

Colby smiled at him. “Hey, it was my idea, but I’ve been kind of second-guessing it.”

Simon shook his head. “Don’t bother. I’ll go. I need to see who this woman is for myself.”

“Maybe, but you’ve got to realize we can’t have anything compromising the case.”

“Of course not, but my understanding is that her mother asked Kate to come.”

“I know, and that’s the part that concerns me.”

“It’ll be fine,” Kate said, “unless you want to call her in for some official visit.”

“No, I don’t want to do that, not yet,” Colby replied. “We don’t have any reason to, and, even when we do have a reason, you won’t be talking to her.”

“Good,” Kate replied. “I don’t want to talk to her now either.”

He just patted her on the shoulder and watched as she got into Simon’s car.

When they drove away, Simon shared, “Colby seems to be quite concerned.”

“Yeah, I think he is,” she agreed, shooting him a look. “Then again, if it was one of your staff, you would be too.”

He had to agree he would definitely be upset about it. She gave him the directions. “I thought she was in a facility.”

“She was, but apparently she got out quite a few years ago—as in thirteen years ago.”

Simon frowned. “That means she has to be doing halfway decent.”

“Doing something halfway decent or avoiding a certain level of trouble at least,” she clarified, with a sigh. “Do people like that ever truly get out of trouble?”

“I don’t know,” he murmured.

“How is Danny, by the way?” she asked.

Simon smiled at her. “He’s doing just fine.”

“He’s happy to be back at work?”

“He’s definitely happy to be back at work. He also knows that my foreman and I are both keeping an eye on him. We don’t want him taking that suicide pathway again.”

“And yet if that’s what he is determined to do,” she pointed out, “it’s pretty hard for any of us to stop him.”

“I know, and that’s one of the things that my foreman is all over. Joe really likes Danny. Joe’s even had him over to his house a couple times for beer and pizza.”

She chuckled. “If you can’t get adopted as a child, being adopted as an adult is pretty damn nice.”

He glanced at her and burst out laughing. “I hadn’t thought about it in that way, but you’re right. So far as Joe’s family goes, Danny’s doing all right.”

“Good, seems to be a connection that’ll keep Danny alert.”

“And that’s all he needs. It’s a chance to stay grounded and to not go spiraling downward. So he’s got that with Joe and his family. Yet it’s not that easy to stop once a spiral starts,” he pointed out.

“No, so we do everything we can to avoid them getting there.”

“I presume Roger has professional help, adapting to real life. And surely his court case won’t take long, will it?”

“His should be open-and-shut and will convince the jury that he had been robbed of his life, drugged unconscious by his own brother, serving as his doctor no less. Now the facility itself, Haven Center? That case will take years because they did this to so many other patients as well,” she grumbled, as she settled more comfortably into the seat. “It won’t be fun either way. All kinds of people are screaming now, after they found out the center was paid quite handsomely to keep their family members locked up and comatose in that facility,” she murmured. “It just proves that people are assholes.”

He chuckled. “ Some people are assholes,” he reminded her. “Then there are all the rest.”

“ Right ,” she quipped, looking over at him with a big smirk. “They’re even bigger assholes.”

He snorted and very quickly they were up at the address she’d given him. He looked up at the apartment building and nodded. “Not bad. Obviously not a wealthy area of town, but, if she’s in here, she must be holding it together to some degree.”

“That’s what I’m hoping. I don’t wish her any ill will through all this,” Kate shared. “I just don’t want anything to do with her.”

“Sometimes that, in itself, makes things even worse,” he pointed out.

She didn’t say anything and was already out of the vehicle and walking up to the main entrance to the building. He hurriedly caught up. When they got to the correct apartment number, she knocked on the door. She got no answer. She knocked again harder, and again no answer. She frowned at him.

Simon asked, “Do you think she pulled a runner?”

“I don’t know.” She tested the doorknob, and it opened under her hand. She poked her head in and called out, “Hello, anybody here? Hello?” There was no answer. She frowned. “I’m on time.”

“Sure, but does she have a habit of being on time herself?”

She winced. “No, that she does not.”

As she stood here, deciding what to do, he offered, “I can go in, if you want.”

“No, no, no, no. I need to. And it needs to be official.”

She immediately pushed the door open farther, then called out, “Police, I’m coming in.”

As she stepped in and walked through to where the kitchen was, she found her mother collapsed on the floor, her arm outstretched, a needle shoved into it. Kate raced to her mother. She was alive but barely. Kate looked back at Simon. “Call 9-1-1.”

Simon, who had followed her in, took one look, swore, and immediately pulled out his phone.

“Call Colby too. And now”—she looked at him—“stay clear of this.”

She pulled out her phone as well, and he half listened while he made his own calls. Very quickly, the room was full of paramedics, all racing to save the woman he’d hoped to one day call his mother-in-law.