Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(15)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

“Did she say much?”

 

“Only that he was an asshole and that he beat her whenever she didn’t bring in enough money.”

 

“Unfortunately that’s pretty common in the industry.”

 

“Yet, if you beat your goods, how the hell are you supposed to make them create more money?”

 

Kate privately agreed, but there was no logic when you talked to these abusers. They knew perfectly well what they were doing. Usually the evidence that they beat the women was hidden, so that nobody had any idea. The pimps were careful enough to not leave any marks. Although if she was beaten, and often, it could be that Stone was renting Patricia out to johns who liked that little bit of extra fun. “Did she ever say she had rough johns or got beaten up by johns?”

 

“Sure, a couple of them,” Terry confirmed. “She never really talked about them though, just that a lot of shitty men were out in the world.”

 

“Right. I won’t argue with you on that point,” Kate noted. “I’m trying to figure out who all might have had something to do with this.”

 

“Right. And I presume that I still need to come in, don’t I?”

 

“Yes, they found multiple fingerprints in her apartment, so we need to exclude yours from them.”

 

“Right,” he replied, but his tone was dead weary. “I also want to see her.”

 

“I can arrange for that too,” Kate agreed, “after the autopsy.”

 

Another sigh came from Terry, or maybe it was almost a held-back sob. Finally he spoke. “Fine, I can wait for that.” He was choking on his words. “Who would have thought that that’s how my day would go?”

 

“Were you expecting to meet Patricia when you showed up at her apartment?”

 

“Sure, I was taking her out to lunch. And then I called to say I would be late, and she didn’t answer my call. So, when I tried calling her again, seeing if we could postpone lunch for another day, I got no answer, By then I was so worried that I came over.”

 

“Had she been dealing with depression, anything like that?”

 

“Why? You think she killed herself?” he asked, his tone turning harsh.

 

“No,” Kate stated. “However, I do need to know if there’s any chance that maybe she went back to her pimp, looking for drugs to numb the pain.”

 

He sucked in his breath, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

 

Kate heard the faintest of sobs coming through the phone. She really hated to talk to the families because their pain was something that she took on herself. “I know it happened in the past to other people, but is there any chance? … And I know it is upsetting to even consider this, but sometimes pimps trade and sell their girls between them. So did Patricia have another pimp at all outside of this Stone?”

 

“No, not that I know of.” Terry was audibly sobbing now, yet a buzz filled the air, as if he were thinking about Kate’s question still. “I don’t think she ever mentioned that. God, … it doesn’t even bear thinking about, does it? Jesus, my poor sister.”

 

“Yes, it’s not an easy thing to contemplate, but she is at peace now.”

 

“Is she now?” he asked bitterly. “How would you know if she is? I want you to find that asshole and make him pay.”

 

“That’s what I plan to do.”

 

She was writing down her notes from this conversation, when Terry asked, “Anything else?”

 

“Yes. Do you know what happened to her these last few days?” she asked bluntly.

 

A few moments of a dead silence came on the other end. “No, what are you talking about?”

 

“So you don’t know that she came to the police station yesterday?”

 

“No, I don’t. Why?” he asked, his voice rising. “Did you guys know something? What happened? Could you have stopped this?”

 

“No,” she said gently. “We didn’t know anything about this. She apparently … When was the last time you talked to your sister?”

 

He pondered that and then replied, “At least a few days ago. Maybe four or five. Once we had planned lunch for today, then we didn’t confirm beyond that. I go to work, and she goes to work. I assume that, if she had any problem, she’d call me.”

 

“Does she regularly do that?”

 

“Sure. We talk, I would say, a decent amount of the time.” But his tone turned wary. “What happened, Detective? What don’t I know?”

 

She hesitated again, knowing that telling Terry would make him feel even shittier, but this revelation was inevitable. “She was kidnapped and held captive for a few days by somebody she couldn’t identify.”

 

“What?” his voice was low and lethal. “Are you serious?”

 

“I am. There’s a little bit more to it than that. … He released her outside a hospital, after driving by her apartment and pointing it out to her. Patricia couldn’t tell us anything about him, couldn’t tell us anything about the vehicle or even where she had been held, just that he wanted her to deliver a message to us. Which she did. And then, if she didn’t deliver the message, he would come back for her.”

 

She almost heard the heartbreak in Terry’s voice when he said, “My God. I didn’t know anything about it.”

 

“She was in the hospital immediately afterward. However, as soon as she could, she checked herself out,” Kate explained. “So I guess that’s why I’m asking how close you are. Would she have told you something about this?”

 

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I would have thought so. We’ve been through so much together,” he cried out. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” He kept repeating that litany.

 

“I know. It’s a lot to take in.”

 

“You think that’s who killed her?”

 

“I don’t know that,” she stated. “It could be a completely separate issue. Her kidnapper did tell her that, if Patricia delivered the message, then he would leave her alone. And she did deliver the message, but that means that we would have to believe this asshole.”

 

“I don’t believe any assholes,” Terry declared bluntly. “Particularly assholes who kidnap vulnerable women and make them do this shit.” He swore over and over again. “Christ, I wish she’d told me.”