Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(38)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

“And yet,” Kate noted cautiously, “this quite likely is somebody with a lot of experience killing people and not getting caught. So the best chance of getting him is if he makes a mistake, which, with that level of experience, won’t happen very much,” she pointed out. “Also, looking into the Simon angle in both these murders, that could literally mean our killer knows about Simon’s psychic ability.”

 

“So how the hell will we catch this guy?” Rodney asked, looking around at the team.

 

“I don’t know,” Kate answered, “short of forensics giving us something to go on. So I’ll go talk to Smidge in a little while. … I did ask him to put a rush on it.”

 

Owen rolled his eyes at that. Lilliana, on the other hand, shook her head and added, “Good for you, if it works. I tried to do that in the past and got it slammed in my face.”

 

“I’m not trying to step on anybody’s toes, but I do want answers,” she stated, her tone hard. “So, if he can give them to me, then I’m willing to play whatever game the killer’s got going on.”

 

“No game,” Colby said, holding up a hand. “Better not use that word near our coroner, given your killer is so stuck on that one. Smidge’s a good person, but he’s also dealing with more than our cases. Therefore, it’s not about our getting priority—yet obviously you want priority for your cases. If you can get it, I won’t argue with that because, of course, it helps us. However, we have a very active department, and unfortunately the city has a crime level that refuses to stop. So Smidge will be overwhelmed and under pressure, just like the rest of us, or maybe more so than most of us.”

 

She nodded. “But if being nice gets me a little more of a response”—she shrugged and smiled sweetly at Owen—“you can damn-well believe I’ll use it.” And, with that, she got up to walk out.

 

When Colby whistled, she turned to him. He grinned at her and asked, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

 

She frowned and then turned to look at Rodney. “That would be the other shoe I was waiting for. I’ll be heading to the morgue. You coming?”

 

“Apparently.” Rodney bolted to his feet, with a big grin. “Sounds as if it’s you and me against the world.”

 

She rolled her eyes. “If you burst out into song, I’ll drop you off at the first corner.”

 

He laughed. “What’s wrong with good songs?”

 

“Nothing,” she stated. “What’s wrong is your singing.”

 

When the rest of the group heard their joking, they burst into laughter.

 

Kate grinned at Rodney. “Let’s go, partner.”

 

*

 

Simon’s foreman Joe was in a very subdued mood when Simon arrived on-site this morning. Simon looked over at him and asked, “How is your sister doing?”

 

Joe shook his head. “She alternates between devastated and angry and then pissed off at me for giving him the damn job,” he complained, with a headshake.

 

“We don’t know that his death is connected to the job,” Simon noted cautiously, although he knew it was.

 

“Doesn’t matter. She seems to think that if she hadn’t pushed him to get a real job, then everything would be … fine.” He frowned. “She’s delusional, but she’s my sister, and she’s grieving. I am sorry for her, but Luca was a fucking loser—yet he was her loser.”

 

Simon understood completely. “I’m sorry, man. That makes it hard. … What about our staffing issues?”

 

He nodded. “Apparently you talking to Ricky yesterday may have helped. I had a couple guys reach out and ask if their positions have been filled and whether my brother-in-law was still around. I told both guys that Luca’s gone, that he won’t be back, and then I apologized for all the shit that went on and then some. I thought he would do a better job than he did, and clearing the air has been easy without him. I’ve now got six of the men back,” he stated, with a satisfied sigh. “That will help us quite a bit.” He had a genuine smile on his face. “And some of them, I’m damn glad to have back too. Some of the replacements were fucking awful.”

 

“I hear you,” Simon replied, “and you’re right. I’m glad to have them back too. Anyway, let’s take another look at what we’ll need for adjustments. Any news on the shipments coming in?”

 

“No, none,” he said somberly. “Plus some graffiti is on one of the walls.” He pointed off to the side.

 

“Yeah? What?”

 

“Just bullshit stuff.”

 

“Is it important right now?”

 

“No, it will get covered up when we get through to the next stage,” Joe advised. “It’s on the inside of one of the raw walls, and it’ll be covered over.”

 

“It happened overnight?” Simon asked.

 

“It did. Again, no idea who.”

 

“Do we have cameras up?”

 

“We don’t on this site because we’ve got security on a regular basis. Remember when we had equipment that went missing, and we opted for in-person security?”

 

“Right, I do remember that.” Simon stopped and looked around. “And yet security didn’t catch anybody spray-painting?”

 

“He interrupted them, so that they took off.”

 

“Right, another one of our perpetual headaches.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

Simon nodded. “Let me take a look at the graffiti.”

 

“It’s really nothing to worry about,” Joe said, as he walked over with him. “It’s the typical BS stuff.”

 

“Yeah, what’s this one about?”

 

“Something about freedom and games.”

 

At that, Simon stiffened and repeated, “Games?”

 

“Yeah. Come over here. I’ll show you,” Joe stated, getting ahead of him. “And, no, the security guard didn’t see him, other than to yell at him and to chase him off. He didn’t get a good description of him. I did talk to him about it this morning. The guard says it was some tall, fairly thick guy, but the guard is guessing because of the speed the guy took off running.”

 

As they walked around the corner, Simon immediately saw the graffiti on the wall. He stared at it for a long moment, trying to figure out what this was.