Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(49)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

“And you wouldn’t have gotten a yes answer,” he said drily.

 

“So somebody could know that you’re helping these victims,” Rodney noted. “And it’s a victim that the killer probably didn’t want helped.”

 

“Or that he thought he could help better,” Kate corrected, looking at Simon. “And he didn’t appreciate that Simon was supporting whatever was keeping this person away from him.”

 

“Still doesn’t explain the game part of his message though,” Simon added, his voice a bit tamed and in a monotone. “I don’t know if that’s his own twist on this or whether something completely different. I just don’t know.”

 

“Were there ever any rescues that you were involved in?” Rodney asked.

 

Simon nodded. “Yeah, a couple. I tend to not think of them as rescues but, of course, that’s what they were.”

 

“What do you mean by that?” Kate asked, looking over at Rodney.

 

“Sometimes when it’s an ugly domestic scenario,” Rodney explained, “they’ll mount a rescue to get a woman out of a tough spot, and she disappears into the network.” He turned to face Simon.

 

Simon nodded. “And, yeah, I guess I have been involved in a bunch of those, … but not recently. I would say, probably eight years, ten years ago maybe. It’s been a long time because I separated myself, as it can get really ugly sometimes.”

 

“Can you tell me what a standard rescue would look like?” Kate asked.

 

“There is no standard rescue,” Simon noted, with a wry look. “We get a heads-up that somebody has been abused, heading to a restaurant with the husband or to be at a specific location. Then it’s a matter of causing a distraction so that the woman can get away without being dragged into a big confrontation. We supply the vehicle and a driver, and then we take her to a safe house.” Simon shrugged. “We’ve only ever had one of those cases go bad, and I think the only one where the woman was persuaded by the husband to go back. He was going to change his ways,” Simon mimicked, with an eye roll.

 

“Any idea what happened to either of them?”

 

Simon sighed. “She got injured, and her husband ended up shooting her. When the cops arrived, … he turned the gun on himself.”

 

Kate frowned at Rodney, and he shrugged.

 

Simon continued. “We don’t handle most of those. They’re quite usually reported as domestic violence cases, where the local cops respond,” Simon explained. “However, we do know of several cases, where these other kinds of rescues have happened. It’s all aboveboard.”

 

“What do the husbands usually do?” Kate asked Simon.

 

“Sometimes they’re pissed right off. Sometimes they call out Good riddance. Sometimes they are panicked, until they realize that she’s not coming back. Usually he receives some notification that they are alive but are done with the abuse, and, if he continues to harass them, then it will become a criminal matter,” Simon added. “Every case is different, but, if we don’t help these women escape, when they are too scared to do so by themselves, who will? It usually requires a much stronger man than their abuser to help these women,” Simon noted.

 

“Oh, I’m definitely not against accepting your help,” Kate replied. “Obviously we don’t want you going outside of the law. However, if you’re rescuing women in vulnerable positions, then I won’t say anything about it.”

 

Rodney smiled and nodded. “I’ve been involved officially in a couple of those, and, in most cases, it turns out that the woman couldn’t get away by herself. Often they just need help for that initial step.” Rodney gave a wave of his hand. “Sometimes the women can turn pretty violent themselves. So it’s not just women who need rescues.”

 

Kate nodded. “And yet the couple of battered men we met in one of our previous cases, obviously they didn’t know about having help.”

 

“It’s much harder for men to report the abuse and to accept any help,” Simon noted in a quiet tone. “There’s a huge stigma that they should handle this themselves, and they don’t generally go looking for help.”

 

Rodney agreed. “What are the chances of a list of every rescue you’ve been involved in?”

 

Simon winced. “I didn’t even know the names half the time,” he shared. “In a rescue, you want to get them out of there, out of the situation. We’re not worried about crossing the Ts and dotting the Is. I could ask the shelter that I donate a lot of money to,” he suggested, “if they know of any particular scenarios. I am sure they can help you out.”

 

Kate nodded. “We don’t even know for sure that Patricia is related to one of these shelters—or this latest woman in the park—but, if either are related, it’s one more puzzle piece that will help lock this down.”

 

“No,” he disagreed, looking at her. “You’re hoping it is. This guy’s gone to a lot of trouble, and he has done it so thoroughly. He’s picked a park, named after somebody who was a victim of abuse. He’s picked somebody who had saved herself from a very tough lifestyle. The killer picked … somebody who works for me.”

 

“But also a weak person,” she pointed out. “So maybe, in the killer’s eyes, Luca was weak. Maybe the killer can’t handle someone big, someone burly, right?”

 

“It’s possible,” Rodney agreed, with a shrug, “but then drugs would do that.”

 

“Right.” Kate nodded because that was a given. “Did they use drugs to subdue Patricia in her case?”

 

“I’m not sure about it, but we can check with Smidge.” Then Rodney added, “According to her pimp though, she was begging that he give her some, just before her murder.”

 

“Right,” Kate murmured. “The tox screens won’t be back on our latest victim anyway.”

 

“No.”

 

As Simon turned to leave, she called out, “Thanks for breakfast.”

 

“Anytime, sweetheart.” And, with that, he was gone.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11

 

 

 

 

 

Kate was still living down the sweetheart moniker, as she walked back to her desk, Rodney teasing her mercilessly. “On the other hand, he brought breakfast,” she pointed out, “and you were the beneficiary of that, so you better be nice.”