Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(54)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

Her voice shifted something inside him, almost making it harder to stay wherever he intended to be, but almost immediately he heard another whisper, something off, as if a person sat right beside him, a whisper of cloth against cloth, a bit of … He tilted his head to the side, as he tried not to analyze and just allowed the information to flow and yet, at the same time, tried to recognize whatever he heard.

 

Then came a half cough, almost a whimper.

 

Instead of crying out, he tried to relax a little bit more into the sensation, and, when he heard a bit of a snuffle, he whispered, “It’s okay.”

 

Almost a start came within him, as if he had reached out to this other person, and that person had received whatever message Simon had sent.

 

He immediately sent out another reassuring message, almost a warm hug, and yet he knew that it could be a lie, that he could possibly be giving her false reassurances, when he couldn’t even begin to figure out where she was. And yet he knew it was a she. Somewhere a woman was suffering, and he didn’t even know who it was, where she was, why she was there. Still, here he was, trying to hand off those same assurances.

 

When he heard a quivering voice, whispering in his ear, asking, “Who are you?” he froze and then whispered back.

 

“A psychic, looking for you.”

 

A sob broke free from the other woman. “Then help me, dear God, please help me,” she cried out.

 

“Where are you?”

 

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she wailed. “I don’t have any idea.”

 

He waited until she was calmer, then asked, “What happened?”

 

“I was walking home from work,” she began, “and this man came up behind me. I stepped out of the way. He passed, and then he turned around to face me, reached out as if to smack me on the shoulder, and then I don’t remember more,” she murmured.

 

“Your name,” he urged, feeling the connection slip away.

 

“Samantha,” she whispered. “Samantha Cole.” And then her voice was gone.

 

He snapped awake, stared out at the incredible Vancouver skyline in front of him. All he could grab on to from his vision was Samantha Cole. He reached for his phone and called Kate. When she answered, her voice distracted, she asked, “Is this urgent?”

 

He hesitated, then said, “I don’t know if it’s urgent or not, but it might help.”

 

“What is it?” she asked, her voice immediately perking up.

 

“I tried to connect, to somebody, to anything. You know I’m not very good at willfully trying to reach out.”

 

“Did you reach someone?” The question was phrased too neatly.

 

“Yes. I’m not sure that I connected to anybody in this situation.”

 

“Ouch, I guess you can’t control the people you connect to.”

 

“I’m not sure that I can control any of it,” he admitted, with a note of humor. “Remember that part?”

 

“Oh, I do,” she murmured. “Who was it?”

 

“Her name’s Samantha Cole, and she’s a prisoner somewhere. A man came up behind her, walked past her, turned around, clapped her on the shoulder, as friends do, and she doesn’t remember any more.”

 

“So a pressure syringe,” Kate noted, with a sigh.

 

“Possibly.”

 

“Do you know her name at all?” she asked him.

 

“No, I have no idea who she is.” He heard Kate clicking on her keyboard.

 

“Interesting. I have a Samantha Cole registered as missing but not here locally,” she read in a clipped tone. “She’s up in the Chilliwack area, not quite a couple hours’ drive from here. It came through as an alert, in case she’d come into the city.”

 

“Well, she’s in the city. I don’t know if she was here willingly or not.” And then he stopped. “Okay, I don’t know what city. I don’t … I don’t even know if she’s in the city. So scratch that. I assumed she was in the city but that could have been completely erroneous on my part.”

 

“Good to know,” Kate replied in a dry tone.

 

“All I can tell you is, I connected with her, and she didn’t tell me anything other than she was a prisoner and to please help.”

 

“Great,” Kate mumbled, half under her breath.

 

He winced. “So, in other words, I’m not helping. I’m hindering because now …” And then he broke off.

 

“Because now I have a Samantha Cole on our radar.”

 

“And she may or may not have anything to do with the current murders.”

 

“Right. So the next time you try this, why don’t you try connecting to the asshole who is playing games. That would be helpful.”

 

“But would it? Or would it allow him … Samantha talked to me, and, if that happens in this particular killer’s case, I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

 

“If it helps you identify who he is, if it happens to be somebody you recognize, a tone of voice, something,” Kate replied, her tone sharpening, “it would be great. Obviously we still want to keep you safe, so I don’t want you setting him off in any way. Yet, if you connect with him, and he knows that you’re connecting with him, that’ll set him off. Won’t it?”

 

“That would be my take on it, yes,” Simon agreed in a dry tone. “Hence my problem.”

 

“On the other hand, I would rather deal with him pissed off, especially if it means we can connect to him, and we can learn anything. Plus a pissed-off killer can make mistakes,” she explained, speaking all too quickly, and then she groaned. “And I know how hard it must have been for you to try this, and I appreciate it.”

 

“Do you really?” he asked. “Because right now we have yet another missing person.”

 

“Sure, but I’m not part of the Missing Persons’ department. Remember?”

 

He winced. “Right. Didn’t even think of that, but I can’t not help her.”

 

“Can you help her though?” she asked instantly. “Can you figure out where she is?”

 

“I don’t know.” His own frustration boiled over. “Maybe not, but I guess I’ll give it a try. Now that I know that this woman is out there, hoping that I’m looking for her,” he repeated in exasperation, “I feel as if I have to do more. Otherwise she’s sitting there and waiting forever.”