Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(80)
Author: Dale Mayer

“And yet,” she added, “we need a lead on Elizabeth and Patricia. What we are getting right now is not even remotely close to one of them.”

 

“Did forensics get back to you?”

 

She shook her head and for the umpteenth time checked her email. “No, still nothing yet. I think that’s one of the biggest frustrations in our job,” she murmured, looking over at him. “Having to wait to get exactly what it is we need.”

 

“Getting what we need is still a bit of luck too,” he pointed out.

 

She didn’t say anything at first but nodded. “How is it that these people pick places where they don’t have cameras?” she asked, with a frustrated groan.

 

“It’s a good chance that’s exactly why these places were picked,” Rodney pointed out. “Think about it. If you’re looking to do this, and you’re looking for a particular victim, you want to make sure that everything is easy.”

 

“And if it isn’t easy,” she added, “you must have a backup plan.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

She hesitated and then told him about Simon’s nighttime vision, omitting the part that really worried her.

 

Rodney stared at her in shock. “Well, shit, that means our killer has another victim right now.”

 

“I know that. And, of course, we have no idea who she is or why. Unless it’s Samantha.”

 

“I hate to say it,” Rodney began, “but even finding this person might not give us the answers that we need to stop him from taking another one.”

 

“How many does he need to take?”

 

He winced and murmured, “We’ve seen that happen more than a few times, where we need the next victim to find the killer.”

 

“More than a few times,” she agreed. “And it doesn’t make it any easier. What are we supposed to do when there’s nothing to go on?”

 

“We do what we’re doing now,” he stated, his voice firm. “We stay focused on the evidence, and when and if we find what we need to find, then we can move forward. However, until then, absolutely nothing we can do except stay on track.”

 

She didn’t like that answer, but he was right. She nodded at him and continued to work through the feed. When Simon called her, she answered almost absentmindedly. “Hey, how was your morning?”

 

“Considering somebody was following me today,” he snapped, “I’ve had better days.”

 

She stopped, staring down at the phone. “Somebody’s following you?”

 

“Yeah.” And he quickly explained.

 

She wrote down a few notes about it. “You didn’t recognize him?”

 

“No, I didn’t recognize him, and, no, he didn’t admit to following me, but he took off, scared.”

 

“Yeah, I wonder why,” she said, with a note of humor. “You are a scary dude.”

 

“Like hell,” he replied, but no rancor was in his voice. “Everybody thinks I’m a teddy bear.”

 

She burst out laughing at that. “Yeah, not so much,” she murmured. “Okay, what corner and when was this?” she asked, as she quickly shifted. With that info, she disconnected from the phone call and explained to Rodney, as she brought up the traffic cams.

 

“That was today?” Rodney asked.

 

“Now,” she said, “as in just now.”

 

“Interesting,” he murmured, as he shifted his chair to come up beside her.

 

She quickly went through the video cameras on the road, found the corner in question, and smiled when she managed to find cameras, not that they were helpful just yet but that they were there.

 

As she reviewed the video and tried to find the right time frame, Rodney pointed a finger. “There’s Simon.”

 

Indeed, there was Simon, and he was coming up on the side of the road completely nonchalant. She watched as he leaned against the wall.

 

“What’s he doing?” Rodney asked.

 

“I would say offhand that he’s disturbed by something. Doesn’t really know what but something.”

 

As they continued to watch, Simon suddenly shifted in his casual view of the area around him to focus on a place a couple blocks out. And then, with determined strides, almost as if he were targeting something, he headed toward a specific place. Before he arrived, a man slipped out of a doorway and disappeared around the corner. When he got to the doorway, he stopped and looked around in confusion.

 

“That’s the guy obviously.” As soon as the incident was over, the other man booked it.

 

“So that’s the one that Simon says has been following him,” she murmured.

 

“But was he? That’s the question.”

 

“Where was he earlier and where did he go from here?” she added.

 

As they backtracked the video for the twenty minutes prior to that point, she nodded. “It does appear he is following Simon, although not everyone loves Simon all the time, including me.”

 

Rodney snorted at that and hit her lightly on the shoulder. “But why? That’s a load of crock.” He smiled. “You’re very much in love with him. You may not like what he does or some of the skills that he has, … but there’s no doubt about how you feel.”

 

She pondered that as she backtracked, lost this guy a couple times, before picking him up downtown. “I can’t see when he arrived at this location,” she complained.

 

“Let’s go find where he went after his meeting with Simon. That may give us a better understanding.”

 

She quickly fast-forwarded to where they were, when the stalker had taken off from Simon, and followed the stalker another block or two, when he disappeared around the corner, surely within the blind spot, and the cameras lost him. She searched the other blocks looking for him but found no sign of him. She sat back, pondering that. “We lost him,” she muttered.

 

Rodney asked, “What area is it?”

 

She backed up slightly, so she could see a street name and swore. “Of course it’s right around where the women’s shelter is,” she muttered.

 

He looked over at her. “Did we ever consider that the women’s shelter might be involved in this?”

 

“I hope that’s not the case. A lot of women have been through there who have needed help.”