Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(83)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

Kate smiled. “I’m a friend. You have nothing to worry about from me.”

 

Some of the women seemed to relax, but others stared at her nervously.

 

Kate turned to Lisa. “You have a place where we can talk?”

 

“Sure.” She motioned to the second door on the right and led them to a small office. “This is where all the lovely financial dealings happen,” she said, halfway joking. “Now if only some dealings were to actually happen,” she muttered.

 

“Things that bad?” Kate asked.

 

“Simon was here this morning, so that’ll hold us in good stead for a while, but this business is frustrating. We put out so much money in care and sometimes … it’s all for naught.”

 

Knowing Lisa was referring to Patricia, and maybe even Elizabeth, Kate nodded. “But you and I can still only do the best we can do. I’m in the same business,” she stated. “I do everything I can for the people, and still sometimes it’s for naught.”

 

Lisa eyed Kate and slowly nodded. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

 

“You do everything you can to take criminals off the street, and then a jury puts them right back out there,” she said, with a headshake. “Go figure. And yet still it’s not for us to argue about. Doesn’t make it any easier of a lump to swallow, but …” She waited for the other woman.

 

Finally Lisa spoke. “Okay, so what is it that you need to ask? I’ve got to get lunch ready for the women.”

 

“Do you cater to them?” Kate asked.

 

“Not really, but knowing that somebody is here and that somebody cares”—Lisa shook her head—“it makes a big difference in their mental and emotional attitudes. Absolutely nothing is more important than their mental health after they have endured that, so we do what we can.”

 

Kate certainly admired anybody who could do this work day in and out. Kate knew that a lot of women couldn’t do what Kate did, yet she found it easy to work murders day in and day out. She held out the picture of the person who kidnapped Samantha and asked, “Have you seen this person?”

 

Lisa took the photo and turned it slightly. “You really do need to get better photos.”

 

“We do, but we can only do what we can do.”

 

“Not sure what that even means, but I’ll take your word for it.” As Lisa pondered the photo, she noted, “Something’s familiar about it, but I’m not really sure.” She shook her head, as she handed it back. “Sorry.”

 

“Take another look,” Kate urged her. “You probably don’t want anything to do with this, but, if it keeps somebody else from becoming a victim, … let’s do what we can.”

 

“Oh, I don’t have a problem doing what I can,” Lisa said in frustration. “I don’t recognize her … or him—or is it a her?”

 

“We haven’t even identified that much yet.” Kate sighed, as she accepted the photo back. “I guess it must be hard for you to see all these women come and go, and … nothing ever changes, huh?”

 

“Yet it’s not so much that it’s hard but that nothing ever changes,” Lisa corrected. “The same thing’s always happening, and we do our best, but there are definitely no answers. We try hard to make something happen so that we can stop the cycle, but it doesn’t seem to ever stop,” she murmured. “Which makes it even more depressing.”

 

“I suspect that you deal with depression on a regular basis anyway, don’t you?” Kate asked Lisa.

 

Lisa looked up at her, with a ghost of a smile. “Yeah, you could say that,” she admitted, yet still with a smile. “A lot of people would urge me to go get help, but generally the help provided by doctors are drugs, and that I really don’t want and neither can I afford.” She shook her head. “Don’t go telling me about the free health care and all that stuff, because the bottom line is, … I still don’t want to be taking drugs and dulling the results of what I do.”

 

“What do you mean?” Kate asked curiously.

 

“When you take the drugs, it helps you to realize that life’s okay, but I don’t ever want to get to the point where this”—she pointed out to the shelter—“is okay. It should never be okay to take in abused and damaged women. It shouldn’t even be necessary, and I’ve always been concerned that, if I ever took any prescriptions, it would backfire, and I would become almost dulled to the effects around me.”

 

“Oh.” Kate nodded.

 

Lisa shrugged. “I know, a novel idea,” she said, “but I don’t want to blunt all this away. I want to change it and want it so that men do not abuse women, but I also want the women to have a better appreciation of the opportunity that they do have, and that they stay clean, stay dry, stay away from abusive men.” Lisa took a deep breath. “There are no guarantees, no promises here, absolutely nothing other than more of the same, and I’m afraid that, if I ever were to take drugs for depression, it would make all this okay, and it’ll never be okay.”

 

Kate stayed a little longer, visiting with Lisa. She was an interesting person, with a unique take on life, and Kate appreciated all that Lisa was doing for the suffering women here. As she got up to leave, Kate asked, “Is Helen around?”

 

“No, she’s off shopping,” Lisa noted, with a causal gesture. “The amount of work and visitors we have dictates our grocery needs on a day-to-day basis, so we tend to do a lot of our actual shopping daily. We buy much in bulk because it’s so much cheaper, but, if we have two versus eighteen guests, the grocery requirements are quite crazy.”

 

“Of course.” Kate patted Lisa’s hand. Then Kate dug deep into her own pockets and handed Lisa the couple hundred dollars that she had in her wallet. “This is to help you buy a few more groceries.”

 

Lisa’s face lit up. “You are an angel.”

 

“Oh, I’m not an angel,” she corrected, “but I do appreciate the work you’re doing, and I’m grateful that I’m not in a situation where I need your services.”

 

Lisa immediately nodded. “Right? I always felt paying it forward was the best answer to keep yourself out of trouble.”

 

*

 

Simon got up from eating his lunch, felt the world spin around uncertainly, and swore because he thought his head was getting better. However, a couple times today, he hadn’t felt quite as good as he thought he should. He made it to his car and crashed onto the seat, wondering if he should sit here and rest for a few minutes. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.