Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(88)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

She’d been trying to contact him for the last couple hours and got absolutely no response. For whatever reason, he either wasn’t answering or—and this part really drove her nuts—he couldn’t answer. And if he couldn’t answer, why? What was going on that he couldn’t pick up a phone and respond? Grimacing, she got back into her vehicle.

 

Then came this horrible pressure, this weird sense of something wrong, and yet, unable to sort it out, she ignored it all as she drove to the women’s shelter, wondering how a location like this could possibly be at the center of everything dealing with her current cases. How? And yet, because of the actual people involved, or the reasons behind the people involved, she had to consider the shelter. As she parked once again in the paid parking lot, she realized how convenient it was to the women’s shelter. She walked over and knocked on the door.

 

Lisa opened it and quickly ushered Kate in. Lisa immediately took her straight through to the office.

 

“What’s going on?” Kate asked in a low tone, and then she looked back around at the shelter in general. “Do you still have a full house?”

 

Lisa nodded. “I do, indeed.”

 

“And Helen, is she still out shopping? I realized how convenient the car park is from here, although it would cost a lot of money to keep your car there.”

 

“Oh, it would, and we absolutely cannot afford that.” And then she hesitated. “And that’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“Why is that?” Kate asked, looking at her in confusion. “What’s going on? Why didn’t you just talk to me over the phone?”

 

“I can’t.” She hesitated, looked around, then got up and quickly closed the door to the office.

 

Curiouser and curiouser, Kate thought.

 

Lisa sat down, but instead of getting right to it, she fidgeted, her hands clasping, unclasping, clasping and unclasping.

 

Finally Kate got up and walked closer, crouched right in front of her and said, “You need to tell me.”

 

Tears filled her eyes. “It’s that picture you showed me. … I didn’t place it, and even now I’m not sure. You have to understand that I am not sure.”

 

“Okay, I presume you think you recognized the person in the photo.”

 

“I’m afraid I recognized the person,” she repeated. “I don’t want to be right though. I really don’t want to be right, but every time I think about it, … my stomach sinks, and I feel as if I’ll puke.”

 

Kate stared at her and tried to be patient. “I need to know who it is.”

 

“But I could be wrong, and what if I’m wrong? What if I’m wrong? It’ll change everything. It’ll ruin everything.”

 

Kate slowly wrapped her arms around the older woman and held her, while Lisa trembled in place. “I’m sorry this is causing you so much trauma,” Kate said. “However, you have to remember that whoever is doing this is also hurting a lot of innocent people.”

 

“I know. I know. … Yet I don’t understand. I don’t understand how it could be this person. I don’t want to tell you because I must be wrong. You can’t tell who the person is in the photo, but I can’t get it out of my mind. Because it fits. God help me, it fits.”

 

“And yet you called me because you know you aren’t wrong.”

 

“I called you because I’m afraid I’m not wrong. … There’s a difference. You have to be very careful with your investigation because I can’t, … I can’t be, … I can’t have you saying the wrong thing.”

 

“Meaning that you’re trying to protect your women here?”

 

“I’m trying to protect everything here,” she declared, looking at Kate. “The shelter is everything to me. I may get tired. I may get frustrated, but I’ve spent so long fighting for these women that it breaks my heart if I’m correct.”

 

“And yet you haven’t told me who yet.”

 

“Because, if I tell you, and if I’m wrong, it changes everything.”

 

“What if you tell me, and you’re right?”

 

Lisa immediately burst into tears. “Then it changes everything.”

 

“In which case, there really are no options. Everything will change, one way or the other.”

 

With Lisa sobbing, Kate settled back on her heels, wondering what to say and how to say what would unlock this information. She looked around and asked, “When will Helen be back?”

 

And that increased the sobbing further.

 

Kate stopped and stared at Lisa, and then it hit Kate. She knew. “Hang on a minute.”

 

Lisa opened her eyes and looked at Kate in fear and yet, at the same time, maybe with hope.

 

“You really think she did it?” Kate asked, staring at Lisa in shock. Was it possible? Kate cast her mind back to the pictures she had and the bits of information that they had, where they hadn’t been able to lock down whether they were looking for a man or a woman. “You’re afraid that it’s Helen, aren’t you?”

 

Lisa burst into fresh sobs but nodded.

 

“Jesus Christ.” Kate bolted to her feet. She pulled out her phone, only to find a message from Rodney. She tried to call him back and again couldn’t get through. Frustrated, she phoned Simon and also couldn’t get through. “Do you know why?” she asked Lisa, turning to look at her.

 

“No, I don’t know why,” she said on a light wail, “but I know that she had a relationship, only it was really just a one-off way back when, one that went nowhere. I mean, Elizabeth left. I couldn’t have that here at the shelter,” Lisa explained, “not with all the vulnerable women we take in. But Helen had a one-way relationship with Elizabeth, one where Helen was really hoping Elizabeth would come back.”

 

“Only Simon helped Elizabeth leave.”

 

Lisa looked up at the detective and nodded. “Simon did. I didn’t think anything of it, until I heard recently that Elizabeth had come back, for whatever reason, and, oh, how I wish she hadn’t come back.” Lisa still had tears flowing from her eyes. “I don’t know what Elizabeth needed for closure or for whatever her reason was to return here, … but I wished she hadn’t come back.”

 

“Did you see her?”

 

Lisa shook her head. “No, I didn’t see her. I didn’t know anything about it, until Helen mentioned it. However, Helen was different afterward.”