MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (13 page)

A few minutes later, Rob returned. “One client waiting. Pauline’s not at her desk.”

Kate nodded and turned to head down the hall. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked back. Officer Hernandez had apparently started to follow her. Rob had his hand on the officer’s arm and was shaking his head.

Good. The only thing that would be harder to explain than her presence when she was supposed to be home asleep would be a uniformed police officer trailing after her.

Once in her office, Kate consulted the list of mutual cases Fran had put together. She hastily jammed the N’s and O’s into one of the boxes she’d been using to transport files to Rob’s office. She peeked out her door. Still no Pauline. She grabbed the box and race-walked across the outer office. In the hall, Rob took the box from her and they hustled back to his office.

They set Officer Hernandez up with a stack of magazines in the sitting area at the far end of the room. She sat, ignoring the magazines, her face a neutral mask.

Cop training or natural personality?
Kate suspected some of both.

Rob was pulling files out of his cabinet. He brought them over to the desk. “Don’t know if this would be any easier if we’d ever gotten around to computerizing my old files.”

She chuckled as Rob, the technophobe, glared at his dark monitor lurking on the end of his desk. “Sometimes old-fashioned paper and ink are best. In my case, I’d worry about hackers getting confidential information.”

By noon they’d gotten through the R’s. They’d been slowed down some by the necessity for subterfuge. Each time they finished a box, they had to wait for Pauline to leave her desk. Then Kate would slip into her office to grab another load of files. They also had to keep their voices down so Officer Hernandez couldn’t hear them.

They were taking a break, waiting for Fran to bring them sandwiches from the deli across the street, when Kate’s cell phone rang. It was Mac.

“Board on the window. Got the pics from Liz,” he said without preamble. “Rob there? Don’t have his cell number.”

“Yeah, he’s here, but first… Uh, hold on.” She turned toward the other end of the room. She knew Officer Hernandez hadn’t gone to the bathroom all morning. Even when she’d gone herself, the cop had stood outside her stall on guard. It had been rather embarrassing to have her tinkling monitored. “Officer, why don’t you take a restroom break?”

The cop just raised one eyebrow at a forty-five degree angle.

“Uh, this call’s confidential. We’ll lock the door behind you. Knock three times, then give us the password and we’ll let you back in. Hmm, let’s make the password…” She thought fast, trying to come up with something funny to keep things light.

Inspiration struck. She grinned and sang out, “Skipped
to the loo
, my darling.”

Officer Hernandez switched eyebrows. “How ’bout I just ID myself.”

“That’ll work.”

Once Rob had locked the door behind the officer, Kate said into the phone, “Mac, we have to waltz down a fine line here. I’m bound by strict rules of confidentiality. These guys have the same last names as my clients, or their former last names, so you can’t mention me or anything that implies one of their family members was in counseling when you’re asking questions about them.”

“Got it, sweet pea.”

“Thanks so much for doing this. And please be careful! I don’t have enough guilt left in me to handle another person I love getting hurt because of all this.”

“I know how to take care of myself,” Mac said without his usual growl.

Wow, a complete sentence.

She handed Rob her phone. “He needs your cell number.”

Rob rattled that off, then ended the call with his own admonition. “Be careful.”

There was one emphatic knock on the door followed by a muffled “Hernandez.”

Gotta work on that girl’s sense of humor
.

By two-thirty, Kate’s eyes were drooping. She either needed a change of scenery or a nap. “Let me try to get the rest of my files out of my office and then let’s take all this back to my house. I need to get more comfortable.”

And maybe indulge in a second cup of coffee. She’d been restricting herself to one a day, but today she might have to go up to the two-cup-per-day limit for pregnant women.

She’d retrieved one box of files and was going back for the last half of the W’s–another popular first letter for last names–when she heard Pauline’s voice behind her. “Hey, Kate, I thought you were taking the day off.”

Kate turned around. “Well, I figured once I’d gotten some sleep, I might as well do something useful with the rest of the day.” Her mind was scrambling. What useful thing could she be doing that would involve her standing in the center’s reception area with an empty box in her hands? “Uh, um, I thought I’d pack up some of Eddie’s stuff at home. I had a few empty boxes here that I thought I could use.”

Pauline gave her a strange look, but she was literally saved by the bell when the phone rang. As the receptionist answered it, Kate slipped into her office. She grabbed the last empty box from the corner and put some of the remaining files in each of them. Taking one handle of each box, she dangled them at her sides, trying to make it look as if they were empty.

Fortunately Pauline was still on the phone, her eyes looking down at the scheduling book. “See you later,” Kate mumbled as she rushed toward the outer door that a big hand was reaching around the corner to hold open for her.

Rob grabbed the boxes from her and they hustled down the hall. Once inside his office, the absurdity of the whole situation hit her. She flopped into a chair and started giggling.

Rob chuckled. “If we tried to sell this plot to a TV producer, it would be rejected flat.”

“Maybe as a sitcom,” Kate said, which set off a fresh round of giggles.

“Get it together, woman.” He gave her a mock scowl. “Let’s get this done.”

Kate glanced at the cop’s face. Was that a crack in the mask? She looked like Mr. Spock from Star Trek with her eyebrow cocked at forty-five degrees.

“Why are you so bent on keeping what we’re doing from Pauline and Sally?” Rob asked as he started packing up his own files for their mutual cases.

“Sally’s been very supportive, giving me time off and all. But the center is her life. I’m not sure she’d go along with all this, despite the fact that our lives are at risk.” Kate dropped her voice. “She’d probably tell me to leave it to the police to handle.”

“Obviously she hasn’t met Phillips,” Rob said quietly. He added at normal volume, “So it’s a case of you better not ask because she might say no.”

“Exactly, and then if we kept at it, I might lose my job.” That was something she’d rather not contemplate. When all this was over, she’d have a child to support as well as herself.

Kate consolidated her files into two boxes. Most of Rob’s for the same cases fit in a third box. The few that were left over, he stuffed in his briefcase. “My files are skinnier than your files,” he said, in a nanny-nanny-boo-boo voice. Kate stuck out her tongue at him.

The officer’s eyebrow went up again.

Rob stacked two boxes on top of each other and hefted them. He looked at the officer and nodded at the third box.

She shook her head. “Gotta keep my hands free, sir.”

“Of course.” Rob put his boxes back on the desk and grabbed Kate’s hand as it snaked toward the other box. “Me, Tarzan, you, Jane. I’ll send Lou up for that one.”

He did let her carry his briefcase.

They filed down the fire stairs, Officer Hernandez in the lead. At the bottom, she opened the door and cautiously looked around. “All clear,” she finally said and led the way again, scanning the parking lot.

While they waited for Lou to retrieve the third box, Kate started to get into the backseat of Rob’s car.

“You should be with me, ma’am,” Officer Hernandez said.

“Oh, goodie!” She clapped her hands together. “I’ve never ridden in a police car before. Can we put on the lights and siren?”

“No!” The officer’s tone was emphatic, but her mouth twitched on one end. Then she rolled her eyes. Opening the passenger door of her cruiser, she said, “Ma’am?”

Kate grinned at her as she climbed in.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Rob decided to blow Skip’s cover. He didn’t want the police mistaking the bodyguard for the killer. That could have disastrous results. When they arrived at Kate’s house, there was another police car sitting at the curb. Rob motioned Skip over and introduced him to both officers.

“Uh, sir,” Skip said, once they were out of earshot of the police, “I thought I was supposed to keep a low profile. Try to catch this guy next time he tries something.”

“Skip, my man, we’re not going for subtle anymore.” Contrary to what he’d told Kate, he was hoping the extra coverage would actually discourage any more attacks against her.

“You still willing to go 24/7?” he asked the bodyguard. He had to look up to make eye contact, an unusual experience for him. The man was a good three inches taller.

“No problem, sir.”

“Good. There will be two cops and you on her at all times. At her office, the police will be in front of her building and inside with her. You stay on the back parking lot. Park next to her escort’s cruiser. I wouldn’t put it past this bastard to blow up a cop to get to her. When she’s home, one officer will be out front and one inside. You’re in the back alley. At night, I’m thinking it would be better to have the cops outside. How do you feel about sleeping on a sofa?”

“No problem, sir,” came the answer again.

Rob nodded. “Police cruisers out front and in the alley should be a good deterrent. Make sure, if it’s different officers, that they know you’re one of the good guys.”

“Always a good idea, sir.”

Rob hated telling another man how to do his job, but he wasn’t taking any chances with Kate’s life. He wasn’t sure how much brain power went along with the brawn in these guys. However, he was beginning to think Skip was several IQ points above the other two.

He put a hand on the big man’s shoulder. “Don’t tell your siblings.” He nodded toward Lou still sitting in his car. “But you’re my favorite.”

Skip chuckled.

Good, he got the joke.
Out loud, he said, “One other thing, Skip.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I think Mrs. Huntington’s too smart to do this, but… Well, let’s just say she has an independent streak a mile wide. At some point it may temporarily overpower her brain, and she may try to slip off her tether.”

Skip started to roll his eyes, then caught himself.

Rob suppressed a grin. He gave the big man a friendly slap on the shoulder, then wished he hadn’t when his hand came away stinging from contact with rock-hard muscles.

“Last but not least,” he said. “Be careful.”

“Always, sir.”

~~~~~~~~

Kate put the coffee on, then changed into sweats and her bedroom slippers. They spread their files out on her kitchen table.

Three hours later, they’d finally gotten through the alphabet, but there were way too many files in the possibilities pile. Kate swiped her out-of-control bangs out of her eyes. “This is hopeless. My kid’ll be starting school by the time we investigate all these people.” She heard the whine in her voice and stopped to take a deep breath.

“Uh, by the way, I’m not telling Mac or my father that I’m pregnant yet. They’ll get that much more overprotective and insist I stop working.”

“I’m not sure anything would qualify as
over
protective at this point,” Rob said. “It’s that important to you to keep working?”

“Have you stopped?” He didn’t answer her. She continued, “We can’t stop working completely. We’ve got too many people counting on us to help them. What if one of my clients committed suicide, or one of yours lost custody of their children, because we weren’t there for them? We’d never forgive ourselves.”

“Excellent argument, Kate. Sure you don’t want to go to law school?”

She snorted. “No thanks. I like belonging to a
respected
profession. There’s maybe one stupid therapist joke for every thousand sleazy lawyer jokes out there.”

“True.” Rob glanced at his watch. “Our brains are tired. Let’s call it a day.”

“Okay, but why don’t we meet at your house tomorrow afternoon, when I’m finished with clients? I’m thinking we need to get Liz’s take on these cases. Breaks the rules, but we’ve got to narrow them down some more.”

“Good idea, and you can trust her to keep things to herself.”

Kate grimaced. “I know. I still hate doing this, though. My confidentiality vows are almost as sacred as a priest’s, but–”

“It’s a matter of life or death,” Rob finished for her.

“Yeah, ours.”

After Rob left, Kate put the case files back in their boxes, then called Officer Hernandez into the kitchen. “Have a seat.” She gestured toward the table. “Would you like something? Coffee, soda, water?”

“Water’d be good, ma’am.” The officer remained standing, eyeing the double windows that faced the street.

“Don’t worry. Nobody’s getting onto that porch without us knowing it. Each board squeaks to a different note.”

“More bullets I’m concerned about, ma’am. From across the street.”

“Good point.” The windows were screened only by semi-sheer curtains. Kate handed the officer a glass of ice water. “Let’s go into the living room.”

Officer Hernandez drew the drapes over the side and back windows. Fresh plywood now covered the front window. Kate turned on lamps, then gestured toward the sofa and chairs.

The officer perched on the edge of an armchair. “What time do you leave, ma’am, for work in the mornings?”

“Eight-fifteen, usually.”

The officer nodded. “Just be two shifts, most days.”

 Kate raised an eyebrow in the air. “Twelve-hour shifts?”

“Used to long hours, ma’am.”

“Officer Hernandez, is your first name
Officer
or do you have another name?”

The young woman blinked, then said, “Elena Rosa. Go by Rose.”

“May I call you Rose? We’re going to be spending a lot of time together so we might as well drop some of the formality. I’m Kate, and please stop calling me
ma’am
. You’re making me feel old.”