MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (16 page)

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Authors: Kassandra Lamb

Tags: #Suspense, #Mystery, #Psychological, #female sleuth

BOOK: MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1)
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She opened the door just as Officer Trudow stepped over to block Rob’s way.

“It’s okay, Officer. These are the friends I mentioned.”

He hesitated a beat, then nodded and moved back.

Rob gave Lou instructions to stay on the porch with the officer while Kate held the screen door open for Liz.

“Where’s Ben?” Kate asked as Liz hobbled past on her crutches.

Rob tilted his head toward his wife. “She took one look at him this morning, and insisted he go down to that walk-in clinic near us. Turns out he’s got pneumonia.” He glanced in Kate’s direction but didn’t quite make eye contact.

Holding up the bag he was carrying, he added, “Liz made sandwiches. You got any pickles? We forgot to bring some, and it’s been hours since my last fix.” Despite the joke about his pickle addiction, there was tension under the surface in his voice.

Kate decided it was time to be a gracious loser. “You and your pickles.” She rolled her eyes.

His tense face relaxed.

After she’d hugged her father and introduced him to Rose, everyone settled down in the living room, balancing plates of food on their laps or whatever flat surface was available. For a little while, they ate in silence.

When Rob put his plate aside, Kate asked, “So do you have a game plan, Chief?”

He nodded, then turned to her father. “Dan, once we’ve identified more suspects, I may put you on the investigating team with Mac. Hopefully by then, Ben will be better–”

“We could hire a private investigator,” Dan interrupted. “I’ll pitch in on the cost.”

Rob opened his mouth to answer but Kate jumped in. “Dad, unfortunately we can’t do that. The people we’re investigating are connected to my former clients. I’m already breaking the rules of confidentiality by discussing them with you all. But there’s no way I can give a private investigator clients’ names or details of their cases. And without that information, he’d be flying blind.”

“It would be nice if Kate still had her professional license and a career when this is all over,” Liz said. “And I’m not sure a hired detective would do any better than Mac’s doing.”

“For the next day or two then,” Rob said to Dan, “until we see what’s happening with Ben, I’d like to have you at my house, as Liz’s guard.”

Tears sprang into Kate’s eyes. She ignored them as she gave Rob a grateful smile. At this point, Liz was the least likely target, and yet she still needed protection.

Her father crossed beefy arms across his chest. “Gonna be a bodyguard, I’m with me daughter!”

Rob’s mouth fell open. A red tide swept up his cheeks.

Kate scrambled for something to say to smooth the waters, but her mind was a blank.

Rob jumped up, his fists clenched at his sides. “You damn stubborn O’Donnells! You expect me to be the…the ringleader of this circus and then you fight me every step of the way!”

The room went perfectly still.

Rob turned and stomped down the hall. He paused, his back toward them. Then he pushed open the master bedroom door, went in and slammed the door behind him.

Something clicked in Kate’s mind. Liz was struggling with her crutches, trying to get to her feet. Kate stood up. “Wait, Liz! I know I may be stepping over the line here, but let me talk to him, please.” When Liz hesitated, she added, “You said it yesterday. We’re all stressed out.”

“Okay, you talk to him first….” Liz’s voice trailed off. There was both worry and a fiery flash of anger in her eyes.

Kate went down the hall. She lifted a hand to knock on the bedroom door, then stopped herself.
It’s my own damn bedroom.

She opened the door and looked in, and almost laughed out loud at the sight of Rob’s big frame crammed into her antique rocker. The seat was wide enough for him–since it was made to accommodate the voluminous skirts of nineteenth-century ladies–but the tops of his thighs were higher than the arms and his knees were sticking up in the air.

Kate stifled her laughter. This was not a moment for levity. “Mind if I come in?” Without waiting for permission, she walked over and sat down on the stool of her dressing table.

She studied Rob’s face for a moment. There were new wrinkles around his eyes and bracketing his grimly-set mouth. And behind the anger in those eyes was bone-tired fatigue, and pain.

Her chest ached. She leaned across the space between them and picked up one of his big hands in both of hers. “My dear friend,” she said softly, then stopped, at a loss for words to express how bad she felt for him in that moment.

Rob’s face crumpled. He dropped his forehead onto their clasped hands. For a few minutes, his back shook silently. Kate laid her cheek, wet with her own tears, against the top of his head.

When he started squirming in the too-small chair to get to his handkerchief, Kate sat back and pulled tissues from the box on her dressing table. She handed them to him.

He wiped the wetness off his cheeks without looking at her.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I will be in a minute.” His voice was gravelly. “Kate, I’m sorry! I had no right to blow up at you or your dad, after all you’ve been through.”

“Stop.” She held up a hand. “What I’m realizing is that we’ve been ignoring what
you’ve
been through. Yes, I’ve lost my husband, but you’ve lost a friend. And you’re right. Slowly but surely, you’ve emerged as the leader of this motley crew. You’ve been trying to protect everyone from a killer.”

He opened his mouth just as she snapped her fingers. “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. And you’ve been trying to ward off a jackass policeman who’s itching to arrest us both for murder. Gee, I can’t imagine why you’re stressed out!”

He gave her a weak grin. “Well when you put it that way.”

“Rob, the kind of pressure you’ve been under lately, it would have a lesser man in a fetal position in the corner. You’re a strong person, but you’re still human. You have limits just like we all do.”

“Kate, you do realize the same applies to you. You’re strong but–”

“Hey, buster, no turning the tables. My turn to lecture, your turn to listen!”

That got a short chuckle out of him. “I’m all ears.”

Kate softened her voice. “Let me ask you a question. How do you think you ended up as the leader here?”

Rob thought for a moment. Finally he shrugged, then grinned. “Because I’m the guy and you and Liz are girls.”

Kate returned his grin. “You do like to live dangerously, don’t you? Better not say that in front of Liz.”

“You think I’m crazy! Okay, I give up. How did I end up the leader?”

“Several reasons. One already mentioned, you’re strong. Two, as a lawyer, you’re used to analyzing situations and developing strategies. Three, your two most frequent partners in crime, your wife and your friend, have not been at their best lately, one being on crutches and house-bound until recently, and the other being a bit under par emotionally.”

Rob digested that for a moment, then said, “Kate, I realized something yesterday. You are my closest friend, after Liz. That’s been the case for years, but it took all this… this crap we’ve been dealing with to make me appreciate that fact.”

Kate’s eyes brimmed with tears again. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Then she sat back and dabbed at her eyes. “Okay, we’re getting so mushy now, we sound like a soap opera.”

“Don’t try to break the mood just yet,” Rob said softly. “I have one more thing to say. I love you, friend.”

“I love you, too, you big lug,” Kate managed to get out despite the oversized lump in her throat.

Rob smiled at her, then started to extricate himself from the rocker. “I owe some major apologies to your father, and to Rose, for losing it like that.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. On one level, Dad’s reaction is certainly understandable. He came here to protect his daughter–”

“And schmuck that I am, I totally ignored that.”

“Yeah, but my father… uh, he’s not always a good team player. Your plan not only puts him at the least risk, and I thank you for that, but it also just plain makes sense. He’s pushing seventy, not exactly the best candidate for hand-to-hand combat with a killer. But his presence will deter any attempts against Liz. It
is
the best allocation of our resources.”

“I thought so,” Rob said. “And
you
don’t need the additional stress of worrying about him.”

She gave him a small smile. “Let me talk to Dad.”

~~~~~~~~

Back in the living room, everyone’s expressions had both tension and curiosity in them, in varying proportions. Liz’s eyes flicked from him to Kate and back again. Rob knew she was waiting for him to apologize, which he had every intention of doing.

“I’m sorry, Dan. I was totally out of line.”

“S’okay. Yer weren’t entirely wrong, now were ye?” Dan ducked his head a little, his ruddy cheeks a shade redder than normal.

Rob said to the room at large, “I’m sorry I lost my temper.”

Kate turned to her father. “Dad, could I speak to you for a moment, in the bedroom?” Technically it was a question but her tone implied it was an order. Rob had seen that expression on her face before, when she was testifying in court and the opposing attorney was trying to twist her words. He suspected stubborn Dan O’Donnell was about to meet his match, in his own daughter.

When they came out of the bedroom a few minutes later, Dan seemed subdued but his mouth was set in a grim line. Rob felt for him. With Shelley, he had already discovered that dealing with a grown child isn’t always easy.

As they resumed their seats, Kate said, “Folks, we’re in a kind of war here. So I’m going to suggest we adopt a military model, with modifications. We all can give input, say whatever we like, until Rob, our captain, makes a decision based on that input….” Her voice trailed off as the corners of her mouth twisted downward.

Rob fought to hide a grin. He also knew
that
facial expression all too well. Ms. Independent had spoken without thinking it through and had painted herself into a corner.

Rose jumped in and finished her sentence. “Then we follow the captain’s orders.”

Everyone nodded, including Dan. Kate shrugged, then turned to Rob. “You okay with that?”

He nodded, no longer able to suppress the grin.

“Now don’t you be letting it go to your head,” Liz mock scolded.

“Oh, don’t worry, hon. I
know
who’s in charge when we get home.”

Kate leaned in Rose’s direction. Out of the corner of her mouth, she said, “Rob always gets the last word in arguments with Liz.”

Rob looked at everyone’s startled faces, then winked at Kate. Together, they said, “Yes, dear!”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

Kate gave her father and Rose the “we’re breaking the rules of confidentiality so nothing you hear leaves this room” speech. Then they picked up where they’d left off the previous evening, going through the case files to try to narrow down the list of suspects.

By five-thirty, there were less than a dozen files left to discuss. Several had been added to the unlikelies pile, but only three to the strong possibilities. One was a case Liz had been on the fence about initially. The suspect was the physically abusive father of one of Kate’s former clients. He had sued for grandparent visitation rights, testifying that he was only violent in the past when he drank. Now he was sober, he’d claimed, and going to AA meetings. When Rob produced two bartenders who testified to the man’s
current
drinking habits, the judge had ruled against the grandfather.

Liz was on the fence only because the man would now be in his eighties.

“Heard of old killers,” Rose said. “He sounds capable of murder to me.”

Kate was inclined to agree. This particular old man was as nasty as they came. “Something could’ve happened in his life lately that set him off, maybe a diagnosis of terminal illness. The only attack that’s required any strength was the one on Mary. An old man would assume he was strong enough to beat up a woman with a two-by-four or a baseball bat. Heck, Dad was ready to take on Phillips last week with a bat.” She grinned at her father.

“How’d I miss that?” Rob asked.

“Twas the morning we set out to take our Mary home. And you, lass, should have more respect for yer elders,” Dan mock scolded Kate. “If that copper’d been ’bout to hurt me daughter, I’d have given him a good clatter.”

The others chuckled as Kate breathed out a soft sigh of relief. Things were back on an even keel with her old man.

They were about to plunge into the next case, when Rob’s cell phone rang. He listened for several moments, then said, “Okay. See you soon.” He disconnected. “Mac’s headed back. He spent the last two days looking for our child abuser. Couldn’t even tease loose a thread to begin to unravel where the guy is.”

“Somehow I don’t think Mac said it quite that poetically,” Liz said.

Rob grinned. “No, but that’s the gist of what he said, via grunts and three-word sentences.”

Kate frowned. “That doesn’t bode well for the children in this guy’s current vicinity, wherever it may be.”

Rose did the Spock thing with her eyebrow.

Kate answered her non-verbal question. “When a sexual predator just forgets to register a new address, it shouldn’t be that hard to track him down. If he disappears without a trace, it’s more likely he intends to abuse again.”

Liz grimaced. “So the question is do we think this guy’s our culprit. Or has he gone underground so he can pursue his twisted habits?”

“Personally I think he’s too much of a wuss to go after adults,” Rob said. “That’s why he picks on kids.”

“I wouldn’t assume that,” Kate said. “Some abusers are attracted to kids because they’re too immature to handle adult relationships. Those guys are usually pretty timid. But Hunter isn’t in that category. He was married and according to his wife, they had a good sex life.”

“Then why would he go after her daughter?” Liz asked.

“Different kind of urge. Sexual abuse is more about power and control. Abusers were almost always abused themselves as kids. Now they’re trying to take back their sense of power by overpowering somebody else.”

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