MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (18 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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Rose hoped Trudow didn’t pick up on the suppressed snicker in her voice. She shot Kate a repressive look. Kate stifled a chuckle by disguising it as a cough.

Glad somebody’s having fun here.

Fortunately, Trudow didn’t seem to notice Kate’s amusement. He made an after-you gesture to Rose, and she led the way to the bedroom.

Her idea worked. When she’d finished her explanation, Trudow nodded. She opened the bedroom door, and he followed her back to the living room.

The others were all staring expectantly in her direction.

“Thank you, ma’am, for your cooperation,” Trudow said. For a moment, he looked like he was going to salute her. She narrowed her eyes at him. He nodded slightly and then went out the front door.

Rose locked the door behind him and pivoted to lean against it. Letting out a breath, she was mentally congratulating herself as she took a step back toward the living room. Suddenly she was stumbling forward, trying to catch her balance. She twisted around and landed hard on her rump.

Her cheeks burning, she glared at the offending tangle of entranceway rug that she’d tripped over. A male hand was thrust in front of her. She looked up.

“Well done, Ro….” Mac Reilly’s voice trailed off when he saw her face. He snatched his hand back as if he’d been burned, then turned and stomped across the room.

What the hell’s wrong with him?
She pushed herself to a stand and brushed off her sore butt.

The others were all talking at once. “Everybody, plant your buns!” Liz barked from the sofa. “Rose, spill it. What’d you tell him?” They all resumed their seats.

Mentally shaking off her embarrassment, she said, “I told him the truth, just not the whole truth. That I’d also been assigned to protect Kate, and I was hanging out with you all on my day off. ‘Detective Phillips did fill you in, didn’t he?’ I asked him. And the young fool admitted that he was told to spy on you, just like I was. So I let him assume I’d befriended you to find out what you were up to.”

Grinning, Liz said, “For someone who told us roughly twenty-four hours ago that you never lie, that was one fine job of lying you did.”

Rose shook her head slightly. “Trudow was easy, but he’s bound to tell Phillips what I said, so now he’ll be grilling me about what I’ve found out.” Then she grinned at Liz. “And I think I prefer to call it
acting
.”

“Well, yer a fine actress, lass,” Dan rumbled, which elicited a chorus of chuckles.

“I have a suggestion, Rose,” Kate said. “Just keep telling him we won’t let you in the room when we’re discussing cases, because of confidentiality, but you’re working on getting us to trust you. And, if you get caught wearing civvies while you’re on duty, you can use that as your excuse.”

“Good idea.” Rose flashed another grin in her direction.

It faded abruptly when she realized Rob was giving her a hard look. Her stomach knotted. The others grew quiet as they also caught his expression.

“Who are you really acting with, Rose?” His voice was low and hard.

She met his gaze while deciding how much to say. “I’m going to ask for a transfer, once this case is over. And if I don’t get it, I’ll probably resign from the force.” She hesitated. How far could she trust these people she’d only known a few days?

Probably further than she could her superiors. She took a deep breath, then let it out. “Not only is Phillips an ass, but I’m pretty sure he takes bribes. Can’t prove it though. I have no loyalty to him, and very little to BCPD at this point.”

Rob’s look did not soften. The others were silently watching, heads swiveling back and forth. Tension hung in the air.

“She’s telling the truth, Rob,” Kate said.

He flicked his eyes in her direction, then back to Rose’s face. “You willing to bet your freedom on that?”

“Yes,” Kate said. “You and I both know what to look for when someone’s lying. She’s telling the truth.”

Rose stood perfectly still, her gaze locked on his. “I just stepped over the blue line, Rob. If I were still a loyal cop, would I have said that about my superior officer? And to civilians yet.”

“Maybe, if you were
acting
in order to gain our trust.”

Kate cleared her throat.

Rose held up a hand in her direction without breaking eye contact with Rob. “I can walk away from this, sir, if you want me to. I’ll go stand on the porch with Trudow. Put in my transfer request tomorrow.”

It wasn’t what she wanted to do, but she’d do it.

Rob’s stern expression finally relaxed. “I’m sorry. I–”

Rose cut him off. “No need to apologize,
Captain
. You don’t know me, got no reason to trust me.” She smiled at him, then turned toward Kate.

But Kate wasn’t looking her way. She was watching Mac.

And Mac was staring at
her
, with that same mushy expression he’d had earlier when she’d smiled. Rose resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday night, Kate finally got a good night’s sleep. Her sister was home, the tension with Rob was resolved, her father had a relatively safe assignment and she was getting used to having a virtual stranger camped out on her living room sofa.

It was actually comforting having a giant between her and the outside world while she slept. And despite his size, Skip was good at making himself unobtrusive. By the time she came downstairs each morning, he’d already eaten a bowl of cereal and was filling his thermos from the pot of coffee he’d made. He’d wish her a good morning, then take up his position outside until she was ready to leave the house.

This morning, he’d announced that they were out of cereal and had offered to cook pancakes for both of them. As she was mopping up syrup with the last fluffy bite, her phone rang.

“Hey,” Rob said when she picked up, “with all the hoopla last night, we never discussed where we’re going from here. Do we need to meet tonight, or shall I send Mac off to track down some of our suspects?”

“Yeah, let’s meet tonight,” she said. “I’ve got a couple thoughts about some other suspects percolating in my head. I’d like to discuss them with everyone.”

“Anybody I know?”

“In one case, yes, but it’s complicated. I’d rather spell it out for the whole crew tonight.”

“I do so love a mysterious woman,” Rob said with a slight chuckle. “Does seven sound okay to you? I’d like to stay at the office for a little while. This stuff has been so distracting that I’m getting way behind on my paperwork. The stacks on my desk are threatening to fall over and bury me.”

“Sure, that’s fine,” Kate said.

“I’ll put out the word. You okay with coming to our house? That’ll save me some time.”

“Fine by me.”

 

It was a hellish day.

Kate’s depressed client had made it through the weekend, but just barely. Kate asked her some questions to assess the current level of suicide risk and wasn’t totally reassured by the answers. With the woman still in her office, she called the psychiatrist to whom the center referred clients. She managed to arrange an emergency appointment for that afternoon.

“Carol, it’ll take awhile for antidepressants to start to work. You’re going to have to hang on for a bit and have faith that you
will
start to feel better in time. Can you do that?”

“I’ll try. I don’t want to let you down, Kate.”

Normally she’d confront such a statement and point out that Carol should be doing so for her own sake. But when a client was suicidal, you used whatever worked, including dependency and guilt.

As Kate ushered Carol out of her office, she motioned to Jim Lincoln to come in. She had run over time so there would be no break in between sessions.

As Jim walked past her, he said, “So how’s the hottest counselor in town doing?”

Kate sighed inwardly. Out loud, she said, “Hi, Steve.”

At four o’clock, Cheryl Crofton arrived. Kate breathed a tentative sigh of relief when she saw her client was wearing her normal attire–a loose-fitting top and stretch jeans.

Her relief was short lived. Cheryl exchanged pleasantries while walking into the office, but then she turned ugly. She was furious about the cancellation on Friday.

Halfway through Kate’s apology, she went off into a ten-minute tirade that ranged from blasting her son-of-a-bitch husband to the customers at work who gave lousy tips, then on to the “fuckin’ court system.”

Both the level of anger and the amount of cussing were unusual for this woman. When she’d wound down a bit, Kate said, “You sound pretty pissed at the world–”

“Damn right, we’re pissed.”

Uh, oh!
The
we
was not good.

“Did anything happen, besides me having to cancel Friday, to make you so angry?”

“Yeah, that fuckin’ bitch who’s supposed to be my
best
friend, she asked if it would be okay if she invited Frank over for dinner. Can you believe that?”

“Uh, this is the same Frank you were calling an S.O.B. a minute ago? The one you’re divorcing?”

“Yeah, well, he may be an S.O.B. but he’s my S.O.B.”

Damn!
Competition for her worthless husband was making him seem attractive again.

“Cheryl, I’d like you to stop and take a deep breath, and think this through for a minute. This is the guy you’re divorcing because he beat the crap out of you. And your friend, who’s been there for you through thick and thin, is
asking
you first before doing anything. She knows there’s a line there she shouldn’t cross without making sure you’re okay with it. She’s still being a good friend.”

Cheryl sat back in her chair. The angry expression dissolved into bewilderment. “I’m sorry, I spaced there for a minute. What were we talking about?”

Inwardly Kate groaned, while out loud she tried to maintain a neutral voice. “Sue asked if it was okay to invite Frank over for dinner.”

“Oh, yeah. How could she be interested in him, after all I’ve told her about the way he is? If she hooks up with him, he’s gonna start beating on her eventually, just like he did me.”

Twenty minutes later, as the session was coming to an end, the woman looked down at her clothes. “Fuck, this is one
uugggly
outfit!”

Shit, shit, shit!
Kate plastered on a fake smile as she ushered whoever the hell was currently in control of Cheryl’s body out of her office.

Her suspicions had been confirmed, which was disturbing on so many levels. Last thing in the world she needed was another D.I.D. case.

And they now had another murder suspect.

~~~~~~~~

On the way to Rob’s that evening, Rose told Kate she’d radioed the dispatcher to send her replacement directly to the Franklins’. When they pulled up across the street, Rose groaned.

Kate followed her line of vision to the profile of the officer sitting in a cruiser in front of the house. “What’s the matter?”

“Jackson. He’s got a serious attitude problem.”

“How so?”

“Let’s just say he’s one of the reasons I’ve been having a lot of  ‘I wanted to be a police officer, why?’ thoughts lately.”

“I never realized there were so many bad cops,” Kate said.

“There aren’t.” Rose’s tone was bristly. “Most are good people, and they care about the job. But those who don’t…”

“Stick out like a sore thumb,” Kate finished for her.

Rose nodded. “Let’s get this charade over with. Then I’ll drive around the block and come to the back slider.” They got out and Rose escorted her to the door, carrying the boxes of files.

Kate joined the others in the family room. Mugs and a carafe of coffee sat in the middle of the table.

“Decaf,” Liz announced just as there was a light tapping on the sliding glass door. Rob went over to let Rose in.

The young woman caught Kate’s eye and rolled her own. Apparently Jackson had been true to form.

Rose sat down at the table. “You all mind if I get comfortable?” Unbuckling her belt with its police accouterments dangling from it, she placed it on the floor next to her chair, her holstered gun on top. Then she unbuttoned the top button of her uniform shirt.

Kate watched Mac’s face out of the corner of her eye. Big helping of starry-eyed, well seasoned with lust.

Rose must have also caught his expression before he could mask it. The pink tinge was back in her cheeks.

Mac nodded toward the belt on the floor and growled, “Gonna forget that.”

“Nope. Good memory,” Rose said.

“Gun don’t do no good on the floor.”

Rose just lifted an eyebrow.

“I better check the house. Make sure the perpetrator hasn’t slipped past the
po-lice
.” He exaggerated the last word in a derisive tone.

Uh, oh! He’s resisting love’s pull.
After two failed marriages, Kate really couldn’t blame him. But tonight was not the night to give Rose a hard time.

The young woman just shrugged. “I’ll take the upstairs.” She demonstrated how quickly she could retrieve her gun, then headed for the stairs.

When they were both out of earshot, Liz said, “What’s with Mac? I thought he and Rose hit it off okay yesterday.”

“Reaction formation,” Kate said.

“What’s that?” Rob asked.

“Guy likes girl. Guy doesn’t want to admit he likes girl. Guy pretends, even to himself, that he can’t stand girl.”

“Why wouldn’t he want to admit he likes her?” Rob asked.

“Two reasons–the Mrs. Reillys one and two.”

Rob bopped his forehead with the heel of his hand. “Duh!”

Rose came back around the corner a few minutes later. Mac followed behind her, his gaze latched onto the silky bun at the nape of her neck.

Her bun, not her butt, so it isn’t just lust.

The two of them sat back down at the table.

Kate cleared her throat. Time to get serious. “I’ve got two current cases that I think need to be added to our suspects. Since Rose may have heard me call these clients by name in the waiting room, I’m using fake names for them.” She’d intentionally picked names with the same beginning sounds, in case she slipped and started to say the real name.

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