Unauthorized Obsession (Unauthorized Series Book 3) (10 page)

Kara trudged into the police station at 10:15 the next morning, still thinking about seeing Zane the day before. What he said had made so much sense. Of course he didn’t want to get back with his ex-girlfriend. She was crazy, even if she
was
the mother of his child. They had kissed on the bench with the sun warming their shoulders until she felt lightheaded with desire for him. She then said goodbye quickly, pulling herself back from inviting him to her house and hoping he wouldn’t invite her to his. She knew if either one of them ended up at the other’s house, they would sleep together, and she didn’t want to do that yet. Other than it just being too soon, her mind held a certain strange superstition that jumping into bed with him could ruin this relationship before it even got started. That was the last thing she wanted.

Joe was at the receiving desk already, waiting for her, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt.

“Aren’t you working today?” she asked.

“Yeah, but this won’t take more than half an hour will it? We don't have to work for four more hours.”

“I don't know how long it’s going to take.” Kara tried not to think about why she had put on her uniform that morning. Truth was, she knew it was probably to keep Sgt. Gale from evaluating and possibly judging her choice of clothes. She still hated it that Sgt. Gale didn’t like her. Two high-speed women working at the same place should be friends, not enemies.

Joe gave her a hug and held her out so he could look at her. “How are you doing? Are you okay? Sorry for taking off on you yesterday.”

She nodded, and they took off down the hall towards the elevators together. “I am good. And it’s okay, I went to the dog park with Zane.”

Joe’s eyebrows shot down. “You went out with him again? Twice in two days? Isn’t that a little much?”

Kara frowned. “So what? I like him.”

“But you barely know him. What’s his last name again?”

Kara shook her head. “I’m not telling you. Just leave him alone. He is a perfectly normal and nice guy.”

They reached the elevators and Kara pressed the up button. The elevator doors dinged open immediately and they stepped inside.

Joe pressed his lips together like he did when he was angry or holding something back. Kara knew all his mannerisms by now. She pressed her own lips together in imitation of him and even crossed her arms, huffing out a breath, since that was probably coming next. Joe could be moody and temperamental sometimes, but he cared about her like a brother and always, always had her back.

She saw his lips twitch and she made her face even grumpier, sticking out her gut and pulling her head backwards, trying to make a double chin. Joe let out a laugh and shoved her into the side wall of the elevator just as the doors opened on the third floor. “I don't look like that,” he hissed at her.

Kara giggled and strode past him, looking for room 312. She saw Sgt. Gale immediately, waiting in the hallway, her back turned to them, wearing jeans and a black leather jacket, a briefcase in her hand. For a moment, Kara had the thought that she’d never seen anyone look so defeated. It was something in her slumped posture and the lack of any noticeable energy. But then Sgt. Gale turned to face them and the customary aggression in her expression pushed that thought right out of Kara’s mind. Sgt. Gale was fine - just angry or something.

Kara tried to smile, and fleetingly wondered why she was even bothering. Sgt. Gale didn’t smile back. “There you two are, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Kara reached in her pocket for her phone, then realized she didn’t have it, but she knew they weren’t late. She wasn’t going to grovel. “Well here we are.”

Sgt. Gale open the door and motioned that they should go inside. A woman was sitting behind a desk inside the large office room. She smiled as they walked in and Kara smiled back, happy to see a friendly face. She had never seen this woman before and wondered if she worked for the department or was an independent consultant. The woman looked to be almost sixty years old, with a broad, open face, light skin, and short-cropped white hair.

The woman half-stood and held out her hand to Kara and Joe. “Hi, I am Dr. Holstetter,” she said with a thick European accent. Kara and Joe introduced themselves and sat down in the leather chairs opposite the woman’s desk. Sgt. Gale came last, and pulled a chair over from the corner of the room, to sit next to Dr. Holstetter’s desk, instead of across from it next to Kara and Joe.

“We are all here to talk about Mr. X, yes?”

Kara nodded, apprehension filling her suddenly. Mr. X seemed like as good of a name as any for the creep.

Dr. Holstetter looked straight at her, her eyes fiery. “And you are the young woman he is bothering, correct?”

“Yes,” Kara said.

“Well then, let us get started. I have studied each contact he has made and have drawn some conclusions about him. He is male, between thirty and forty years old but I tend to think he is closer to forty. He is outwardly strong, confident, and probably even a bit arrogant. That is how people see him unless he wants them to see him differently. Inwardly, he’s hiding at least one very serious personality disorder. Probably more than one. My guess is he has obsessive-compulsive disorder, possibly several anxiety disorders, and maybe even bipolar or manic issues. He’s been dealing with these since childhood. He is genetically predisposed and was treated in a way during his childhood to make sure these tendencies became cemented in his personality.”

Kara listen to these words and tried to process them. If she had sat down and tried to think what this guy might be like, she probably would’ve come up with seventy-five of this information on her own. It all seemed too textbook.

Dr. Holstetter pulled out a stack of pictures, and Kara saw a picture of herself on the very top - her Academy graduation picture.

“He is fixated on a certain kind of woman,” Dr. Holstetter said, laying out the pictures one by one so they could all see them. “The similarities between these women are obvious. Dark hair, petite bodies, pretty faces with striking eyes. All of these women could be sisters, yes?”

Dr. Holstetter looked at each of them in turn and Kara resisted the urge to nod. Joe nodded, but Sgt. Gale simply stared. Kara saw a tiny piece of paper in Sgt. Gale’s hands that she folded over and over again until it ripped in half, then she put half in her pocket and started to fold the piece that was left.

“He is fixated on this certain kind of woman. But there was some sort of severe rejection by a woman who looked like this in his past, so he can’t approach her.”

Kara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She could have figured that much out on her own.

“In his current life, he has most likely tried to leave his infirmities behind. He probably does not see a doctor anymore, he may not be taking any medication anymore, and possibly, if he did see a doctor as a child, he may have taken legal action to get all of those records removed so that people in his current social circle could never find out about them. There is a possibility that he has a military or police background. The roles of authority that these types of jobs give people are very attractive to people like him.”

Those words brought a hot blast to Kara’s chest and she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She never would’ve guessed that. The thought of this guy as a cop made her want to puke.

“He’s accelerating. He’s accelerated with each woman. The first woman, he didn’t contact at all, the second woman something happened to cut his contact short. My guess is some sort of confrontation with the boyfriend, I’m sure. Bad news for the boyfriend. The third woman, he took it to what was completion at that time, but in only seven months. The fourth woman, he attempted to take his contact to completion in only six months but he was shot, yes? He will not have gone to a hospital for this injury if at all possible. He would have doctored himself, or found a trustworthy or bribable friend to do it for him.”

Sgt. Gale broke in. “Bribable?”

“Oh yes, this man will be a big believer in the power of bribes. He doesn’t understand friendship or true relationships, but he still needs to get by in our world, so he will do what he understands. He will find out the worst of a person, and threaten to expose that to the world unless they do what he wants them to.”

Dr. Holstetter looked right at Kara, her gaze dominant. “And now he has chosen a police officer to be his next contact. In my opinion, he has done this in order to ensure a replay of his last lack of completion. He has chosen you, Kara, because he knows you will fight back. He wants that, and his plan is to be sure that he comes out on top this time, effectively erasing the last failure.”

Kara shuddered, knowing she would fight back, but wanting to be the one on top. Wanting to make sure this guy never followed or assaulted another woman again.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Dr. Holstetter asked her.

Kara shook her head, then recanted as Joe looked at her. “Well, I’m dating someone.”

“He is in danger. You need to warn him that this man may try to get him out of the way at some point, or just scare him off somehow.”

Kara’s mind twisted. Zane’s handsome face slammed into her thoughts and stuck there. God she hated this. She didn’t want to be the reason anyone was in danger.

Sgt. Gale pulled something out of the briefcase at her feet. “That reminds me, is there any chance that this man fits the profile of our perpetrator?”

Kara craned her head to see the piece of paper. It was an arrest record. Joe was also staring at it and suddenly he faced her, frustration on his face. “He’s been arrested? You never told me that.”

Kara stood up and leaned over the desk, desperate to read the name at the top of the sheet. Zane Michael Rowe it said. Her eyes jumped to the arrested-for box. Assault.

Kara slumped back into her seat. “I didn’t know,” she said softly. She could feel Sgt. Gale watching her closely. Dr. Holstetter was reading quickly through the paper and making small
hmm
noises in her throat.

Kara felt anger rise up in her. This was outrageous! “It’s not him! Don't you think I would know if I were going out with a stalker?” She turned to Joe quickly. “I’m sure there’s an explanation. It just didn’t come up.”

“What does Mr. Rowe do?” Sgt. Gale asked, her tone skeptical.

“He’s the owner of Rowe Construction,” Kara said reluctantly, sure they were going to read something negative into that.

“Rowe Construction,” Sgt. Gale repeated lightly. “I knew I’d heard his name somewhere … I read it in the newspaper. He’s working on the McLean project.”

A memory flashed in Kara’s brain. She remembered Zane telling her about how he had gotten the McLean job. She watched his lips move in her memory as he said,
That and his office building seemed like the best places to be in his face but not stalking him, if you know what I mean.

She shook her head. Zane was not a stalker. He didn’t have any personality issues. He wasn’t obsessive-compulsive or manic … Her thoughts broke off again as she remembered him patting his pocket three times. She pushed the thought away. He had explained that.

“How did you meet him?” Sgt. Gale asked. Kara explained how he had been in the house when they had received the alarm call on Seth’s first day on the job. Sgt. Gale’s eyebrows drew together. “Did you ever talk to the homeowner?”

Dr. Holstetter uttered another
hmm
from behind her desk and suddenly Kara had had enough. She felt her emotions swirling out of control and she knew she had to get out of there before she blew up at someone.

Kara stood and left without a word. Her hands clenched into fists, her mouth pulled down in an angry grimace. More than anything, she was angry at herself for losing her cool, for not being able to calmly and rationally refute everyone’s assertions. What was her problem? Why was she so touchy when it came to Zane?

Kara charged out of the police station, intent only on getting some distance, calming down. She still had three hours until work started. She took off down the sidewalk, needing to move, needing to burn up some energy. She walked for fifteen minutes until she felt better, ignoring people staring at her. She ducked into a Walgreen's and bought a cheap, temporary phone, then walked back to the Police Department parking lot and got in her car to drive home.

Once there, she took off her uniform and went out into the backyard to sit in the grass with Duke and throw his teddy bear for him. She sat there until it was time to go to work, thinking hard, her thoughts circling the same two issues. Zane wasn’t her stalker and anyone who thought he could be was just wasting their time was one thought. That the stalker had chosen her specifically for some sort of epic confrontation was the other. That last thought made her sick to her stomach. She’d been in danger before, even shot, but it had never been personal. It had been because she was a police officer doing her job, on the street, meeting angry and violent people every day. But this was different. This guy had picked her out personally with the intention of using her to work out his twisted fantasies and issues. She wondered briefly what kind of a sicko he was and if she had ever seen him or talked to him. She wanted to believe that she would know that kind of a person on sight, or at least after talking to him for a few minutes, but Kara knew the truth was probably very different.

She scratched behind Duke’s ears and cuddled with him in the yard whenever he would sit still long enough. She wondered if her stalker’s plan was to kill her. What could she do about it, if so? Only what she had been doing. Only what she always did. Be the safest she possibly could and be aware of her surroundings at all times. She wasn’t going to go in hiding. She wasn’t going to change her life because of this guy. She wasn’t going to run in fear, no matter what.

She kept reminding herself to call Zane and do what the criminologist had said - warn him of the danger he was in - but every time she reminded herself she found a reason not to do it. He’d been arrested and hadn’t told her about it. She needed to look up his records and see exactly what happened. Or should she just ask him and see what he said? And if he had a good story, would she compare it to what was written in the official record? She didn’t know. She really, really liked him and she wanted the arrest to mean nothing, but it did mean something. It meant a lot. Finally, her mind still spinning endlessly, she got up and put her uniform back on. It was time to go to work.

***

Sgt. Aria Gale sat at her desk, her fingers working a paper clip mercilessly. She pressed play on the video on her computer for the third time. It showed a tall, dark-haired man - Zane Michael Rowe - giving an interview about his plans for the downtown McLean Building. She’d already watched it four times, and with each playing she liked what she saw even less. He was the right age, and the right size. He had a military background. She ran back over the traits the criminal profiler had said the stalker possessed. Strong? Yes. Confident? Yes. Arrogant? Maybe. Hidden personality issues? There was no way to tell from this short thirty-second clip, so she would just have to do some digging into his past. The one thing she liked the least was that the first contact with the first woman, Amber Lansing, had happened exactly two months after Zane Michael Rowe had been discharged from the United States Army.

Aria did a quick Google search to find the address of Rowe Construction. Should she start interviewing the people that worked for him? His friends? His family members? Who would be the least likely to tip him off and possibly push him into an early confrontation with Kara Price, if indeed he was the guy? She didn’t want to think he was the guy, but she would be negligent to ignore him, especially since all of the other investigating she had been doing had turned up nothing workable so far.

Aria threw away her mutilated paper clip and started on another one. She would try a couple more computer checks into his past, but then she would be forced to actually talk to somebody who knew the man.

But first she had a phone call to make. Kara had left in anger before she heard the last of what the criminologist had to say. Her obvious attraction to this Rowe guy was blinding her to the slim possibility that he could be who they were looking for. She wouldn’t even entertain the idea. Aria didn’t think Kara would listen to
her
, so she needed to talk to someone Kara
would
listen to. Aria grimaced slightly at the thought of whether going to the brass would make Kara upset or not, then brushed it away. Kara was already upset with her. Half the damn department was upset with her these days. She sighed. It was hard to deal with people when the one man who was never supposed to hurt you betrayed you in the worst way possible. With your sister.

***

“You ready?” Kara asked Seth, her eyebrows raised. Seth nodded, his gaze on his feet.
When is he going to get comfortable with me?
“Let’s go catch some bad guys,” she said, starting up the patrol car and pulling out of the parking lot. “You’ve got the radio today, Seth. Call us in service.”

Seth did so, not stuttering once. Kara smiled and hoped they would have a good day. She was glad to be at work. The busier they were, the less time she would have to think about what was going on in her life right now.

Almost immediately, they were sent to a suspicious person call in an alley behind a bakery. Apparently a man had sworn at an employee when she tried to take the garbage out to the dumpster.

“This sounds like a fairly harmless call, right?” she asked Seth, as she swung the car in the direction of the bakery. He turned his face towards her and nodded, but never quite looked at her. “Don't get complacent though. Complacency gets police officers killed. Assuming the man is still in the alley and he is cooperative, what is the first thing you are going to do?”

“A-a-ask hi-his n-n-n-name.”

“Yes, and then what?”

“D-d-dr-driver's license.”

“And then?”

“Wh-wha-what is he doing there?”

“Okay good, and what are you going to do if he runs from you?”

Seth sat quietly for a moment, appearing unsure.

Kara decided to tell him. “You’ll need to chase him. Because we have a request from the public to determine the safety of this man, until we figure out who he is and what he is doing there, we have to assume he is performing some sort of criminal activity. But if he doesn’t run, and he gives us his identification and doesn’t have any wants and warrants, then we can just tell him to leave the area.”

Seth nodded.

“Here we are, that’s the alley right there.” Kara pointed, then turned the vehicle into the alley. A short, stocky man wearing a long green trench coat was standing in the alley watching them, his hands in his pockets. “Tell him to take his hands out of his pockets first,” she told Seth quietly, watching the man closely. All of her senses were on high alert. She hoped he didn’t have a gun in either pocket. He could be shooting at them through his coat before either one of them even knew what was going on.

She stopped the patrol car and watched the man closely as Seth opened his door and stood up.

“Sir, take your hands out of your pockets please,” Seth commanded him in a clear, authoritative voice.

Kara blinked, impressed immediately. Maybe Seth would graduate field training after all. She had her doubts every time she heard him stutter, and she frequently wondered how he had made it through the recruit class. But he did and he was here, so she was doing her best with him.

The man in front of them pulled his hands out of his pockets and held them in the air. They were empty. Kara breathed a sigh of relief and divided her attention between Seth and the man. As Seth stepped towards the man, Kara got out of the car and approached him too. The man’s face was pocked and lined by years of hard living. He looked to be anywhere between fifty and a hundred. Definitely homeless.

“Can I get your identification?” Seth said.

“Gotta put my hands back in my pockets for that,” the old man responded, his voice harsh.

“Do it slowly,” Seth said. Kara smiled indulgently, like a proud mama watching her son traverse the jungle gym for the first time. He was doing a really good job.

The man pulled out a state ID and Seth looked it over. He turned to Kara. “I’ll r-r-run wants and w-warrants.”

Kara nodded and Seth retreated to the patrol car. She watched him go but didn’t say anything to their man. She wanted to let Seth handle this completely if he was able to. The old man fidgeted and looked in the dumpster and down the alley and anywhere but at Kara.

Seth came back from the patrol car within a minute. “N-n-negative,” he told Kara. He turned his attention to the old man. “What you doing back here, grandpa? You d-don't belong here.”

“It’s a free country!” the man cried, his voice thin and wavering. “Isn’t it? I’m still in America right? Or Is this Russia? That it? You a commie?”

Kara sighed. This guy was so out of it he didn’t even know that Russia and the United States were allies now. It was terrorists everyone had to worry about these days, not commies.

Seth sneered at the old man and advanced toward him quickly, aggressively.

Kara glanced at Seth. His face showed anger.
What in the world?

“I asked you a question,” Seth said, his jaw set, his hands reaching up to grab the old man’s overcoat by the lapels. Kara stared at Seth, unable to comprehend his behavior. He was a recruit on his third day on the road. What in the world made him so aggressive already? Was it because he had been a prison guard before? Was he already done to the eyebrows with a hostile public? But that was no excuse. He couldn’t act like this. This was how things got out of hand and police officers ended up facing excessive force charges. She stepped in between them in an instant, knocking Seth’s hands away. She put one hand on the old man’s chest, just to keep him where he was and with her other elbow, she pushed Seth back, then neatly plucked the ID out of his hands. “Go sit in the patrol car,” she told him. New anger flashed in his eyes, but as quickly as it had come it was gone. He was slow, stuttering Seth again. He turned and did what she asked him too.

Kara looked at the old man’s ID card, then handed it back to him. “Look, Mr. Jones, this alley actually belongs to the businesses in these buildings.” She pointed to the buildings on both sides. “They want you to leave and not come back. There’s not supposed to be anyone here. It’s a safety issue. Do you have somewhere to go?”

The old man softened and muttered then nodded his head.

“Okay, that’s great, you clear out of here and we’ll leave you alone.”

The man nodded and shambled out of the alleyway, turning right on the sidewalk beyond. Kara watched him go and then went back to her patrol car. She slid behind the wheel and turned to Seth.

“What in the hell was that about, Howell?” she yelled, her own irritation getting the better of her for a moment. She didn’t let him answer, just plowed on. “First of all, where do you get off calling him grandpa? Just because he’s homeless doesn’t mean you can call him whatever the hell you please. Second, you got angry out there. For what? For nothing! So he spouted off? So what! You’re going to hear a lot worse than that. You should know that already. You’re going to get spit on, screamed at, people are gonna try and hit you and even shoot you … and you’re going to get pissed off because some old guy says a few harsh words to you? Get a handle on yourself and act like a man - not a two-year-old who can’t control his emotions. When you ride with me, you show respect to the people we deal with and you don't ever act on anger. If you can’t control yourself, you’re going to end up on the news.” Her voice softened. She tried to look him in the eyes, but he avoided her gaze as usual, his mouth twisted and upset. “You know that right? You know that the days of cops always having the last word and treating people however they like is over, right? We don't take any shit, but that doesn’t mean we act like savages either. There’s rules and there’s proper behavior and I expect you to conform to both. Got it?”

Seth nodded and Kara wished he would look at her. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking or where his mind was. The radio squawked on the dashboard, the dispatcher looking for a clear unit, and Kara let it go. “Call us clear,” she told Seth, “It sounds like they need us.”

Kara reversed the car out of the alleyway and immediately, they were sent downtown, to a man standing on a ledge.

Seth’s behavior was perfect for the rest of the day, and she didn’t have a chance to think about the incident with the old man again. It turned out to be one of those days when she didn’t even have a chance to eat, the city was in such an uproar. The full moon was coming or something. After the man on the ledge had been talked down, they had three shoplifting calls, a domestic violence where the woman had finally had enough and buried a steak knife into her husband’s chest, a robbery complete with a car chase, and a bad traffic accident.

When the workday was finally over, two hours later than it should have been, Kara drove home slowly, trudged to her bedroom, and dropped into bed, her mind unable to focus on anything but her need for sleep. She had to do it all over again in only ten hours.