CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Hey, everything okay with you and your partner?”
Kate frowned at Rivera, who immediately lifted his hands, palms outward, and said, “Not trying to be an asshole, and I know it’s not my business, but if you feel like saying something other than ‘Go to hell, Rivera,’ I just want to know if you guys are okay.”
“We’re fine,” Kate said. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I had a partner too. Special Agent Corinne Wilson. Badass agent.”
“The name sounds familiar,” Kate said.
“She led the human trafficking sting two years back that rescued all of those girls brought over from Cuba.”
Kate remembered now. “Right. The Havana Hostages.”
Rivera smiled. “Yeah. That was her. Man, she and I were a hell of a team. I was on that case too, but it was her baby, so I didn’t mind giving her all the credit.
” His smile faded. “Anyway, we caught feelings, and it didn’t work out.
By which I mean it was an utter disaster.
When it ended, we ended as partners. I still miss her a lot, but there’s too much bad blood there now.
She moved to Houston. She could have stayed here and made me leave if she wanted, but she chose to go to Houston just to get away from me. ”
He reddened slightly, as though realizing he was revealing too much. "Anyway, I just thought you two might be drifting toward the same whirlpool. I know I'm way out of line, but you guys have something special going on. I don't want to see two more great agents ruined over their emotions."
That was the second person in one hour who had told Kate that she and Marcus were a bad idea.
The third person in two days, if you counted Marcus, saying they needed to take a step back.
Kate saw all their points, but she was getting sick of hearing it.
"Noted, Special Agent. Can you help me with these files, please? "
“Yeah, of course,” Rivera said, reddening further. “Sorry for butting in.”
They worked in silence for a while. Kate was grateful for the extensive patient files to sift through because it allowed her to focus on the case and not get pulled once again into her personal troubles.
It appeared that Dr. Hammond was almost exclusively a marriage counselor.
Her website advertised general therapy services, but Kate guessed she referred single people to other psychologists.
Everyone in her files were either one or both halves of a couple, and in every single case, the advice was the same.
Have sex with other people. Explore your sexuality.
Separate love and sex and let sex be entirely about you and what you want.
Just like the Carltons, she seemed almost obsessed with causing married people to sleep with others.
This advice was universally provided to both women and men, so it wasn’t a gender thing.
She wasn’t arguing that women were sexually repressed or men were naturally promiscuous.
She was advocating for complete sexual liberty.
She even used those words in several of the files.
So and so should allow themselves complete sexual liberty.
Most damning was the fact that when couples protested this, claiming that they or their partners could never accept a non-monogamous relationship, her response was that their marriage was doomed to fail.
No ifs, ands, or buts. No well, maybes. Either you slept around, or you left your partner and slept around anyway.
The question was, which of these many people had been so angered by that advice or the results of that advice that they had killed her? And which of them knew the Carltons?
She was about to call Marcus and send him the list of names to cross-reference when she came across a note in the file of one James and Janice Thornton, a couple that had solicited Dr. Hammond’s marriage counseling services. The note that caught Kate’s eye was BANNED FROM PREMISES.
Interesting. She read further and found that—surprise, surprise—Hammond had suggested that they explore an open relationship.
According to Hammond’s notes, James had seen rapid success, hooking up with a coworker who had been eyeing him for a while.
Janice, on the other hand, hadn’t found a partner.
After four months of her husband dating different women while she couldn’t get a date, they had apparently filed for divorce.
Hammond had told James that he was better off without a woman who repressed his sexuality.
At that point, “patient became belligerent and violent, damaging office furniture and threatening to assault me.”
So, James didn't like that his sleeping with other women made his wife want to leave him, and blamed Hammond's advice for that outcome. Shocker.
“Hey, Rivera, I got something.”
“Shoot.”
She handed him the file. He skimmed it, whistled, and said, “Huh. Banned from premises. Wonder what happened there?”
“Keep reading.”
He skimmed further. After a moment, his eyes widened. “Wow. Would you look at that. Wives don’t like when you cheat on ‘em.”
“To be fair, they were both supposed to cheat on each other,” Kate said. “But your point stands. More interesting is that James actually attacked Hammond and had to be removed by security.”
“That sounds promising indeed. Is he connected to the Carltons?”
“I’m not sure. I’m going to call Marcus and find out.”
Rivera’s phone buzzed. Kate’s brow furrowed. “Is that Marcus?”
“Courthouse,” Rivera replied. “Hold on a moment.”
He handed Kate the file and stepped away. While he dealt with whatever that was, Kate called Marcus. He answered on the first ring. “Hey.”
“Hey, I got something.”
“Yeah?” he replied excitedly. “What is it?”
“Do you have a James Thornton in the Carlton files?”
“Give me a second.”
While Kate waited, she glanced at Rivera, but the other agent was turned away from her and speaking softly, so she couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Marcus came back a moment later. “Yeah, I have a James Thornton attending a party seven months ago. He apparently hooked up with a Liza Montgomery there. Both of them were married to other people, but Mr. Montgomery was enthusiastically involved in the swinging lifestyle and didn’t mind—presumably still doesn’t—that his wife occasionally screws other men. ”
“Well, a certain Janice Thornton had a problem with her husband screwing other women. More specifically, she had a problem with the fact that he was far more successful than she was at the open relationship Dr. Hammond suggested.”
Marcus grinned. “You don’t say. And how did she approach Dr. Hammond about her displeasure?”
“You can,” Kate replied. “And Dr. Hammond banned James from her practice two months ago when he nearly assaulted her for his role in the divorce.”
Marcus’s grin was replaced by wide-eyed shock. “Wait, James did? The guy who had a bunch of different girlfriends? Not his wife?”
“That’s what his file says.”
“Wow. I’d have called it the other way. Okay, well, that’s our next lead. You want to go talk to him together?”
Warmth flooded Kate to hear him offer to go together. Maybe things weren’t so bad between them after all. Maybe they could figure this out. And maybe they could figure out the other too. They both wanted each other. There was no reason they couldn’t work out in the long run.
For right now, Kate would content herself with a hot new lead and a partner who wanted to pursue it together. “I’ll pick you up.”
“Cool. See you soon.”
He hung up, and Rivera waved for Kate’s attention. “That was Justice O’Grady. We got the subpoena for Kyle Maxwell’s place and a search warrant for his premises.”
“A search warrant too? Wow.”
“Justice O’Grady has a problem with P.I.s. Thinks they’re slime.”
“I’m certainly not complaining,” Kate said. “Why don’t you take that lead? Marcus and I are going to follow up on James Thornton.”
Rivera flashed a smile. “Look at that. It’s true love after all. Glad I was wrong about you two.”
Kate flashed a smile of her own and showed Rivera her favorite finger. He laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Good luck, Juliet.”
“You too, Rosencrantz,” she fired back.
“Hey now. I’m obviously Guildenstern.”
The two agents left Patricia Hammond's office with the bounce in their step that only came when they found a break in a case.
Kate hoped that the good feeling would remain, and this wouldn't end up being another false flag for them to chase while the real killer sharpened their knives and set their sights on another victim.