Chapter 8 #2
He nodded and smiled. As she headed to the elevator to leave, he added, “Another weekend is coming up. We could retreat to the Running Mate.”
She stopped, turned to him, and frowned. “Maybe.”
“Maybe, as in maybe if things go better than they have so far?”
“Yeah,” she muttered, giving him a wry look.
“I guess that’s good enough for me,” he replied. “I’ll have the boat ready, just in case.”
Her eyes lit up at that.
He smiled. “I can see that just might be enough to turn you around.”
“Oh, I’m totally happy to go out on the water, even to stay docked at the marina,” she stated, “but you and I both know it depends on my caseload. If I catch anything new, who knows?” She raised both hands in frustration.
“This case is already confusing enough, and I’m just not sure what else will come up as we get further into it.
But, just in case, I approve of any weekend retreat.
Definitely prepare the boat, and, if I can get away, that’s where I would love to spend my time … with you.”
“Good enough,” he said, with a smile. With that, he got up, walked over, and laid a kiss on her, smiling as she stood there still struggling to regain her breath. “You really are out of it this morning.”
She glared at him and announced, “It’s not that I’m out of it.”
“Yes, you are.”
She sighed. “Let’s just say that, if I had a day off coming, I could easily go back to bed and just spend it there.”
“And I would be right there with you,” he added, chuckling. “However, I also know that you don’t have the caseload right now that would allow you to even consider taking the day off, no matter how many days you had coming. You could never make peace with that mentally.”
She waved and walked out and headed to the office, still shaking the fog from her brain.
Although the traffic, crazy as it was right now, had done a lot to get her more grounded.
By the time she walked into the office, she was ready for that extra coffee.
The minute Lilliana saw her, she smiled and muttered, “Uh-oh, doesn’t seem you had a great night.
” When Kate stopped to glare at her, Lilliana held up her hand. “Sorry.”
“Yet you’re right.”
Lilliana nodded. “I overstepped. That’s an unspoken rule, isn’t it? When somebody clearly had a rough night, don’t emphasize it by calling her out.”
Kate groaned. “You know when you have that night and can’t sleep, so you decide to just get up and at least get a jump on the day, only to fall asleep again, then wake up feeling worse than you did before?”
Lilliana snorted.
Kate continued. “Then that shitty night becomes an even bigger shitty night because your opportunity to do something proactive about it is gone.”
Lilliana was laughing now and added, “There’s fresh coffee. That’ll help you shake it off.”
“I hope so,” Kate muttered. “Glad you see you’re full of piss and vinegar this morning, so you must be feeling better.” She headed for the coffeepot and found Colby, who looked her over, and she knew exactly what was coming next.
“Not a great night, huh?” She stopped and glared. His eyebrows shot up, and he added, “Okay, I’ll, uh, I’ll just head back to my office now and maybe check in with you later.” But his grin was wide as he did so.
She sighed as she grabbed some coffee and headed back to her desk. “Apparently I’ll just be the joke of the office this morning.”
“Until you get back to your fine old, unfettered self,” Lilliana suggested, “so don’t worry. We’ll all be scared of you once again.”
Kate turned to her and snapped, “Please tell me that’s a joke.”
“Sure. It’s a joke, but you are quite a commanding presence when you want to be.”
“Yeah, not today though,” she murmured. “All I’m trying to do is solve cases.’
“And that’s the thing you don’t see. When you really get into it—into that mode—it’s a very direct get out of my way thing. It’s pretty amazing how you come across then.”
“Sounds as if I come across in a really shitty way.”
“No, not at all. It’s a hell of a power move, and it’s really effective.
I always thought I was the one who was good and in control, but, at times, you absolutely put me to shame.
” Lilliana was still laughing as Kate settled at her desk.
But then Lilliana shared, “Look, Kate. I don’t mean any of that in the wrong way.
You keep being you. … That’s what makes you so special.
Don’t ever let anybody’s comments change that.
You are an excellent detective with a style all your own, and the beauty of it is that it works.
” And, with that, Lilliana turned and ignored her.
Kate then felt a little quieter and calmer than when she had first arrived.
It was such an unusual thing for anybody to really give a compliment in this department.
They were, as far as she was concerned, part of a team.
And, therefore, maybe that wasn’t necessarily something that everybody needed to focus on.
But it was interesting to have it come up.
And she was grateful for Lilliana’s last words about not letting it affect her because, when Kate did get focused, she really got focused, and everybody should just get out of her way because, at that point, she was on a mission.
And it didn’t really work to have people in the way of each other.
So, she understood that part of it.
Still, it was a bit of a shock to have it called out quite so plainly. Refocusing, she pulled out the three files, wondering where and what she could move forward with today.
Colby came over, a cup of coffee in his hand, and skimmed what she was working on. “Okay, you’ve got two days to find some way to move this along,” he told her. “Otherwise, we both know we’ll be inundated in other cases.”
She just nodded and didn’t say anything but continued to study the files in front of her.
Time limits to solve these cases were truly a fact of life here, more so when you had a busy caseload and were chronically understaffed.
After all, Andy was out on an extended medical leave.
Even their hopes to have a new team member hired to replace him were now useless thoughts.
So, with Lilliana out sick until today, even for just a few days, it was deeply felt by the other members.
Plus, Owen had been granted an extended holiday period, for whatever reason, so this team was really hurting.
Their usual five members were down to three for a while now, sometimes with just Rodney and Kate showing up.
And, with somebody out sick, or others away on training or vacation or whatever, it was an ongoing issue for every department.
Still, Kate was not the kind to happily let a case slide unsolved, not if she could do something to move it along.
And, for this case, for these three, that would be a bit of a challenge.
So she sat back and, from start to finish, reread one file, then went over the second one. She barely got finished with it, when her phone rang. She glanced down to see Smidge was calling.
She lit up and reached for her desk phone. “Hey,” she answered, “I’m really hoping you’ve got good news for me.”
“Of course you are,” he replied in that same cranky tone of voice, “as if I’ve got good news for anybody.”
“Oh, you don’t then, do you?” she muttered, frowning.
“No, I don’t,” he stated. “For Kurt Conner, killed two years ago, his death was due to drugs, and they did put it down as a drug overdose.”
“Was that documented?”
“Yes, thoroughly. I did not see his body obviously, but the good coroner on this one did. I won’t call anybody’s skills and abilities into question on this one, but it certainly wouldn’t have been wrong to have called that one as he did, particularly with the family pushing to release the body without a full autopsy.
Now, I don’t have anything yet on the third one, the latest one you stepped into,” he added, “so you’ll have to wait until we get the report in. ”
“What about John Smith, the first dead guy we found?”
“Ah, the case at hand. I did get the tox screen back, and his system was loaded with lots of drugs,” he shared.
“Now, looking at it individually, I wouldn’t have been overly concerned, and it probably would have gone down as a possible suicide.
However, based on the fact that we potentially have a third one, I’m not as comfortable closing it right now.
Not until you get me some more information either way. ”
“Right. No pressure though,” she quipped.
He gave a bark of laughter. “Yeah, the best thing I can do is dump it back on your plate,” he said cheerfully.
“So, bring me more information, and we’ll go from there.
In the meantime, the tox screen does say drugs were in John Smith’s system, and I’m still looking for a way to see if it was self-administered. ”
“What are the chances of that?” she asked.
“I’m leaning for it not being self-administered because we didn’t find any drug-related paraphernalia at the crime scene nor needle pricks on the body.
However, that doesn’t mean somebody didn’t administer the drugs in another manner.
Maybe the killer removed the drug-related implements because of a life insurance policy or whatever,” he shared.
“You should definitely be looking into that.”
She whistled silently when she ended the call, then looked over at Lilliana, who had raised her head and was staring at her.
Lilliana shook her head. “I don’t understand how you can talk to him and have a real conversation.”
“Yeah, Rodney says the same thing,” Kate muttered. “I don’t get why you guys have such a problem with him. He’s always been easy to talk to for me.”
“Yeah. Something is really weird about both of you,” she muttered. “I gather he had some information.”