Chapter 10 #2
At that, Caroline raised both eyebrows. “Seriously? Most people in this industry with any serious level of commitment and a long-term career know each other. I mean, obviously I don’t know them all, but now you’re making me a little nervous.”
Kate pulled out the picture of John and showed her the photo. She stared at it for a long time, then looked up at Kate and said, “I never dated him.”
Kate noted a reluctance evident in her tone, so she had to ask. “But?”
“But”—her voice broke—“I did meet him. He was at a conference here in Vancouver, maybe two years back. I didn’t see him again and had nothing to do with him.
I certainly didn’t sleep with him, if that’s your next question,” she declared.
“And, for the record, I don’t go around sleeping with dozens of people.
” She took a deep breath and added, “Although this situation makes me look absolutely godawful.”
Kate shook her head. “It does not. You have human needs, the same as anybody else. And, if this is how you choose to find a connection with somebody, that’s your choice. I’m not here to judge you.”
“What are you here for, Detective?” Caroline asked her.
“I’m here to sort out if there is any connection between you and these men.”
She swallowed hard. “I could swear that there wouldn’t be, but now you’ve got me confused.” Her gaze kept going to the picture that Kate still held. “I don’t know what to say about that one, but I didn’t sleep with him.”
“Not even when you were drunk at a conference?”
Caroline frowned at her question. “God, I really have given you a hell of an impression.”
“No,” Kate countered, “but I have seen plenty of instances where people do things they didn’t plan on doing. It’s not at all unusual for someone to go to a party or a conference and have a bit too much to drink, and then plans go out the window.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t.” Yet she winced. “I will acknowledge that, on occasion, I might get smashed. And I might have had—particularly after the divorce—a little too much to drink. But I would never have slept with somebody and not realized it or remembered it.”
“Even if some social drugs were used?”
Caroline shook her head.
Kate nodded. “So, John Smith is not on your list of men you’ve slept with.”
She shook her head. “No.” Then she sat back and sighed. “Thank God for that. What a job you have to do to go around checking the men whom women sleep with to confirm that they aren’t—” She stopped abruptly, then she swallowed.
Kate chuckled and finished her sentence. “To confirm they aren’t their killer?”
“God,” she muttered, “is that why you’re here? Am I a suspect in Robert’s death? Please check my place. I don’t have any poison. Or drugs.”
“I can’t really look for any poison if I don’t know what poison was used,” Kate clarified. “So that may be something I have to do down the road.”
Caroline stared at the detectives, tears filling her eyes. She whispered, “Suddenly my life doesn’t look so bad when I look at yours.”
Rodney’s phone buzzed, and he excused himself to take the call outside.
Kate nodded at her partner, then smiled at Caroline.
Caroline continued. “Are you married, Detective?”
“No. However, I have a man whom I love and who loves me dearly. I get up and go to work, and I help to close cases where we seek justice for people who have been victimized by others,” she explained.
“I get that, to you, my profession and my life probably don’t mean much.
However, to me, both mean everything. So, no need to feel sorry for me.
I’m perfectly content with where I’m at. ”
“Yeah?” Caroline snapped, her tone ready to kill someone.
“What about when you get married? What about when you turn around and that asshole, who you absolutely loved, the one you spent the last ten years doing everything for—including sending him back to school at your expense, and taking a second job when he couldn’t possibly find one and the bills were piling up—only to have him find some younger, better-looking version of you in their new law firm?
Someone who would be a much better partner in his new upwardly mobile life that he’s expecting to lead. How the hell will you feel then?”
Kate nodded. “Believe me. That sounds absolutely shitty, but that’s a story I have heard time and time again. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to stop shitty.”
Caroline gave a broken laugh. “You’re right about that,” she agreed, “and he was shitty and so stupid. I worked so hard trying to support us both, getting all the accoutrements of an attorney whom I elevated to my own position. So now I’m making way more money and doing a whole lot better.
Although maybe not,” she added, as she stared at the picture in front of her, “because emotionally I just feel dead.”
Kate didn’t even want to go into that conversation, having no clue how she kept getting into these discussions.
She should have Rodney take more of an upfront role in these info-gathering discussions.
That was something she planned to change the minute they got back in their car.
Women absolutely loved Rodney, and that would hopefully help Kate to avoid dealing with any of these deeply personal, intense conversations. What the hell?
She soon concluded her interview and thanked Caroline for her time.
Kate stepped outside, motioned for Rodney to join her, and headed to their vehicle. When he neared her, she asked him, “Where did you go? You’ll start taking more of a role in talking to these women.”
“Why?” he asked, distracted. “They seem to be spilling their guts to you. So, what do you need me for? I figured you had it handled, so I stepped out to take a call.”
“No, no more taking calls because, Rodney, I’m telling you, … these women are nuts. Bat-shit crazy. And, for some reason, they seem to think I have some counselor badge on my forehead. They just want to tell me all these godforsaken tales of woe. I can’t deal with it. I can’t.”
Rodney boomed with laughter.
“I won’t. … I just can’t take it,” she declared.
“Easy now, calm down. Just calm down.”
“New rule,” she ordered. “You’re always coming with me when interrogating any woman.
You may not leave, and we’ll have a signal.
So, when I’ve reached my limit, you need to step in.
I’m not dealing with all these women anymore who seem to think they must tell me all the gory details of their love lives—or the love lives they’ve imagined.
I don’t need to hear about all the heartbreaks and the secrets of their lives.
I just don’t want to know. Unless it’s part of the case of course,” she clarified, correcting herself.
Still chuckling, Rodney’s tone was curious when he said, “I gather the interview got more interesting after I stepped out.”
“She slept with the first two guys, doesn’t know anything about the one from a few days ago, yet was horrified though because she recognized him.”
“Oh really,” he noted, perking up. “Recognized how?”
“Thankfully not in a biblical sense.”
He burst out laughing at that. “Oh, you two must have had a grand old time.”
“No, no, no,” she spat. “I don’t think those words exist together when it comes to this shit,” she muttered, “Clearly you, my loyal and beloved partner, seem to be enjoying this scenario. But me? No, not at all. I’m really not into all this crap.
Somehow these otherwise intelligent women apparently go brain-dead when it comes to men. Nope, no more!”
“That’s just part of the job,” Rodney muttered.
“Part of your job, which you do so very well,” she stated, her tone sarcastic. “And I don’t know why or how anybody would even begin to think to share this with me.”
“I don’t know either,” he admitted, “but now I want to put a little camera on your jacket collar to see how you interact with them. You do realize that, for them to feel comfortable enough to spill their guts to you and to tell you what they’re feeling, they must feel a hint of empathy coming from you.
That’s something you should share a little bit. ”
“Very funny. Let’s go. … I’ve had my fill of this day.
Let’s head back, and remember that I’m not interviewing any of these women again, not unless you are with me and you are leading the questions.
Don’t even think of trying that taking a call BS exit line again either.
… You can’t bail on me for some stupid phone call.
” With that, she slammed the car door, as Rodney’s laughter filled the air.
Even just hearing that made her feel a little better, but, by the time she grumped her way back home, she was still rattled and seething on the inside.
When Simon saw her, his eyebrows shot up. “So, not a good day?”
She stared at him and then asked, “Do I seem to be the empathetic kind?” He frowned.
“Don’t answer that,” she said. “Would you choose me to just bleed all over emotionally? Do I look like the kind of person who would be right there for you, consoling you and doling out life and relationship advice?” He frowned, opened his mouth, and she snapped, “Don’t answer that. ”
He snapped it shut again. His eyebrows shooting up again, he noted, “Not a good day then.”
She glared at him. “Not a good day then.”
“Okay,” he replied, “so you’ve got an hour or two free?”
“I have an hour or two free,” she confirmed. “I might just have longer than that since I’m getting absolutely nowhere with my case.” She glared at him.
“Okay.” Then he held up a big picnic basket.
She frowned at it. “It’s way too cold to go for a picnic. What are you up to?” She got half a growl, half a grunt from him.
Then his lips twitched, and he shared, “I was thinking about the Running Mate.”
Her eyes lit up in a complete one-hundred-eighty-degree twist of emotions. “Perfect.” She spun around, grabbed her coat that she had just flung onto the couch beside her. “Let’s go.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to take a moment to—”