Kate Summers 03-Behind Her Mind 3

by Fuller, Levi

  Kyle and Jack exchanged a look that was weighted with everything from vindictive pleasure to fear.

  “What’s his estimated time frame?” Kyle asked.

  Kate shrugged. “My team up there’s pretty good. I’d say a week or two at most.”

  Jack looked beyond her, as Kyle nodded, and his face, which had flushed with the news, grew pale. Kate turned in time to see Olsen stalking away.

  “Do you think he heard us?” Jack asked, looking worried.

  “Who cares?” Kyle muttered, drumming his fingers against his desk, clearly lost in thought and plans about his pending and long-awaited victory.

  “You should,” Jack retorted, giving him a hard look. “If Olsen finds out we’re working on something unofficial, and something linked to Becky to boot, he’ll have you tossed out of here faster than you can blink.”

  Kyle’s hands tensed into fists. “Let him try.”

  “And that reaction will get you more jail time: the sort of which I doubt Kate and I will be able to overturn.”

  Kate intervened as Kyle stood, looking menacing, his face shadowed with rage, fueled by guilt and his need to bring Becky’s soul justice. “Okay, boys, calm down. Kyle, sit. You’ll help no one by beating up your partner. Besides, Jack is right,” she added, meeting him glare for glare, as he turned on her. “Olsen will use any tool you give him to take Kyle down.”

  “So what do you propose?” Kyle bit out, still too wired to sit.

  “Don’t give him any tools,” Kate said, with a shrug.

  “I’m in no mood for games.”

  Kate sighed emphatically. “We make it aboveboard. I’ll get Kirk to formally invite you in once he has the proof he needs. After all, it was your case and your hunch—you’re the obvious people he’d want.”

  “Olsen would still have the power to assign someone else,” Jack pointed out, though with an expression that looked as if he hadn’t meant to speak the words out loud.

  Kate smiled. “From what I saw and heard at your little welcome back bash, there isn’t a soul in this bullpen that would take that opportunity away from Kyle. They’ll know he was right. Olsen won’t have any takers, and more importantly, no good reason to force another team, when the requested team has agreed.”

  Jack smiled as Kyle relaxed back into his chair and grinned. “You really are something else, Kate.”

  ****

  “Dr. Summers?”

  Kate turned reluctantly to the call, guessing that she never would have been able to avoid her forever. Dr. Adams was watching her with folded arms. “Yes?”

  “A word in my office. Now.”

  Kate sighed and followed, then sat as she was bid, and waited for Adams to speak.

  “You’ve been doing good work. Your analysis of wood breaks and finds typing was inspired. You were right. The accelerant used was the same in both cases, with at least 90 percent accuracy.”

  Kate smiled, feeling a little tension leave her. “Good. What about the—”

  “I’m not finished.”

  Kate felt the tension return and double.

  “The positioning of the bodies is as you said too. One downstairs, one upstairs. Murder victim and suicide victim respectively.”

  Kate only nodded this time. She had yet to be cleared to see her parents’ information, but these had been part of the items she had given Adams to verify.

  “In both cases, only one of the bodies showed signs of any kind of struggle. In both cases, those bodies were of the suspected murderer.”

  Kate swallowed, remembering imagining Mrs. Duncan’s body being dragged from where she had been struck on the head to where they found her lying. She knew why she’d assumed dragging over carrying. Because the wrist bones had shown damage consistent with that motion. However, Mrs. Duncan was the assumed victim, not the murderer.

  Good. I disliked having the feeling that all three were somehow linked. Even if it did help me make some leaps.

  “Now, before you offer comments on any of that, I want to know what you meant by blackmail.”

  Kate snapped out of her reverie and looked up, genuinely confused. “Blackmail?”

  “You were muttering a word, blackmail, over and over, that day you had your, er, episode.”

  Kate flushed and lowered her eyes. She couldn’t say she didn’t remember saying that, or that it was just nonsense. She took a steadying breath and looked up. “To answer your question, you need to tell me something first. In the case of my parents, did my father die of something that might have been preventable, or reversible?”

  Adams frowned. “What do you mean, Summers?”

  “Look at Uncle Ben. He died from poisoning. I know that without any trace of the exact compound, we can’t be sure, but there’s a chance he could have been saved if medical assistance had reached him in time.”

  “I came to the same conclusion, although without soft tissue, we’d never prove it.”

  “And why didn’t he react? There are no poisons I’ve come across where the victim doesn’t have even a momentary awareness of what is happening. Yet, by your finds, he died lying on that ugly narrow couch. Like he took it willingly.”

  Adams looked away, speaking to the wall. “Your father died from a wound to his gut, determined by a nick and ridge along the left tip of the hip bone and a connecting dimple in his L5 vertebra.”

  Kate could easily, from all her training and studies, imagine the human body and the trajectory Adams had described. “What was the width of the weapon?”

  “Thirteen millimeters.”

  Kate refocused on Adams’ face and read the answer there. “You don’t think it hit anything overly vital. Lacerations to the gut would eventually result in death, but it would be slow.”

  Adams looked back, her eyes boring into her. Perhaps it was the clinical tone of voice. What did she want me to do, break down in tears instead?

  “Yes, and painful.”

  Kate felt her eyes narrow infinitesimally, sure now that Adams was trying to force some emotional reaction. She took another steadying breath, “Then my theory, and it is only a theory, is that in both cases, the suspected murder victim was attacked first, left in a critical, but savable state. The suicide victim was then next. They struggled, wanting to reach their loved one, but were held back, causing the straining damage we see on the bones.”

  “Wait. I see where this is going,” Adams said, still staring at her, as if trying to reach her soul. “You’re suggesting that a third person was involved, a person who is the true murderer, playing with their victims by making one commit suicide to save the other, but then lighting a fire instead.”

  Kate dipped her head once. “It is just a theory.”

  Adams held her gaze a little longer then sighed. “Alright. Well, leave that theory in a box for now, okay? Your other finds have created enough threads for me to officially pull the other case out of the ground.”

  Kate perked up. “So we’ll be working both from now?”

  “Yes.”

  Kate stood, eager to leave and go familiarize herself with the truth of her parents passing. Without her aunt and uncle, the forensic files were her next best lead.

  “Have you ever heard of Simon Landers?”

  Kate spun back. “Of course! I’ve been trying to find him.”

  Adams held her gaze then nodded. “Well, if you do, let me know. He was very involved for a while. He may know something that will help.”

  Kate bit her tongue, wanting to ask more about Landers. No, she’d simply take the double win and leave while she was ahead. Landers was, indeed, a good lead if Adams was after him too, and she now had access to her parents’ files.

  “Oh, and a word of caution. Keep clear of Olsen for a while. I hear your boss, Kirk, just rung him up. He isn’t pleased.”

  Kate bit back a laugh. Kirk had made quick work of her message then. She’d only sent it a few hours ago.

  “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  10

  Kate
bolted upright in her chair, staring out the window. He was here. Right outside. She quickly brought up an image on her phone and felt a smile pulling on her lips.

  Well hello, Mr. Simon Landers.

  She’d been pumping any lead she could find to trace the man since Adams had mentioned him eight days ago, and now he was here. Either that, or he had a twin. She began to rise, intending to shout through the window for him to wait a moment, and then spotted the arm and sleeve of another person.

  She tapped her lips in thought. Who had he come to meet? Was he, perhaps, asking them where to find her? After all, she’d left half a dozen messages for him to get ahold of her when he returned stateside. She stood and scooped up her bag. It wouldn’t take her more than a couple of minutes to get out the side door and into the little courtyard he was standing in.

  “Kate.”

  She halted at the urgency in Jack’s voice. “What is it?”

  He looked furtively around them and then dragged her into a little nook, eyes still roving. “It’s Kyle. He went after Brenner.”

  “He what? Isn’t that operation set up for tomorrow, with Kirk coming down and everything?” She knew she’d been out of the loop, buried under her parents’ case files, but as she was living in Kyle’s house, she’d got the main points.

  “It was meant to be, but he got some tip-off that Brenner was about to bolt, and was seen near the Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He ordered me to look for a body, sure the man’s killed someone already, and left the station before I could stop him.”

  “You didn’t go after him?” Kate accused.

  “I was going to, but Olsen stopped me. Some rubbish about missing paperwork for that robbery last week.”

  Kate felt her blood run cold—that little place in her mind that always seemed to see the world as a place filled with darkness sparked to life, pointing a finger right at Olsen. “He really knows no bounds.”

  Jack sighed. “It’s because it’s related to Becky. I swear Kyle lost half his—”

  “I wasn’t talking about Kyle. I’m talking about Olsen. Get ahold of Kyle, by any means, and warn him. This is a trap. I’ll see if I can start getting anything . . .”

  “Dr Summers.” She turned to see Dr. Adams striding towards her. “Suit up. There’s a body in the woods above Beaucatcher Tunnel.”

  Kate exchanged a horrified look with Jack. “Just stop him. I’ll do what I can when I get back.” She turned back to Adams. “I need to finish off an email, but I’ll be with you in ten.”

  Dr. Adams looked between the two, clearly sensing that something was up, but had the good sense not to ask. “See that you are, Dr. Summers.”

  Kate hurried back to her little office and glanced out the window. Landers was gone. Sighing at the loss of a perfect opportunity, she quickly shot off an email to Matt, requesting his contact’s help again. She hated putting him in a situation like this, where his underworld connections were being called on all the time, but she saw no other way to peg down Olsen if her gut feeling about him was right. She’d seen him, since that day where he seemed to have overheard their conversation, always skulking around as if waiting for them to let more things slip. If he was responsible, then she had little doubt that this day would end badly for Kyle.

  ****

  The scene was pretty standard in Kate’s mind. Gunshot victim, with signs of sexual assault prior to death. She began to go through the motions that had become habit over the years, her thoughts on Kyle. Where was he? Had Jack managed to catch him up yet? Would he be smart enough to recognize the trap, or would he simply fall into it, blinded by his desperate need to catch Brenner and be the one who brought the man to justice?

  She shook her head and moved from the bottom of the corpse up to the top, with methodical slowness that was designed to catch every little bit of trace evidence that the perpetrator may have left behind. Take scrapings from under the nails, wondering if Kyle would be sensible. Photographing the tears in the clothes, the bruises that had enough time to form before death, wondering if maybe Kyle would realize the trap and manage to turn it on its head, coming back victorious after all.

  “What do you have for me?”

  The voice was likely the only one that could have broken through to her now. She looked back to see Jack in conversation with Dr. Adams as she brought him up to speed. There was something in the blandness of his voice and the robotic way he was moving through all the usual questions, that made a pit open up in her stomach.

  Stop it. He’s probably just running on autopilot like you. But why is he here? Shouldn’t he be with Kyle?

  She turned back to her work and eventually heard him approaching.

  “Why are you here?” she asked at once, gesturing vaguely at the body, so that the others, all out of earshot, would have a visual clue that she was talking about the scene. “You should be with him, or did you manage to bring him in?”

  “Olsen ordered me here. Kate,” he said, bending close, pointing with the end of his pen at some random part of the scene, following her lead and shielding their conversation. “I need you to hold your reaction together, okay?”

  She glanced up, but nothing in the tightness around his eyes or the tension in his shoulders alleviated the pit of fear his words had reopened.

  “Promise me.”

  “Fine.”

  “I managed to find him by hacking CCTV in the area he was headed, but I couldn’t reach him on comms.”

  “You tried to radio him?” she asked in disbelief, shaking her head and slightly readjusting the point of his pen, as if indicating the location of his question.

  “What choice did I have when he’d switched his phone off?”

  She took a deep breath, as he made a note. “What’s the part you’re holding back?”

  He met her gaze, rose, and nodded to the edge of the scene, where a handbag had been tagged and photographed. “He’s been arrested. By Olsen.”

  Kate felt her hands begin to curl and ground her teeth. “On what charge?”

  “Use of excessive force. He shot Brenner. The man was unarmed, and is now in a critical state in the hospital.”

  Kate turned from the others and shut her eyes. “Get back to him. Tell him not to say a word. I’m already on it. Tell him to trust me and hang tight.”

  ****

  Kate had spent another week of near-sleepless nights, compiling everything she’d need. Somehow, this attack on Kyle had seemed to solidify the two parts of herself. Usually she had little sympathy for those who were stupid enough to get themselves into trouble, believing that if they didn’t suffer some ill consequence as punishment, then they’d just fall into the same trap again. Yet the side of her that always fought for justice, couldn’t let Olsen bully Kyle any longer.

  She looked over everything she had. Matt’s contact was amazing. They’d not only turned up enough to prove that Kyle’s arrest was a setup, but they’d finally finished unwinding the bribery trail from his earlier suspension. She’d been waiting for that, despite Jack’s growing fear. Olsen had done a good job with the media, leaking information about who Brenner really was and how he was connected to Kyle’s fall from grace.

  She gathered everything and left for work, stopping by the prison on the way. Although Kyle wasn’t yet formally convicted, Olsen had pulled enough strings to have him denied bail.

  “Hey there.”

  Kyle looked up, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “You here to tell me to get used to prison overalls?”

  “Ha! You know me well enough to know that I never lose.”

  Kyle almost grinned. “I don’t regret it.”

  “I bet you don’t. I came to let you know that I make my move today. If all goes well, you’ll hear about it tomorrow morning.”

  Kate stepped into the police building and strode into Olsen’s office.

  “And here she is. I wondered when you’d come to beg for your friend. In fact, I had begun to think you’d chosen yourself over him.”

 
Kate smirked, shut the door and took a measured, predatory step forwards, her reflection moving with her. “I won’t be the one begging today.”

  Olsen’s face became a carving of vengeance. “I’ll give you one warning. If you say anything that supports the work of an unhinged criminal, I will have no qualms citing that as evidence for your own removal.”

  “You just love shooting yourself in the foot, don’t you?” she said, stepping closer. “You want evidence? Here,” she added, slapping the folder down in front of him. “Now have Kyle released, or I’ll be doing it, and you’ll be taking his place behind bars.”

  Dear reader,

  Thanks for reading Behind Her Mind, book 3.

  I bet you want to find out more.

  The next story is even more exciting, so dive into Behind Her Mind, book 4.

  Your friend,

  Levi Fuller

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