Simon Says... Jump (Kate Morgan Thrillers Book 2)

by Dale Mayer

  “I know,” she said. “I’ve known that all along. But I can’t stop him.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t stop him?”

  She shook her head. “You really don’t know. You’re just fishing.”

  “Help me to understand,” he said quietly. “Please.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t.” She suddenly moved to the bridge, her hands on the railing.

  “Dear God, please don’t jump.”

  She looked at him. “Why do you care?” she asked in bewilderment. “Why do you even care?”

  “I do care,” he said. “I care a lot.”

  “But why? What difference does it make?”

  “You know what? I’ve had some things in life that were pretty shitty too,” he said. “I’ve had some reasons to want to take that short walk off a bridge myself,” he said, “but I haven’t yet.”

  “Yet,” she pounced.

  “And I won’t,” he said, “because I’ve worked hard to find balance in my life and to find a reason to live.”

  “It doesn’t matter how much reason you have,” she said, “you still don’t get it. I don’t have a choice.”

  “That’s not true,” he said. “Please don’t believe his lies. It’s not true.”

  She started to back away from the bridge. As long as she kept going in that direction, he was okay with it. “Please go home and rethink all this,” he said quietly.

  In the background he heard Kate.

  “Simon, is that you?”

  He reached up a hand and said, “See? She’s the police.”

  “The police,” Mali gasped, then turned and looked at Kate, coming up behind him. But in a reaction that he hadn’t expected, she said, “God, I have to get out of here.” And, with that, she turned and bolted.

  He tried to run across, but she darted into the traffic. Even as he tried to get across, a huge bus came up, and he saw a vehicle on the other side stop to give her a lift.

  He cried out, “No, no, no.”

  At that, Kate reached his side, panting from her race across the bridge. “What the hell is going on?”

  He pointed and said, “Did you see the woman I was talking to?”

  “Well, I saw someone, yes. Why?”

  “It’s her,” he said. “It’s her.”

  “Who’s her?” she asked quietly. “Come on. Let’s get some clarity here. Who are you talking about?”

  “It’s the woman who I’m connected to.”

  She turned and looked down the road. “She’s gone.”

  “Yeah, I think she would have jumped tonight.”

  “Well, it sounds like you got her to stop.”

  “No, all I got was more confusion and no answers. I need to know who she is, although I do know something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I know her first name—or at least a nickname. Mali. When I called out, ‘Mali, don’t,’ she asked how I knew her name.”

  “Mali,” Kate said, as if turning the name over and over again in her mind. “Yeah, do you know her?”

  “I don’t know her.”

  But, at that, Kate stopped, frowned, and pulled out her phone. When somebody answered on the other end, she spoke quickly. “Check that email address list we were talking about, will you? See if a Mali is on it.”

  “Can you spell that?”

  “No, I have no idea how to spell it. Just run through whatever options there are.”

  “Yeah, yeah, give me ten minutes.”

  She put her phone back in her pocket and said, “I feel like there was an email address with a Mali in it.”

  Simon stared at her. “You mean, we can track her?”

  “I have no idea. That could be a nickname. We need more than that.”

  “Can you get her image off the bridge cameras?”

  “Yes, and I can do facial recognition, and we have those other photos you took too.”

  “But will that help?”

  “Not necessarily. We’ll run it through the DMV and see if we come up with anything,” she said. “Come on. Let’s get you home.” He stopped, and she asked, “Do you really think she’ll come back tonight?”

  He frowned, then shook his head. “No.” He looked down at his feet, gave them a good shake, and said, “My feet say it’s okay to go home.”

  She looked at him, and he shrugged. “I know. I get it. Trust me. I already know what that looks like, and I also know what it feels like,” he said, “so don’t even start with me.”

  She nodded quietly and said, “Okay, fine. I get it. Let’s get you home.”

  Chapter 18

  And, with that, they got into her car. “Do you really think they’ll find her?” Simon asked.

  “Maybe,” Kate said.

  He looked at her and said, “I’m really sorry about last night.”

  Surprised, she stared at him and said, “It wasn’t your fault.”

  That was the very first time she had really acknowledged that it was something beyond his control.

  “I don’t know what to do about it,” she said. “It’s something beyond my experience. It’s beyond the norm for me. I’m not sure how I feel about any of it.”

  “Good enough,” he said, and he just relaxed into the seat beside her.

  “It was kind of a day as it was,” she said. “We caught the drive-by shooter, who was killing healthy guys because he was crippled.” With a shake of her head, “I’ll never understand people. Then I thought we had a hot lead on this case, and we may still. Just have to wait.” she said. “The frustration just continues.”

  “That’s part of your world, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “It is,” she said. “Unfortunately it gets to be a little too much sometimes.”

  “And you’ve got a double set of cases going on here.”

  “Oh, don’t forget the giant stack of other cases on my desk as well,” she said. “But, when things are hot, you’ve got to move and take advantage of it. You’ve got to stay on top of things. Otherwise you lose the threads and the momentum, you know? Then the trail goes cold, and people get away with all kinds of shit.”

  “Sounds like you’re always juggling priorities.”

  “Exactly, so right now, the top priority is tracking down this girl. How did she look to you?”

  “Distraught, upset, like nobody in the world understands, and, although I kept saying there was another answer, she kept telling me there wasn’t.”

  “Well, I’m not sure in that suicidal mind-set anybody ever believes that some of these things can have a solution that’s equitable for everyone,” she said quietly. “So, even though you were telling her that, she’s probably thinking you don’t know anything, you don’t really understand, and you’ve never been there.”

  “Yet I have been there,” he admitted quietly.

  She gave him a half smile and said, “So have I.”

  He looked at her in surprise and then nodded in understanding. “We’re a pair, aren’t we?”

  “Well, we’re a pair all right,” she said. “A pair of what I’m not sure.” Her phone rang again. She hit Speaker and said, “What have you got, Bronwyn?”

  “I’ve got a name and an address. Her name is Mali Turner. And the name that she was using in the emails was Mali.”

  “Interesting name. Okay,” she said. “I’m heading across the bridge into West Vancouver right now. I’ll stop in and take a look.”

  “The address we have on file puts her just off Cypress Street, close to Burrard Street Bridge.”

  “Good enough. I’ll head there now.” As soon as she got on the other side of the bridge, she made the series of turns she needed to head back over again. Once turned around, she said to Simon, “I’ll head over and talk to her.”

  “I’m coming,” he said. She shook her head, and he said, “Don’t even go there. You know that she wouldn’t recognize you, and it’s likely to scare her.”

  “Oh,” she said. “What’ll she do if she’s scared
?”

  “I don’t know, but do you really want to find out?”

  She winced at that. “You’re not a cop.”

  “No, but I’m a concerned citizen who’s already spoken to her. You know that, if anybody will get her to open up, it’ll be me.”

  “You’ve already terrified her,” she said. “You could also be the final straw.”

  “She has to get to a bridge first.”

  “No. There are a lot of ways to commit suicide. For all you know, she’s been contemplating several, and you’re about to push her to make a final choice.”

  “That’s a horrible thought,” he said.

  “I know, but we need to get to the bottom of this, and we need to find answers fast.” And, with that, she pulled up in front of an apartment building. She looked at it and said, “She’s on the third floor, so we need to make sure she doesn’t get a chance to jump out of any windows.”

  “Third floor is all about paralyzing yourself. I don’t know that it’s a guaranteed suicide. And we don’t know that she’s actually suicidal either. I got the sense that she thinks it’s her only choice,” Simon replied.

  “Well, let’s go have a talk with her. Maybe we can change her mind,” she said.

  With that, she shut off the engine and hopped out.

  *

  Simon didn’t know if Kate realized that she had said we, but he wasn’t giving her a chance to backtrack. As soon as they got into the apartment building and up to the third floor, they walked to her door and knocked. Almost immediately there was a call out.

  “Who is it?” Mali said.

  Kate looked over at Simon, then shrugged and said, “It’s the police. I just have a couple questions for you.”

  First came a shocked gasp, and then the door opened, but the chain was still up on the other side.

  At that, Kate held up her badge, so the woman saw it. “May we come in and talk to you, please?”

  “What about?” she said nervously.

  “Inside would be easier,” she said firmly. So many people were used to authority, and unless they had been brought up in a system that loved to buck it, most people would open the door. And, in this case, that’s exactly what Mali did.

  She shut the door, removed the chain, and pulled it open. When she saw Simon there, she paled and stared at him in shock. “How did you find me?” she whispered in horror.

  At that, Simon stepped forward, and Kate closed the door behind them.

  “First off,” Kate said, “Simon did find you on the bridge. He’s very concerned that you stay healthy and sane and don’t take a chance on another bridge. Second, we believe that you’re being pressured to commit suicide. Is that true?”

  Mali stared, her gaze going from Simon to Kate and back again. “Yes, but how did you know?”

  “Because you’re not the first one.”

  At that, the young woman collapsed in the closest chair. “What do you mean?” she asked, her gaze darting from one to the other.

  “As I was trying to explain to you,” Simon said, “a friend of mine was pressured into committing suicide. In his case he was told that his wife would be murdered or found dead with a bullet hole in her head if he didn’t go through with it.”

  She stared at him in horror. “Oh my God, that’s terrible.”

  “Which is why he ended up jumping. He was already potentially partially suicidal to some degree,” he said. “I didn’t know about it but he was on forums where there was a support group.”

  “Yeah, support group,” she said, with a wry smile.

  “Some of them are supportive, and some of them aren’t, it seems.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And did you encounter somebody like that too?”

  “Yeah,” she said, “but it wasn’t about killing my spouse.”

  “What were you being blackmailed about then?”

  “My younger sister died,” she said painfully. “She choked to death. But he says he has the medical file to prove that I murdered her. And that, if I don’t jump, he would release that information to the police.”

  “Well, first things first,” Kate said, in her usual blunt way. “Did you?”

  The woman looked dazed, as she lifted her gaze to her. “Did I what?”

  “Did you kill your sister?”

  “No, of course not. She did choke.”

  “So why would you worry about it?”

  “Because of my parents,” she said. “They’re already torn apart by all this, and for them to even have that come up as a possibility would destroy them,” she said simply.

  “Would they not believe your version?”

  “They would, but I don’t know that everybody around them would. They’ve always been very leery about the public and what people say. Even back then when it happened,” she said, “people looked at them sideways, and they felt they were being judged for not having been good parents. If it even came out in a rumor that I had killed her, I know that they would suffer terribly,” she whispered.

  “And yet that isn’t a good reason for killing yourself,” Simon said. “And, if you think about it, if your parents have any suspicion that her death was deliberate in any way, by killing yourself, you would essentially appear to be proving your guilt had driven you to suicide.”

  She stared at Simon in shock. “But I wouldn’t do that normally.”

  “But where are your parents at mentally? Would they understand that?” he asked quietly. “This guy is trying to manipulate you.”

  She nodded slowly. “I know. I know,” she said. “It started off friendly, and then it turned not-so-friendly. He was my friend, and I talked to him way too much, like, over the last year or so. I didn’t even see it coming. Then, all of a sudden, he seemed less friendly and more ominous. Then he started to say I wasn’t a good person, and it would be better off if I wasn’t around in the world. He said my parents would be better off, and it was too bad the wrong sister had died,” she said, tears pouring down her cheeks. “And he’s asking why I did it, but I’d told him clearly that I didn’t do it, but he wasn’t listening.” By now she was openly sobbing.

  Kate crouched in front of her. “Do you know who this person is?”

  “No, just someone from the chat.”

  “But, in all that talking, did he ever email you?”

  She nodded. “Yes, he had this file and pictures. I don’t know,” she said. “It’s on my laptop. Every time I come in, I see it, and it makes me just want to head back out to the bridge again.”

  “The bridge won’t make this go away,” Simon said firmly. “And not only will the bridge not make it go away, it would cause so much more trauma for your family, and so much more guilt that they couldn’t help you because they were so tied up in grief over your sister.”

  She stared at him and said, “I know that,” her voice barely above a whisper. “But I didn’t know how to stop it.”

  “We’ll help you stop it,” Kate said firmly. “But first I need you to promise that you won’t commit suicide. I need a commitment that you won’t listen to this guy and that you will not follow through.”

  “But what if he follows through?” she asked painfully.

  “Then we’ll explain it to your parents,” she said, her voice firm. “This morbid pressure about suicide has to end.”

  Mali looked at her and slowly sagged into the chair, and she nodded.

  “Now I need your permission to access your laptop,” Kate said.

  Mali made a hand motion to where it sat on the coffee table. “Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll never forget those emails or his words,” she said, “but I sure as hell want to.” And, with that, she burst into tears.

  Simon gathered her in his arms, sat down with her, and let her cry. He felt the tears in the back of his own eyes burning. He looked over at Kate and said, “We need to get on this now.”

  But she was already at the laptop, studying it. She pulled out her phone and called Forensics. With her on the phone, h
e just held Mali in his arms and rocked her gently.

  “I didn’t know what to do,” Mali blubbered. “I was so scared every time you showed up.”

  “And I’m afraid,” he said, “that I wasn’t the only one.”

  She stared, shifted back, and asked, “Were you there every time?”

  “How many times is every time?”

  “Seven or eight.”

  He stared and shook his head. “No, just the last couple. Though I guess I don’t even know if they were the last two.”

  She frowned. “Was somebody else there?”

  “That’s what I was just going to ask you. Did you ever see anybody else?”

  “Yes,” she said, “there was another man.”

  “I’m afraid it was him,” Simon said quietly. “I’m afraid that looking wasn’t enough anymore. And then it was all about wanting to see it in action.”

  “That’s terrible,” she said in horror. “It’s so terrible.”

  “I know,” he said. “I get it.”

  By then, Kate hopped to her feet, snatched up the laptop, and said, “I need you to sign a receipt for this. I’m taking this to the office.” And, with that done, she said to Simon, “I’ve got to go.”

  He nodded, stood, and asked Mali, “Will you be okay?”

  Mali smiled and said, “Yes,” she said. “I will now. And I promise I won’t jump.”

  “Good,” he said. And then rolling his eyes, he asked, “Did you happen to keep my card?”

  She nodded.

  “So use it. You can text me or call me anytime. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I need you to trust that we’re working for you now.”

  “Yes,” she said, “I do.” And, with a shaky breath, she gave him a hug and said, “Thank you.”

  He nodded, then smiled and looked back at Kate. “Okay, let’s go.”

  And, with that, they left.

  Chapter 19

  Although it was late, after she dropped Simon off, Kate raced back into the station. She caught Rodney, coming out the door.