SUICIDAL SUSPICIONS: A Kate Huntington Mystery (The Kate Huntington Mystery Series Book 8) (8 page)

And most people are able to get off the roller coaster at times. I never do. Sometimes there’s a brief lull in the middle, for a week or two, but then it starts right back up again. Kate calls it rapid cycling.

I call it the roller coaster from hell. Today, I’m ready to throw myself off that damn cliff.

By the time Kate got to the last word, her eyes were blurry with tears. She blinked them back.

Statistically, bipolar patients sometimes committed suicide while they were manic rather than depressed, but she’d never quite understood why they would do that when they were feeling up. Now she did.

She opened her mouth. A croak came out. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Can I get a copy of this? I swear I won’t show it to anyone else or tell anyone its contents.”

There was something about the note that bothered her, but she wasn’t sure what. She didn’t want to say anything to Judith until she’d had time to think about it. And make sure her own feelings weren’t getting in the way.

Judith didn’t respond. She gave Kate a hard, calculating look.

Kate tried not to squirm. “I assume the parents verified this is Josie’s handwriting.”

“Yes.” Judith continued to examine her, as if she were a specimen under a microscope. Kate had a feeling that look worked really well when interrogating suspects. It was making her want to confess to something, just to get Judith to stop looking at her that way.

Finally Judith heaved a sigh. “Okay, but you had better not let it get away from you. And Dolph, this whole conversation never happened.”

Dolph shrugged innocently. “Who, me? I just stopped by to see if my former partner wanted to come over for dinner this weekend. Sue’s making your favorite dish.”

 Judith was now narrowing her eyes at him. “Are you trying to bribe an officer of the law with meatloaf?”

Dolph chuckled. “Which night?”

Judith stood up, closing the file but leaving the note out. “Saturday.” She picked up the note and moved toward her office door, then looked back over her shoulder at Kate. “You coming?”

Judith led the way to the copy machine, Dolph bringing up the rear.

Kate had just folded the copy of the note in half and put it and her notepad in her purse when a male voice called across the bullpen. “Hey Anderson, did you take the Hartin case file?”

Judith gritted her teeth, pivoted and strode across the bullpen. Kate and Dolph followed in her wake.

She grabbed a middle-aged man by the arm and dragged him to a far corner where the desks were unoccupied. “It’s
lieutenant
to you, asshole,” she hissed in the man’s face. “And what the hell are you doing calling out the name of a sensitive case right in the middle of the bullpen?”

“Uh, nobody’ll think anything of it.” He stammered a little. Then he pulled loose from her grasp and shrugged his suit jacket back into place. “And what the hell do you think you’re doing manhandling me?”

Judith pinched her lips together. “I’m overseeing this case until further notice. Let me know the instant the tox report is in.”

She turned on her heel and almost collided with Dolph. “You two better get out of here,” she said under her breath.

Dolph nodded. “Good seeing you, partner.” He faked a jovial tone.

Kate kept quiet, afraid to make a bad situation worse. The other cop, Baxter no doubt, was staring at them from several feet away.

Dolph took her elbow and they left the bullpen without saying another word.

Once out in the main lobby, Kate said, “I didn’t get a chance to thank her.”

“I’ll tell her Saturday night. Besides, she doesn’t need your thanks. You may be helping her in the long run.”

“How, by giving her more work?”

Dolph held the outer door open for her. “If you end up keeping a murder from being dismissed as a suicide, she’ll be grateful. She’s got this funny idea that crimes shouldn’t go unpunished.”

“So she’s really coming over for dinner?”

He gave a half shrug. “She comes over every couple of weeks. We’re good friends. She just pretends to hate to see me show up here, ’cause that usually means I’m about to complicate her life.”

“Well, I can thank
you
.” Kate stood on tiptoe on the sidewalk and pecked him on the cheek. “Thanks, Dolph.”

He grinned at her. “No problem. I like to keep the boss’s wife happy.”

~~~~~~~~

Skip greeted her at the door with a hug and a kiss. Kate dropped her briefcase and purse on the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss.

When she was almost out of air, he broke the kiss and leaned back a little to look down into her face. “Whoa, you’re in a better mood tonight. I take it Dolph was able to get you in to see Judith.”

“Yes, and I have some computer research to do after dinner.” She leaned down and retrieved her briefcase and purse. “You’ve been coming home early the past few days. Things that slow at the agency or were you just worried about me?”

“Yes, and yes.”

She shook her head and gave him a mock-exasperated look, then changed the subject. “Where are the kids?”

“Billy’s doing his homework, and Edie is, quote, ‘helping’ Maria with supper, i.e., talking her ear off.”

Kate tilted her head toward the kitchen and picked up the cadence of her daughter’s voice. She couldn’t make out the words but the tone was strident. No doubt she was regaling Maria with the latest horrible thing that someone had done to one of her friends.

Edie was an easy-going child in many ways, but she had a keen sense of justice. She would become irate over things that happened to other people, often getting more upset than they did themselves. Kate was convinced she would become a lawyer like Rob, her honorary uncle.

The kids seemed to be okay for now so she took Skip by the hand and led him to the sofa, their favorite spot to sit and talk.

Once they were settled, Skip’s arm draped around her shoulders, she turned slightly toward him. “Sweetheart, you don’t need to worry about me.”

He gave a slight shake of his head. “And how am I supposed to not worry about you. I love you.”

“Okay, okay, it’s natural to worry about the people we love, but you should know by now that I can handle my emotions. Heck, that’s what I do for a living, teach people how to handle theirs.”

“Yeah, but this is something new you’re dealing with. And besides, you worry about me. For years, you were downright obsessed about the risk in my job.”

“True,” she said. “Okay, so you’re right. You can’t just stop worrying. So what can I do to reassure you?”

“This…,” he waved his hand back and forth between them to indicate he meant the conversation, “…is helping. And the fact that you seem to be in a better place tonight.”

“I am. I’m not sure that Josie was murdered, but checking into that possibility is making me feel like I’m
doing
something about her death.”

A gentle smile played across his lips. He reached over with his free hand and hooked a stray curl behind her ear. “That’s so you.”

She let out a small chuckle. It was definitely her favorite coping mechanism, to find something to do about the problem, whatever it may be.

“So how’d the meeting with Judith go?” he asked.

Kate had promised not to reveal anything about the note so she left that out for now, but she told him about the heat being off in Josie’s apartment. “Can you figure out any sane reason why she would do that?” It was still full-blown winter in early March in Maryland.

Skip was quiet for a moment. Then he shook his head. “No, but how sane is someone who’s about to commit suicide?”

“Oh, she would have been quite sane. Maybe not thinking straight but not delusional.”

Skip nodded slightly. “A killer might turn the heat off, to mess with the signs of what time the death occurred. And maybe to keep the smell down for as long as possible. To delay the discovery of the body.”

Kate grimaced. She hadn’t thought about the smell. That made sense.

“I’ve got the name of the doctor who prescribed the clonazepam,” she said. “But I need to research how to contact him.”

“He isn’t going to be able to tell you much. He’s got confidentiality constraints just like you do.”

“He can at least admit if someone is his patient, and I’m hoping he’ll tell me how long she’d been seeing him. That might give me a feel for… I don’t know what. But it’s an avenue to explore.”

Skip nodded again. “Let’s think about the dog and the crate for a minute here. Why would he be in the crate?”

“He was still a puppy. She complained about him chewing everything he got his teeth into if he was left unsupervised.”

Skip gave Toby, who was lying at their feet, a pointed look. “We can relate to that. So she probably crated him whenever she went out, and maybe at night.”

“Yeah. So she’d either just gotten home and he was still in his crate, or somebody got in during the night.”

“Unlikely it was a break-in,” Skip said. “The dog would have barked and woken her up.”

“Maybe he did and she surprised an intruder.”

He gave a half shrug. “Possible, but how would a stranger know about her meds, and how would they keep the dog quiet while they went to all that trouble to set it up like a suicide?”

“Maybe it wasn’t a stranger. Maybe it was somebody she knew, and the dog knew.”

“Could be. It’s also possible someone used some ruse to get her to let them in, then pretended to be afraid of dogs, so she put the pup in the crate.”

Kate leaned back against his arm and stared across the living room, imagining each of those scenarios. “I’m assuming there was nothing missing from her apartment, but I should check that out with Judith. If that’s the case, then robbery wasn’t the motive. Why would a robber take the time to set up a fake suicide, and then not take anything?”

“Judith reopened the case as a homicide then?”

“No, but she took the case away from the guy who had it. I got the impression they were not on friendly terms.” She told him about the confrontation between Judith and Baxter.

“Okay, let’s circle back around to my worrying,” Skip said. “I get it that you can handle your emotions, but murderers are another story. By all means, check out this doctor. That should be safe enough, but any poking around beyond that should be done by the agency.”

Kate noted his gentle tone. He was trying so hard not to be pushy or overprotective. But still she felt resistant to involving him or the agency any more than she already had, and she wasn’t sure why. For now, she opted to use money as the excuse. “I don’t want you paying people to check this out, not until I’m sure it wasn’t a suicide.” That note was hard to dismiss.

“I’ve been weighing each step I take, though,” she added to reassure him. “Making sure it doesn’t put me in danger.”

“Okay, but keep in mind, things are slow right now, and we pay our people salaries, so it’s not a big deal to work on this for free. I could assign Manny Ortiz to help you out.”

That was tempting. Manny had been her bodyguard on several occasions before when things had gotten dicey. He was quite bright, and they had a good rapport. “I’ll keep that in mind, if and when I’ve got something more concrete.”

Skip hooked a finger under her chin. “Okay, but you be careful.”

She tried to nod, but he held onto her chin and leaned down. As their lips brushed, warmth spread through her chest, loosened her tight muscles. She opened her mouth slightly, inviting him in. The warmth moved downward, a tingling feeling in its wake.

“Mommy, Daddy,” Edie yelled. “Dinner’s ready.”

They jolted apart, thinking she’d come into the room. But they were still alone.

“Dat’s not what I mean.” Maria’s voice came from the kitchen. “When I say call your parents to dinner, Edie, I mean you go to where dey are and tell dem, in a normal voice.”

“Sorry, Maria,” Edie said, not sounding the least bit contrite.

“Go upstairs and
tell
your brother to wash up and come eat.”

“Okay.” Edie bounced out of the kitchen and bounded up the steps.

Kate managed to hold back until the child was out of sight, then she burst out laughing.

Grinning, Skip pushed himself to a stand and offered her a hand up.

~~~~~~~~

Her office phone rang as Kate was about to go into her first session of the morning. She checked caller ID, and froze at the sight of
Esq.
at the end of an unfamiliar name. She grabbed the receiver before the call went to voicemail.

“Kate Huntington.”

“Mrs. Huntington, my name is Kathy O’Connor. I’m an attorney, and I represent Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Hartin. I–”

“Ms. O’Connor, I’m sorry to cut you short, but I have a client waiting. My attorney is Robert Franklin. Could you call him please and explain your business to him?”

A couple beats of silence. “Certainly, Mrs. Huntington. I know Rob Franklin. I’ll give him a call. Have a good day.”

“Thank you. You, too.” She disconnected, then muttered, “It
was
a good day, until you called.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kate shook her head to clear it. She had to get to Carol Foster. The day before, the woman had still been severely depressed. Kate had wanted to hospitalize her, but she’d promised not to hurt herself. They’d settled on her coming in again this morning instead. Fortunately a cancellation in Kate’s schedule had made that feasible.

Ten minutes into the session, Kate was seeing no signs of improvement. Carol had called her psychiatrist, but he didn’t have an opening to see her until Monday afternoon. He had called in a stronger dose of her current medication.

Problem was, when people were this depressed, such simple errands as going to the pharmacy sometimes felt beyond them. “Have you picked up the new prescription?” Kate asked.

Carol dropped her gaze to her lap. “Not yet. I’m gonna get it on my way home.”

“It will take time for that to kick in.” Kate kept her voice gentle, even though her heart was pounding in her chest. “I’m thinking it might be a good idea for you to go into the hospital. They can keep you safe while they get your meds adjusted.”