Exhausted and out of breath, he leaned against her, the water still raining down on them. When he heard her lilting laugh, he smiled and looked down at her, one eyebrow raised. “Now it’s bedtime.”
Chapter 12
Friday
Kate woke earlythe next morning to find Simon was already out of bed. She checked the clock on her cell phone and realized it was only six. She sagged back into bed, as her mind started to wake up and to fire in all different directions. When she smelled coffee, she hopped out of bed, walked into the shower, and scrubbed down. By the time she was done and redressed in the same damn clothes, she shook her head.
She should bring over a change of clothes when she came next time. Now she would have to stop by her apartment to change before going into work. She walked out into the kitchen, where she poured herself a cup of coffee. Simon sat at his laptop, scrolling through data. She glanced at his screen. It looked like numbers to her, numbers that she wanted nothing to do with.
She took her cup of coffee and walked over to the big huge window and stared out at the city.
“You’re up early,” he murmured behind her.
“And I’ll have to leave early,” she noted, just as quietly. “I’ll head home for a change of clothes and get to work.”
“Because of the case?”
“Partly,” she noted. “Partly because I can’t help but feel that I’m missing something.”
“You always say that.”
“Because it’s true. I try hard, but it’s impossible to keep all these bits and pieces in your head all the time,” she murmured. “Something is going on that I haven’t gotten to the bottom of.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Of course not,” she agreed, “but it is mine to figure out.”
She knew he’d understand, and there was no point in trying to argue the point further. She finished off her coffee, then walked over, gave him a hug, and dropped a kiss on his forehead. “I’ll see you later.” She turned and walked out. She wasn’t one for long goodbyes.
They both had a job to get on with, and, even though it was barely light out, since it was late summertime, the early morning was a beautiful time of day. She quickly headed home to her place, got changed, and put on some toast, while she finished dressing. After eating the toast in just a few bites, she headed out the door yet again.
When she walked into the bullpen not much later, she wasn’t the first one in. She looked at Owen, her eyebrows raised.
He shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”
“I get that,” she noted. “Unfortunately I get that far too well.”
He nodded. “Seems like the longer you’re on these cases,” he suggested, “either you learn to deal with it or sleep becomes a luxury item.”
She snorted. “I know, but the trouble with that is,” she murmured, “sleepisn’ta luxury item. We all need it badly and don’t get nearly enough of it.”
“Is it because of the nightmares or because you can’t stop your mind from racing around in circles?” he asked.
“It’s both for me,” she admitted, “but currently it’s the racing-around-in-circles thing.” Rubbing at her eyes, she asked, “So any new leads that you know of?”
He looked over at her. “Well, we’ve gone through the data on the other cases,” he noted. “As far as we can tell, the old case here was ground zero.”
“But if we could get DNA…” she murmured.
He nodded. “We’re cross-checking that right now.”
“So let’s get our lovely kid checked against it.”
“That’s in progress too,” Owen added. “If we could at least wipe him off the suspect list, it would completely change the scope of the case.”
She nodded. “So after all these years since the kid’s sister was murdered,” she asked, with a frown, “why come back here to kill again?”
“I was wondering about that myself. What I keep coming back to is the fact that the first case is where he got somebody else to take the fall for him,” Owen shared. “But I don’t know if that was the essence of it or if he has some connection to this kid.”