And here, he picked up the pace and raced faster and faster. The area was mostly empty; the world was just waking up. The sun had risen but just barely crested over the horizon. The rays landed on the water at his side, as he ran harder and faster, until finally he felt his heart slamming against his chest, and his brain lit up like a Christmas tree. His body pulsed with energy, as he slowed to a walk and cooled down.
When he circled back around again, coming up on the same walkway, an old man sitting on the bench smiled at him. “That was a hell of a run.”
Simon looked at him, grinned. “Some days you just need to make sure that everything is alive, even when they feel half dead.”
The old man cackled. “Hey, in my world, half dead is still a good thing.”
“Not mine.” Simon smiled. “I needed to know it was still my world.”
“Hey, I get you. Sometimes we’re pulled in so many different directions that you wonder if it’s even worth trying to fight it anymore.”
“Yet it has to be,” he murmured. “Because, otherwise, there’s nothing.”
“Haven’t you figured out that nothing’s there anyway?” he asked, with a quirky smile.
“I hope you’re wrong,” Simon murmured.
“You just got to decide what it is that you’ll do in your life.”
He stopped, looked at the old guy. “In what way?”
“Will you listen to the voices in your head, or will you do whatyouwant to do?” And, with that, he lifted a hand and stood. “Have a good day.” And he turned and walked away.
The old man’s words were uncannily prophetic because the words in Simon’s head weren’t what anybody would have expected to be there. It was definitely a case of listening to them or listening to his own words. Is that why he was out of sorts? Because he was listening to other people? Of course he was listening to other people, but why?
It hit him just then—because this crying woman needed help. He didn’t know how to help her, but there had to be a way. And because he didn’t know what that was, he was the one feeling pressured and powerless.
“It’s all about finding the pathway forward,” he muttered to himself, as he walked back to his penthouse. “So how do I find out what to do? I’ve already tried to track this woman, and I’m not getting a response. I’ve tried to figure out who she is and where she is, but, for all I know, she’s not even in the damn country.” And that thought posed its own problems.
According to his grandmother, geography didn’t necessarily matter. As far as he was concerned, that made no sense because surely a signal should be stronger if it were closer, but his grandmother had said it had nothing to do with distance and everything to do with emotional connection. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but, in a twisted way, it made some sense. Except this woman was breaking his heart with her tears and that ingrained sadness, that loneliness overwhelming her. It impacted his life because he couldn’t find a way to reach out to help her.
There was no way for him to tell her that it would be okay because, hell, half the time in life, things weren’t okay, and there was no way to make them that way. And he wasn’t somebody who would lie just to make her feel better. It was one thing to tell her that she was strong enough to handle whatever this was and to offer support, but it was another thing entirely to tell her it would magically be okay.
As he walked back up to his building, he saw Harry, a big grin on his face.
“Now you look better. Earlier you looked as if you were running from something hellish.”
“I do feel much better.”
“Good, glad to hear it.”
When Simon walked inside his penthouse, he brought out his blender and snagged a couple fresh oranges, made orange juice, and then added bananas, protein powder, his oils, and some greens to it. With a beautiful shake in front of him, and, feeling like he might be getting back a little more to normal, he sat down and enjoyed his breakfast.
Chapter 15
Kate was frustratedthat, with rundowns on all the suspects and all the observers they had managed to locate and to talk to, nobody saw anything on the second killing at the intersection. Even when they had gone through as many of the faces as they could, they still saw no sign of anybody with a disability or even someone at Candy’s crime scene that seemed to have been at Sally’s crime scene just days earlier. It was well-known in the industry how other criminals stayed at a crime scene to watch the chaos they caused—arsonists, for example.
Back for yet another visit, Kate stood at the intersection, her hands in her pockets, and studied the surroundings. A pizza shop was on one side, and she and Rodney had checked its surveillance cameras, but they weren’t working. She walked over to see if they sold pizza by the slice because her stomach was growling; it was lunchtime, after all.
As Kate entered the front door, several people left. She noted a couple empty tables, and one was tucked into the far side. She walked over on a hunch and considered, if somebody had been sitting here, they would have a perfect view of what was going on at Kate’s intersection in question. She sat to confirm.
With a nod, she stood, heading to the front counter, reading the menu. They did have pizza by the slice, and, not caring what they gave her, she just had the guy behind the counter choose whatever was hot out of the oven. He served her immediately, and she stood off to the side to eat, while she continued her conversation with him. “Do you ever get people who sit here for a while?”
He nodded. “Sure, lots of students. They bring in their laptops, and sometimes we get locals, who stop by, waiting for the fresh pizza to come out.”
“Do you ever get some people who just come in for coffee?”
He shrugged. “It’s not as common, but we do have a group of customers who like to sit around and have coffee.”