“But aiding and abetting is.”
“But is that what this is?” Bronwyn asked.
“Come on,” Rodney said beside her. “That makes me think of assisted suicide. This is something entirely different.”
“Oh no, that’s true. Maybe just call him a stalker for now. I don’t even know what charge we’ll be looking at here—manslaughter, homicide, what?”
“It would be manslaughter or homicide most likely, no hands-on,” Rodney offered, “yet inciting to commit suicide through threats.”
“Yeah”—Kate shook her head—“the prosecutors will have a heyday with it.”
“Give them something solid, and they’ll go to bat for you. But, if we don’t, they’ll be cursing your name.”
Kate winced at that because it was true. “Still, we’ve got to do what we can do,” she said. “These people are being tortured into hurling themselves off a bridge.”
“Well, I got a little bit more for you,” Bronwyn said. “Kenneth Walker has never been married. His parents are local Vancouverites, as are his grandparents. He’s currently”—she clicked on a few pages—“alone. He had a twin brother.”
“Oh,” Kate said, turning to look at Bronwyn, “that can often confuse DNA.”
“Not in this case. He committed suicide.”
“Jesus. How long ago?”
“About eighteen months ago.”
She stopped and stared. “His brother committed suicide. That is no coincidence.”
Bronwyn groaned. “This is awful, but what’s the motive there anyway?”
“Well, the problem is, we have to look into whether or not he’s responsible for the brother’s suicide,” Rodney said. “That’s the first place to start, and maybe it was the trigger.”
“Maybe because his brother is gone, so he wants other people to go too?” Bronwyn asked. “I don’t get that.”
“Or maybe,If I can’t have my brother, no one can have you either?” Kate suggested.
“God only knows,” Rodney said, “but you can bet your ass something will be there. The problem will be prying it out of him to get that motive. And that motive will be very important.”
“It’ll be there,” Bronwyn said. “We just don’t always know what the hell it’ll be. Or how crazy these guys are. Most of the time they don’t explain anything, and we have to figure it out.”
“Yeah,” Kate said. “Like the drive-by guy. But now that we have an address, we need to go talk to this Kenneth Walker guy pronto.” She pulled out her phone and said, “I wish Simon would answer.”
“Any reason he wouldn’t?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, he doesn’t take his phone in the shower, and he’s had a hell of a long day, so that would be one option.”
“And what would be the worst option?” Rodney asked, standing up beside her.
“Is that the damn woman has connected with him again, and she’s on her way to the bridge,” she said quietly.
At that, Bronwyn winced and said, “I don’t want to be him.”
“Neither do I,” Kate said. “It’s hard enough being me without all that baggage.” Kate phoned him again and got nothing. “We can’t wait, Rodney. Let’s go find this guy.”
“If he’s even home.”
“Okay, well, if he’s not,” she said, “we’ll go to the bridge because you can bet that he’s out checking on one of his subjects.”
“You think he’s done this more than once?” Bronwyn asked.