He stopped, looked over at her, and said, “Look. You were here late last night. You’ve got to go home. You don’t get to live here.”
She glared. “We’re not getting anywhere.”
“And until there’s something more to do,” he said, “we can’t do more. Go home. Refresh your brain while you can.”
“There really should be a way for me to keep working on this.”
“No, there shouldn’t be,” he said, his tone heartfelt. “Look, partner. You’re no good to us when we do need you if you don’t get some rest when you can.”
She nodded, stood. “Fine.”
He laughed. “You’re the damnedest one for not wanting to leave the office.”
“I just want to catch this guy,” she snapped.
“So do I.”
As she headed out to the parking lot, she hopped into her vehicle and wondered; then deciding that it was better to go see for herself, she headed across the bridge out to the mall, where they had last seen the shooter’s truck. She then drove around to the back, so she could get an idea where the cameras were. But there weren’t many, like she had hoped, and she also found not just one or two exits out of the place but several. She noted a road running parallel to the mall in the back that anybody could get on and off of easily.
She groaned. “Okay, you got away this time,” she said, “but we’re on to you now.”
She’d already put out a BOLO for the vehicle. Now she needed a better description and a license plate number. And, for that, she needed the help of the forensic geeks. She slowly drove home. By the time she pulled into her apartment’s parking lot, it was that much later. She hopped up the stairs, still full of energy, and considered a workout immediately upon entering her place. She needed a judo session, so she quickly changed, walked down the stairs, and headed over to her judo center.
Kate stepped inside the dojo and could immediately feel the peace taking over. She went through the paces before doing a bout that worked her hard. By the time she was done, she was grinning like a fool, but she was exhausted.
Her sensei smiled, nodded. “That was good for you.”
“It was,” she said in agreement. “It’s hard to imagine how stressful some days can be.”
“And always that stress,” he said, “comes from within. Stress is basically fear. You must let it go, before it overtakes you.”
She stared at him. “I’ve heard that before.”
“Think about why you’re stressed.”
She shrugged. “I have a case, and I can’t catch this guy.”
“So where’s the fear coming from?”
She snorted. “The fear is that he’ll kill again before I can stop him.”
He nodded slowly. “The work you do, it’s important,” he said. “Not everyone can do it, but you must honor that part of you.”
She smiled. “I don’t even know how much that part of me exists.”
“You’re doing fine,” he said. “Just remember you need stress relief in order to function at your best.”
She nodded quietly, then grabbed her bag and headed outside again. As she started to walk home, she thought she caught sight of a big old truck. Not aqua but suspicious nonetheless. She turned, stared at it, then frowned and kept on walking. When it went past her again, she immediately ducked into a doorway, wondering if it could possibly be this suicide guy, proving her theory that he was local. Or the drive-by shooter in a decoy vehicle. Or anyone else from any number of other cases. And… considering how tired she was… maybe it was just her imagination.
And why would either guy be here, stalking her, unless it was a coincidence? And she wasn’t terribly big on those. But whoever he was, he wouldn’t know where she was—unless of course he’d gone back to the scene of the latest drive-by crime, with his two victims this time, and had then followed her. She swore at that, and, when the truck was gone, raced up to her place and grabbed her laptop.
She sent Rodney a text message.We didn’t check to see if the shooter hung around at the drive-by crime scenes.
Because he took off. We tracked that aqua truck for hours.
“No,” she snapped back, phoning him now. “What if he ditched the vehicle and then came back to the crime scene?”
“But you saw it drive all the way across West Vancouver.”