“All kinds of avenues can happen here,” Stoop said. “It’s just a matter of which one this guy in particular will do.”
“Scary thought,” she said.
“They all are. I’ll get back to this, and I’ll set up some monitoring on these emails. The wife can still have David’s laptop though, as we have all this copied over now.”
“Perfect, thanks,” she said. She hung up and walked over to see Andy still working on the private emails. “That’s the same email?”
He shook his head. “No, we’re back-and-forth. He’s asking me some personal questions.”
“Watch what you tell him.”
He looked up at her, nodded, and said, “Not my first rodeo.”
“I know,” she said, “but obviously this guy is good at finding personal information, and you have kids.”
At that, he looked up at her, swallowed hard, and nodded. But bent his head back to the job.
She winced, as she walked toward where Owen sat.
“Isn’t it sad when doing our jobs threatens our very families?” the very family-oriented Owen said, clearly moved by that consideration.
“We need to catch this guy,” she muttered.
“We’re on it,” Owen said, his tone determined. “Nobody’s getting to our families, to our kids.”
“I know,” she said. “Yet it just feels,… it feels wrong.”
“In what way?”
“I don’t know. It just feels bad. Maybe that’s a better word.”
“Somebody pushing others to commit suicide, whether under pressure or for their own purposes, is bad, but, when you start making threats like this to their family, to do something like this,or else, preying on somebody who is already having a hard time, just makes it truly horrific,” Owen said quietly.
She moved to sit down at her desk by Rodney.
He shook his head. “It’s starting to look like he’s thinking about it again, like he’s got another victim picked out.”
“That could easily be the one Simon connected with earlier today,” Kate said. “I wonder why he connects with anybody though.”
“Well, more to the point,” Rodney muttered, “why does Simon connect withthesepeople? How can we pinpoint who he’s connecting with, why that connection exists, and how can we find these people and save them before they take a jump off a bridge under pressure? Is Simon’s connection with suicidal people or just those depressed souls who were already thinking about it?”
“Maybe it’s Simon’s association with David.”
“Maybe. I don’t know,” Rodney said, “but these are questions we need to get answers for.”
“But this stuff,” she said, “I mean, I still have trouble even believing that he’s connecting with real people.”
“Do you think he’s making it up?” Rodney asked in surprise.
“No. Yes. I don’t know,” she said, raising both hands. “I don’t know what to believe. I figured these fake psychics talked to dead people to bilk the grieving relations. This is just so bizarre.”
“It is,” he said, “but we’re at the point of no return in terms of believing Simon, as far as our cases go. But for you? It’s either believe him or walk away because you’ll never have a chance at a true relationship with somebody you don’t trust.”
“And I don’t know if I can trust him,” she snapped, glaring at Rodney for bringing it up.
“Why?”
“Is this something we have to discuss now?”