“No . . . this is something else, though it could be related. She’s . . .” Kat swallowed hard. Her uncertain stomach hadn’t settled down. She started breathing rapidly, aware that she could throw up at any time.
“You okay?” Ricki asked, frowning at whatever she could see on Kat’s face.
“Man, I could use a club soda.” At The Dog she’d told Shiloh that she was drinking club soda because she was on duty, which was the truth, but she hadn’t been feeling right even then.
“You sick?”
“More like hungover,” she lied. She wasn’t ready to tell Ricki or anyone else about her suspicions. What she really needed was a pregnancy test. Then she would know the good, the bad, and the ugly. Please don’t let me be pregnant, she silently prayed. “Ruth just has some things she wants to go over with us.”
“Like Skip Chandler?” Ricki asked.
“Skip?” Kat repeated.
“Apparently he stole some miniature flags from Menlo’s during the parade and handed them out to the kids. Ruth talked to Sam and said Skip used one to lure her daughter away.”
“I know. I talked to the store manager about it.” Skip Chandler was one of the top three names on her father’s suspect list.
“Oh, that was you. Okay.” She nodded. “Sam talked to Skip, and he says he just told the girl where the fountain was, and she followed after him to wash off her hands. I’m not saying Skip wouldn’t lie, but it doesn’t sound like coercion. There’s probably more to the story. The man’s a thief and lewd and unreliable, and at least once a year he gets in a fight at Big Bart’s or The Dog and lands in jail. But he’s never been known to engage with children. It’s not part of his MO, but we’re still keeping an eye on him.”
“He’s always been a little off,” Kat said.
“Stealing the flags from Menlo’s . . . that’s exactly the kind of dumb thing Skip does. He’s compulsive. Never thinks of the consequences, or just doesn’t care. Probably a little of both.” Ricki stopped, but seemed to want to say more.
“What else has he done?”
“It’s not that. You know Sam went to Ruth Baker’s house the other night because she said she was being stalked.”
“Yes.”
“She’s had us watching her house since because of someone she says she saw in the bushes, which is ending today.”
“You don’t believe her?”
“She saw something,” Ricki acknowledged. “Whether it was real, or imagined, I don’t know. And this Skip Chandler thing with her daughter on the heels of it.. . I just want to know if there’s a credible threat to her, or if she’s been influenced by the discovery of Courtney Pearson’s corpse and Addie Donovan’s disappearance. What do you think?”
The picture Shiloh had slipped to Kat inside an envelope when she’d stopped at the station played across the screen of Kat’s mind. “Open it when you’re alone,” Shiloh had warned. “It was left in my mailbox. Don’t call me; I’ll call you.” Shiloh had been accompanied by her half sister, Morgan, at the time, so Kat had followed instructions, waiting until she was home before gingerly pulling out the photo. A black-and-white picture of the three of them, naked. From that night at the pond.
The image had had a profound effect on Kat. All those memories had bubbled to the surface anew. She was still waiting for Shiloh’s call, figuring if she hadn’t heard from her by the end of the week, she’d be doing some calling of her own, whether Shiloh liked it or not.
But then Ruth had told her she’d received a picture too.
“I believe it’s a credible threat. She’s a therapist, and she’s not overly hysterical,” Kat said. “She has her reasons, and that’s why she’s coming in.”
“I’m curious what she has to say.” When Kat didn’t comment, she said, “All right then. Call me when she’s here. Oh, and we’re getting the ME’s full report on Courtney Pearson later today. Maybe we’ll get some more answers.” As Ricki started to move off again, she added, “I think I saw some club soda in the break room fridge.”
Kat looked up in surprise. “Do I look that bad?”
“You look tired” was the diplomatic answer thrown over her shoulder.
Half an hour later, Kat had grabbed her cell phone to call Ruth when it rang in her hand, and she nearly dropped it. She looked at the screen. Ruth. “Well, finally,” she muttered, then answered, somewhat impatiently, “Where are you?”
“I can’t do it, Kat. I’ve thought about it and thought about it. All night and this morning. I’ll give my statement to you, but I can’t come into the station. I’m sorry. I can’t face them all yet. I should be stronger. I am stronger, most of the time. I talked to my parents and your brother, but I can’t just waltz into the station and talk about the rape. I’ve pictured myself walking up those front steps in my mind, and I always stop before I open the station door.”
“Okay. I get it. Now, let’s—”
But Ruth barreled on, “I’ll talk to you. I’ve been thinking about it all night. The stalker and that picture. . . someone’s after me, and if they try for my daughter—”
“That’s why you need to come in,” Kat interrupted.
“I’ll come to you,” she said. “Only you.”
“Fine. Okay,” Kat said hurriedly, thinking hard. “Where do you want to meet? My house?”
“Maybe a restaurant? Betty Ann’s?”
“Someplace else.” Kat was clear on that. Betty Ann’s was too close to her father’s office. And those red cupcakes. . . “How about Molly’s Diner?”
“I know everybody there.”
“The Dog?” Kat suggested. It wasn’t exactly Ruth’s kind of place.
“Well, I wouldn’t know anyone there,” Ruth admitted. “And I suppose if someone there recognized me and told the Reverend . . . so be it.”
“Amen,” Kat said.
Ruth choked out a laugh. “But I don’t think I could talk about what happened in The Dog.”
“Let’s just meet there and see how it goes. Say an hour?”
“I’ve got to make arrangements for Penny, and I’m going to think this over.”
“Don’t take too long.”
“I’ll see you there,” she said, though the uncertainty in her voice made Kat wonder.
With another glance at the clock, Kat swept up her purse. She eyed the red velvet cupcake on her desk. Her stomach managed to handle the sight, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Leaving it where it was, she walked down the hall to the break room, opened the refrigerator, grabbed one of three club sodas and began sipping it carefully as she headed out to her Jeep.