Demented by B. W. Battin

Author:B. W. Battin [Battin, B. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: serial killer thriller
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2015-12-24T00:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

Kate sat down on Tish’s couch, putting her purse on the cushion beside her. The bag felt normal now, with the weight of the .38 in it. It had seemed entirely too light ever since she left New York, leaving her weapon behind. Ordinarily she wouldn’t worry about carrying a concealed weapon in a state where she had no authority. It was not the sort of thing cops hassled each other about. Here, however, in the jurisdiction of Chief Jack Colton, she would have to be careful.

Kate leaned her head back, closing her eyes. She’d gone to the mall to hand out more of the have-you-seen-this-woman notices. And then she’d gone by the Leap Ledger to see whether Walter List had learned anything. And to make sure he continued running stories about Tish’s disappearance. Although the editor hadn’t come up with anything new, he did plan to keep covering the story, although he warned her that did not mean there’d be something about it in every edition of the paper.

Kate felt defeated. She was doing things just for the sake of doing them. She was no closer to finding Tish than she had been the day Tish got into a white pickup truck and drove off with a guy wearing jeans and a western shirt.

Clement’s on Sixteenth Street. The words hung there, saying, Look at me. I’m a clue. But Kate had turned them upside down and sideways and asked everyone she could think of to ask, and if there was a clue there, she sure as hell couldn’t see it.

What am I going to do? she asked herself. She had no answer.

Would she eventually have to lock up the house, go back to New York, hope that Tish would turn up somewhere someday? She could get more leave from the NYPD just by calling the shrink and telling him that she was still falling apart and definitely not ready to return to duty, that she should stay in Texas and get more rest. But she couldn’t do it forever. Eventually she’d have to go back.

No, she thought, I could never just leave, abandon Tish. But she knew that was just emotion speaking. Realistically there were limits. Although she didn’t know what they were— weeks? months? years?—the time would come when she would have to give up.

Kate felt her eyes filling with tears. One trickled down her cheek. She was starting to prepare herself for the worst, and she hated it. But rejecting the possibility that she might never see Tish again was nothing but an exercise in self-deception, which could only be counterproductive. The worst was possible. She had to be prepared to deal with it.

Abruptly an image from her childhood came to her. It was a hot, sunny afternoon, the smell of grilling burger patties and wieners and marshmallows being roasted on sticks filled the air, along with the aromas of mustard and potato salad and sliced onions. People milled around a big table laden with food. Men

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