Page 28 of Duplicity

Cat winced.

“I remember it being too hot. Too close. People all around me, all the time. I think I hit my head because I remember throwing up a few times. Then I was in a shower with a lot of bruises. It was freezing. I slept on a cold floor. I never saw their faces, but they kept me in a basement.”

He cleared his throat. “A couple of days later, he came. I got the hood again. He left pictures of my family and told me he had a job for me. If I didn’t do it, he would kill my sister and my brother. Maybe he knew my dad and maybe he didn’t. I just remember I was way more afraid of him than I’d ever been of my father.”

Cat blinked back the tears that pricked at her eyes.

“Someone had started the program. They didn’t get far before they ran into a snag. I don’t know who it was or what happened to them.” He sucked in a choppy breath. “I fixed it and finished the job. I had the connection I’d need to contact someone and ask for help, but I didn’t know who to ask. We were already working for Vanguard then, but I didn’t trust them enough. I didn’t know what I know now, and I’m going to regret not reaching out for the rest of my life.”

He wasn’t being fair to himself.

Before she could tell him that, he continued, “They weren’t going to let me go. Things were going…badly. The boss was gone, and one of the guys…” He paused. “It was bad, and I knew I had to get out before something more horrible than all of it happened.”

Cat bit her lip, scared for what was coming.

“He came in one night. I was almost taller than him but way too skinny. He was—he was going to touch me. Force me at gunpoint to…” Simon cleared his throat. “I flipped out. Next thing I knew, the gun was in my hand. It goes off, and his brains are all over the wall. So I ran. I was somewhere in central Washington at this family estate, but I can’t figure out where I was exactly.”

“You tried to find it?”

He said, “I’ve checked the family’s property holdings, but there’s no property in that general area listed anywhere under their name. I just ran. I don’t have any reference for where I was. Also, I don’t know which family member it was that held me because I never saw them. I got home and told everyone I’d been sick. I looked awful, so it wasn’t a stretch.”

“You never told anyone?”

“Maybe Peter knows. He probably does. But he chooses to ignore it, and he’ll do that until I force him to confront it. Which I never have.” Simon sighed. “He’s still out there. The boss. Sometimes, it feels like he’s watching me. It’s why I’ve never left Benson. I don’t want to go on missions. I just want to work in the office.”

“I feel that way about police work, and no one understands it but me.” Cat sniffed. “And now you.”

The idea that he got her in a way no one else did settled in her heart. She wanted to keep hold of it and nurture it like a precious thing.

Cat asked, “How do you know the communication network connects to the school?”

“One of the kids. I saw a picture in the house where I was held, but he was little at the time. It was actually a Little League team picture. I saw the kid’s name, and I tracked him to the school when I was looking for a way to get to the server hosting site. I know he has one of the phones, so I’m using a connection to that to get directly into the network in a way that could give us the geographical location of the site. Talia is helping me. She knows what happened, and she went through a situation of her own. She understands the fear.” He let out a breathy exhale. “I thought I was doing okay.”

“I’m sure you were. Trauma is a tricky beast. You can be fine and then suddenly…”

“You’re not.” He sighed. “Maybe it was the texts. Knowing she was backed into a corner, harassed, and now she’s been taken.”

“So help me find her, and I’ll help you fix your problem. Take this network down.”

“You really want to team up?”

If she turned on a light so he could see her face, then he’d have his answer. “I want another soda. We can talk about something dumb, like stupid movies we loved. Music. I’m praying right now that you like to read books because that might be a deal breaker.”

“And the case?”

Cat said, “By tomorrow, the police will have more information. Right now, I can pray for Marianna, but there’s not much else I can do. The department has it handled. If we let them work and we rest up, when they get fatigued, we can pitch in.”

“All right.”

Cat smiled to herself. “I’ll get us more soda.”

“I got it.” He levered himself to the edge of the chair but didn’t get up. “Thanks, Cat.”

She looked at him, even if he couldn’t see it. “You did absolutely the right thing shooting that guy. You have nothing to regret. You were strong enough to have survived, and that makes you amazing.”

He had escaped.

She had crawled across a floor to watch her partner die.

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