ZERO HERO (The Kate Huntington Mystery series) (14 page)

            She intentionally shifted mental gears as she crossed the street in front of her office building and started across the parking lot. Time to put aside clients, including Pete, and focus on her family.

            Her steps slowed as she neared her Prius. A man was leaning against the driver’s side door.

            It took her a few seconds to recognize him out of context. “Mr. Talbot! What–”

            “Sorry to bother you,” he said, standing up. “If I could just have a few minutes of your time. It’s about my daughter.”

            Kate laid her briefcase on the hood of her car and dug in her purse for her keys.

            “Ashley isn’t dealing well with the move,” Talbot said. “I heard you’re a therapist. I was wondering if I could... I mean I’d be happy to pay for your time.”

            Kate stifled a tired sigh. The man had obviously looked up her office address. “I’m not a child or family therapist, Mr. Talbot.”

           
Wait! How would he know where I normally park?

            She took half a step backward. “I’ll be happy to give you a referral.”

           
And how would he recognize my Prius? I was driving the family van yesterday.

            She tensed.

            Talbot’s worried expression morphed into a predatory leer as he lunged. He grabbed her arm, just above the wrist. “If you scream, I’ll have to shoot you.”

CHAPTER TEN

            Terror exploded in Kate’s chest. Her knees turned to jelly. She instinctively pulled back, resisting as the man began dragging her across the parking lot.

           
This can’t be happening!

            “We’re going for a little ride. I hate to mess up that nice face of yours but I gotta smack you around a little, so your husband learns to stay out of things that aren’t his business.” A one-handed fumble with a key fob elicited a beep from a dark nondescript sedan several rows away.

           
It is happening!
Her mind scrambled to remember what to do.

            He was dragging her toward his car as she continued to mutely resist.

            She pulled back harder, then suddenly she shifted her weight and lunged toward him, throwing him off balance as she twisted her arm the way she’d been taught. Pulling against the weakest point of his grip, where fingertips meet the thumb, she broke loose. He stumbled backwards.

            Kate took the stance that was ingrained from hundreds of hours of practice–arms partially extended, knees slightly bent, ready for the next move. Talbot–or whoever he was–righted himself and lunged for her. She sidestepped, hooking her leg around his ankle to yank him off his feet. He landed hard on the asphalt, his forearm taking the brunt of it. She heard a muted snapping sound.

            He howled in pain, rolling over onto his back. Then he scrambled to his feet.

            Terror shot through her again, immobilizing her brain. He wasn’t supposed to get up!

            But her body was instinctively poised for action–knees bent, arms in position.

            He stared at her for a second, then started toward her.

            A male voice yelled, “Hey, what the hell’s going on?”

            Kate fought the urge to look away.
Eyes on your opponent, always
, her
sensei
’s voice reverberated in her head.

            But her assailant did look away, just for a second, as he was lunging for her.

            Her well-trained body seemed to move on its own while her mind watched from a distance. Stepping to one side, she planted a hip against his, grabbed his shoulder and shoved him on past her. He didn’t go down this time but she’d thrown him off balance. His own momentum carried him several feet away before he could stop and whirl around.

            Footsteps pounded toward them.

            Her assailant glared at her, then clutching his left arm against his ribcage, he darted for his car.

            She got a good look at his back license plate as he raced out of the parking lot, tires squealing. She repeated the numbers over and over to herself.

            Her rescuer stopped beside her, huffing for air. “I called the police,” he gasped out and held up a cell phone.

            Kate tried to take a deep breath, without much success. Her chest was tight, her heart racing. “Do you have a piece of paper?”

            The man shook his head.

            Kate looked around for her purse. It lay beside her car, half its contents spilled out on the asphalt. Stooping down, she located a small pad and a pen. She’d forgotten two of the digits in the middle of the plate number but she wrote down those she could remember.

            Two cruisers, sirens blaring, turned into the parking lot. “Sir, you might want to put your hands in the air,” Kate said, “just in case they assume you’re my assailant.”

            The man, looking a bit rattled now, did so. “You’re pretty calm for somebody who just got attacked.”

            “Yeah, it probably won’t last.”

            The uniformed officers were now out of their vehicles and cautiously moving toward them.

            “It’s okay, officers,” Kate called out. “This is the guy who phoned 911. The man who attacked me is gone.” Her rescuer lowered his arms.

            “Are you okay, ma’am?” one of the officers asked. “Did you get a good look at his face?” He took out his notepad.

            Kate felt the calm detachment slip a notch. She really didn’t want to go over this a half dozen times. “Yeah, I’m fine. Uh, this is related to an ongoing case. Could you contact Detective Judith Anderson, please, and see if she can meet us at the station?”

            The officer gave her an odd look, but he keyed his radio to relay the message through dispatch.

            The second cop had ushered her benefactor several yards away and was taking down his statement. Kate saw the man gesture toward the space where Talbot’s car had been. She walked over and extended her hand. “Thank you. If you hadn’t intervened...” The detachment slipped another notch. She shuddered.

            He smiled as he shook her hand. “Something tells me you still would’ve mopped up the pavement with him.”

            She wasn’t at all sure about that but she returned his smile. “Well, thanks again.”

            He sketched a salute, reminiscent of Talbot’s from the school steps, and headed for his car.

            Kate was barely able to hide her reaction to that innocent gesture. Suddenly, the adrenaline was gone, and the rest of her unnatural calm along with it.

~~~~~~~~

            Skip usually enjoyed the alone time that driving provided, but his own thoughts had not been good company lately. He tried to think about other things but his mind, like a tongue seeking out a sore tooth, insistently came back to the Jamieson case, stirring up the anxiety and knots in his stomach that now accompanied all thoughts about that case.

           
I’m turning into a damn coward.

            As he turned onto his street, he saw Dolph’s car parked in Kate’s usual spot. Rose’s car was in front of his. “What the hell?” he muttered.

            He pulled up in front of the house and climbed out of his truck. Dolph got out of his car and walked toward him. The grim expression on the older man’s face made Skip’s blood turn to ice.

            “What’s the matter?”

            “There’s been a development,” Dolph said. “In the Jamieson case. We need to go meet with Judith right away.”

            “It doesn’t look like Kate’s home yet. Let me go tell Maria I’ll be late.”

            “Rose already talked to Maria. She’s staying here with her and the kids. Kate’s meeting us at the precinct.”

             “What the hell’s going on?”

            “Kate’s fine. Nobody’s hurt.”

            Somehow those words made him more scared, not less. “What the hell’s happened?”

            Dolph held out his hand. “Let me drive, son. I’ll fill you in on the way.”

            Reluctantly Skip relinquished his keys. He was pretty damn sure he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

~~~~~~~~

            Judith had just finished taking Kate’s formal statement when Dolph and Skip entered the detectives’ bullpen and headed in their direction. Skip pulled Kate from her chair and wrapped his arms around her.

            She could hear his heart pounding. Leaning back in his arms, she looked up at him with a lopsided smile. “I’m okay, sweetheart. You know that kickass Kate we were talking about. Well, she had her debut today.” She was trying for more confidence than she felt but wasn’t completely able to keep her voice steady.

            Skip looked down at her without returning her smile. Instead he crushed her against him again. She was both comforted and somewhat unhinged as his warmth surrounded her. She started to shake. His arms tightened. They clung to each other for a few minutes.

            When he finally let her go, she felt a bit more grounded. She looked around. Judith and Dolph were gone. The few other detectives still at their desks were studiously ignoring them.

            “Come on.” She took Skip’s hand. “They’ve gone to the conference room.”

            Once they were all settled in chairs around the table, Judith said, “The partial plate number was enough. Matched a car that was reported stolen at four-thirty this afternoon. But it could have been taken as early as one-fifteen. That’s when the owner returned to his office from lunch. Kate’s given us a description of this guy, but there’s not much that really makes him stand out. About six-two, average build, blue eyes, blond hair, good-looking. I want to have you sit down with a police artist before you leave, Kate. He’s on his way in.”

            Kate nodded. “This is related to Pete’s case. The guy said so.”

            “What did he say?” Skip’s voice was tight.

            Kate looked at him, trying to judge how close to snapping he was. This laid-back giant she was married to had a tendency to go ballistic when his family was threatened.

            “That he was going to beat me up, as a warning to get you to back off.”

            “What happened?” The muscles in his clenched jaw twitched with tension.

            “He grabbed my arm. I twisted away from him and used my aikido to keep him from getting his hands on me again.” She softened her voice. “He’s the one who ended up hurt. He broke his arm when he landed on the pavement.”

            Skip picked up her wrist from the table and gently rubbed his thumb over the bruise that was beginning to show.

            The sweet gesture was almost her undoing. She blinked hard and tried to take a deep breath. Her chest was tight.

            “Had you ever seen this guy before?” Dolph asked.

            She’d gone over all this with Judith but they needed to know as well. Another attempt at a deep breath was a bit more successful. She cleared her throat. “I met him yesterday, outside the kids’ school. He said his name was Talbot, and his daughter went there.”

            “I’ll call the school tomorrow,” Judith said. “But I somehow doubt there’s an Ashley Talbot enrolled there.”

            “So he’s been checking you all out,” Dolph asked.

            “Yeah, but that meeting was also to get me to trust him so he could get close enough to grab me,” Kate said.

            “It would’ve worked with a lot of women,” Judith said. “He would’ve had them in his car before they’d had a chance to suck in air to scream. Pretty brassy of the guy to try this in broad daylight.”

            “And to let her get a good look at his face,” Dolph added.

            “Do you think he planned to... kill Kate?” Skip’s voice shook.

            “No,” Judith said. “I think he assumed she was an easy-to-intimidate woman whom he could attack and then threaten her with dire consequences if she went to the police.”

            Kate had worked with enough rape survivors to know what kind of threats–that he’d come back and kill her, or hurt her kids. Her breath caught in her throat at that thought. Had he planned to rape her too? She shook her head. Best not to go there.

            “Besides, if he’d wanted her dead, he could’ve shot her from the safety of his car,” Dolph said.

            Kate narrowed her eyes at him.
You’re not helping, Dolph!

            She shot a glance at Skip. His jaw was clenched but he didn’t look like he was going to blow.

            He turned to her. “I’m gonna have Rose assign a bodyguard to you.”

            She wasn’t sure how she felt about that idea but before she could respond, Dolph said, “A bodyguard might just force him to use more deadly force.”

            Judith nodded. “My gut says he won’t come after Kate again. She showed him that she’s going to fight back. He’s trying to scare you all off without drawing too much attention. Which has had the exact opposite effect. I’ve got a call in to Tyrell Cooper. I want to know what the hell is going on here that someone is so all-fired determined to get you to back off.”

            “This guy today, maybe he’s Matthews’ killer,” Dolph said.

            “Maybe.” Judith’s cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID, then hit the button for speaker before placing it on the table. “Hey, Ty, we’ve got a situation here.” She told him who was present in the room and then rapidly filled him in, half of it in cop-speak that Kate only partially understood.

            “Man, you guys sure know how to mess with a man’s evening, don’t you?” the voice from the phone said when she was done. But Tyrell’s tone held no rancor. “Doesn’t sound like Frederico’s style. He sticks to his comfort zone. I can’t see him sending somebody out to the suburbs to do something like this. Besides, if he wanted you out of this that badly, Skip, you’d be dead by now.”

            “Do you all have him under surveillance?” Skip asked.