CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Hey, everything okay with you and your partner?”
Kate frowned at Rivera, who immediately lifted his hands, palms outward, and said, “Not trying to be an asshole, and I know it’s not my business, but if you feel like saying something other than ‘Go to hell, Rivera,’ I just want to know if you guys are okay.”
“We’re fine,” Kate said.“Why do you ask?”
“Well, I had a partner too.Special Agent Corinne Wilson.Badass agent.”
“The name sounds familiar,” Kate said.
“She led the human trafficking sting two years back that rescued all of those girls brought over from Cuba.”
Kate remembered now.“Right.The Havana Hostages.”
Rivera smiled.“Yeah.That was her.Man, she and I were a hell of a team.I was on that case too, but it was her baby, so I didn’t mind giving her all the credit.”His smile faded.“Anyway, we caught feelings, and it didn’t work out.By which I mean it was an utter disaster.When it ended,weended as partners.I still miss her a lot, but there’s too much bad blood there now.She moved to Houston.She could have stayed here and made me leave if she wanted, but shechoseto go to Houston just to get away from me.”
He reddened slightly, as though realizing he was revealing too much."Anyway, I just thought you two might be drifting toward the same whirlpool.I know I'm way out of line, but you guys have something special going on.I don't want to see two more great agents ruined over their emotions."
That was the second person in one hour who had told Kate that she and Marcus were a bad idea.The third person in two days, if you counted Marcus, saying they needed to take a step back.Kate saw all their points, but she was getting sick of hearing it."Noted, Special Agent.Can you help me with these files, please?"
“Yeah, of course,” Rivera said, reddening further.“Sorry for butting in.”
They worked in silence for a while.Kate was grateful for the extensive patient files to sift through because it allowed her to focus on the case and not get pulled once again into her personal troubles.
It appeared that Dr.Hammond was almost exclusively a marriage counselor.Her website advertised general therapy services, but Kate guessed she referred single people to other psychologists.Everyone in her files were either one or both halves of a couple, and in every single case, the advice was the same.Have sex with other people.Explore your sexuality.Separate love and sex and let sex be entirely aboutyouand whatyouwant.Just like the Carltons, she seemed almost obsessed with causing married people to sleep with others.
This advice was universally provided to both women and men, so it wasn’t a gender thing.She wasn’t arguing that women were sexually repressed or men were naturally promiscuous.She was advocating for complete sexual liberty.She even used those words in several of the files.So and so should allow themselves complete sexual liberty.
Most damning was the fact that when couples protested this, claiming that they or their partners could never accept a non-monogamous relationship, her response was that their marriage was doomed to fail.No ifs, ands, or buts.No well, maybes.Either you slept around, or you left your partner and slept around anyway.
The question was, which of these many people had been so angered by that advice or the results of that advice that they had killed her?And which of them knew the Carltons?
She was about to call Marcus and send him the list of names to cross-reference when she came across a note in the file of one James and Janice Thornton, a couple that had solicited Dr.Hammond’s marriage counseling services.The note that caught Kate’s eye was BANNED FROM PREMISES.
Interesting.She read further and found that—surprise, surprise—Hammond had suggested that they explore an open relationship.According to Hammond’s notes, James had seen rapid success, hooking up with a coworker who had been eyeing him for a while.Janice, on the other hand, hadn’t found a partner.After four months of her husband dating different women while she couldn’t get a date, they had apparently filed for divorce.Hammond had told James that he was better off without a woman who repressed his sexuality.At that point,“patient became belligerent and violent, damaging office furniture and threatening to assault me.”
So, James didn't like that his sleeping with other women made his wife want to leave him, and blamed Hammond's advice for that outcome.Shocker.
“Hey, Rivera, I got something.”
“Shoot.”
She handed him the file.He skimmed it, whistled, and said, “Huh.Banned from premises.Wonder what happened there?”
“Keep reading.”
He skimmed further.After a moment, his eyes widened.“Wow.Would you look at that.Wives don’t like when you cheat on ‘em.”
“To be fair, they were both supposed to cheat on each other,” Kate said.“But your point stands.More interesting is that James actually attacked Hammond and had to be removed by security.”
“That sounds promising indeed.Is he connected to the Carltons?”
“I’m not sure.I’m going to call Marcus and find out.”
Rivera’s phone buzzed.Kate’s brow furrowed.“Is that Marcus?”
“Courthouse,” Rivera replied.“Hold on a moment.”
