It was after midnight by the time Michael brought Kara to the hospital to be checked out and given an IV.
Kara didn’t care for needles, but she was still dehydrated and agreed to stay until dawn. She needed the rest. She’d dozed on and off driving back from Georgia, but she could sleep for an entire day and still need more downtime.
Matt sat with her. He had showered and put on slacks and a polo shirt. “I still don’t feel clean,” he told her.
“Did you sleep any?”
“I crashed for two hours while getting the infusion.”
“When this is over, do you think Tony will give us a day or two off to soak in my hot tub?”
One of the best things about owning her own house was that she had a private hot tub. She used it often.
“You can’t soak in water with those stitches,” Matt said. “And you’re going to be on desk duty until you get a doctor’s clearance.”
She frowned and glared at him. “What about you?”
“Me, too. We’re probably going to be out of commission for at least a week, probably longer.”
She groaned. “I hate sitting at a desk.”
“I’ll get you a standing desk.”
She rolled her eyes and he laughed, took her hand, kissed it. “While the doc was checking you out, Michael told me about your conversation with Reid. You gave him your number.”
“Yes, I needed to—it was a test on his part, and I want him to reach out to me. He will either call me, or he’ll leave to meet up with Clara, so he can kill her.”
“That’s what Michael said you thought. Why?”
“Something Catherine said when she was debriefing me. Catherine is convinced that Clara killed Becca to clear the way for her to keep Garrett. Maybe that was why she did it, or she just couldn’t stand someone smart like Becca winning back her boyfriend. Whatever.” Kara rolled her eyes. The drama of the situation was just too much for her. “Anyway, Catherine told me if Garrett believes it, he’ll help us. Maybe. But if Catherine is right that Becca was Garrett’s first and only true love—and I think she is, because Becca’s parents believed it—then Garrett is going to want to kill Clara. Garrett isn’t stupid. He’s well-educated, he’s sharp, he’ll see exactly how Clara manipulated him—and he’ll be angry.”
“Why would he kill her? Maybe he doesn’t care that his first girlfriend is dead,” Matt said, playing devil’s advocate.
“Clara is extreme. She falls, falls hard. She wasn’t going to allow Garrett to leave her for anyone, especially a cute, successful, college-educated ex-girlfriend. The older women he dated were no threat to her... Becca was a threat. So she took her off the game board. Becca was a threat because Garrett loved her.”
Matt nodded as Kara spoke, then said, “You’re beginning to sound like a shrink.”
“Bite your tongue,” she said. “All cops have to be part psychologist. We have to be able to read people. And Garrett is going to avenge Becca.” She sighed, leaned back. “You’re right, this IV is amazing. I almost feel human again.”
Her cell phone rang. It was Garrett Reid.
“I guess he wants to talk.”
“Answer it,” Matt said.
She did, put it on speaker and motioned for Matt to keep an eye on the door and make sure no one came in. “Hello, Garrett. It’s Kara.”
“She called me this afternoon,” Garrett said. “But you probably already know that, if you have my phone records.”
“What did she say?”
He didn’t answer the question. “I knew she wasn’t coming back. I thought about what that other fed, Jones, said. That her name was Clara Dolan and she had a trust fund. When I called her Clara, she denied it at first, but then gave it up. Said her parents disowned her and she hated the name. She legally changed her name to Audrey.”
“She may have done just that,” Kara said.
“I told her when we first met, no lies.”
“She didn’t legally change her name to Audrey until after she left LA.”
