Page 38 of If She Sensed

“So, this morning is what?Paperwork, reports… that sort of thing?”

“Interrogation, too.”

“Fun.”

She took the travel mug and kissed him and he squeezed her hand once before letting go.She poked her head into Michael’s room and smiled at his sleeping face.She carried the image of it out of the door with her, and she drove to the field office with the radio off and the travel mug warm in the cupholder beside her.

Sloane was already there when she arrived.Kate could tell by the slight dimming in Sloane's eyes when she looked up from her laptop that she hadn’t slept last night after bringing Calder in.There was a fast food coffee cup on the desk next to a full legal pad of notes, and her jacket was draped over the back of her chair in a way that suggested it hadn't moved in hours.

"Did you go home at all?"Kate asked.

"I will tonight," Sloane said, which was not an answer.Kate smiled thinly at her as she set her travel mug down and looked at the legal pad.Sloane had apparently been building the full picture of the case and Calder’s motivations while Kate slept, and it was detailed."

“You’re just in time,” Sloane said, leaning away from her laptop and sipping from her coffee.“They just moved Ruth Calder to Interrogation Room 4.If you weren’t here by nine, I was going to text you to ask you to hurry up.”She chuckled at this, but Kate knew she was serious, She wondered how long Sloane would have waited on her before going in on her own.

“I’m ready if you are,” Kate said.

Sloane gave a little clap of the hands and got to her feet.Kate wondered if the almost playful demeanor was the result of capturing the killer or a lack of sleep.Maybe a bit of both, Kate decided.

“Has she asked for a lawyer?”Kate asked as they made their way down to the interrogation rooms.

“Nope.She declined one twice,” she said, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand.

Kate almost felt a little guilty for getting at leastsomesleep while Sloane had been burning the midnight oil.But the guilt quickly turned to envy.Kate remembered those days and, for reasons she could not quite fathom, missed them.

They were in the interrogation room at 8:45 with Ruth Calder across the table.Ruth looked no different than she had in Diane Marsh's kitchen the night before.Kate wondered if the woman had managed to sleep or if the shock of understanding what was truly happening had kept her awake.Her hands were folded on the table in front of her and she looked at them both when they came in, but without much emotion.

Sloane sat down across from her.Kate took the chair to Sloane's left and said nothing.She was waiting to see how Sloane would play this… how she would handle it on zero sleep.

"Ruth," Sloane said."I want to go through some things with you and I'd like you to help me understand them.Can you do that?"

Ruth looked up."Yes," she said in a flat voice.

"How long were you a member of Dr.Hale's program?"

"Fourteen months."The question came quickly and with no emotion.Kate got the sense that she was speaking to a programmed robot.

"And you attended sessions regularly during that time?"

"Every week.Sometimes twice."

"At some point during those fourteen months," Sloane said, "you accessed intake questionnaires that didn't belong to you.Patient files for other members of the group.Can you tell me how that happened?"

Ruth was quiet for a moment, not evasive, more considering."Richard left his laptop open," she said."In his office.He did it more than once.He was careless with it.I guess he trusted me.He was very… honestly, he was very stupid whenever he started trusting people.He was very open, very vulnerable."

"You went through his files?"Kate asked

"I was curious at first," Ruth said."About the other women.Who they were.What they'd written about themselves."

"And what did you find?"

"Everything."She said it without particular emphasis but Kate saw something in her eyes, a sort of flicker that made her wonder if this was something she’d always wanted to get out."The intake forms were very detailed.Hale required a lot of information upfront.I knew this, of course, because I’d filled out the damned things.Full name, address, employment, family situation.He wanted the complete picture, he said.So, he could tailor the program."

Kate watched Ruth's face as she went through it.There was no bitterness in her voice, no visible anger.She was recounting it the way someone describes a process that worked exactly as intended.But there was something else there, something behind it all that might behind the reason she was being so forthcoming with them.Maybe she was more than happy to prove that she had been able to easily manipulate and tear down the very system she felt had failed her.

"When did curiosity become something else?"Sloane asked.“What made you want to go to these extremes?”

Ruth looked at the table again and Kate thought she saw something like either resentment or what could have been regret.It was hard to tell in people in a state of shock."When I read about the ones who were happy," she said."Over and over again, everything was just working out for everyone else.These were the ones who had written about their lives like their lives were gifts.Like everything had come to them easily and they were just waiting for more."She paused, and when she looked up again her expression had not changed."My husband left me for one of those women.Not literally.Butthat type.Someone who moved through the world without cost."