Page 58 of Love Undecided
I give her a small smile and am surprised when she starts walking toward us. She approaches very cautiously, looking warily at the officers.
“Excuse me, officer?”
“Oh, I’m not an officer,” I tell her. “I’m an investigative consultant. My name is Kat.”
I reach my hand out to shake hers. We weren’t formally introduced when I visited the Carter household previously.
“Kat,” she begins shakily. “I heard you just now talking about the Shower Stealer. And, well, I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but there was a day a few weeks ago when I got to the house and the shower was left on in Miss Sofia’s bathroom. I thought maybe that she meant to take one but didn’t have time and forgot to shut it off. I got to the house that day later than normal because I had a flat tire and had to wait for it to be repaired. Someone had stuck a screwdriver in it actually. I didn’t see how it was connected, but I wonder now if I was wrong. I’m so sorry.”
She starts crying.
I can’t handle when people cry.
I pat her shoulder awkwardly and tell her it’s okay.
Then I ask her, “Did you ever ask anyone in the Carter Family if they had left the shower on?”
She shakes her head, no.
I push her gently in the direction of Mrs. Carter and thank her for talking to me.
I turn and walk back to Bauer. “Do you remember if any of The Shower Stealer’s pictures were of Sofia Carter’s bathroom?”
“I didn’t look at her bathroom. They weren’t visited by The Shower Stealer. Mr. Carter already told us that in the beginning,” he says.
“Right, but let’s say the nanny found the water on one day and didn’t say anything to anyone?”
“Seriously?” he asks.
“Seriously,” I say. He gets out his phone and pulls up the pictures of the bathrooms.
“Ok, I’m going to go ask Mrs. Carter if she knows whether anyone might have left the shower on that day. Even though I’m pretty sure I already know the answer.” I look across the room at Mrs. Carter; she is sitting in one of the chairs with her hands together and pressed between her thighs, rocking back and forth slowly.
She looks up when I approach. “Mrs. Carter, I’m so sorry to bother you, but I wonder if I could ask you a quick question.”
I kneel in front of her, my knees cracking as I go down. I cringe, hoping she didn’t hear them. “I’m wondering if you remember the day a couple weeks ago that Martina had a flat tire and didn’t show up to the house until early afternoon?”
“Of course. It was a terrible thing to have happen. That someone would deliberately flatten her tire is horrid.”
“The police have been trying to catch a criminal, perhaps you’ve heard of him? The Shower Stealer. I know this is an odd question, but do you happen to remember if anyone left a shower running when you all left the house that day?”
She stiffens, then speaks coldly, “Are you really sitting here asking me questions about a different crime and expecting me to help you solve it while my daughter lies in a hospital bed after being abducted?”
Her voice gets increasingly loud and shrill as she speaks. “During a time when we don’t even know what happened to her while she was gone or what kind of condition she will wake up in?”
“No!” I say. “I mean absolutely no disrespect. We believe there might be a connection between whoever abducted Sofia and the Shower Stealer.”
She looks at me like I’m crazy. Then seeming to make a decision about that, one way or another, says, “No, I don’t think anyone accidentally left the shower on that day.”
“Well, Martina mentioned that Sofia’s shower was on that day when she arrived, but she didn’t think anything of it.”
Mrs. Carter’s face pales. “I didn’t know that. Well, what does this have to do with... oh God... you don’t... do you think this Shower Stealer person is the one who abducted Sofia? Why would he do that?”
“We aren’t sure yet. But there could be a connection.”
She sighs. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, officer, I am so upset over all of this. Whatever I can do to help, I will.”
I start to tell her I’m not an officer, just a consultant, but decide it probably doesn’t matter right now. I wave Bauer over and have him show her the pictures on his phone. “Mrs. Carter, one more question, can you confirm that any of these photos are of Sofia’s bathroom?”
