By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Dale Mayer

Detective Kate Morgan is hot on a new confusing case. A cyclist is killed at the main intersection to the University of British Columbia. At first glance it looks like a hit-and-run, but, as details emerge, it gets much more complicated.

From one day to the next, Simon is blinded by an overload of senses and noises. It’s impacting his regular business day, and he seems unable to control when and how these moments occur. Angry and frustrated, he tells Kate but knows she’s unable to help. How can she, when he can’t help himself?

As Kate struggles to work her way through a gang of arrogant university students, reluctant parents, a defensive dean, and way too many unobservant witnesses, she finds a disturbing pattern of more “accidents” and more victims …

Then finally Simon understands why his senses are on overload … and flips the investigation around.

As Kate and her partner Rodney begin the investigation of a woman cyclist seeming hit by a passing motorist. Simon gets a vision of not one but five bicycles. It’s not a surprise to Kate since Rodney’s already come up with the fact there have been five cyclists killed on this day in the last five years. Not exactly something he wanted to find but definitely relevant.

Simon begins his day as he frequently does, stopping to give much needed cash to some very worthy places. First a shelter of sorts, then a community church and finally a food center. While those stops lifted his spirits the same cannot be said for his projects. Supply problems have them going off schedule and adding to the cost of the rehabs. Finished he stopped to eat, but the overwhelming smells had him getting his meal to go. At home the headline about the accident near the collage catches his eye and he wonders if that’s Kate’s new case. He murmurs the word ‘Traffic’ and looks out the window over the city when the vision hits. As always it doesn’t tell him much at all.

In the meantime, Kate has dealt with witnesses including a group of students seemly unconcerned about the seriousness of the situation. Something feels off about this case and she can’t seem to pinpoint why.

She takes a call from Simon and he doesn’t like the way she sounds.

This is a favorite scene.

Simon didn’t like to hear the defeat in Kate’s voice, that negativity. He also had not been invited over, which made him a little worried because of the tone of her voice. Giving her a bit of space to get over whatever was bothering her was one thing, but giving her the space to decide that she didn’t need him in her life was something completely different. Grabbing leftovers from his lunch today and checking the fridge, finding a bottle of wine, he grabbed that too, strolled to his penthouse elevator and took it all the way to the lobby. As he walked toward the front entrance, he saw that Edgar, on nightshift, was manning the front door and immediately opened it for him.

“Have a good evening, sir.”

“I hope so,” he said.

“Hey, you’re bringing wine and food. What every woman needs tonight is to be looked after.”

Simon stopped and stared out, realized it was pouring down rain. He swore.

“You want a cab? Do you want to drive? I can get your car brought around.”

Simon looked at Edgar. “Grab me a cab, will you?”

After that, as he waited a few minutes for the cab to pull up, Edgar said, “What about the Ubers? Are you happy with them?”

“They’re fine, and, if they’re faster than cabs, that’s good too. Normally I’d just take the Aquabus.”

“At least she’s worth it,” Edgar said, with a beaming smile.

There was some truth to that. When Simon said good night to Edgar and walked out, he got into the back of the cab, gave the address to the driver, and was there in no time. “Too wet to walk tonight.”

The cab driver laughed.

Simon nodded, then dropped in the fare and a tip, and headed up to Kate’s apartment. When he knocked on the door, there was no answer. He swore at that, realizing he should have checked to see if she would stay home or would go for that workout. When it opened suddenly a few moments later, he was startled.

She looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

He held up the food and the wine and watched as her eyes lit up. “That’s all it takes, is it?” he said, with a smile.

“Nope, not at all.” She reached for both and snatched them from his hands. “I’m not that easy of a lay.”

“Hell, there’s nothing easy about you.” She was already walking back into the kitchen, but she turned and tossed him a grin. He checked her out carefully. “You sounded despondent earlier.”

She stopped, looked at him, and shrugged, and he almost felt bad for bringing it up. “Sometimes I just hate the senselessness of what’s out in the world right now,” she said quietly. “People should have every moment of joy coming to them, not get cut down in the prime of life over nothing. Less than nothing. It’s like a whim of some asshole who deems at that moment in time that a person shouldn’t be allowed to exist anymore. Who gives them the right?” She grabbed a dinner plate and slammed shut the cupboard.

“Nobody, which is why it’s so important that you’re there.”

She stilled, looked over at him, and finally nodded. “I was depressed and upset today, so thanks for this.” She held up the silverware she had grabbed. “I haven’t eaten.” With her dish and knife and fork, she sat at the kitchen table.

“Maybe that’s partly why you were depressed.” He took a seat across from her.

“Maybe.” She had the bag open, reaching in without looking. “I also interviewed this kid at a pizza place today, and his attitude bothered me and hung with me all day. He was just one in a group of six, and it shouldn’t have really been a problem, but it seemed like, the longer the day went on, his attitude just got to me more and more. So that it’s all I can think about.”

“You need to get him out of your head because you know that guys like him exist everywhere.” “I know, but it’s like he felt he didn’t have to answer my questions. He didn’t have to talk to me at all. Like, he was somebody, and I should damn well know it. He didn’t need to stay at the crime scene, much less answer my questions or give me the straight truth.” She snorted, then shook her head, dumping whatever food she had retrieved onto her plate.

“That just means that, one of these days, he’ll get his comeuppance, whether it’s from you or somebody else,” he said.

“Maybe, and maybe not. It seems like these kids born with a silver spoon in their mouths always get an easy pathway ahead of them.” She took a big bite of whatever.

“Did you ever have an easy pathway?”

She stopped, looked at him. “I told you about my brother, right?” He nodded. “A little bit.”

“Right, well, I’m sure you can fill in the rest.”

“Sure, I probably can, but it’s not the same thing as hearing it from you.”

“And that is one of the topics I really don’t want to discuss tonight.” For added emphasis, she pointed her fork at him. “Talk about a life cut short.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “You see? That’s why I didn’t invite you over. … I’m in a shitty mood. I get moments of clarity— where I’m okay for, you know, ten or fifteen minutes, like now,” she said, lifting another forkful of her food. “And then everything just comes back down again, and I crash.”

“You know that you don’t always have to be on. You don’t always have to be perfect.”

She stopped, stared. “It’s a damn good thing, since I’m a far cry from being perfect.” Her tone was harsh. She narrowed her gaze at him, and he shook his head.

“You can’t scare me off. I’ve seen way worse than you,” he said.

At that, she burst out laughing. “I don’t know what it is about you, but that sense of humor gets me every time.”

“And here I wouldn’t have said I even had one.”

She chuckled again. “See? It’s shit like that. And you don’t shoot me down for being in a pissy mood, but neither will you indulge it either, so that works.”

“Yeah, we work.”

She glared at him. With some heat this time. And not the good kind.

“Oh no, you don’t. I get that it’s not a conversation for right now, but neither is this a conversation about shutting us down.”

“It was part of my earlier mood,” she snapped. “And it’s something I have to consider.”

“No, you don’t. Remember that part about we’re all good?”

“We’re good, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy.”

He stared, the anger inside him growing. “What the hell is unhealthy about it? What the hell are you even talking about?”

“I don’t know. I told you it’s a shitty day. Just leave me alone.”

“Happily.” He stood now. “Absolutely. But stop getting inside my head then too.”

She stared at him. “You mean that literally?”

“No, I don’t mean it literally.” He groaned, sat back down. “Why are we arguing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you didn’t bring enough food.”

He stopped and stared, and, sure enough, she had almost all of it on her plate. And for some reason it struck him as completely funny. When he stopped laughing, he said. “Oh my God. You know what? I didn’t even think about it. It was my leftovers. So I just grabbed it and came over.”

“And it was leftovers, and it was good,” she mumbled, as she shoveled another forkful in her mouth. “But now I feel like shit because I’m eating your food, and there isn’t enough for you.”
Dale Mayer. Simon Says… Ride (Kindle Locations 711-772). Valley Publishing.

Plenty of strangeness to this case, and far more to it than Kate even imagined.

This one kept me at the edge of my seat as the investigation heats up and twists in some very interesting ways. Then of course there’s Simon and his visions that do more than a little for the investigation and the solving of it.

I love Simon and Kate, I just hope she manages to stay with him. They are fun, intriguing and when they come together, they sizzle off the pages.

5 Contented Purrs for Dale!

Dale Mayer

Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).

She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.