James’ father Noel—a.k.a. Froggy—entered my hospital room, crossed in front of my bed, and sat on a chair opposite me. He looked a lot paler today than he had the last time I saw him. He also looked worried, and I prepared for the worst.
He folded his arms in front of him and said, “How ya goin’ today, Sloane?”
“All right, I think,” I said. “But I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“I might be able to fill in the gaps for you.”
I pushed a pillow behind me and sat up. “I wanted to apologize to you about how I behaved when we first met. I’d like to blame my behavior on jet lag, but there really was no excuse for it.”
He shrugged. “No need to apologize. It’s all good, darlin’. No worries.”
“I shouldn’t have been such a jerk to you, though. You didn’t deserve it.”
“Probably not, but it’s all in the past now.”
“How’s James?” I asked. “I don’t know what happened after I found him in the park. Is he ...”
“Dead? No. Not yet.”
“Not yet?”
“He’s in surgery. I should know something in another hour or two. He’s tough. Always has been. I expect he’ll make it through and be all right, or maybe that’s just what I keep telling myself because I’ve lost one child already. I’m not ready to lose another.”
“What has the doctor said?”
“He couldn’t believe James was still alive when he got here, because of all the blood he’d lost.” He leaned back in the chair. “I’ve been thinking about the first time I stepped foot in this hospital. It was the day Caroline was born. She was such a little thing. Premature. Underweight. They kept her here for three weeks after she came into the world. Every day after I got off work, I’d drive over straightaway to see her. When I walked in and she looked up at me, I could swear I saw her eyes change, like she knew I’d be coming, like she’d been waiting all day for me to get there. Probably sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.”
“It doesn’t sound crazy at all. Not to me.”
“What made you decide to become a private investigator, if you don’t mind me asking? Doesn’t it wear on you? Isn’t it hard spending your life surrounded by so much death all the time?”
“Death isn’t all it is. It’s just part of it.”
“I guess I just don’t understand what drives you to be in this line of work. Since Caroline died, I feel like I’m suffocating. All I want is to breathe like I used to, to feel normal again. I don’t know if I ever will.”
“You will, one day. You’ll get there. It’s a long process, but time offers the chance for healing.”
“Are you speaking from experience?”
I nodded. “I am, but what I went through was different. I mean, same type of emotions, I suppose, but I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose a child.”
“I couldn’t imagine it either, until it happened.”
“James told me you’re a retired chief superintendent.”
“I am, but I’d say what I did and what you do on a routine basis are not the same. This city is a safe place, or it was until recently.”
“I never thought I’d become a private investigator,” I said. “I wanted to be a therapist.”
“Then what made you decide to do it?”
“Several years ago, my sister was murdered, and her death changed everything.”
His eyes widened, and he leaned forward. “How did it happen?”
“She was the victim of a serial killer named Sam Reids. He called himself ‘Sinnerman.’”
“He still alive?”
I shook my head. “He’s in the ground where he belongs.”
“Hard to believe there are people in this world who are so evil. You kill him?”
“I wanted to,” I said. “He was a real scumbag. I even had the chance, but I didn’t go through with it. Someone else did it for me, so I didn’t have to do it. Before we found the killer, I’d go into the police station at least once a week, checking in on any new leads they had. Even though they did everything they could to find him, any leads they had turned into dead ends. It was frustrating, for me and for them. I grew tired of feeling helpless and decided to learn everything I could about tracking murderers and getting inside their minds. I started working for a private detective agency that specialized in tougher cases, and I became good at it ... so good I opened a business of my own.”
“You found Sinnerman?”
“I’d like to say I did,” I said. “Truth is, he found me first.”
“I’ve thought a lot about what I would do if I came face-to-face with the man responsible for all this—the man who has torn a hole through my family.”
“I experienced the same feelings when it happened to me. In my situation, when we caught the guy, there was someone there with me. Someone who knew I’d never killed anyone before. He talked me out of doing the one thing I’d dreamed of doing since the day my sister drew her last breath. Ever since then all I’ve ever wanted to do is take on high profile cases like your daughter’s and bring families the closure they’re looking for.”
“Do you only take on murder cases?”
I nodded. “I tried stopping for a while, tried taking other, less-risky jobs like internet searches on missing people, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy me. Finding murderers is in my blood now. It makes me feel whole and alive. And now I suppose it’s your turn to think I sound crazy.”
He held two fingers up an inch apart from each other. “Maybe a little. You didn’t kill the man responsible for your sister’s death. Does that mean you’ve never killed anyone?”
“I do what it takes to get the job done. The person I was before, the one who went after Sam Reids, was more of a girl than a woman. I’ve changed a lot since then.”
I grabbed the glass of water on the tray next to me and took a sip.
“Now you can answer something for me,” I said.
“Sure. What would you like to know?”
“What the hell happened tonight?”