Cheryl Bradshaw: Sinnerman

She walked over and squeezed me tight and then turned and walked back out the door and said, “See you soon.”

I selected an old copy of Jane Eyre and shut the door to the library and walked back down the stairs and was met by Giovanni.

“I was just coming to find you,” he said.

“Your book collection is amazing. I could have spent hours in there. I’ve never seen anything like it, thank you for—”

He grabbed my arms and shook me, not hard—but enough to get my attention.

“Sloane…”

I looked into his eyes. Something wasn’t right.

“What’s happened?” I said.

“How fast can you get ready?”

CHAPTER 49

It wasn’t time for the first matinee of the day at the local movie theater, and already there were two patrons. The only thing was—they were both dead. The garbage collector noticed them when he made his early morning rounds and called it in. Two women, fully clothed, lay side by side with one arm across their chest and the other spread out, just like the other victims had been. Their right hands had been hacked off, and one had Sinnerman’s signature S carved in her wrist, but the other had something different this time, an M.

“Maybe he’s breaking up his name into two words now,” Maddie said, “since there’s two women. One for Sinner and the other for Man. This is the first time he’s killed more than one at the same time.”

“We both know what else that could stand for, Maddie.”

“Oh please, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I? Those initials could be mine too.”

“How close are you?” Maddie said.

“ETA is five minutes.”

“The place is already swarming with fed’s and everyone else on the planet, so I’m not sure how close you’ll be able to get to the victims.”

“If Coop’s there, I’m sure I won’t get anywhere near them.”

“Here’s hoping he’s down with some kind of tragic illness where he needs bed rest,” Maddie said.

I pressed the end button on my phone and looked at Giovanni.

“Every time someone is killed, I can’t help but feel it’s my fault,” I said.

He took his right hand off the wheel and replaced it with his left and then reached over and set his hand on top of mine.

“You can’t think like that.”

“It’s hard not to. And I feel like I’ve let my sister down because I still haven’t found this guy. All I do is keep sending others to join her.”

“We will catch him, and he’ll pay for what he’s done, and you will be the one to be congratulated for it. If not for you, the feds wouldn’t have the information they have now.”

We parked across the theater and exited the car, but Coop was ready and waiting.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Coop said.

“I have every right. What have you done recently? Not a damn thing from what I can see, so don’t try and tell me about what I’m entitled to and what I’m not.”

Once I’d said it, I actually felt bad. Coop was silent for a moment, which was rare for him. He’d worked just as hard on the case as I had the first time around and never even turned over one rock that gave him a solid lead on the killer.

Coop made a motion with his hand like he was trying to swat a fly in my direction and walked off. It wasn’t like him to back down from me, and a minute later I realized he hadn’t. The chief headed straight for me and said, “You know you shouldn’t be here, Sloane.”

“After everything that’s happened? You’re still going to keep me behind some ridiculous line like I’m a spectator?”

The chief gave a courtesy nod to Giovanni and said, “Mind if I borrow her a minute,” like I was some car at a rental agency and then he pulled me by the arm over to the side.

“Listen, we’ve been down this road many times before, and you know I need you to keep your distance so we can do our job. Now I know Giovanni has some magical muscle he seems to flex over his brother, and I’ve no doubt that he could get you in here, so I’m asking you to respect me here and not to push it.”

I opened my mouth to speak and he leaned in even closer and said, “Besides, I know Madison will get you down to her office the first chance she gets, and you can examine the bodies there.”

“It’s not the same as being able to search the scene.”

“We’re doing that,” the chief said.

“I meant, myself.”

“I’m aware of that. You need to trust me on this.”

I was stunned. In all our years together the chief had never asked me not to do anything. He told me and expected me to comply with any and all requests. It was in that moment that I realized the power I had with Giovanni by my side.

Maddie and her long platinum pigtails approached us from the side and said, “What’s up?”

Neither of us spoke.

“Well alright then,” she said, “I can see I’ve barged in on you two, so—”

She turned to go and I said, “Maddie, wait.”

I caught up to her. “The chief doesn’t want me close to the bodies.”

“Shocker.”

“Yeah, but there’s something else,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“He took the time to drag me aside and talk to me about it, and I detected something in his voice—it was like he was nervous, and that’s not like him.”

“Hmmm, I don’t know.”

“See what you can find out for me, okay?” I said.

“You got it.”

She leaned in close and whispered, “Meet me at my office in three and you can examine the bodies there.”

I watched Maddie cross over to the dark side, slip plastic gloves on her hands, and hunch over the bodies. Ten seconds later she was writing in a furious motion in her notebook and I was on my way out.

The look on Maddie’s face when I walked into her lab was that of a doctor preparing to give news to a family that their loved one had died.

“What is it?” I said.

“What?”

“Maddie, come on.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? You haven’t looked this sad since you found out All My Children was going off the air.”

I could count on one hand the amount of times I’d seen Maddie forlorn over the years. Most of her life had been spent living in some blissful bubble no matter what happened around her.

“What have you found?” I said.

She shook her head.

“You’ll tell me sooner or later, so how about you just get whatever it is off your chest.”

“There was a note.”

“The same kind Sinnerman always leaves?” I said.

She nodded.

“What did it say?”

“Wade doesn’t want me to talk to you about it.”

“Screw what the chief wants. Since when have you ever let a man come between us?”

She backed up against the counter and sighed.

“It’s just that the note was for you.”

“That much I’ve gathered, and I appreciate the two of you being considerate of my feelings, but I don’t need protection right now, I need answers.”

She shrugged and said, “Fine. It said: Hello Sloane Monroe. See what you made me do?”

CHAPTER 50

“That’s it?” I said. “The whole thing?”

Maddie nodded.

“Alright.”

“Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I said.

“Turn around.”

I revolved around and looked at myself in the mirror behind me.

“What?”

“You’re gnawing away at the inside of your cheek, and you always do that when your anxiety gets the best of you.”

I stopped.

“I’m fine.”

I wanted to be fine and to shake off the sense that I was responsible for every murder Sinnerman committed since they started again. I felt like I’d failed all of them. I had three years to produce the killer while everyone else sat idly by and did nothing, and I might as well have sat right along with them.