Shattered (LOST #3)(16)

That wasn’t exactly how being a profiler worked.

But before she could explain that to him, he had turned away and was heading toward an interrogation room. Sarah rushed to keep up with him.

IN THE BRIGHT light of day, Eddie Guthrie didn’t look particularly intimidating. In fact, he looked like a skinny, scared kid. One with acne on his chin, greasy hair, and hands that were shaking.

He’s really twenty-one? He appeared so heartbreakingly young to her.

“If you’d like,” the detective said to Eddie, “you can have a lawyer in here, kid.”

“Don’t need one,” Eddie said. His eyes were on Sarah. “We all know what I did. I tried to stop a monster.”

Sarah didn’t flinch.

The detective moved toward the far wall. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched them.

Taking her time, Sarah advanced and then sat down across from Eddie. She stared at him a moment, letting her gaze sweep over his bloodshot eyes, his too pale skin, down to his trembling hands. Her lips curved down. “Withdrawal?” All of the signs were there. Classic.

“Bitch, you don’t know a thing about me—”

“I’m sorry about your mother.”

She heard the sharp inhale of his breath. Her gaze lifted back to his dark eyes, and the pain in his stare was unmistakable.

“Don’t talk about her,” he gritted out. “Don’t you dare!”

“But she’s the reason that you broke into my room, right? Because of what happened to her?” I am so sorry, Eddie. Because as she stared at him, he stopped being the man who’d come to kill her. And, for an instant, he was a child. One who’d lost his mother to a brutal killer. To my father.

“You took everything away from me,” Eddie whispered.

Sarah shook her head, but . . . weren’t his words true? If she’d gone for help that night, if she’d tried to get more people to believe her . . . “I’m sorry,” she said again.

His fisted hands slammed into the table. “Stop saying that!”

Right. Going back wasn’t always for the best. She inhaled a deep, cleansing breath and said, “What happened to your sister?”

He looked away.

“Molly, wasn’t it?” As if she’d forgotten. Sarah had made a point to learn about the families of all her father’s victims. “She was just a little bit older than you when . . . when your mother died.” They’d both been mere babies. Sarah swallowed. “How is she now?”

“Stay the fuck away from my family!”

There was so much rage in Eddie.

“Told you,” Detective West murmured as he shifted his stance a bit. “Waste of time. This kid’s a drug head. He’s going to get thrown in jail for years.”

Fear came and went on Eddie’s face.

“Is that what you want?” Sarah asked him. “To go to jail? To spend years locked away from your sister?”

Slowly, he shook his head.

“Then why did you come after me? Revenge? Was that really—”

“He told me where you were.”

And Sarah’s heart stopped beating. She actually felt it still in her chest, then in the next instant, it was racing, thumping far too hard in her chest. “Who told you that?”

But Eddie had clamped his lips shut.

“Eddie . . . Eddie, if someone put you up to the attack, you should tell us. Detective West can help you.” She thought Eddie needed to get put in rehab and start receiving some serious therapy. She thought—

“No one can help me. Not now.”

She shook her head. “That’s not true. It’s never too late.”

He laughed. “Really? Is that the same line of bull you give to your father? Because we both know it’s too late for him. He’s evil, straight to the core.” His eyes turned to slits as he glared at her. “Just. Like. You.”

WELL, THAT LITTLE chat certainly hadn’t gone well.

Sarah stepped out of the interrogation room. Her hands wrapped around her stomach as she tried to settle her nerves.

“Who was he talking about?”

Ah, Detective West had followed her out. She should have known there would be someone watching her. Isn’t there always?

Sarah glanced back over her shoulder. Deliberately, Sarah put her hands back at her sides.

“When Eddie said that ‘he’ told him where to find you. Who the hell is the guy talking about?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, I sure think you and I need to be finding that out, Dr. Jacobs. Because it sounds like the guy sent Eddie to kill you.”

Before she could respond, Sarah’s phone beeped. She pulled it out of her pocket and swiped her finger across the screen so she could see her text. The note was from her boss, Gabe Spencer.

Client meeting. Get to the hotel ASAP.

Since when did they have another client in New Orleans? She’d actually thought that Gabe was flying out of the city that afternoon. Hurriedly, she typed back, On my way. “Uh, excuse me,” she murmured to the detective. “I have a work meeting that I need to attend—”

But he moved into her path. “You can’t be this cold.”

She blinked at him.

“You just discovered someone else out there wants you dead. Aren’t you afraid?”