Blood Men

chapter sixty

I knew Sam was dead from the moment I saw her in the slaughter-house. I knew it before I had even stepped fully into the room. Felt it, even, if that makes sense. Knew it, felt it, saw it-and then ignored it. Just pushed it out of my mind for as long as I could until somebody-and it took Schroder to do it-came along and shoved the reality back into my face.

Dad’s tears weren’t tears of joy when he saw her, they were tears of pain. Sam was more like her mother than ever because Mummy’s a ghost, and so is Sam now. It was Christmas morning and I took my dead little girl out to the cemetery to see her dead mother while those around me stared and watched, not understanding, wondering what was happening.

Schroder doesn’t make me wait long in the interrogation room-maybe five minutes in total, which I figure is pretty good of him. He comes in with a folder tucked under his arm and a couple of coffees in his hand, supported by a small cardboard tray. He sits down opposite me and slides one of the coffees over.

“You need it,” he says.

“What I need is to be with Sam.”

“Look, Eddie, this is tough-God knows you’ve gone through more than anybody deserves, but. .”

He runs out of words. Just like that, like somebody wound him up ten minutes ago and the spring keeping him going has come to a stop.

“I want to be with Sam.”

“I know. I know you do.”

“Please.”

“Soon. Okay? Just-we just need to go over a few things first. Then I can take you to her. Okay?”

I nod.

“Tell me what happened. Do you know where your father is?”

“No idea at all,” I say, and then I fill him in on the details. I tell him about the slaughterhouse and how he can find Oliver Church out there, how Dad killed him, how I have no idea where Dad is now.

“Look, Eddie, we already know about the slaughterhouse. You got out there not long before we got there. Truth is you could be facing some serious jail time. We’ve got bodies stacking up and you’re at the center of it all.”

“I didn’t kill anybody,” I say, “except for the guy who made me drown you, and the guy I ran over-but that was an accident. I didn’t even kill Bracken. It was the woman.”

“We know. We checked the prints on the knife. There was blood on them. Location of the prints beneath the blood showed she was the one holding them when it got used. You’re sitting okay as far as that one goes, and maybe for Church too, if you can prove self-defense,” he says, “if you hear what I’m saying. You or your dad had to defend against him. But Jesus, Eddie, you helped a serial killer escape. We can’t write that one off.”

“When she killed Bracken she took away our chance of finding Sam alive.”

“Then we need to find her before your father does,” Schroder says. “There’s another thing, Eddie. Your father. It turns out he’s the one who put Harwick up to stabbing him.”

“What? What are you saying?”

“It was all a setup. He got Harwick to stab him, to hurt him enough to require hospital treatment but not enough so he’d need a morgue. He knew you’d come and get him. He played everybody. He completely played you.”

I wonder at what point Dad decided to use his daughter-in-law’s death to his advantage; whether the man knew immediately he could use the tragedy to escape. I wonder if he even cared about what happened to Jodie. I’d like to think it at least took him a few days to think it through, but for some reason I don’t think it did. For some reason I think the moment the news was broken to him about the bank robbery he knew in an instant he was going to manipulate me; that he would tell me about the darkness and the monster and would get me to become like him; that the only thing standing between him and freedom was an innocent stabbing of the kind where every major organ was missed, where he could spend the night in a hospital so understaffed that only a single nurse was seen.

“I’m sorry, Eddie.”

“You got the rest of the bank robbers?”

“We got the names. One of them we have in custody, one of them we’re still looking for.”

“And the third?”

“The third was found a few hours ago. He was cut up so badly we were lucky to identify him. We found your father’s prints at the scene.”

I stare at him without saying a word. My dad got one of the men who killed Jodie. I don’t know how I feel about this. I don’t know how I feel about anything. I’m numb, too numb, all I have now is all this hurt from Sam not being here.

“Did you tell your dad to kill these men?”

“No.”

“But you’re glad he’s made a start, right?”

“Yes.”

“How’d he get the name?”

“I. . I don’t know. Maybe from Church. Maybe he had it all along.”

“Maybe.”

“What’s going to happen to me?”

“For now? Nothing. We can’t link you to any premeditated killings. The blood results came in and have cleared you with Kingsly. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you earlier-it’s just that, well, I was certain you’d killed him.”

“The blood cleared me?”

“We ran it against your father’s and none of the markers matched, it’s a completely different blood type, so whoever killed Kingsly isn’t related to your father.”

“It didn’t match,” I say.

“You sound surprised.”

“What? No. No, of course not,” I say, my mind racing. What does this mean? What does this mean?

“You set your father free, and for that we should be keeping you in custody, Edward, but things having gone the way they have, those who make these kinds of decisions have agreed that you can go home instead. For now anyway. You’ll have to answer for it-and not to me, but to a judge. If your dad doesn’t hurt anybody innocent and we get him back real soon, I’ll do what I can to help you. Of course there are other factors to consider, like. .”

He keeps talking but I’m no longer listening. All I can think about is the blood type. My blood type doesn’t match my father’s blood type. If Schroder took blood from me now and compared it to the blood found at Kingsly’s house, it would match, only he’s got no reason to do that. He’s got no reason because he doesn’t suspect me anymore. He’s got no reason to run the blood found at Bracken’s office because he knows it’s mine. If he took blood from me now and compared it to my father. .

It wouldn’t match, the monster says, so maybe it hasn’t gone quiet at all.

How is that possible?

Come on, Eddie. You can figure it out. And Jack-he has no idea. Poor, poor Jack. You and your father are nothing alike and that makes me your very own creation.

“Edward? Hey, Edward? You listening to me?”

“Huh?” I focus back on Schroder. “What?”

“I’m telling you there are other things to consider here. Nat and Diana know the full story. They know you didn’t start this. . war. But. . Edward, this is hard, but they don’t want you to see them again. Other than the. . funeral, they want you out of their lives. Forever.”

“Am I free to go now?”

“I guess.”

“Then I want to see Sam,” I say, and Schroder drives me to the morgue.