Chapter 7
“Don’t finish all the Cap’n Crunch!”
“I got it first.”
“That’s not fair.”
“First come, first serve. It’s perfectly fair.”
Sloan’s eyes popped open, confusion permeating the thick haze of sleep. He stared at his living room ceiling. He was on the couch, and there were children in his kitchen.
Joanne’s children.
He sat up slowly, looking around. A pair of sneakers sat in the middle of the floor, one upside down.
He scratched the back of his head and sighed, reaching for his prosthetic arm and securing it in place.
His head ached a little from the scotch, and he longed for a cup of coffee to take the edge off the pain.
More screaming from the kitchen. “Give that back!”
“You finished the Cap’n Crunch, so I’m taking the Lucky Charms.” That was the girl… April. He got up and stretched.
“Mom!” yelled the boy.
“Just shut up and eat the Cheerios.”
“I hate Cheerios! And don’t tell me to shut up!”
Sloan had slept in his jeans, but he pulled on his T-shirt in an attempt to appear presentable as he dove into the fray in the kitchen. “Everyone hates Cheerios. I’d go for the Cap’n Crunch.”
The boy didn’t miss a beat. Lucas. “She touched it. I don’t want it after she touched it.”
April gestured dramatically. “I poured it from the box into the bowl.”
Lucas straightened his arms by his sides, fingers balled into fists. “I’m not eating that crap!”
Sloan held up a hand. “Watch your mouth.” He reached into the top of the pantry and dug behind boxes of macaroni and cheese, withdrawing a second box of Lucky Charms. “Here. I’m always prepared.”
A single clap behind Sloan made him turn around. Little Fiona stood in the doorway, beaming. “Marshmallows!” God, she was cute. “I don’t want milk.” She wagged a finger at Sloan and settled at the table.
“If you don’t give her milk, she’ll only eat the marshmallows,” said April.
Sloan nodded. “C’mon, we’ll all have them with milk. You want some, right, Lucas?”
“Yeah.” The kid pulled out a chair, the sound of chewing soon replacing the chaos.
Sloan poured his own bowl of cereal, momentarily torn.
Usually, he just ate the marshmallows. He frowned.
“Will you pass the milk, please?” He’d planned on doing some laundry and watching the football game at the bar this afternoon, but that plan was obviously thrown out the window.
He picked the marshmallows out of their milky bath, careful to avoid the twiggy parts. “Where’s your mom?”
“She’s still sleeping,” said Lucas, his mouth full of cereal. “What happened to your arm?”
“Lucas!” snapped April.
Sloan held up a hand. “It’s okay. I lost it in an accident when I was in the Navy.”
The boy grinned. “Did it get sawed off?”
April smacked his arm. “Lucas!”
“No, it—”
Lucas’s eyes lit. “Was there an explosion?”
“No—”
“Did you get shot?”
April rolled her eyes and moved to the sink, rinsing out her bowl, while Sloan tried again to answer. “Nothing like that. I was—”
“Ooh, did it get run over by a Humvee?”
Sloan leaned back in his chair. “Nope.”
“Did somebody stab you?”
“Nope.” He smiled at Fiona, who seemed truly interested in their conversation and not at all disturbed.
“Somebody shot my dad,” she said, putting her lips on the edge of the bowl to scoop marshmallows into her mouth.
Sloan turned to the girl, suddenly interested.
“Shut up,” yelled Lucas.
Fiona slurped up a diamond-shaped marshmallow, her eyes never leaving Sloan’s. “He’s in heaven with the angels.”
Jesus Christ.
Sloan didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. David had been murdered?
“There’s no such thing as heaven,” said Lucas, picking up his bowl and dropping it into the sink with a clang.
“Yes, there is! Mommy said so.”
“She lied,” said Lucas, storming out of the kitchen.
The little girl’s face fell and her bottom lip quivered.
“Lucas,” snapped Sloan, but the boy was already gone. He squeezed Fiona’s arm. “He’s just kidding, honey. Of course there’s a heaven.”
“Do you promise?”
“Absolutely.” The girl seemed to accept that and went back to eating, clearly trying to avoid anything that wasn’t a marshmallow.
He stood and made coffee, careful to keep his distance from April. She had the air of a frightened animal, and he didn’t want her to bolt. On the contrary, he wanted information. “I’m sorry to hear about your dad. How long ago did he pass away?”
“Thursday.”
Fuck, no wonder Jo was a wreck. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. There was definitely a connection between David’s death and Jo’s sudden need for money, and he wondered if the other man had left an insurance policy to provide for his family. “What happened?”
The girl shrugged. “We don’t know. He was at his hunting cabin.”
“So it was an accident?”
April looked pointedly at Fiona, then back at Sloan. “No.”
“I see,” he said, but he didn’t really understand at all. He’d have to have Moto look into it for him. “Where do you live?”
“Just outside of Chicago.”
He pulled out his phone and texted Moto, who’d just gone on assignment with Trace out in Wyoming, but hopefully he could find some time to learn what really happened to David Regan.
Joanne appeared in the doorway. “I can’t believe I slept so late.” She kissed the top of Fiona’s head. “Lucky Charms, eh? Your favorite.”
“Marshmallows,” said the girl.
Jo headed for the coffeepot. “Morning, April.”
“Lucas was being a jerk.”
“I heard that!” Lucas yelled from the other room.
“Why don’t you hop in the shower?” Jo said, combing the girl’s hair back from her face with her fingers. “We’re going to get out of here in the next hour or so.”
Fiona perked up. “We’re going home?”
“No, genius, we can’t go home, remember?” asked Lucas as he walked into the room. “And I was not being a jerk. April refused to share the good cereal.”
April held up her hands. “I’m going in the shower. I can’t take this anymore.”
Lucas moved his head back and forth. “Good, ’cause you stink.”
“That’s enough,” said Joanne.
Sloan handed her the first cup of coffee. “There’s half-and-half on the top shelf. You sleep okay?”
“Eventually.”
“Can I play in the snow?” asked Lucas.
“Sure,” said Jo. “But wear your snow pants. We don’t have a lot of clean clothes.” Lucas left the room and she turned to Sloan. “What time does the bank open?”
She was certainly in a hurry to get out of here, but his curiosity was piqued. David had died days earlier, Joanne was desperate for money, and she couldn’t go home. “They’re open now. Why don’t you come with me for the ride? It’ll give us a chance to talk.”
“I can’t leave Fiona with Lucas. They’ll kill each other.”
Sloan winced. “I was hoping we could talk privately.”
“I haven’t had a private conversation since 2007. I’ll grab her iPad and headphones out of the Porsche. I don’t think you’d fit in there. We were like sardines in a can.”
Fiona’s eyes went wide, her mouth forming the letter O. “I watch princesses?”
“Yes, pumpkin,” said Joanne with a smile. “You can watch princesses.”