The Sin Collector

by Fortunato, Jessica

  Mind was not exactly the word I would use for it. He was sitting at my kitchen table wearing the same faded jeans and a grey t-shirt even tighter than the last. Normally I would wonder why he couldn’t buy clothes that fit, but the tight shirt fashion statement was working for him. I dragged my mind out of the gutter to ask him how his research was going. Now that I had agreed to go with him, I found myself with several dozen questions. I was more anxious than I had ever been for answers.

  I put Valentine on the floor. Billy seemed surprised when I sat next to him at the table. He closed the lid of his laptop and turned toward me, as to give me his full attention. His eyes were peaceful but they still didn’t calm the gnawing in my stomach. There was one question, a favor, that I had decided I needed to ask him. I wasn’t sure how he would feel about it and it had me anxious. I found the receipt in my pocket from Walburgs and started folding it methodically on the table to distract myself while I spoke.

  “I was wondering if there was something I could add to our agenda?” I glanced at him quickly and he seemed normal and fine, just curious, so I continued. “Do you think it would be possible to find Olexander? I need to talk to him.”

  Billy’s eyes narrowed and I could tell he didn’t like the idea.

  “What would be the point? You can’t chat with him, and I doubt he knows any more about us or of our history than Clara.”

  I was shaking my leg a little under the table, it was a nervous habit I’d had my whole life.

  “That’s sort of the point right there. I need to know why,” I said quietly.

  Billy still looked confused, but softened a little when he saw how uncomfortable I was with explaining myself. He adjusted his posture to an upright position as to indicate he was listening and I should continue. I rushed through the rest of my reason in one breath.

  “I need to know why he didn’t stop me from Collecting. He was all I had growing up, even if he was gone most of the time. I have to know if he knew it was a possibility. I’m not sure how we will work out talking. I just need to find him, and I have to try.”

  I put my sweaty palms flat on the table. It was Billy’s trip after all, his information, he didn’t have to take me with him, and I wondered if my new desire had changed his mind. His voice was soft, and his words came out kindly and without obligation.

  “If it’s that important to you LiLi we will find him.”

  I was happy he took my request seriously and I let the origami receipt frog hop in his direction.

  “I should really be getting to work, to let Jimmy know that I’ll be leaving.”

  “Of course, I want to talk to him too, remember. Do you want to meet me there?”

  I sighed. “Actually I was thinking we should stop first and I could lock my bike up in storage.”

  I took a quick shower, and decided on a worn out hoodie and jeans for the day. I looked like a vagabond compared to my overdone appearance as of late. I packed for another hour or so until it was time to go. Billy followed me, with less mockery this time, to the warehouse storage facility and I was sad to be leaving the bike behind.

  “We can rent ones and crash into trees in Ireland.” Billy had promised.

  So we headed for the library. I was surprised that Jimmy wasn’t there waiting for me, so I used the keys and went inside. The place seemed so foreign to me now. Had it really only been twenty-four hours since the last time I’d been here? I was flooded by memories of George, and how I would never see him again. I tried to find comfort in his last words. Anne’s here. I hoped that they were together, just as I’d always hoped everyone I’d ever held dying had someone waiting for them. I knew Billy noticed my sadness but he didn’t mention it. He settled in with his laptop and I put my things behind the desk to wait for Jimmy. And wait is exactly what we did.

  We waited and Jimmy never showed. I called his cell phone but there was no answer. It was strange for him to be this late. I was beginning to worry. Billy and I chatted throughout the day to pass the time. He seemed interested in me, so I told him about the places I had been and Collected. He tried to hide his happiness when I mentioned Valentine would not be joining us on our trip. I also warned him about Sofie, and that she would be looking at him very closely. He seemed interested in our friendship, so I told him a bit about her. Before I knew it, it was closing time. I grabbed my things and hurried Billy out the door; I didn’t want Sofie to have to wait for us. We drove back to my apartment quietly. We parked his SUV in my usual spot and both sat there in silence; I was still staring out the window deep in thought.

  “What’s bothering you LiLi?”

  “I don’t know, something feels off, Jimmy not coming to work, is odd. I can’t shake this sense that something is wrong.”

  “Do you know where he lives?” He was already turning the ignition back on in the SUV.

  “I do, I’ve seen his paycheck envelopes, but we can’t go now. Sofie will be here any second. Remember to act normal.”

  He nodded once and pulled a small black case out of his back pocket and popped in the horrendous green contact lenses.

  “Suited up and ready to go.”

  I rolled my eyes in his general direction. I climbed out of the monstrous SUV and we rounded the corner to see Sofie just about to knock on my door.

  Her eyes got wide when she saw Billy. He reached out to shake her hand and she took it without hesitation. I could see her taking in his chiseled chest and broad shoulders. She seemed to approve immediately. We went into my apartment and Sofie was putty in his hands. I went into the bedroom to put the rest of Valentines things into a box and get his carrier. The moment I sat down on the bed he jumped into my lap. I talked to him for a while, as I always did. After all, you don’t usually have a friend as loyal as Valentine had been. He went into his carrier willingly, and I carried him out to Sofie. I wasn’t sure when I had started crying but I sniffled now and Sofie rushed to give me a hug.

  “Don’t worry Lily I will take good care of him.” She smiled warmly and kissed me on my cheek. She said goodbye to Billy and left with Valentine. I sat down next to Billy on the couch quietly for a good twenty minutes before I sighed heavily and spoke.

  “So breaking and entering then?”I asked not looking at him.

  “It’s looking that way, how are you at crime?”

  “Pretty sucky.” I sighed again.

  He let out a loud laugh. “Well prepare to be schooled.” He gave me a wink and pulled me off the couch.

  We pulled up in front of Jimmy’s tiny ramshackle home just before ten. It was pitch black inside and we crept around the side of the house. His car was in the garage. We circled back around the front and stood on the porch. I grabbed Billy’s arm to get his attention in the dark.

  “What do we do now Danny Ocean?” I couldn’t see his eyes, but I sort of felt his glare. I heard a hard sigh and he knocked three short hard raps on Jimmy’s door.

  “Wow, criminal mastermind, I should have brought my steno pad.”

  There was no movement inside and after a minute Billy dropped down to his knees and pulled a lock picking kit from his pocket. As he unzipped it, I absentmindedly reached out and turned the knob letting the door fall open. I was giggling quietly as we both stepped into the small foyer. It took the length of a heartbeat to feel it. I heard the sharp gasp in my chest, and I felt Billy become rigid beside me.

  “Billy….”

  “Lily stay here.”

  The way he said my name so formally disrupted my trapped thoughts and I moved forward. Now I heard the soft noise that was breaking the silence of the still house.

  “Don’t look…” But he said the words too late. My eyes were locked on Jimmy. A rope, the kind hikers used to scale hills and the sides of mountains was wrapped around his neck. He swung softly from the exposed rafter in his living room. On the floor beside him was a scrawled note, something about how he couldn’t take the stress at work. It would have looked simple; it would have never raised suspicions. There was a stool
near where Jimmy was hanging and the note on the floor, no police jurisdiction in the country would have asked questions. That would have been the case if anyone but us had found him, but we had found him. The pressure in the room weighed on my chest, to the point of discomfort. The word on the tip of my tongue oozed from every fiber in the room. Murder. It was the darkest sin there was. Even unintentional murder left a heavy black feeling in its wake. It was as if the room was seeping the blackness of the sin itself.

  “Billy?”

  “I know Li, I can feel it. It’s like the walls are dripping with it.” His voice was barely a whisper and he looked at me with dark eyes.

  “We should get out of here.” I was whispering too, as if there was anyone left to disturb. “No one would believe it wasn’t suicide. Billy we have to go.”

  I pulled his arm and he followed me back to the porch. He looked a bit dazed, and I realized his face was probably the same mask of horror that I was wearing. I shut the door and rubbed the knob off with my sweatshirt. Don’t leave prints, you watch enough TV to know that. I was on the last step when I stopped. The traffic light across the street had turned red. Billy looked up at me with confusion and anxiety.

  “The day Jimmy left the library. I was with the kids, so he left the message with George.” My thoughts were racing a mile a minute. “George said all Jimmy took with him was a big red folder. Did you see a red folder in there?”

  Billy’s eyes seemed to be pleading to leave the house as soon as possible.

  “I didn’t see a folder, but I wasn’t looking for one. Why does it matter?”

  Because, I was sure I was right now. “The only focus Jimmy had since you emailed him was a focus on Sin-Eaters. The folder could have had information in it. What if Jimmy found out something he wasn’t supposed to know?” I was already back in the living room before Billy processed my words and I felt him behind me. His eyes were hard now. They were alert, he knew I was right and he moved into the bedroom to search. We went through Jimmy’s entire house but there was no red folder. In fact, there wasn’t a notebook, or even a pad by the phone. I checked every room again and realized his laptop was gone too.

  “I’m going to check the garage.” Billy was out the back door quickly and I looked at Jimmy’s face one more time. He hadn’t deserved this.

  “LiLi I found it. Let’s go.”

  I was flying out the door now and was in the passenger seat of Billy’s SUV in two seconds. He was a millisecond behind me and we drove fast, back to my apartment.

  Billy had been staring at the piece of paper for three hours. Occasionally he would type words into a search engine he had designed and it would return no results. When that happened he would shift angrily in his chair and go back to staring at the piece of paper. He had found the small folded piece of paper on the floor of Jimmy’s car. Whoever had killed Jimmy had clearly missed it, or maybe they knew it didn’t matter and left it. Either way the dirty piece of paper was our only lead. All it contained was a name.

  Robert M. Doyle.

  I finished packing as the sun was rising. Billy was sitting in the same chair he’d been in all night. I showered and got dressed, comfortable clothes for a long flight and finally went to sit beside him. I touched his arm gently.

  “Billy, we’re going to be leaving in under twenty-four hours. You should get ready.” I felt like I was instructing a child. He nodded and turned off his computer, putting it in its travel case. I took my bags down to the SUV to give him some privacy. I had to remind myself that Billy wasn’t used to this sort of thing. Sins barely touched him and he hadn’t been prepared to feel the strongest one mankind could offer. I found myself wanting to hug him tight and tell him it would all be ok, but I didn’t. For all I knew, nothing would be ok.

  Chapter 5

  I was sick of the sun. I felt like we were chasing it, or it had been chasing us. Our flight left LAX at six-thirty that next morning. We had to catch a connecting flight in Chicago and we made our plane with plenty of time to spare. Eighteen hours later we arrived in Dublin at eight-thirty in the morning. We didn’t look out of place; except for the fact that neither one of us appeared jet-lagged. I had to admit Billy was a much better traveler than I was. I was always worried I was going to forget something or accidentally board a plane intended for Iceland.

  The flight had been nothing out of the ordinary. Billy was very quiet through most of it, which worried me. He fidgeted a lot, playing with the zipper on his bag, putting his worn grey jacket on and then taking it off. My insecurities surfaced fast and I was worried he had changed his mind. Did he regret me coming along? It seemed more likely he was still thinking about the thick cloud he’d felt in Jimmy’s house. He seemed content to click away on his laptop while I pretended to read a book. I tried to focus on the words in front of me but all I could see was Jimmy’s face. He had been a crappy boss, but he hadn’t deserved to die. He especially didn’t deserve to die because of us.

  “It’s not your fault.” I had finally whispered to Billy around hour nine of our flights. He looked at me bitterly and grimaced.

  “If he died because searching for that book put him in the crosshairs it is my fault.”

  It was all he would say the rest of the flight, and I let him be. It had taken him a bit longer to suspect what I had put together almost instantly after seeing the paper from Jimmy’s car. It seemed obvious to me that Jimmy had found the ancient book Christopher Owens had requested. It seemed even more obvious that Jimmy would have noted the importance of such a find, and his greed had pushed him to seek a higher bidder. And it had gotten him killed. We retrieved our suitcases and went outside, I grumbled at the sun some more while I put on my sunglasses and was surprised when Billy started to load our things into a waiting black car. I looked at him quizzically.

  “A gift from Clara. She wouldn’t want us riding around in some old taxi.” He shrugged and held the door open for me. I climbed in, settling myself into the cool leather seat. It was a shame to say I had nearly forgotten all about Clara, seeing as how she was the reason we were here. It made me sad that I couldn’t meet her and between that and the memory of Jimmy I was in an awful mood. My grumpiness was offset by Billy’s sudden exuberance as we pulled onto the highway. He must have missed his Mother very much.

  “Are you excited to be in Dublin?” I asked. The silence was driving me a bit crazy.

  “I like coming home.”

  Home, it seemed a strange word to me. I’d never had a home, not in real life anyway. I had a dream home though. I had first seen it in an ad in the paper. It was an old Victorian house. It wasn’t very grand, but it was beautiful. I remember looking at the picture and thinking there was something magical about it. The teal green exterior with the pink shutters and lavender latticework made it look like something out of a fairytale. More than anything, I remember thinking that it looked safe. It felt like nothing bad would ever happen to you there. I never dreamed of course, so I would lie in bed, in my comfortable pajamas and I could imagine a million scenarios. Strangers I would meet, lives I would change. I would have neighbors who knew me, and friends who trusted me. A life without secrets, a life with shared dreams and endless hopes. I imagined myself a girl who would sleep sound at night, deep in weightless dreams, loved and content within the protective walls of her teal green house. I shook my head as if the act would shake the memory from my mind. The longing must have still been visible on my face though as Billy slid over and put his arm around me getting very close so he could speak without the driver hearing us.

  “I’m not being a very good friend am I? I have become so used to traveling alone. Don’t look so sad LiLi. We will check in at the hotel, I will go visit Clara and then I promise we will have a good time. We will forget the other night, even if it’s just for a few hours.”

  “It sounds like a date.” I smiled weakly. I was just happy he was talking again. “Why do you consider Dublin home?” I didn’t want to talk about being sad. I didn’t like talking a
bout my feelings. Maybe there was more human in me after all.

  “We moved to Dublin when I was fifteen and we lived here until I was twenty. When I became of age, we traveled around, with Clara performing the ritual all over Europe and Russia. No matter where we traveled, we always ended up spending a few months a year in Dublin. Then Clara settled down here. It’s our touchstone.”

  “That’s nice.” I tried to give him a large grin but all I could manage was the same weak smile.

  “You’re not alone now you know LiLi.”

  I was about to respond with words I hadn’t chosen yet when the car stopped and the driver turned around to inform us we were at the Fitzwilliam Hotel. It was very large and grander than anywhere I had ever stayed. Billy handed the driver something, money I assumed, and he helped load our bags onto the dolly. A bellboy appeared out of nowhere and greeted Billy as Mr. Owens. I couldn’t help the smile that escaped my lips and I arched my eyebrow at him. He shrugged nonchalantly and we followed him to our room. It seemed as if the Bellboy knew Billy, which confused me. I had assumed Billy normally stayed with Clara when he was in Dublin, but now that thought seemed silly. He was over one-hundred years old for cripes sake. He wouldn’t want to shack up with his mom. The bellboy’s engraved nametag read “Connor.” Now that I was face-to-face with him, I had to agree that he did indeed look like a Connor, if a person can look like their name. Connor pushed our door open with the swipe of a card and I felt the stunned look that took place in my features.