Katie Fox tried to sleep but it wasn’t possible. The day had started as they all had since Sean’s death, with tears soaking her pillow. From there it had quickly deteriorated to the worst day of her life, with the kidnapping of James. The miraculous re-appearance of Sean had brought joy and hope back into her life. Joy at his being alive and hope that with Sean back, she would get her baby back. Sean exuded a confidence like no man she knew. That same confidence had convinced her that James would be returned unharmed to her and their family would be perfect again.
The realization that the new Sean wasn’t her Sean had been devastating and almost as though she had once again lost her husband, the grief had passed only to return with the added loss of James. Tears began to flow freely as she reflected on the day, the kidnapping, the killings, the bodies, Sean. Sean, it didn’t make sense, he was exactly like her Sean, his mannerisms, the confidence, the power he exuded. Everything about him said it was her Sean but her Sean didn’t have a metal hip. Even if he had had one, there was no way in the space of three months it could have healed in the way the new Sean’s had. It wasn’t her Sean but everything else was the same. How could a man have an exact replica. Only twins could be identical but Sean didn’t have a brother and even if he did, nobody calls their twins the same name.
Just as sleep and some respite from the trauma began to descend, the creak of the front door being opened snapped her awake. She jumped from bed and rushed to the door, perhaps it was James. The sight of the facially battered Luis met her as she rushed towards the door. The sight of the bruising and lack of Sean by his side sent her in to a fresh round of panic.
“It’s OK,” offered Luis in an attempt to placate her. “Sean didn’t do this, it was my uncle!”
The thought that her son was with a man that did that to his own nephew, not surprisingly, did the exact opposite of what Luis was hoping. Katie began to struggle for breath as a full-blown panic attack washed over her tired and stressed body.
Luis ran to the kitchen and managed to find a brown paper bag, placing it over Katie’s mouth and guided her towards the sofa. Luis explained what was happening and that Sean and James were both fine, which immediately calmed Katie down.
“It’s probably best you get some sleep,” suggested Luis rising from the sofa.
An exhausted Katie could do little more than nod in agreement and force herself up from the sofa.
“What about you?” she asked half heartedly as she made her way towards the staircase.
“I have my orders, I have to clean this place up!”
“Your uncle wants my house cleaned up?” she asked somewhat startled that the madman would care if bodies and blood littered her house.
“No, Sean wants me to clean it up!”
Katie could not think of anything to say. The nephew of the leader of the world’s most feared drug cartel was now following the orders of her, she caught herself, the man who looked exactly like her dead husband. If the day could have got any stranger, she didn’t know how. However, the knowledge that James and the other Sean were OK helped her fall into a fitful sleep.