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“Mercy, I’m also a father. It’d kill me to think I was burdening one of my kids with something like this. But I have four of them and they’re close. They won’t be stuck with me alone.”

“Mac, really. Things are good. Dad’s doing well. His new medication has made a real difference. His memory lapses are fewer and farther between. He’s like night and day from where he was a year ago. I promise.”

“I’m not talking about Tom, honey. I’m talking about you. Where’s your brother in all of this?”

My brother. It was hard to remember I technically had one at times. Everett was twenty years older than me and from my father’s first marriage. His mother, Loretta, and my mother had no relationship. Everett had viewed both of us like usurpers. Worse than that. I knew he felt like my mother was just my dad’s midlife crisis and I was the thing she trapped him with. I knew better, but I couldn’t sit here and pretend I might not feel the same way in his shoes.

“Everett’s ... well ...”

“Everett,” Mac finished my sentence for me. “Understood. But does he even know about what’s going on?”

I suddenly felt uncomfortable spilling family tea. The truth was, I hadn’t spoken to Everett in years. I knew he had called Dad with concerns about my living with him. But they weren’t exactly close either.

“I get it,” Mac said before I answered him. “I’m done butting into your business. Just please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“He’s not an invalid,” I said, sounding more defensive than Mac deserved from me. “He’s living his life, Mac. He’s slowing down, yes. But so are you.”

Finally, Mac’s scowl turned into a smile. “No mistaking you for Tom’s daughter.”

“I appreciate your willingness to see me this morning.” I changed the subject. “Did Dad mention to you what this was about?”

“Not really,” Mac said. “He just told me to give you whatever help you needed. I would have anyway.”

“Thanks. Then this is going to be firmly out of the blue. But I’m looking for information about the Deadwater Lake murders. I know it’s a Down County crime, but Dad said you’d still know a fair amount on who the players were on the law enforcement side.”

Mac cocked his head to the side. “For a client? May I ask who it is?”

I hesitated before answering. “It is for a client, yes. I hope you can respect that I have to protect her privacy. I can’t tell you who she is right now.”

“Of course,” he said. “Well, I can tell you that was by far the worst crime that ever happened in this region. Our department actually worked pretty closely with Down County. I helped coordinate the manhunt. The victims were all from Helene. Deadwater Lake is only two miles from the county border. What do you need to know?”

“My dad filled me in on some. But I’ll admit I was naïve in that I didn’t know Derrek Sidney had a connection to this area. Though I can’t say I followed much about him at the time. I was a pretty self-absorbed teenager.”

Mac laughed. “Self-absorbed isn’t the word I’d use to describe you. Though I only remember meeting you maybe once when you were a kid.”

“My mom hated this place. She hated that island even more. In her mind, Dad’s plan to retire here was one of the factors in her wanting out of the marriage.” There were many others, but again, that was a lot of tea to spill in one morning.

“Well, the summer those girls died, it consumed everything, as you can imagine.”

“Can you tell me about the investigation itself?” I asked. “Who was the lead detective for Down County? How was Sidney caught?”

“It was the kind of thing they could have made a movie about, really. He was up on charges in Ohio for another murder. They had him in custody. He escaped and came here, then killed those girls. Like a coup de grâce before they finally caught up with him again for good.”

“Was there ever a theory that he might have had an accomplice?”

Mac shook his head and pursed his lips. “Not that I recall. He was seen in the area during the time frame the girls died. I believe they got his DNA at the scene. I don’t remember a lot of details of the investigation. But I knew Detective Dan Holland pretty well. We actually went to the police academy together. He’s the one who caught that case for Down County. The feds also gave him a lot of help. There was a task force formed just for those murders. I was part of it at least as far as the manhunt was concerned.”

“Somebody had to have helped him,” I said. “Certainly, if he escaped custody. How did he get from point A to point B? His face was online everywhere. It’s not like the days of Ted Bundy.”

“I don’t know what they ever figured out about that. How he escaped. We were focused on what happened here. Holland is the one who could give you the nitty-gritty of who knew what and when.”

“Where can I find him?”

“He retired maybe six years ago. Moved down to Florida to be near his grandkids. It was a good thing. He had two heart attacks before he was fifty. I think his wife pretty much told him it was this job or his marriage.”

“Good for her,” I said. My mother had said something similar to my father. The result was wildly different.

“I can send you his contact info,” Mac said. “I’m sure he’d be happy to talk to you about all of this. He lived that case. It brought on his second heart attack.”