enough yet to determine that but I got a bad feeling.
"Will you take the case?" he asked, fixing me with a long look. "Whatever the answer is, I want you to find out what happened."
"Before I commit to anything, I need to know if you can think of any reason why someone might want to hurt your wife?"
Austen looked away, focusing on Sophie's still face. For a long moment, he appeared lost in thought. "Yes. That is, maybe. I'm not sure."
"What's your concern?" I asked.
Austen's shoulders sagged. "Over the last couple of months, I've had the strangest feeling my wife isn't who she says she is. If she's not Sophie, then I don't know who she could be. Perhaps somebody else does? Someone who wanted to hurt her? It's stupid, I know, but I can't shake the feeling." He looked up, his eyes filled with obvious worry. "I really need your help."
"Tell me everything you can," I said.
Chapter Six
"I don't know where to start," said Austen, resting his head in his hand. "Everything has spun around my brain ever since I found out Sophie got hurt. No, even before that. My mind is a mess."
"You're sleep deprived too. That doesn't help," I told him. "You really should go home and get some rest."
"I can't go home. Not back to that house, not without knowing what happened."
"What about a hotel?" I suggested. "Or a friend’s place?"
"Maybe. But..." He glanced at Sophie. She hadn’t moved since the last time I visited. Her head still lay on a pillow, her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped together over a soft, yellow wool blanket that didn't appear to be hospital issue.
"I can have someone from the agency sit with Sophie all night if you're concerned about her safety. You can meet with them beforehand and they'll call you if any issues arise," I assured him. "You don't have to agree now. Just consider it a feasible option." I didn't want him to feel pressured to leave his wife's side, especially not while he was so worried, but I knew he would feel and think better if he got a few hours of rest. Plus, if he wanted me to investigate, I needed to clear his mind as much as possible.
"I'll think about it," he agreed with a weary nod.
"You said you had suspicions before Sophie's accident?" I prompted, moving him along from pondering all the what-ifs and hoping to keep his thoughts more ordered.
"Yes. I can't say what particularly made me think there was something wrong but I guess lots of little things began to puzzle me before they all seemed to collide in my head at once, and now I've had nothing to do but think... well..." He sighed again.
"Such as?"
"Well, for one thing, Sophie rarely speaks about her life before me, before us. Things like her parents, where she grew up, her school, places she traveled, jobs. Barely anything beyond the basics. Right from when we first met, she always said she was future-focused, and liked to look forwards not backwards, which I thought was an attractive asset. It felt like such a positive, exciting way to look at life."
"But you don't think so now?"
"Oh, I still think it's a great way to focus on life, but... nothing from her past? Even her brother shuts down when I bring up something innocuous like a funny thing that happened at my senior prom, or the time my friends and I went to Cabo for spring break in my freshman year of college and I ask where did they go? Or discussing the dog I had as a kid and did they have any pets? Sophie barely replies. I guess I just thought I knew all about her. Now I can only wonder if I know anything."
"You mentioned her brother?"
"Yeah." Austen's face darkened and he drew a deep breath. "Zach Gallo. They're really close. I met him about three months after we started dating and..."
"You don't like him," I filled in, sensing Austen was trying, no, struggling, to come up with something diplomatic to say.
"No, I don't," he admitted. "I get they're close what with being the only family members they still have, but it's too much. He's always in Sophie's business. He speaks over her or for her. He makes decisions for her that he has no business making. I used to think it was heavy co-dependency that I hoped would improve after we got married, but it's still too much.