—
Although my fever had broken, I was in no condition to get out of bed. The coughing alone was exhausting, as well as agonizing.
Anna was knitting by the fire and I was resting my eyes when there was a rapping on the doorframe.
“Knock, knock,” said Hank. “Are you receiving visitors?”
“I should think not,” Anna said sternly. “Not when she’s in this state.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be glib. Please, Maddie—may I have a word? Alone?”
“She’s recuperating, you fool,” said Anna. “Whatever it is can wait.”
“It’s all right,” I whispered. My voice was nearly gone from all the coughing.
Anna stared at Hank for a couple of seconds, then held up the splayed fingers of one hand. “Five minutes,” she announced. “And not one minute more. I’ll be in the hallway.”
She set her knitting on the floor and sailed out, throwing Hank a searing look as she passed.
He hovered uncomfortably, fidgeting, as though he didn’t know what to do with his hands. I was afraid he might light a cigarette. Finally he walked around the bed to the chair. He plopped into it, crossed his legs, and stared at the mantel.
“Did he really try to drown you?” he finally asked. “I mean, are you positive?”
Only after the words were out did he look at me. I stared straight at him. He dropped his gaze and took a deep breath.
“Look,” he said. “I know this doesn’t change what happened, but I’ve decided to send a telegram to the Colonel. I’m going to tell him Ellis was lying about being color-blind. There are tests, you know. He can’t fake it forever.”
After a pause, I said, “What for? Revenge?”
“Because he deserves it! Because in addition to what he almost managed to have done to you medically, he tried to kill you! And he destroyed the footage! And he cost me Violet! He’s cost me everything, probably even you!” He dropped his head and pressed his fingers into the corners of his eyes, as though he were about to cry.
I watched him, unmoved.
“He didn’t cost you Violet,” I said. “You were just as terrible to her as you were to me.”
He quit trying to cry and looked up. “I beg your pardon?”
“I know everything, Hank.”
“Well, apparently I don’t. What are you talking about?”
“Were you heads or tails?” I asked. “And more importantly, did you win or lose?”
His eyes went wide and unblinking. He stared at me for a long time. “Jesus, Maddie. I don’t know what to say.”
“I think I’d prefer it if you said nothing at all.”
Anna came back into the room.
“Bob the Bobby is downstairs,” she said. “He says he needs to speak to both of you right away, and since it can’t wait and Maddie can’t come down, he’s asked me to check if it’s all right for him to come up to the bedroom, even though I was very clear that it’s not at all proper, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you said no.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “He can come up.”
I tried to remain calm, but was shot full of adrenaline. What if he’d come to tell us that Ellis had slipped away?
—
Angus and Anna led Bob into the bedroom.
He stood at the foot of my bed, holding his cap.
“Mrs. Hyde,” he said, nodding a greeting. “Are you feeling a wee bit better, I hope? Angus tells me you were quite poorly overnight.”
“Yes, thank you. I think I’m on the mend,” I said, although the effort sparked a fit of coughing. I rolled onto my side, and Anna rushed over to thump my back.
Bob waited until I was finished and Anna had propped me up again. “I’m very sorry to intrude like this, but I’m afraid a situation has arisen.”
“What type of situation?” asked Angus, and from the way his face clouded I saw that he’d jumped to the same conclusion I had.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Bob said. He gazed at his shoes for a moment, then looked Hank square in the face. “Mr. Boyd, was there any kind of…altercation down at the shore?”
“Sure, I knocked his block off.”
“But was he…conscious when you last saw him?”
“He was a little worse for wear, but definitely conscious. Mewling and obstreperous, even.”
“Yes, well,” said Bob, twisting his cap. “I’m afraid that when I went back to make the arrest, I found the suspect deceased.”
Angus was by my side instantly, his hand on my shoulder. I reached up and clasped his fingers.
“What? How?” Hank demanded.
“He appears to have drowned in two inches of water,” said Bob. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He was facedown at the water’s edge. The rest of him wasn’t even wet.”
Hank laughed bitterly. “He was probably playing possum so you’d leave—he’s not above doing that, you know.”
“There’s no question that he’s dead. The body’s already at the morgue in Inverness. So the question now becomes how it happened.”
Hank’s expression grew panicked as the implication sank in. He leapt from the chair.
“My God, you can’t think I killed him!” he said. “He was staggering around when I left, I swear! He must have fallen in after. I boxed his ears! That’s all!”
He swiveled to face me, his eyes desperate and his fists clenched. “Maddie! Tell him! For God’s sake—you know I wouldn’t kill Ellis! Tell him!”
“It’s true,” I said. “Hank would never kill Ellis. They’re two parts of the same person.”
Hank stared at me, stricken.
Bob rubbed his chin for a while, thinking. “Well, given the situation—and it is indeed a first for me—I suppose I could file it as an accidental drowning…Assuming there are no objections on the part of the family?”
He looked at me inquiringly. After a few seconds, I dipped my head in assent. Angus squeezed my shoulder, and I clutched his fingers even more tightly.
Bob took a deep breath. “Under the circumstances, I’m not sure what the right thing is to say. And while I know this is all very sudden, I’m afraid you’re going to have to start thinking about final arrangements. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, anything at all.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
After Bob left, Hank headed toward the door, moving like a sleepwalker.
When his bedroom door clicked shut, I looked up at Angus. I knew something was coming, but nothing could have prepared me for the bloodcurdling scream that rang through the building. I threw my arms around Angus’s waist, waiting as the dreadful keening subsided into wild crying.
Angus held my head against him and stroked my hair. “And what about you, m’eudail? Are you all right?”
I nodded. “I think so. I don’t suppose I would have wished this on anyone, but my God…”
“It’s all right, mo run geal og. There’s no need to explain. Not to me.”
I took his hand and pressed my cheek into it.
Down the hall, Hank continued to rage and grieve, but there was nothing any of us could do. There was not a soul on earth who could have comforted him, because he was worse than heartbroken. He’d been cleaved down the middle.