Chapter 19: Cell Four

They put handcuffs on Leland in front of forty cameras.

He did not fight.

He walked to the police car with his chin up and his eyes on my father's window.

My father drew the curtain.

The lab called the detective at three.

The blue capsule, the tonic from the crystal bottle and the powder in Tobias's pill box were the same poison.

The pharmacy's delivery sheets were signed in the same round hand that had written *With love, Delphine.*

They came for her at five.

She was in the drawing room in a pale blue dress, pouring tea for my mother, when two officers walked in.

She screamed and held on to the sofa.

She screamed so loudly that the neighbors came out into their yards.

I did not see it, and I did not need to.

Rowan's driver filmed the end of it from the gate.

By seven, my father's lawyer had paid two million dollars to get Leland out.

By nine, Delphine was still in Cell Four.

"I need ten minutes," I told the detective.

"She asked for her mother."

"I know."

"Mrs. Peverell, you were her victim."

"That's why I need ten minutes."

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then he took a key from his belt.

The cell was a concrete box with a steel bench.

The light overhead buzzed.

Delphine sat on the bench in her pale blue dress, with her knees drawn up and her blond hair pulled out of its ribbon.

Her mascara had run down to her chin.

When she saw me, she stood, and her face lit up with relief.

"Faye!" She came to the bars. "Oh, thank God. Sister, you have to tell them. It was a mistake. You know I'd never hurt anyone."

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