Bitter Burn novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: What He Signed

I lowered the gun.

I did it slowly, because my arm had begun to ache and because I could no longer see a reason to hold it up.

"Say it," I said.

Finbar did not turn around.

"Say what you signed."

"I can't, Siobhan."

"Not here, not like this.

"If I tell you, you'll take it to your father, or you'll take it to the harbor."

"Either way you'll be dead by Friday."

"That's not your decision."

"It is," he said, and his voice cracked.

"It's the only one I've made on my own in months."

I looked past him at Sabine Orr.

She stood with her hands loose and her face drawn.

"You put his name on a piece of paper," I said.

"Yes."

"And you've been paying him for the books."

"I've never paid him a cent."

"Then what did you give him?"

She hesitated.

Her eyes went to Finbar's back, and I saw a decision pass between them without a word.

"That's his to tell," she said.

"I'll give him until the end of the week."

"After that, I tell it myself."

"You'd better," I said.

The boathouse door banged again.

Bridie stood in it, in her yellow slicker, with the shotgun on her arm and the smell of the bay on her clothes.

She looked at the gun in my hand, at the federal agent with her hands out, at my husband with his back to us.

"Well," Bridie said.

"I see we're having a party."

"Aunt Bridie," I said.

"I know exactly who she is," Bridie said.

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