Dead Before the Truth Revealed novel · Chapter 7 of 24
Chapter 7: What Edmund Kept
Edmund drove me back to the lake in the dark, and neither of us spoke until the cabin door was locked.
I took off the wig and put it on the kitchen table.
My own hair came down around my shoulders, flat and damp, and I was myself again.
He lit the woodstove and filled a kettle.
"I saw Constance's face when the church emptied," he said. "She did not look like a woman who had lost anyone."
"She thinks Camille killed me."
"Does she."
"She told her to keep me quiet. She did not say how quiet."
Edmund's hands stopped on the kettle.
"Edmund," I said. "Why didn't you speak? That night. Or any night after."
He did not turn around.
"I told myself it wasn't my place."
"That isn't an answer."
"No."
He set the kettle on the stove and sat down heavily at the table across from me.
"I was at the Kensington house when the call came. Constance sent me to the lake, because the family lawyer goes where the trouble is. I got there as they were loading you into the second ambulance."
He rubbed his beard.
"You were half-conscious. You caught my sleeve and said, 'Tell him it's Ciara.' I told you I would."
"You didn't."
"Camille was standing on the gravel in a wet blanket," he said. "Anthony was on the other stretcher with bandages on his eyes, saying thank you to anyone who would listen. And Constance came up beside me and said, very softly, 'Which of those girls we can use is not a matter of who got wet.'"
I stared at him.
"She had me draft a retainer that night. A generous one. It paid for my wife's treatment for two years, and my wife died anyway, and I kept the money."
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