Chairs scraped as they were pushed back and everyone got up to leave. Atkinson was staring at her. He waited until the room was clear before he spoke.

“You okay, boss?” he asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

For a second she considered telling him. In the corner of her eye, she could see Ruby staring down at them from the board, so much older than she’d seemed the last time Joanna had seen her. Apart from evident anxiety, Ruby’s face was closed, expression indecipherable; holding on to her secrets, as always.

“Oh, nothing,” said Jo. “I mean yes, fine. Sorry. I’ve just got a bit of … indigestion. I think I need a drink of water.” She pushed past him and out of the room before he could respond.

In the bathroom, she splashed water on her face and stared at herself in the mirror. She was pale as paper; her hands shook as she retied her blonde hair into its topknot. When she reached into her pocket for a tissue, her fingers touched the box containing the silver ring she’d been carrying around since Ruby’s birthday, that she hadn’t sent, that she’d hoped she would be able to give to Ruby in person. She took it out, slipped the tip of her finger inside it to feel the engraved inscription. Not simply a birthday present, the ring was an apology, a promise, and an olive branch, supposed to be the first step in healing the rift between them. She turned the ring in the light and the letters glinted. Filia mea et soror mea et cor meum: my sister, my daughter, my heart.

CHAPTER

25

NOW

The Injured Man

Dreams

HE HEARS THE faint slap-slap of a spinning rope, a pair of feet taking off and landing, over and over. The dark place has transformed into a hospital room, but it’s not the muted white and gray tones of a normal hospital. The walls have no windows or doors, are twice as high as they should be, and they glow with lurid menace. The whole scene is wonky, oversaturated with color. There is a girl in the corner, skipping.

Cinderella, dressed in yella,

Went upstairs to kiss a fella

By mistake, she kissed a snake

How many doctors will it take?

One, two, three, four.

She’s holding up her fingers with the numbers. When she gets to number four, the wooden handle falls from her hand. She comes closer, her bare and toughened feet shuffling along the vinyl, the rope trailing behind her. The man tries to move, to sit up, and finds that he cannot. The girl seems to know that he is trapped, a fly in her web. It’s a dream, he tells himself, and she’s been conjured by his imagination. Perhaps if he shuts his eyes, when he opens them, she’ll be gone. He shuts his eyes tight and waits.