“Well. I’ll think of somewhere else to go. I’ve lived rougher than this. At least the roof is sound, and I have a bed. Though I couldn’t sleep in it. I made myself a pallet on the floor, next to Timmy’s bed. I slept there many a night when he had croup or a heavy cold. It was familiar.”

“Did you love him more than Harry?”

“I didn’t know Harry. Even though I was there with him as he grew. Timmy kept getting in my way. I’d see his smile in the way Harry’s lips quirked. The shrug of a shoulder—the way he’d kick a football. Even the way he sometimes talked with his mouth full and the way a lick of hair stood up straight after a nap. God, how I tried.”

“And Jenny? Did you love her as much as you loved Florence? Or are you unable to love anyone but yourself?”

“What difference does it make to you? Yes, I thought I was in love with Florence—I was young, I wanted the world, and she thought I was everything I wanted to be. I could see myself in her eyes. Better than my father’s, surely.”

There was a silence, and he said, “Jenny knew nothing about Timmy. It was a relief to talk to her—to pretend this part of my past didn’t exist. And then I couldn’t bear not to come here and remember. You saw through me. You always have known the kind of man I was. It was like looking into my mirror, when I was with you.”

“Yes. Well. It all came crashing down. You brought it down, you know. Wittingly or unwittingly.”

“You haven’t told me. Why did you come?” he asked.

“I brought you something.”

“That’s Peter’s revolver.”

“I thought you might like to die as Peter Teller. This Peter Teller.”

“I won’t hang, and I won’t shoot myself. I disappeared before, and I can do it again. You heard Gran—what she said will still be enough to hang me about the laudanum.”

“I was angry enough with you to want to see you hang,” she said. “I could have told them it was nonsense about the laudanum. She could tolerate it perfectly well, mixed with warmed milk. I don’t know why she was ill that other time. She might have had a miscarriage for all I knew.”

“Why the hell didn’t you speak up and tell Jessup what you knew?”

“Why should I make life easier for you? It would be best, really, if you just went away, but the police will find you in the end. Harry will do very well with Amy and Edwin to care for him. Put the barrel in your mouth and simply pull the trigger. Like this.”

“You’re wrong about me. I didn’t kill anyone!”