She did not respond, so Hook repeated the question. This time it reached her like a bucket of cold water. Her eyes opened and she struggled to a sitting position on the bed again.

“Jack? No, he wasn’t there. Just the two of us, Dorothy and me. And Chris.”

Hook neither believed nor disbelieved. Her voice, her wounded eyes, her manner all said it was true—just as they had that first night, when she had told him an altogether different story. So he could not be sure. All he could do was go along and try to get it all: the truth, or simply another, newer lie.

“Then that just leaves the one question,” he said. “The big question. Why you haven’t told this to the police.”

“What would it change? I didn’t see it happen. Dorothy claims she did. So it would only be my word against hers. And anyway, Jack doesn’t want me to. He’s afraid it would ruin him politically. Dorothy’s his employee. I’m his mistress. He says the thing would be bound to rub off on him. Hurt him.”

“And you wouldn’t want that.”

She shook her head. “It wouldn’t be fair to him. It wasn’t his doing. He wasn’t even there.”

“And his career is worth more than Chris’s name.”

She looked at him with stricken eyes. “Jack Douglas is alive, Mr. Hook. Chris is dead.”

Hook looked away from her tears. Getting up, he went over to the window and gazed out at the rain pocking into the dark pool below. What could he say? Chris is dead, Mr. Hook. Yes, you are right. My son is dead.

Behind him, she got up and poured herself a drink from the bottle on the dresser. Then she went into the bathroom, where he heard her adding water to the scotch. When she came out she sat down in the chair he had vacated. And she asked him if he would turn off the light.

“I just want to sit here in the dark for a few minutes,” she added.

Hook flipped off the wall switch, which controlled the bedside lamp. This did not put them in total darkness, however, for a light was still burning in the bathroom, and it lay softly along the side of her face, making her look even more beautiful. But Hook did not believe vanity was behind her request. All she wanted, he figured, was to sit there and not have to meet his eyes.

“You say you cared for him,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And yet you can leave it the way it is? Leave him a suicide?”

“I think he’d understand. I don’t think he’d want me to hurt innocent people. Even for the sake of your pride.”

“My pride.”

“That’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it? No one can hurt Chris anymore. So it’s you we’re hurting. Your pride.”

Hook tried hard not to lose his self-control. “You said you came here tonight for the truth,” he got out finally. “To tell me the truth.”