Maud knelt on the floor, her hands locked in front of her. “Please help me... I want to know where I’ll be when it happens, what I’ll be doing. I can’t bear to be taken by surprise...”
Jessica said quietly, “I’m sorry, Aunt Maud.”
“Don’t say that! You said they were going to die. You knew exactly how it would happen.”
“I know what will happen to people if they won’t stop what they’re doing or change their courses — and you won’t change...”
“I don’t believe you! Why are you lying to me? I’ve got to know.”
A hinge creaked behind them and the door was shoved open unexpectedly. “All right, Maud. Get on your feet.” The words were slurred, and Eric swayed as he entered the room, a hand reaching for support to the carved bedstead.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at Maud, still kneeling beside Jessica, an expression of shock and fear on her face.
“Supposing you tell me what kind of deal you’re trying to cook up with the little princess here.”
“Eric, I’ve talked to Constable Riley in Ballytone. He—”
“What a busy lady you are, Maud. Picking my pockets for the key, sneaking up here to conspire with Jessica the minute my back was turned. Why, Maud? Why? What were you hoping to find out?”
“Goddammit, didn’t you hear me?” Maud said, screaming the words at him. “Constable Riley telephoned while you were dead drunk, lost to the world. They aren’t on their way to England, Eric. They aren’t on their way anywhere. They’re lying dead right now in Ballytone.”
“What... what’re you saying? Who’re you talking about?” Eric’s expression was baffled, his voice stuttering in confusion. “Not to England — what in hell do you mean, Maud?”
“I mean they’re all dead, Eric. That’s what I mean! Tony Saxe, Benny Stiff, and that kid they took with them, they were all killed in a freak car crash down in the village.”
Jessica closed her eyes and said, “Not Kevin,” in a soft, ambiguous whisper.
“Yes, all of them,” Maud said. “And Tony and Benny Stiff died exactly as she said they would. Benny died in flames, trapped in the car when it flipped over and the gas tank exploded. But Tony Saxe was thrown out right in front of the Hannibal Arms. He went right through the plate glass window—” Maud laughed shakily and pointed at Jessica. “That’s right, Eric. Just like she told us! Tony Saxe landed on that big elephant tusk right at the end of the bar. Just as Jessica predicted, that’s how Tony died... gored to death by the tusk of an elephant.”
The full impact was cushioned for Eric by the liquor he had absorbed. Narcotized by strong spirits, he was aware most forcefully of only one thing. That was the fact that here was indisputable truth that his niece could, in fact, foretell the future. With that realization, he could feel the surge of adrenalin charging through his body.
“Good God, Maud! Don’t you see what this means? No, no, you don’t,” he said, the words running together with his excitement. “It means that the horses she gave us for the Grand National are good as gold!”
Suddenly Eric struck his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Oh, my God! What happened to the money? What happened to all our money, Maud?”
“I was too frightened to think about that.”
“Jesus Christ! That’s the first thing you should have asked the Constable about... the money. It’s more important than ever now, because now we don’t have to split it three ways.”
As the flash-point of his anger subsided, Eric realized it had been therapeutic. It had burned away the whiskey fumes crowding his mind. Clear-headed and alert, he said, “Put that tape back on her mouth and get downstairs. We’ve got work to do.”
After he had gone, Maud turned and stared at Jessica.
“Why won’t you help me? Why should I be so frightened of death? Can’t you even tell me that?”
In the new deep tones that so terrified Maud, Jessica said: “If you fear the question, then you must fear the answer. I will tell you only this: As long as Uncle Eric lives, you shall live longer still.”
“You can’t leave it like that!” Maud said, trembling with excitement. “You must tell me — how long he will live...”
“I will give you this knowledge,” Jessica said. “His death will dissolve your every fear, give you the freedom you so long for.”
Maud looked intently at her, feeling a numbing chill as she noticed the strange, knowing smile curving the girl’s lips. Then she felt faint, her knees trembling with fatigue.
Dreading the next answer, she said, “You know that I’m terrified, Jessica. And now even Eric is afraid. He’s pretending... but he is afraid. You know something else we don’t. I can tell from your eyes. You’re not afraid, are you? You’re not afraid, damn you!”
“Only for you,” Jessica said in tones that broke the last straining links of Maud’s control.
“Oh, dear God!” Maud said in a ragged voice. She grabbed the candlestick and ran from the room, hurrying unsteadily through the shadows to the staircase.
Thunder broke above Easter Hill. A flaring bolt of lightning flooded the gardens with brightness, shimmering on brass weather-vanes and the wet panes of the house, falling in erratic patterns through the draperies of Jessica’s bedroom. The spreading radiance traced glowing streaks along the silver scissors that lay close to Jessica on the night table.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When Maud ran into the library, she saw that Eric was in the adjacent study at Dalworth’s desk, speaking into the telephone. Holding the candlestick high to guide her, she hurried to join him, seeing then the patronizing smile which usually accompanied his adoption of a successful charade.
“Please be good enough to tell Constable Riley I am most grateful,” he was saying. “My wife and I are leaving within an hour for Shannon. We’ll stop at your office on the way to collect our money. And, of course—” Eric smiled across the phone at Maud. “—we’ll leave something tangible as a gesture of our appreciation.”
After a pause, he added, “No, I don’t have an address in the States for them. Mr. Saxe and Mr. Stiff were casual acquaintances, you understand. I suggest you contact the American Embassy in Dublin for that information.”
Replacing the receiver, Eric said, “Benny Stiff’s pounds quite literally went up in smoke, but Tony’s wallet and its contents are intact and in good hands. That was Riley’s clerk I just spoke with. He bought my explanation without a quibble. I told the good man that Tony Saxe was acting as our agent, carrying a large sum of our cash to purchase certain real estate in England. I added, of course, that I had Mr. Saxe’s fully legal receipt for said monies, which we’ll just make out and sign before we leave for the village.”
“Eric, forget the money. We can’t—”
“Are you out of your mind? Maud, have you any concept of what twenty thousand pounds pays off on a fifty-to-one shot? We’re talking about a million pounds, Maud. Nothing else matters now.”
“Damn you, listen to me!”
“Maud, I’m warning you... I’m almost out of patience.”
“I talked to Jessica. She said she isn’t—”
“You idiot! I told you not to listen to her!”