Chapter 91

“What’s wrong, Karin?”

I’m lying on my bed in a heap still in my school clothes and shoes, my face hidden under my pillow. The sheet beneath my face is damp with tears.

My father sits on the edge of the bed next to me. I sit up and throw my arms around his neck.

“Did you have a bad day at school?”

I nod, my head still pressed against him.

“Tell me what happened,” he says.

I pull my head off of Dad’s shoulder. His face is still young, his hair still a sandy blonde. It’s the father I know - so unlike the sick old man I last saw at the jail.

I wipe my eyes with my hands and rub my nose against my sleeve. Dad reaches over to my bedside table for a tissue.

“Here,” he says, holding it over my nose for me to blow.

I sit cross-legged on the bed, looking down at my clasped hands. He stuffs the used tissue into his pocket while I take a deep breath.

“At lunch today, Margaret asked me about my mother. I told her, ‘I don’t have a mother, just a father,’ and she said, ‘Everyone has a mother.’”

The tears start to well up again as I replay it in my head.

“And I said, ‘Well, I don’t,’ and she said, ‘You must have been really bad and she left.’” I inhale sharply and bite my lip.

I want to hide myself. I cover up my face with my hands.

“Karin,” Dad says, running his fingers through my hair, “You didn’t do anything wrong. She left us both - for reasons that had nothing to do with you.”

He gently uncovers my face. He puts his hand under my chin and lifts it to him, so that I’m looking into his eyes. They’re a warm, chocolate brown.

“I know it’s hard to understand now.” He pulls me into his lap.

“One day,” he says, touching his head to mine, “You’ll be holding your own child. You’ll wonder how any parent could ever leave or hurt such a perfect, little soul.” His voice cracks.

“You’ll see then,” he says. “It’s not the child - it wasn’t you - who was broken.”

Dad’s words echo through my head, but I don’t feel them in my heart. I’m that same five year-old girl again, wondering what I did wrong.

More than that - she blindsighted me.

The greatest mystery of my life, brought to light. The deepest wound, brought to the surface.

All so she can use me - use my connection to Ansel.

I go into the bathroom and splash water on my face. I stare at my reflection in the mirror. I see features reflected back to me that I can now place - my dark hair, the shape of my eyes, and the thin, delicate body frame that was so prized in the ballet world.

Ada nudges me.

One thing at a time, Karin.

She’s right. I’ll worry about her later. Most importantly, I’ll figure out how to help Dad, but right now, I need to make sure Ansel’s safe. I’m filled with Ada’s sense of urgency over it.

I’m pacing the length of the living room when Joy gets back.

She sets her stuff down and falls wearily into the sofa. She looks defeated. Grim.

I’m restless, but I force myself to sit down next to her. “Is Doc okay?”

“He seems okay,” she says. “Mostly, he seems ticked off. The really bad thing is, we couldn’t make bail.”

“Why?”

Joy swallows. “The judge set it sky-high, since the charge is directly related to King David.” Her voice sounds dead. “If Ansel can’t help, there’s no telling how long Doc will be stuck there.”

For a second, I want to push back at her words. Ansel’s worth more than what he can do with his position or money, but I know Joy’s just worried about Doc, and I also know I’m feeling triggered largely because of Queen Abigail’s request.

“Let’s hope he heals up okay,” I say, nodding in agreement.

Joy blinks. “You haven’t heard the news, have you?”

I’m hit with a sense of dread. “What news,” I ask, furrowing my brow.

“The NBI decided to press charges. They announced it just an hour ago.”

“What?” I feel like I’ve been punched.

“Yeah,” Joy says, scrunching her face up. “If he - I mean, when he’s discharged from the hospital, he’ll be arrested.” She looks at me with a pained expression.

I close my eyes and exhale deeply. “Does anything go right? Ever?”

“It’s a bunch of crap,” she says. She slumps down further into the sofa.

I’m twitchy with energy. I stand up again and resume my pacing.

“What did her majesty want,” Joy asks, rolling her eyes. “We didn’t exactly hit it off.”

I stop mid-pace. The mention of her gnaws at my stomach. “I don’t really want to go into that, just yet.” I cross my arms. “Let’s just say, I know where Cherry gets it.”

“She’s a snob,” Joy says. “It was obvious she had her nose turned up about being here with me.”

“Joy,” I say, wanting to re-focus, “I’m worried about Henry.”

“Why?” She reaches over to her coffee table and picks up a magazine.

“It’s just -” I stop, feeling embarrassed to say it aloud. Joy flips through the magazine.

“Ada was picking up on some weird vibes from him,” I say. “He and Maggie came by to see me at the hospital.”

“What do you mean, ‘weird?’” She lays the magazine down on her chest.

“There was something not right with him. Ada was scared he might do something. She didn’t want me to leave Ansel alone.”

“I don’t get it. What would he do to Ansel?”

“I - I don’t know. It doesn’t even make sense… But I’m worried, and now I can’t stay with Ansel like Ada wants me to, because I’m barred from the hospital.”

“Mark that off your worries,” Joy says. “I’ll go sit up there and stay with him, if you’d like. As long as you’d like.”

“Really? You don’t think I’m being silly?”

No,” she says. “We still don’t know what happened to Ansel or who was involved.”

She picks up the magazine again and drops it back onto the coffee table. “Even if he’s not really in any danger,” she says, “It makes sense that you and Ada would feel protective right now.”

“You have a way of making things make sense,” I say appreciatively. A measure of relief is washing through me. I’m not being ridiculous, and - most importantly - I’ll have help.

“When do you want me to go up there to the hospital,” Joy asks.

“They’re still being strict on visitors right now,” I say. “So, I don’t think you or anyone is getting in there today.”

“I’ll check on things tomorrow, then,” she says, sitting up.

I start to get anxious pinpricks again. “Maybe I’ll go to the manor and talk to Henry, or at least Maggie, and I can poke around a little.”

Joy crosses her leg. “What are you looking for,” she asks.

“I’m not sure, but I could check out his office, maybe, or -” I gasp.

“What is it?” Joy drops her leg and leans forward.

“Charles,” I say. “He was acting weird the day the NBI came. He was trying to get into Henry’s office.”

Joy’s brow is wrinkled. “Why?”

“I need to talk to him.”

We get on speaker phone with Charles. His voice sounds serious and composed, although there’s some anxiety brimming underneath his words as his story begins to spill out.

“I have very good hearing, even for a werewolf,” he says. “My mother likened it to a special gift. So, while I wasn’t intending to eavesdrop the day that Dr. Woods was killed, I did catch quite a bit of what was said - beg your pardon - between you and Sir Ansel.”

Even over the phone, I can feel the heat wave of embarrassment coming off of him.

“It’s okay,” I say. My cheeks feel hot, too.

“I saw Mr. Henry, standing outside the door of the music room, for quite a lengthy bit of time when you were arguing. Unquestionably, he was listening in. I thought it was very distasteful at the time, but after the rumors and allegations spread, I started to think about how similarly they mirrored-”

Charles clears his throat uncomfortably. “Mirrored what you were saying, Lady Karin… Heightened yes, but it seemed uncanny.”

Joy slammed her hand down against the arm of the couch. “I fucking said the same thing! Didn’t I?”

I scowl, but I have to give it to her. “Yes,” I say, sighing.

In the background, I can hear the hum of a TV and the sound of ice clinking.

“There was also quite a bit of personal information leaked about Ansel’s illness and time in the sanitorium,” Charles says. “Perhaps a source came forward to seize on the moment, or perhaps, the reporters were led.”

“Makes sense to me,” Joy says.

“What I regret,” Charles says, “Is my stupidity in trying to go into Henry’s office when he was just down the hall and saw me. Everything was so chaotic after the NBI arrived. He was preoccupied and I didn’t think he’d notice, or if he did, I believed he would assume I was going in to clean. I took the gamble, and as I said, it was incredibly stupid. I was just so frantic to check things out.”

Next to me, Joy is fixed intently on the phone. “Did you ever find anything, Charles?”

“Yes.”

Joy whips her head around to look at me.

“I found a file of handwritten notes from Sir Ansel - memos, notations from meetings and the like.”

Joy exhales, resembling a deflated balloon.

“I mean, that doesn’t seem so odd,” I say. “They work together.”

“It’s thin, I know, but I’ve helped to tidy the man’s office for the last four years. The file was full of the kind of notes that would have eventually landed in his shredder if they contained something sensitive, and some of them were wrinkled, like they’d been balled up and thrown into the trash.”

Joy leans back in against the couch. “If Henry was accumulating Ansel’s notes, then why?”

“They all looked fairly recent,” Charles says. “I don’t think it was an ongoing pattern for him to catalog these. There was a specific intent.”

The lightbulb hits. “You think he used them to forge that document the NBI found?”

I hear the ice clink again. “That’s my theory.”

“Did you say anything to them,” Joy asks. “To the investigators?”

“I told them my concerns,” he says. “I didn’t get very far. I’ve also had to be quite cautious, as you can imagine.” Charles clears his throat nervously. “Mr. Henry must have noticed some of the missing papers I took. He tore up his office yesterday, maybe to search for them… and there is an obvious tension.”

Ada and I are hit with the same nervous energy for Charles.

“Be careful,” I say.

“I don’t think it will behoove him any to confront me directly,” says Charles. “If he had anything at all to do with all the controversy and the investigation, he appears to have gotten away with it, thus far. You saw the news, of course?”

“We saw it,” I say.

“Well,” says Joy. “What happens next?”