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Chapter 19 The End at Last

Early one morning Guy got out of bed. He was very lonely without Bruno. He carried all the guilt inside himself now. He picked up some pieces of paper and started to write about everything, the train, Miriam, how he murdered Bruno’s father. He left it for Anne to read.

‘Anne is good,’ Guy thought. ‘The rest of us, Bruno, me, his father, Miriam, Gerard, all of us are bad.’ Then he thought of Miriam’s boyfriend, Owen Markham. He had loved Miriam, he was the father of her child. Guy remembered Owen at the inquest, where he seemed calm and gentle. Suddenly, Guy needed to talk to Owen. It was important, and after writing to Anne, it was the next thing he had to do.

♦

He took a plane for Houston, Texas, where Owen Markham now lived. Gerard had come back from holiday after Bruno died and Guy thought Gerard might follow him to Houston. He looked carefully at the other passengers on the plane, but Gerard was not there.

After asking some questions in different places in Houston, Guy found Owen in a bar.

‘I need to talk to you,’ Guy said. ‘I’ve got a room at the Rice Hotel. Please.’

Owen looked at Guy with his calm brown eyes for a long time, then he said, ‘All right.’

In the hotel room they drank whisky. ‘Like the first time with Bruno,’ Guy thought.

‘I know the man who killed Miriam,’ Guy said. ‘I didn’t stop him. I’m sorry, I know you loved Miriam.’

‘No, I didn’t,’ Owen said, and drank some whisky. He spoke slowly. ‘And I didn’t want that child. She did that to make me marry her.’

It was all wrong, Owen didn’t care. But Guy had to continue.

‘You must listen to me,’ Guy said. ‘You must understand. This man, Miriam’s murderer — his name was Bruno — he made me do a murder, too. His father. You see, we met on a train and Bruno said we should do the murders and the police would never catch us. He hated his father, Owen, it was frightening. I said I had some problems with Miriam but I wanted to divorce her. I said no to her murder, but then he killed Miriam, and I only knew after he had done it. You understand, I said no. But after her murder, Bruno phoned me again and again and wrote letters, telling me to murder his father. I was frightened he would tell my girlfriend that I knew about Miriam’s murder. And I was tired of it all, so tired, so I said yes, and I agreed to kill his father. I only wanted Bruno to go away, that’s all. I had to do it. Owen, I’m guilty, too.

Do you hate me?’

‘Hate you for what?’ Owen asked stupidly. ‘I don’t know you.

Who did you murder?’

Guy felt very tired. ‘You have to go,’ he said to Owen. ‘You don’t understand.’

Owen was very drunk and he didn’t move.

‘I’ll call a taxi for you,’ Guy said.

But where was the phone? Guy looked on the floor and saw it under the bed. The phone was lying near his chair so that someone could listen to everything he was saying. He picked it up.

‘Hello?’ he said.

‘Hello, Mr Haines,’ Gerard’s voice said. ‘I heard what you said to Mr Markham. May I come in?’

Guy opened the door and looked at Gerard’s big smile. Guy tried to speak, but he said something completely different from what he wanted. He said, ‘Take me.’