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Matters shook his head.
“Who did you see?”
“She was out there. In the water. I thought she was floating on a log. ’Til I saw his leg. I leaped in, grabbed her, tore her off him. Pulled him out, dragged him onto the grass. He was incredibly heavy. Such a little guy. Deadweight.”
“Dead?”
“I held him in my arms. She climbed out and stood behind me. I kept asking her why. Why did you do it? She didn’t deny it.”
“She admitted that she drowned him?”
“She said it was Billy’s fault. He was a coward. Wasted his opportunity.”
“What opportunity?”
“Of being a man. Men are allowed to do anything.”
Bell realized he did not fully believe Matters. Or didn’t want to. “No one saw? No one in those houses?”
“Night.”
“You saw them.”
“Full moon. Lunatic moon.”
“Who? Was it Nellie? Or Edna?”
Matters shook his head.
“Which of your girls is innocent?” Isaac Bell demanded.
“Both,” Matters said sullenly.
“One is guilty. Is it Nellie, your blood daughter? Or Edna, your stepdaughter?”
“I love them equally, with all my heart.”
“I don’t doubt that you do. Which is the assassin?”
“I can only say neither,” said Matters. “Even if they hang me.”
“Oh, they will hang you, I promise,” said Bell.
“Your question will hang with me.”
Isaac Bell realized that if somehow the assassin were to stop killing and commit no more crimes, then he could spend the rest of his life wondering and never truly knowing which of them was the woman she seemed to be and which had been a murderer. But why would she ever stop? How many more would die before he caught her?
He was struck suddenly by a terrible insight. He saw a way, a way as cruel as it would be effective, to force Bill Matters to confess.
“There is no question you will hang, Bill.”
“I don’t care.”
“The only question is, will the girl who hangs beside you be the right one?”
“What do you mean?” asked Matters. But Bell saw that he knew exactly what he meant. The blood had drained from his face. His jaw was rigid. His hands were shaking so hard, they rattled the cuffs.
“The only truth you’ve ever told is that you love both your daughters.”
