Silence for the Dead(94)

Jack shook his head. “There isn’t an account of it. But I wonder, myself, if his wife wasn’t involved, or even Anna. There’s no record of their bodies. And no one has seen them since.”

I turned slowly, my mind churning, and faced him. “What do you mean, record of the bodies? Record kept where?”

“That’s where Maisey came in. Remember, she read the letter I received from my contact at the War Office, telling me what had happened to Mikael. I think she read it and suspected what may have occurred. She’d already suspected that Anna was dead. And if there are deaths, if there are bodies, there is one person who tends to know.”

My father is the local magistrate, Maisey had said. “Oh, God. Maisey’s father. Her father knew.”

“According to her notes, she went into his study and looked through his files. And she found records of Nils’s and his son’s bodies being removed from Portis House and cremated.”

“But nothing about Mrs. Gersbach or Anna.”

Jack shook his head.

“If Nils killed Mikael,” I said slowly, figuring it through, “it’s possible he killed the others, too. And the bodies weren’t recovered.”

“Or they’re alive,” Jack said. “Who killed Nils?”

Alive. The girl we’d seen in the trees. Was it Anna? Where had she come from? Where was she, that she couldn’t contact her best friend?

“And why has no one heard of this?” I asked Jack. “Why was everything covered up?”

“As to that,” Jack said slowly, “if Deighton was interested in the property for a hospital, and he was willing to cut in the local authorities . . .”

“Maisey’s father,” I said. “If there was a cover-up for profit, he must have been part of it. He told his daughter he didn’t want her looking into Anna’s disappearance, that it was probably nothing. He’s been lying to her. No wonder she was so distraught when she came here with the letters.”

“Are you certain this is the right closet?” he said.

I looked down at the keys in my hand. “No.” I began trying them in the lock, a welcome distraction from thinking about the execution that had taken place on the grass outside the library. Kneel, he says . . . “But I think it is.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know Matron,” I said. I held up a finger. “First, she would take the keeping of the patients’ personal belongings very seriously. Second, she would keep them meticulously organized, labeled, and stored somewhere locked. But not in her office, because she does not need to access them every day. So in a closet nearby. And she would keep the key herself, without giving a copy to Boney, because she would see it as her responsibility alone. Each man’s things will have an itemized and dated list included. I’ll wager it now.”

He was watching my face. He always knew what I was thinking. “She’ll be all right,” he told me gently. “You’ll see.”

“Yes, well.” I swallowed my worry.

“There was nothing in those papers about you, you know.”

I looked up at him. “What?”

“The envelope you gave me. The incident reports you asked me to read for you. I did. And there was nothing in there about you.”

“What are you talking about? My brother—”

“Is not mentioned. There is an incident report stating that a visitor arrived on a day not set for visiting and created a commotion. It says the nurses tried to eject him and the patients became disturbed. That was her word, ‘disturbed.’ It states that the orderlies were late in arriving, and by the time the visitor was shown off the grounds, the patients were very upset. She claims full responsibility for the incident. Kitty, you’re never mentioned at all, and neither are the other nurses.”

“What about the other incident reports?” I said. “The one in which I went to your room without clearance. And the second time, the night Roger told on me. And the night when Archie attacked me.”

“There’s one about the attack. I suppose she had to write that one. But it’s brief and carefully worded. Matron seems to be an expert in writing a report that doesn’t give much away. I have to admire it.”

“And the others?”

Jack shook his head. “Nothing. Just those two reports. Nothing else.”

My stubborn brain wouldn’t take it in. “That can’t be right, Jack. She told me she was writing incident reports. She told me Mr. Deighton would read them, and there was nothing she could do. Are you saying she was lying?” My face felt hot and tingling. “Oh, my God. She was trying to frighten me all along. She never meant to have me dismissed. When I see her again, I’ll kill her myself. I’ve barely slept, I was so worried.”

Jack’s voice was thoughtful. “I’m starting to think, perhaps, that Matron puts on quite a good show of being frightening. But a show is what it is.”

“She’s practical,” I replied. “She can’t afford to lose a nurse, that’s all. It certainly wasn’t out of affection for me.”

“You may be wrong about that,” Jack said.

I shook my head. I know her, I was about to say again, but then I remembered that Matron had had a husband, and a son, and I had never guessed. Perhaps I didn’t know her as well as I’d thought.