“Even if that is true, I could still arrest Harrison and Mary.”
“They’ll be long gone and you’ll never find them. They left over an hour ago. They’re probably at the airport already.”
“Then maybe I’ll arrest Gabriella—”
“Carter, you’re not going to arrest anyone. You are going to follow the tunnel to the sea, go back to your life, and forget that any of this ever happened.”
“Why on earth would I do that?”
“Because you said you would do anything for your daughter, just like I’ll do anything for mine.”
“What does that mean?”
“The original plan was that Harrison would give Mary this house. But then something unexpected happened; they fell in love. Everyone in the village already believed she was his wife, so they changed the plan to live here together. Gabriella was going to join them, once the real Eden was out of the way, but then there were complications. Including you. So the plan changed again. Harrison decided to sell his company and, for reasons I don’t fully understand, now wants to move abroad. So they are leaving the country. Tonight. They’re going to take Gabriella with them and start a new life together.”
“You’ve finally been reunited with your daughter, and you’re going to let her move to another country without you?”
“I told you. I’ll be dead soon.”
“You missed the small matter of murder. What makes you think I won’t tell the world what really happened?”
“Now that the sale of Thanatos has gone through, Harrison’s purchase of The Smuggler’s Inn from the brewery will be complete. He made them an offer they wouldn’t refuse for a pub that is now empty for half the year. But it won’t be in his name, it will be in yours. So long as you keep your mouth shut, your family home belongs to your family again. Forever. Maddy can continue to run the place, and your parents can move back from Spain. Spend a bit more time with you and your daughter. If you agree to our terms, Harrison will pay off the mortgage on your cottage too.”
“You think you can buy my silence?” he asks, sounding less happy than I expected. Why are people so ungrateful? The pain is gettingworse again, so bad I squeeze my eyes shut. I guess today really is the day, and it would seem I am going to spend my final moments talking to Sergeant bloody Carter. I suppose it’s marginally better than dying alone. I try one last time to explain the situation in a way his befuddled brain can understand.
“You told me Hope Falls was your home and that you never wanted to leave. Having spent a couple of days here, I feel like this is the capital of Bumblefuck, and you’re the town mayor, but to each their own. I’m offering you everything you ever wanted.”
“But you want me to lie?”
“The truth isn’t as valuable as people think. Time with the people you love most is worth so much more than money or truth or doing the right thing. Trust me, when you get to where I am, you’ll have a much clearer view of the world. Your life gets a whole lot less complicated when it’s almost over. We’re offering you financial security for you and your family forever. You can all be together again. And in terms of any moral dilemma, now that you know why we did what we did, surely you agree that Eden got what she deserved. If someone did that to your little girl, what would you do?” It is silent on the other side of the door for a while and I enjoy the moment of peace.
It doesn’t last.
“What makes you think you’re going to die? People can survive cancer,” Carter says.
“We’re all dying from the day we are born, it’s only ever a matter of time. Life sentences us all to death in the end. The short version of a long story is that I know today is my last day because there is a company that can predict a person’s date of death. That’s how my grandmother knew when she was going to die. That’s how I know.”
It is quiet again, then Carter says, “I might be the mayor of Bumblefuck, but that sounds like bullshit.”
I smile. “I couldn’t agree more.”
I take out all the pills I’ve been collecting these past few months.Some of them from my own medicine cabinet, some from anywhere I could find them, enough to do the job. I’ve had a lot of time to think since Thanatos told me how little time I had left. Harrison would neither confirm nor deny that the prediction was true. Either way, I don’t want a fucking AI algorithm deciding when I die. I want to go out on my own terms. When I want to. Maybe that’s how my mother felt too.
Sometimes we inherit heartbreak.
Sometimes we inherit hate.
“But what about Eden?” Carter asks.
“What about her? I’ve done what I came here to do.”
“You can’t know that for certain. I get that the plan was to make it look like Eden killed herself. And you allwantedto kill her butnoneof you did. Think about it. Eden didn’t strike me as someone who would take her own life. You told me to stick to the facts. Not to jump to conclusions. I’m just pointing out that you don’t know for sure that Eden is dead. I’m guessing she knew about these tunnels. Isn’t it possible that she could have been hiding for the last couple of days?”
“Your theories are so interesting. Please tell me less.”
He’s wrong, it must have been her on that beach. It being someone else roughly the same height and weight would be too much of a coincidence and there’s no such thing. I swallow the rest of the pills and I’m already starting to feel sleepy. Like someone is drawing a curtain over my mind.
“Goodbye, Carter. For what it’s worth, I think you’re going to make a great detective one day. You already are.”
