Gloria swallowed. ‘Just read.’

Laura opened the book. Her fingers fumbled the pages back and forth until at last she arrived on the right day:

May 30, 1960

This nightmare will never end. I spun the web and now I am caught in it. James’s plan is completely insane and completely ingenious. He has turned Mary’s own charms of seduction to his favor and me into his unwilling accomplice.

‘You’re involved in this too,’ James told me in a cruel voice. ‘I will tell everyone that you helped me kill Sinclair Baskin.’

‘I’ll deny it. It will be your word against mine.’

His smile was so diabolical, so evil. ‘You are so stupid sometimes,’ he spit out. ‘Who do you think a jury is going to believe – a jealous harlot who slept with a married man and then betrayed her own sister or a wronged doctor who is a pillar of the community?’

I said nothing. I was too scared to speak.

‘You are going to help me with this because once you do, our secret and our fates will be eternally sealed together. Neither one of us will be able to reveal the other’s sin without condemning themselves as well. After today, we will go on as if nothing has changed. We will never speak of this again.’

‘But can’t you see that this is all wrong?’

His face clouded over. ‘I know it’s wrong. Murdering Sinclair Baskin, well, that was justice. This time, it is not so cut and dried.’

‘Then don’t do it,’ I urged. ‘Forget this whole crazy scheme. Forget about everything. I’ll never tell anyone, I swear.’

‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘I can’t just forget and go on. I have to make things right – even if it means the death of an innocent soul. Don’t you see? Mary will unwittingly go along with this. Sinclair has abandoned her and she is certainly not going to tell me the truth. What other option does she have?’

‘None,’ I admitted. ‘She’ll have to pretend that the child is yours.’

James smiled. ‘Exactly. So let’s make her wish come true, shall we?’

The house was pitch dark. In the den I could hear the radio playing a familiar tune but I couldn’t place the name. James and I crept down the hallway past little Gloria’s room. My niece is such a sweet, pretty child. I wonder what her young mind will remember of this night. I pray she will recall nothing.

We were a few feet from their bedroom door when I whispered, ‘Are you sure Mary is unconscious?’

‘I gave her enough drugs to knock out a horse. She’ll feel nothing until morning. Then I’ll give her a fresh batch.’

We reached the door. He swung it open, the dim light from the hall fell onto Mary’s sleeping body. She did not move.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Please, James, think about this.’

He grabbed my arm. ‘Let’s go.’

He pulled me in with him and shut the door. He flicked on the overhead light, illuminating the room. Mary still did not stir.

He smiled. ‘You see what I mean? Out like a light, the no-good whore.’

‘Then why do you stay with her?’

He looked at me as though I had asked a priest why he believed in God if there was so much cruelty in the world. ‘Because I love her,’ he said, and I think I understood.

He took out his medical bag and opened it. His hand reached in and grabbed a metallic instrument. ‘I took this from the hospital. Menacing-looking, isn’t it?’

I nodded. My body felt so damn cold. I stepped back and back again until I ran into the wall and could go back no further. James’s face changed as if he had put on a mask. He was now the cool doctor again. He took the device and went to work. At the first sight of blood, I nearly vomited. I closed my eyes but my ears could still hear the scraping sounds. I wished he would hurry. I wished it was over.

Time passed, and finally the sounds stopped. Another life had been terminated. ‘Clean this mess up,’ he said to me. ‘Make it fast.’

‘Do I have to?’

‘Yes. Now hurry.’

Before I could move more than a few steps, the door flew open. I turned in time to see little Gloria standing in the doorway. Her eyes were wide with fear.

‘Mommy! Mommy!’ she shouted, her eyes staring at the puddle of blood between her mother’s legs.

‘Get out of here, Gloria!’ James shouted. ‘Get out of here now!’

The child did not move. She was frozen in some kind of trance. I grabbed her and hurried her out of the room, away from the blood…

Laura could not stop shaking. Neither could Mary.

‘It’s true,’ Gloria said, ‘Every word. The nightmare I could never remember… this is it. It all came back to me as soon as I read Judy’s words. I could see the blood. I could see Mom’s body sprawled out on the bed. I could see the twisted look on Dad’s face. I even remember seeing Judy huddled in the corner.’

‘He aborted the fetus,’ Laura uttered.

Gloria nodded.

Laura stared at her mother who was quivering as if she were in the grip of a fever. Everything began to click together. ‘He turned all your tricks against you, Mother,’ Laura said. ‘You ended up being the one who was fooled about the identity of the real father, not him. You ended up being the one tricked into seducing him so that he could impregnate you for real. You were the one who got so caught up in the bliss of fooling James that you dismissed my “late arrival” as your good fortune.’

‘And my difficult pregnancy?’ she asked.

Laura nodded. ‘He caused that too. He kept you drugged out so you wouldn’t be able to guess what was going on. You told me you were feeling sick but were afraid to go to a doctor, right? It would have been too dangerous, you said, because Dad might find out. That gave him the time he needed. You continuously slept with him because you wanted to fool him into thinking he was the father when all along he was trying to get you pregnant for real.’

Gloria moved toward them. ‘And that answers the question about why Judy waited so long to say something, Laura. When David died, there was no reason to tell you the truth. David was already dead. But when she saw Mark Seidman at the Boston Garden, she must have realized that David was still alive. She knew then that it was not too late to bring you two back together.’

‘My God,’ Mary managed, ‘then David is not your brother?’

Laura shook her head.

‘Then that gun…’

‘What gun? Mom, what are you talking about?’

‘I thought nothing of it at the time. I figured there had been some trouble at the hospital and he needed it for protection…’

‘Needed what?’ Laura shouted. ‘Tell me.’

Her eyes fixed onto Laura’s. ‘I saw your father leave earlier. He had a gun.’

Laura sprinted to the phone. The house remained silent, everyone lost in their troubled thoughts. Laura quickly dialed. The phone was picked up on the first ring.

‘Hello?’ the voice said.

‘Clip?’

‘Oh hello, Laura,’ the old Celtics president said. ‘How are you?’

‘Fine thanks.’

‘Sorry to hear about your aunt. Terrible tragedy. This whole year – ’

‘I’m in a bit of a hurry,’ she cut in. ‘I need to speak to Mark Seidman right away. Do you have his phone number?’

‘Seidman? Why do you want to speak to him?’

‘Please,’ Laura begged, ‘it’s very important.’

‘Well, if you really need to reach him quickly, you can head over to the Garden. He’s usually shooting there by himself in the mornings… just like David – ’

Laura did not hear the rest of his words. She was already sprinting toward the car.

‘Discontinue his IV and monitor his vital signs,’ James barked in his familiar authoritative voice.

‘Yes, Doctor.’

‘Tell Dr Kingfield to look in on him. I’ll be in in a few hours.’

‘Yes, Doctor.’

James glanced out the booth and into the streets. The Boston Garden was so close now. He only had to drive another hundred yards at the most. ‘Is there anything else?’