Dance of Ghosts
Page 32
‘Do you enjoy it?’
He just shrugged again. ‘It’s what I do.’
I looked at him, sick of talking now. I just wanted this to be over. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to be at home, sitting in my armchair beneath the high window, drinking whisky in the darkness, listening to the whisper of ghosts …
A bell sounded downstairs.
‘That’ll be them,’ Bishop said, getting to his feet and heading for the door.
‘I want the gun back,’ I told him.
He stopped. ‘The gun?’
‘I want it back.’
‘Why?’
‘Does it matter?’
He took the pistol from his pocket, studied it for a moment, then looked at me. ‘It was your father’s, wasn’t it? It was the gun he used to kill himself.’
‘How do you know that?’
He carried on looking at me for a second or two, then he took the magazine out of the pistol, emptied the bullets into his hand, put the magazine back, and passed the gun to me.
‘How do you know it was my father’s?’ I asked him again.
He dropped the bullets into his pocket, turned round, and left the room without saying anything.
Bridget was finally beginning to come round as I went over and sat down beside her. Her eyelids were twitching, her lips were fluttering, and she was making faint little whimpering sounds.
I took hold of her hand.
It was cold.
‘It’s OK, Bridget,’ I said softly. ‘You’re going to be fine now. Everything’s going to be all right …’
But I knew I was probably lying.
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