Dr. Eban had been shaken. His wife’s evil had been exposed, and he was confessing to having known about Jack’s activities and whereabouts. However, at some point since we’d come into the library, a calm had overtaken him. I wondered if the truth was setting him free.
“I don’t understand why in the world no one came forward to vouch for Jack, tell the police the killer was Dr. Carson. That makes no earthly sense to me,” Inspector Pierce said.
“She was that good, Inspector,” Dr. Eban said. “She had us all where she wanted us. The evidence of murder would only have pointed to Dr. Glenn. She would have won. You were looking at me for Mallory. She would have accomplished framing me too, given just a little more time.”
Who had won now? I wondered, but didn’t say it out loud.
Inspector Pierce looked at Jack again. “You had an affair with Mallory?”
“I did. I loved her. She loved me,” he said. “If not for everything else, we would just have been an old guy with a young woman, maybe laughed at, mocked, gossiped about. When Mallory understood who I was, she loved me enough to keep the secret. I can’t give you a better answer than that, but I’m devastated that she’s gone.”
“Were you at the pub where Mallory was the night she was killed?” I asked. No one seemed bothered by the question.
“I was. I often went places she or Lily were, just to be near them.”
I wished I’d somehow put all of that together sooner, but I didn’t know how I could have.
“How did Dr. Carson get Mallory to the close?” I asked. Inspector Pierce sent me a look of impatience this time, but he didn’t retract the question.
“I don’t know. None of us knows,” Dr. Glenn said.
I wished I’d asked her, but time had been running out in the anatomy theater.
“She confessed to killing Mallory, though?” Inspector Pierce asked me again.
“She did.” I looked at Dr. Eban. “You gave the books to Sophie and Rena to keep them quiet about Mallory and Dr. Glenn?”
Dr. Eban nodded. “About Mallory and an older man. They didn’t know who he was. They were upset when they realized it.”
“Which was when?” I asked.
“The morning of the service for the corpses. That’s why we were there together after the service in the kirk; I was trying to ease their new concerns. I managed tae calm them down, but mostly because you were there tae distract them.” He paused, but we knew he had more to say. “If Meg hadn’t discovered that the books were missing from my collection, none of this would have happened. That’s what sent her looking into things.”
“Why did you stay with her? Even before she began trying to frame you for Mallory’s murder, she had to be a … challenge,” Inspector Pierce said.
Dr. Eban smiled sadly. “If I’d left her, she would have done something horrible and made me look guilty of it; it would have been just a matter of time. We were married, but we weren’t together.”
He was odd, yes, and desperately lonely. I could see that now. I felt sorry for him, and I liked him; however, there might have been a way to make a better life for himself. But who knew what went on in other people’s lives? And it was impossible to understand others’ motivations without walking in their shoes.
I sighed.
“You asked me about the scalpels?” I said. “How did you know they were at the shop?”
“That’s how we picked a bookshop for Sophie and Rena tae try tae sell the books. Dr. Glenn, Jack, had not too long ago told me about selling them years ago tae a woman who worked in a bookshop. He said that over the years, the legend of there being a room with treasures in it had grown. He wondered if that’s where they’d ended up. It was a casual conversation at the time.”
“They were Dr. Knox’s?” I asked.
“They aren’t real,” Jack said. “Just things I got at a conference I attended. A gimmick.”
I nodded, but wasn’t sure I believed him.
Inspector Pierce rubbed his hand over his chin and looked at each of us, one at a time. I didn’t know if he was looking for something or trying to convey a message.
Finally, he spoke. “All right. Jack Glenn, Dr. Eban, and Lily, you’re coming with us. The rest of you may go,” Inspector Pierce said.
As we left, I looked back at the three who were going with the police. They were scared, yes, but I saw something else too. A dim light of relief in their eyes, and maybe some hope. The lies were done, over. Tragedy had occurred, and it would be impossible to ever fully accept the murders, but at least these people’s lies could end.
It was good to be outside, good to be free. Tom insisted on taking me to the hospital, but I said, “I’m fine,” as I sent one more look back at the building with the anatomy theater.
I was really glad I’d survived.
THIRTY-SIX
“I am going to ace that test,” Sophie said with a fist pump.
Rena and I laughed.
“We have no doubt,” I said.
“Drinks on me, ladies. Tom, pour us all something,” Sophie said to my pub owner.
“Happy tae!” Tom said. He winked at me and grabbed some shot glasses. My friends would enjoy the whisky. He’d pour me something tamer.
Rena lifted her shot glass. Sophie and I joined her.
“To Mallory,” Rena said with a sad smile.
“To Mallory,” Sophie and I said.
Sophie and Rena had wanted to meet me at Tom’s pub tonight. We were part of an enthusiast crowd watching a football game on the television Tom had mounted on the wall.
Sophie and Rena had stayed in school,
