Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [89]
He stared silently at Josh, half-expecting an answer, but Josh’s face was blank. He poured more whiskey into his slack mouth, brushing away the dribble with his fingers, then he sat back again. “Are you warmer now, lad?” he asked, anxiously checking the fire. “I know it’ll never be real warm in here, but the whiskey’ll help. I hope it takes away your pain, Josh, because it sure as hell will never take away mine. After all I’ve done for you, and now look at you.” His eyes filled with tears again as he stared at him and he shook his head slowly from side to side.
“Y’see Josh, if you’d never looked at those girls, I’d never have had to kill ’em. I couldn’t bear to think of you touching them, kissing ’em … it made me sick to my stomach, y’know that? And I had that old burning feeling in my heart again. But after Murphy, I knew what to do about it. I slipped up that last time though. I knew you suspected me, but even so, you came through for me when I pleaded with you to help me. ‘They’ll hang me, Josh,’ I said to you. ‘The judge will put on his black cap and they’ll hang me by the neck until I’m dead. I didn’t do it,’ I said, ‘You can’t let them hang me, can you?’ Remember how I told you all I needed was a chance? And you agreed, you sent me to Annie to get the money while you tried to divert the police. But I made sure it was your muffler they found on the body, and I made sure to tell my mam it was you who’d done those murders, Josh, and as your good true friend I was helping you. That way I knew you would have to run away with me. I knew you could never go home again because it would be you they would hang. I had you all to myself then. Oh yes, I had you all right. Until you met Miss Francesca Harrison, that is.”
He got up and walked drunkenly toward Josh. He knelt and peered into his sightless eyes. “Can you hear what I’m telling you, Josh? I’m tellin’ you the truth, my friend. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. And Francie Harrison would have been next if I hadn’t lost her. I wanted her to suffer first, you see, Josh. Suffer like you have. I thought it only fair.”
He glanced at the empty bottle in his hand and then hurled it viciously at the wall, flinching as it shattered noisily into a thousand pieces. “If it weren’t for her you wouldn’t be lying here like this, Josh Aysgarth,” he shouted, staring despairingly at him. “It’s Francie who crippled you. Francie who blinded you. It’s Francie who took your mind away and made you dumb. It’s her who’s put you through all these weeks of hell.”
He slumped to the floor, his head in his hands. Tears cascaded down his cheeks as he sobbed. “I’ll never forget when I came to look for you. The flames were burning all around but I knew you were there. I found you and carried you in my arms to the hospital all bloodied and broken. I watched over you while they did what they could. I stayed beside you all those weeks and when I knew you would live and there was nothing more they could do for you, I brought you home. Where you belong, Josh, lad. With me.”
He reached for the second bottle of whiskey and unscrewed the lid with trembling hands. “You’re mine all right now, Josh,” he said, a touch of triumph in his voice, “and I’ll never let you go again.” Tipping back his head he drank deeply, coughing as the spirit hit his throat. “Aye,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “and when the moment is right the woman who caused you all this pain will join the rest of ’em. In her grave.