The Ghosts of Aquinnah (28 page)

Hannah nodded, suddenly feeling a rush of adrenalin. “I need to find out,” she said. She wiped her face with her napkin and set it on the table next to her plate as she glanced around the restaurant for the waiter.

“
Can we finish dinner first?” Tim asked. “I don't think you're going to be able to find much out tonight.”

Hannah laughed. “I'm sorry, you're right. I just got excited for a minute.”

“
I noticed.”

“
Would you like to get dessert?”

“
I'd love it,” Tim said. “But I don't feel right about you paying for my meal here. We'll split the bill.”

“
We absolutely will not. I made a deal and I'm sticking with it.”

“
Okay, you win. But let's do this again back in Boston.”

“
Do what?”

“
What do you mean, do what? Dig up an old grave, of course.”

Tim laughed at the look on Hannah's face. “I'm kidding. I meant let's go out to dinner again, that's all.”

Hannah turned red, embarrassed at her momentary cluelessness. “I'm sorry, I should have known what you meant. I can be a little slow sometimes.” She smiled across the table. “I'd love to have dinner with you again.”

“
Good. And next time will be my treat.”

“
Kind of defeats the purpose of our deal.”

“
Who cares? I told you all along I didn't need money to work on your case. This kind of thing is what I consider entertainment.”

“
No wonder you don't think I'm batshit.”

“
Exactly. Didn't I tell you I have no room to judge?”

The waiter returned with their desserts and Hannah leaned back in her chair, studying Tim as he took a bite of his chocolate bread pudding. She had made sure to check out his left hand when she'd first enjoyed lunch with him, and had been happy to see then that he didn't wear a wedding ring. But she knew perfectly well that that didn't necessarily mean he wasn't married. She couldn't deny she hoped he wasn't and decided to find out.

“
So tell me more about yourself,” she said. “What do you do when you're not digging up bones?”

“
Well you already know I teach. Besides that, I love baseball.”

“
Red Sox?”

“
Cincinnati Reds.”

Hannah nodded, pleased. “I should have guessed that since you're from Kentucky. I'm a Colts fan to the core and have never switched to the Patriots, so I can relate.” She took a bite of her lemon cake. “What else do you love?”

“
Dogs. I have two of them. A mutt named Harris and a golden retriever named Lucy.”

“
I had a dog as a kid,” Hannah said. “I've always wanted one here but my apartment doesn't allow them and for years I've been too lazy to move.” Hannah finally decided to stop beating around the bush. “Do you have children in addition to your dogs?”

Tim shook his head. “No, no children. You probably want to know if I'm married, right?”

“
The question crossed my mind.”

“
I'm divorced, to answer your question. Have been for three years now.”

“
I'm sorry.”

“
Don't be. It was the best thing for both of us.” Tim shook his head. “If I was married and I was sitting here having dinner with you and asking you to dinner back in Boston, I hate to think what an asshole I'd have to be to be doing that.”

Hannah laughed. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply you're an asshole. But you can never be too careful. And for the record, I'm not married either.”

Tim chuckled and shook his head. “Alright. Glad we got that out on the table.”

The sun had disappeared into the sea now, and Hannah stared out the window at the darkness descending on the harbor. She suddenly felt awkward and ready to be done with dinner. She hadn't meant for this to turn personal. It was only supposed to be about her book.

“
I should probably get the check,” she said. “I'm just realizing what a long day it's been.”

“
It has been that. But this dinner was a great way to end it.”

Hannah blushed at the grin Tim shot her across the table. She forced herself to ignore the fact that he was so good looking he nearly made her short of breath. She had no desire to act like a silly schoolgirl and throw herself at him. She had no doubt he was used to women doing exactly that when they saw him. She didn't have the energy for that now after all that had happened with Jon.

And this was only supposed to be about her book.

****

Hannah busily typed away on her keyboard, anxious to make an afternoon deadline. She scowled when her phone vibrated on her desk, but the scowl turned to a smile when she picked the phone up and saw that her caller was Tim.

“
Hi Tim,” she said.

“
Good morning. Did I catch you at a good time to talk?”

“
Sure,” Hannah lied. “What's up?”

“
I have some test results from my colleagues that I think will interest you.”

“
Already?”

“
Of course. None of these tests take very long.”

Hannah could hear her heart beating in her chest and her palms felt clammy. She had put the Winslow case out of her mind since returning from the Vineyard with Tim and had focused on her work, but now that the answers to her questions might be at hand she was suddenly a nervous wreck.

“
Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “What do you have for me?”

“
Well for one, there were minute traces of gunshot residue on the remains of the leather gloves.”

“
Really? So that shows he fired the gun?”

“
It shows he fired a gun while wearing those gloves. We can't definitively determine that it was the gun that killed him.”

“
Well, come on, Tim. What other gun would it be?”

“
We can't say for sure. I'm just making that clear.”

“
Alright. Any other results?”

“
Yes. I haven’t even told you the most interesting one yet. My friend ran tests on the bones. Josiah Winslow was riddled with bone cancer when he died.”

Hannah remained silent, stunned at the news.

“
Once again, we can't say anything for sure,” Tim continued, “but the cancer was so extensive that my friend's guess is that it metastasized from somewhere else in his body. Perhaps his liver or lungs...impossible to know.”

“
So he would have been in terrible pain, wouldn't he?”

“
Unbearable. Considering the pain medicine available at the time, the man must have been in agony.”

“
And he would have known he was dying?”

“
He might not have known it was cancer, but he had to know it was something seriously wrong.”

Hannah chewed her lip and stared at the screen saver of her laptop. “He killed himself to avoid dying a miserable, painful death later on. He had nothing to lose.”

“
He didn't, no. From what my friend said about the extent of the cancer in his bones, he was living on borrowed time.”

“
It's strange that no one brought that up when he was killed. At least not according to the accounts I read.”

“
Why would they? If he didn't have visible tumors no one would have suspected cancer back in those days. And with a note naming the killer no one had any reason to believe it was anything but murder.”

“
No one but Stella. She knew the note was a lie since Christopher had been with her. She was telling the truth.”

“
I'd say that's more than likely now. I think your theory holds up based on what we can determine from Josiah's remains. The angle of the bullet hitting the bone suggests he fired the gun himself, as does the GSR, obviously.”

Hannah was silent; her mind racing as she tried to process the findings Tim had shared.

“
Have you learned anything about what happened to Stella?” he asked.

“
No. I haven't had a chance to look into it. I'm going to start with marriage and death records though. Census records too. I can find those things online but I'm probably going to have to go back to the Vineyard as well. Now that I've learned all this I'm anxious to get back to it.”

“
I can understand that. If you're not too tied up I'd still love to have that dinner sometime though.”

Hannah could imagine his smile through the phone. “I'm definitely not too tied up. You pick the time and the place and I'll be there.”

“
Sounds good. I'll get back with you soon.”

“
Tim, thanks so much for what you've done for me. I can't say enough how much I appreciate it.”

“
You're very welcome. It's been my pleasure. I love this sort of thing, I told you that. And honestly? You've got me curious to know what happened to Stella too.”

“
When I find out you'll be the first to know.”

“
Great. I'll talk to you soon, Hannah.”

“
Thank you again.”

Hannah put her phone back on her desk and stared out at the sidewalk below her window. She had forgotten completely about the article waiting for her attention on her laptop. She had her story now, she knew it. After putting the pieces together, it didn't take much imagination to understand what Josiah Winslow had done.

****

1884

J
osiah slammed the door of his home and watched Stella through the window as she pulled herself up from the porch and made her way out to the street. She turned onto the road and was quickly out of sight. Josiah's lip curled up in disgust. He had no doubts about where she was headed. He knew perfectly well she would run to Menemsha and her Irish lover.

He grimaced as a fresh wave of pain washed over him. It was coming from everywhere now, and he was no longer able to say what part of his body hurt the most. It was all the same. And it was constant agony. He'd taken all the laudanum he could take and still function, and it did nothing. He knew he was past the point of anything helping him.

He slowly stumbled to his office and sat down in his chair. At least that brought a little relief to his legs. The pain of his weight when he was standing had become unbearable. Josiah pulled a bottle of laudanum out of his desk drawer and swallowed all of the contents. It may not help much, but at least it was something.

The only time he’d felt even a second of relief from the pain was when he'd been lashing out at Stella. He supposed the adrenalin had simply taken over. That, and his rage had eclipsed even the pain that crippled him.

After all he had been through in his life, working his way from a poor farm boy to an educated and respected island doctor, he never could have imagined it would all come to this in the end. His wife flaunting her infidelity and her young lover in front of his peers and neighbors. As if the agony of his illness wasn't enough, now he would be remembered as a cuckold and a pathetic fool.

Josiah thought of Lillian and ached again for the woman he had always loved. She would never have treated him this way. He felt a moment of shame as he realized she would never have approved of his beating of Stella, either. He knew he had gone too far. But the hussy had brought out the worst in him. If only she'd shown him the minimum of respect, she could have saved herself from that beating. And not just the beating. She could have saved herself what was to come, too. She'd made her bed and Josiah felt no shame about making her lie in it.