“Yes?” I say, a mouth full of donut.
“Was she ever shot? In the chest, I mean. Near her heart. I figure
this is something a good friend, a roommate would know about.”
I have seen her unclothed breasts. The skin was bursting but
unbroken.
“Yes. I think so,” I lie. “There was a scar.”
“Well that fits perfectly. It’s hard to tell with the fire damage. But
the forensic pathologist says there was a fragment of bullet in a rib
bone.”
“I don’t know any details. But she had a wild youth.” I don’t know
what else to say. How does one survive a shot to the heart?
Chin shuffles through some more papers. “Haven’t heard from
any of them, have you? Izzy? Lily? Roy?” I shake my head no.
“Okay,” he says finally. “We’re going to close the case. You’ve
been a great help.” He stands up and extends his friendly Vienna-
sausage fingers. My hand dwarfs his and he laughs. “You ever need
anything, just give us a ding-a-ling.”
Back home at the Biddenbrooks Home for the Mentally Ill, I climb
the familiar staircase, decorated in the deep mosses and burgundies
of the new Biddenbrooks stores. There is a dress code. The crazies are
under control. The plots are over. Coffee is free.
I pass my room and knock on 205. No one invites me in but I
open the door anyway. She is inside, under the covers listening to
music. “Hello,” I say. She just nods and turns off one of Vivaldi’s
seasons. I sit down on a chair opposite her bed.
“You’re lucky,” I say, “Ellie Bidden had perfect teeth too.”
A smile breaks over Leona’s lips, revealing them to me.
“Morris pulled a Mengistu on her,” I say, “She was under the
floorboards all that time. So that was Bidden’s proof. The ashes in the
basement were his first wife’s after all. I guess he did have some love
for her.”
Leona scribbles something on her white legal pad and hands it to
me. It says, “I think he had more love than any of us realized.”
“Do you miss him?” I say. She shrugs, then nods. Reluctantly, it
seems. What a burden, I think. I am sorry. At least no one knows the
truth. At least that.
The world thinks she is dead. But she survived the inferno. When
Biddenbrooks went up in flames she spun like a dervish to keep the
flames at bay. Contrary to what one might think, the oil rubbed into
ABYSSINIA
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