I returned to my o moving as slos. Noterfered y catc can’t er’s story gave umbling from trade ty air to tte, not daring to ask for a drag. t must  t notory suggests t Emmeline er   Emmeline. then who? Isabelle was dead. Charlie was gone.

    I came to my rooms,  in, stood by t oo dark to see; tion, a pale s t.

    At last I listened to t, persistent voice in my  I rying to ignore. Adeline.

    No, I said.

    Yes, it said. Adeline.

    It  possible. till fres if so cry tears for?

    But ted episode after episode from tory I kneopiary garden, eaco Jo. ttacks on Emmeline, ttering, ting. tor and left carelessly, to die or to be found. One of t quite rig possible? ears I  nessed been tears of guilt? tears of remorse? as it a murderess I ed? as t Miss inter  suspicion revealed itself to me. as t of Miss inter’s story? to make me sympate her, forgive her? I shivered.

    But one t least I ormented body against mine and kne only broken love can cause suco Joer to life by getting o teaco prune topiary.

    topiary she had damaged.

    O sure after all!

    My eyes roamed over tside t o Joence for t?

    I rubbed my tired eyes and kneo bed. But I oo tired to sleep. My ts, if I did noto stop t long. I decided to h.

    ed for tub to fill, I cast about for someto occupy my mind. A ball of paper able caugtention. I unfolded it, flattened it out. A ro.

    In ter t-lived attempts at picking some kind of meaning out of my string of symbols. Al undermining feeling t I  captured Emmeline’s utterance quite accurately. I pictured t garden, tortions of tcesque, urgent face; I ness of Emmeline’s voice. But ried, I could not recall t itself.

    I climbed into ter, o my feet, legs, back, felt distinctly cooler against t under t to top of my er rang in my ears, my ed from its roots.

    I came up for air, tantly plunged underer again. More air, ter.

    In a loose, underer fass began to so kno it otally invented. In t s of both.

    Air. ater.

    Introduced distortions. In tonation, maybe. Or times extra bits, added to camouflage rato carry meaning.

    Air. ater.

    A puzzle. A secret code. A cryptograp  be as ian o go about it? take eacely. It could be a  of a onation first. Play ress. Experiment ening, flattening t did t in Englis if you left it out and played ead? t number of possible combinations. t not an infinite number. A computing mac. So could a wo.

    the dead go underground.

    ? I sat bolt uprigo me out of nowhere.

    t painfully in my c. It  couldn’t be!

    trembling, I reaco t my jottings, and dreo me. Anxiously I scanned it. My notes, my symbols and signs, my squiggles and dots, ting in a pool of er and had drowned.

    I tried once more to remember to me underer. But t, intent face and te sequence s.

    t rail be tricks o come up  of nowhere?

    I didn’t actually believe t t so me, did I?

    Come on, be sensible, I told myself.

    I reaco put my underer imaginings out of my mind.