Silver Glass

Chapter X: Judge and Jury

I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go. -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

"So you see," Mr. Altounian finished, "I killed Gwladys to save Alec. Dzovig killed Çelik Bey for revenge. What we did was wrong, but justified. We would never have done it if they hadn't driven us to it."

Silence fell. Phil looked around the room. Yo-han's face was blank. Vi and Máté looked as if they couldn't believe what they'd just heard. Lennox was staring at Altounian with a mixture of grief and something she couldn't place. Altounian refused to look at anyone. He stared at the carpet and kept his grip on Lennox's hand.

Yo-han had been leaning against the mantelpiece during the story. Now he straightened up. He looked at Máté, Vi and Phil in turn.

"And there we have it," he said. "There are only two options now. One, I tell the police everything. Mr. Eames — I beg your pardon, Mr. Altounian — will be hanged for murder. Perhaps certain other facts will remain hidden, or perhaps Mr. Lennox will be arrested for sodomy. Either way his reputation will be destroyed."

Phil looked thoughtfully at Altounian and Lennox. Now she recognised that something she hadn't been able to place. It was in the way Altounian clutched Lennox's hand like a lifeline, the way Lennox leant towards him, the way he never took his eyes off Altounian's face.

She had never realised how similar she and Lennox were until now.

What did you do when you learnt someone you loved had murdered someone you hated? How could you make yourself hate them? Could you ever forgive them? Could you ever stop loving them?

Leopold was worse than Davit. He had known from very early in their acquaintance that he was going to kill her aunt. He had befriended her anyway. In a way she was worse than Alexander, because she had fallen in love with Leo after the murder.

If Leo appeared on her doorstep one day, what would she do? How could she tell him to go to hell when she never wanted him to leave her again?

Phil looked at Lennox, and she understood exactly the turmoil going on in his mind. They were both people who loved not wisely but too well.

Yo-han had stayed silent for a while, allowing his last sentence to sink in. Now he continued. "Then there is the other option. I lie to the police. I tell them Çelik Bey's father is a politician and his enemies murdered his son. Mrs. Lennox was killed to stop her identifying them. And a murderer goes unpunished."

Altounian laughed, shrill and piercing. "Unpunished? My god! I see her blood everywhere. I can still hear her skull breaking. When I close my eyes I see her face all covered with blood. I can smell it, I can practically taste it, sometimes I think I still see it on my hands, my clothes. Hanging can't be worse than this."

He really didn't look well. He was pale and trembling. After observing Altounian for a minute Phil agreed; he certainly was being punished. Considering what Mrs. Lennox had been like, she thought he was being punished enough.

Lennox pulled his hand free, but only to put one arm around Altounian's waist and the other around his shoulders. He pulled him close.

"So," Yo-han said. "We will vote on it."

"Not me," Lennox said. It was the first time he'd spoken since... had he spoken at all? Phil couldn't remember. His voice was quiet and it sounded like he was trying not to cry. "I can't vote. I suspected, but I hoped— I can only say that if you give Davit up, I will go to the police and tell them I planned the murders."

Altounian's head snapped round. He stared at Lennox as if he was out of his mind. "They'd hang you too!"

"That would be better than living without you."