Chapter 51

Dubois looked down at his hands. “I thought you’d be happy to see me. I thought you’d be waiting for me with―”

“You pretended to be sick so you could go to the infirmary?”

“Yes, of course. It was a chance for reprieve.”

“You lie so much.”

“I lie? So what? Do you expect me to be honest in a place like this? What, should I let them do as they please with me? Do you know what Bishop whispered to me, that afternoon, out in the woods…Do you wantthem to do it to me? Would that be punishment enough for my awful sins, Joe?”

“Stop.” Joe looked away, at the bars. “Cooke says, he says, that thief, that young man who was in my home that day, he was one of Vascali’s boys too.” He looked back at Dubois and caught the look of shock on his face. “Did you know him? Did you know I was being set up―”

“Do you believethat?”

“Swear to me you didn’t know.”

Dubois put his face inside his hands. “You can be so terrible to me. I can barely stand it sometimes.”