Michael Ridpath - Amnesia

To my relief, Stephen lowered his sword and turned away. Alden also turned to bend low to Sophie to claim his prize. Sophie looked distinctly unhappy and then her eyes widened.

Stephen had been feinting. He swivelled and swung his sword clumsily over Alden’s head. At that moment, Alden lurched upwards, thrusting his face into the path of Stephen’s blade.

‘Aargh!’ he cried, clutching his face. Blood was springing out of his jaw.

‘Christ!’ said Stephen, lowering his weapon. ‘Why did you move like that? Oh, God! I’m sorry.’

Alden stood upright, wincing and grabbed his jaw. Then he examined his fingers. There was a lot of blood.

With a roar, he charged at Stephen, who didn’t resist. He knocked him on to the ground, his eyes blazing with the fury we had all glimpsed earlier. He held his sword over Stephen, the tip inches above his throat. Stephen’s eyes were wide with terror. ‘Die!’

For a moment it looked as if Alden was actually going to kill him. Then Alden stiffened. His eyes opened wide in surprise, he dropped his weapon and crumpled face-down on to the floor, a sword rising straight up out of his back.

Nathan stood, mouth open in disbelief, staring at his uncle on the floor at his feet.

For a couple of seconds, nobody did anything.

Then Elaine let out a shriek. ‘Is he dead?’

I was the doctor’s son, so I leaped to Alden’s side to check. The American’s eyes were open, lifeless. He couldn’t have died so quickly, could he? I grabbed his wrist to look for a pulse, but I couldn’t immediately feel anything and so I felt Alden’s neck instead. Despite what my father had done and what I intended to do, I had no clue. But those eyes were staring.

‘I think he is,’ I said. ‘The sword must have pierced his heart.’ Actually, I had no idea whether that was the case, but it seemed plausible.

‘Fuck,’ said Nathan. ‘Fuck.’

‘Why did you do that?’ said Tony. ‘Why did you kill him?’

‘I thought he was going to slit Stephen’s throat. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just meant to distract him. Fuck.’

Stephen had rolled over out of the way of Alden, and was now on all fours, staring at the body. ‘If it’s any comfort, I thought he was going to kill me too.’

‘Is he really dead?’ Horror had ripped apart Elaine’s soft young face, and she began to cry.

We all stared. After the drink, the laughter, the warmth, the body didn’t seem real. It was as if only Elaine had appreciated the reality, the rest of us were still stunned.

Someone had to do something. ‘We’ve got to get help,’ I said. ‘An ambulance.’

‘There’s no point in ringing for an ambulance if he’s dead,’ said Stephen.

‘The police,’ said Sophie.

They all looked at Tony. He was the oldest amongst us, the only real adult.

His face was pale. ‘Don’t look at me,’ he said. ‘I have nothing to do with this.’

Elaine’s sobs turned into a wail. Sophie moved over to comfort her.

‘We can’t call the police,’ said Stephen. ‘Nathan will be done for murder.’

‘Fuck,’ said Nathan.

‘We can explain what happened,’ I said.

‘What happened was he killed Alden and we all saw it,’ said Stephen.

Nathan fell back on to the sofa and put his head in his hands.

‘We have to, I don’t know, change things,’ said Stephen. ‘Make out it was self-defence. Or suicide.’

‘He ran himself through with his own sword? In the back?’ I said.

‘All right, all right. I know,’ said Stephen. ‘But Nathan didn’t mean to kill him. And he thought he was saving my life. Unless we do something, we all do something...’ A pointed look at Tony. ‘... Nathan will spend the rest of his life in a French prison. They might even hang him. That’s not fair. It’s not just.’

‘I appreciate the thought, Stephen, but what can we say?’ said Nathan, distraught.

Although I had drunk an awful lot of champagne, my brain cleared. I came to a decision; someone had to.

‘We all went back to our rooms,’ I said. ‘Alden stayed up here, drinking. Someone broke in. A burglar. Alden surprised him. There was a fight and Alden was killed. The burglar ran away.’

There was silence.

‘Will that work?’ said Nathan.

‘Yes,’ said Stephen. ‘It’s brilliant!’

‘But we all need to go along with it,’ I said. I stared at Tony, Alden’s best friend. If there was a weak link, it was Tony.

Tony looked at his friend, lying dead on the floor. He looked at Nathan. He sighed. A tear appeared on his cheek and he wiped it away.

‘It was an accident,’ he said. ‘It was your fault, Stephen, for playing with those swords, and Alden’s for playing too seriously. But no one really meant to kill anyone.’ He stared at Nathan. ‘Stephen’s right; you will go to gaol and you don’t deserve that. So, I’ll go along with it.’

‘Thank you, Tony,’ said Nathan.

‘What about Madeleine?’ said Sophie. ‘We have to tell Madeleine.’

My brain was working fast now, very fast, and I had already thought of that. ‘We can’t tell Madeleine. She needs to discover it herself; that way her reaction will be genuine. Credible.’

‘I can’t lie to my sister about this,’ said Sophie. ‘She is Alden’s wife. She must know what happened.’

Sophie was right. They were all looking at me. ‘Yes, you have to tell her, but not right away. Tell her, I don’t know, in a day or so. After the initial questioning, but before the police investigation is closed. Make it her choice. She decides whether Nathan goes to gaol or not. That’s only fair.’

Nathan swallowed and nodded. But he was very pale; he looked as if he was about to be sick.

‘If she decides that we should tell the police Nathan killed him, won’t we be in trouble for lying to them?’ Tony asked.

‘We might,’ I said. ‘But if it’s we who tell them, not Madeleine, I don’t think that’s likely. You’re right, though, it is a risk we are taking.’

I looked around the group. They were silent, thoughtful. They almost looked sober.

I turned to Sophie. ‘I hope you will persuade your sister that she should go along with the rest of us.’

‘ I think we should go to the police,’ she said. ‘We should explain what happened. That it was an accident.’

‘If you believe Nathan should spend the rest of his life in prison, then you should tell them,’ I said. ‘If you are not certain of that, then leave it to Madeleine to decide.’

Sophie closed her eyes. ‘We still use the guillotine in France.’

I had assumed that with the extenuating circumstances, they wouldn’t execute Nathan, but I didn’t know what the French judicial system would decide. I could only guess.

‘Well, Sophie?’

She took a deep breath. ‘All right. So what do we do?’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘I will organize this. The story for the rest of you needs to be very simple so you don’t contradict each other.’ I checked my watch. ‘It’s now a quarter to twelve. I have just said I am going to bed. You all agree. But you all leave before me — you can’t remember in what order. So it’s just me and Alden here when you go. That’s all you need to know. Everything, do you understand? And everyone get up late tomorrow.’

‘Who will discover Alden’s body?’

‘That’s not your concern,’ I said. ‘You’ll find out tomorrow.’

‘What about Madeleine?’ Sophie said.

‘She will find out too,’ I replied.

‘But she will know Alden didn’t come to bed with her.’

Damn. Sophie was right. I hadn’t thought of that. How could I hope to think of everything? I could only try.