Faye Kellerman: The Quality of Mercy

His first reaction was one of confusion; the sheets were folded, properly made up. He searched the room, but there was no sight of her, no musky smells from a recent dalliance.

He closed the door and searched other rooms, only to find nothing suspect.

Where had they met?

Maybe the hag knew.

He walked down the stairs and opened the door to the old woman’s chambers. She looked up quizzically.

“Where is she?” demanded de Andrada.

The old woman smiled benignly. De Andrada went over to the poster bed and shook her violently.

“Where is Rebecca?” he screamed at her.

“Rebecca?” she said.

“Your granddaughter, you stupid sow!”

“Oh … aye, my granddaughter is named Rebecca.”

“Where is she?” de Andrada bellowed.

“She went with her mother … to visit my daughter, Maria. I have two daughters. One married Jorge Añoz, the other married—”

“Stow it, you old fart!” De Andrada paced. “She didn’t leave with her mother, hag. Where is she?”

“Ah, I remember now,” the hag muttered. “I do, I do, I do. She went riding with my grandson, Dunstan. Or was it Thomas? Or was it Ben?”

“You piece of brown turd.” De Andrada covered her face with the sheet. The little bitch had slipped through his fingers. “Who was that man?”

“Which man?” asked the old woman in a muffled voice.

De Andrada uncovered her face and said calmly, “The one with the feather in his brown cap. He just left the house not more than a quarter hour ago.”

“Which man?”

“Oh, never mind. You’re a blot on the Isle. I’d be doing everyone a service if I murdered you on the spot.”

The old woman cracked her thin lips into a smile.

“Aye, I would do it,” de Andrada said. “But why should I do any favors for a devil of a doctor?”

He turned around and stomped out of her bower, slamming the door behind him.

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