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"He never lost faith in you." Lynne walks briskly, throwing a quick glance at Jowd, who's holding the pocket watch up, keeping a careful eye on the display as they make their way toward their target. "All this time, Inspector Cabanela was doing his best to save you."
"Yes. He was." Jowd's expression is unreadable in the dark. "I admit, it came as a surprise. For all these long years, he never visited me. I was convinced he'd believed in the lies I'd wrought. I really believed he'd become the kind of person who might lead his old friend to the gallows." He pauses. "I was wrong."
"He sure put on a pretty good act, didn't he?" Lynne lets out a short, breathy laugh. "Even I'd lost all my remaining faith in him. Honestly... he's so good at hiding his feelings. Sure fooled me." Her statement is made with a wry smile.
Silence hangs over them as they continue walking, broken only by their loud breaths and footsteps rapidly skipping over the gravel.
"You know." Lynne gulps in a breath before speaking again. "I can't help but think, it would have been cruel of you, wouldn't it?"
"Hm?" Jowd is caught off guard, blinking rapidly as he turns his gaze on Lynne, catching her silhouette briefly in the glare of a streetlamp, with head turned down and shoulders hunched up.
"Imagine if you'd really been executed and I'd done what you asked." Lynne doesn't even so much as look up as she talks. "If I'd actually got the box like you wanted, and handed it over to him, given him the gun that killed Alma... the gun that could have s-solved the mystery."
"Ah. That. Yes." Jowd's throat bobs as he swallows. "The music box. I did want you to do that, didn't I? Well, I haven't been executed, so it's all good now, isn't it?"
"Don't give me that!" Lynne snaps, her sharp exclamation causing him to recoil. "Do you have any idea what you were going to do? You were going to hand him the evidence on a silver platter, when it was already too late! Could you imagine if he opened it? The moment that he..." Her voice wobbles. "That he knew... the evidence was right there and... he couldn't do a thing because... because..."
"Lynne. I..."
"Don't bother making excuses." Lynne gulps in air and wipes her eyes. "I just wanted to get it off my chest. Can you imagine what a cruel thing to do that was? And you would have made me the unwitting instigator too! I would have had to be the one to break his heart like that!"
Jowd looks at her with a solemn expression, then hangs his head. "Yes. I realize it now. What I've done to you all, what I almost did, and I'm truly sorry for that."
"It was right there. Over my head, all this time, the evidence... I knew there had to be something important in there, but I never imagined it was the gun that killed Alma. I even had Kamila carry it. She was holding the gun that killed her own mom." Lynne clenches her fists. "For all those years, there it was. I was such a fool to just hold onto it. I should have just given it to him right away."
Jowd keeps silent. Nothing he can say will make it better. He was in the wrong and he knows that. An image forms in his mind, of Cabanela and Lynne looking at that box, their faces wrought with grief, and he feels a tightening in his chest. Gods, to think what he'd almost subjected them to, and to almost put his child through even more pain than she'd already been through, he really had been such a fool. How could he have been so blind?
"I don't think he would have ever forgiven you for it," Lynne exhales, looking up. Overhead, the sky is clear with a dusting of stars twinkling around the full moon. "For five years, we've all been agonising over you, trying to save you, and you would have left us with that, like a slap in the face."
"He would have hated me, wouldn't he?" That question is accompanied by a rueful smile. "And I would have deserved it. Thought he did already, for all those years. That was what I wanted, for everyone to think of me as a criminal and despise me." Shifting his gaze to the horizon, Jowd can make out the ships bobbing on the water in the distance. "I really was so blind. I had no idea what I was doing to everyone, to you, Cabanela, Kamila... but Sissel opened my eyes to the truth. I'm so sorry." Pausing, he exhales. "I'll have a lot of apologising to do later."
"That's right." Lynne's voice grows quieter. "There's still so much I want to talk about. Honestly, I want to yell at you even more, but now's hardly the time for that."
"Later, eh? You can yell at me all you want. I imagine Cabanela will want to do his fair share of yelling too. I know I deserve it." Jowd chuckles ruefully. "I'll listen to everything you have to say. But for now, let's focus on the mission, shall we?"
"Right." Lynne exhales, bunching up her fists and nodding. "We're going to go and save Kamila, deal with the manipulator, and then we're going back home. Kamila will finally have her father back, and you, well, you have a lot of apologising to do, don't you, Detective Jowd?"
"Hmm. That I do. I know that's not going to make up for everything, but I'll do my best to make amends. Hmm, now... he must be on one of these ships."
The two of them walk along the dock, Jowd watching the numbers tick down until they stop next to a large warship, looming over their heads. "This must be it."
"Wow. I guess he really wants to make a statement or something."
"Well, easier to stow away on, isn't it? Could you imagine if he'd gone on a dinky little rowboat instead?"
"Piece of cake!" Lynne declares. "I'd just curl up under a blanket. He would never even know I was there."
"Perhaps, but anyway, this seems to be his vessel of choice. Well then, let's not waste any more time standing around talking. Are you ready, detective?"
Lynne puts her hands on her hips, a broad smile lighting up her face. "Of course!"
Circling round, they find the ladder and climb onto the ship that will take them out to the enemy's location, hearts full of trepidation and hope for the future.