Page 135 of Strangers in Time

She turned over and fell back to sleep.

Charlie looked at his page and silently read what he’d written.

Of awful messages delivered to families unprepared to receive them. But as Arthur Benedict had pointed out, the families deserved to know, and it was Charlie’s duty to bring them that information. He supposed he should feel good about that, but he really didn’t.

Later, he put his pen and journal away, and picked up the photo of his mom and his dad that Oliver and Molly had brought back from his old flat.

“Good night, Mum. Good night, Dad. Love you both.”

Four hours later the phone rang.

A DESPERATESUMMONS

HELLO?”SAID A SLEEPYOliver into the phone receiver. “Yes, this is The Book Keep. What? Molly Wakefield? Who is… Dr. Stephens? Yes, I’ll take the call. Hello, yes, Dr. Stephens? Yes, my name is Ignatius Oliver. Just a moment and I’ll get Molly.”

Molly was already at her doorway, along with Charlie, when Oliver climbed to the top of the stairs.

“What is it?” she said. “Who rang?”

“It’s Dr. Stephens, from the—”

Molly flew past him and raced down the stairs.

She snatched up the phone from behind the front counter and said, “Yes, this is Molly Wakefield. What’s wrong?”

“Your mother, Miss Wakefield.” The voice on the other end was slow and ponderous when what Molly desperately required was information as quickly as possible.

“Yes, yes, what about her? She’s… she’s not…”

“No, no she’s still alive. I rang to tell you that she just now asked for you.”

“She… she asked forme?”

“Yes. I’m glad that you included this number in your letter when you wrote to me. It’s much faster than the post. The lines have beentricky as of late, but the operator was able to get me through just now. I apologize for calling so early in the morning, but I was looking in on your mother and she suddenly rallied and asked for you, and I’ve found that early morning trunk calls have a greater chance of going through. Now, I do not know if you can arrange things, Miss Wakefield, but I think it would be very… um,goodif you were to come and see her. As quickly as possible. She… she’s not doing a’tall well, as I mentioned in my letter.”

“Of course, of course I will. I will make arrangements straightaway. Can… can I speak to her now?”

“I’m afraid she is not strong enough to come to the phone. When can you be here? I would like to tell her.”

Molly looked up to see Oliver and Charlie staring anxiously at her.

Molly glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly six in the morning. “You can tell her that I’ll do my very best to be there tonight.”

“Very good. We will see you then. Oh, is the gentleman who answered the phone, Ignatius Oliver, related toImogenOliver by chance? I saw her name on the letterhead you sent me. The Book Keep, is it?”

“Yes. Imogen was his wife, why?”

“Just put him on, please.”

Molly handed the phone to Oliver. “He wants to talk to you. About Imogen.”

“Hello?” a puzzled Oliver said into the receiver.

“Mr. Oliver, I wanted to let you know that I have information about your wife’s death.”

“How could you possibly know anything about that?”

“She killed herself by jumping off a cliff on our grounds.”

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