Misgivings
Page 25
“Oh, Horatio, that’s so sad,” Alexx said when he finished. “He went to that much trouble, just to avoid causing her pain. With suicides, it’s usually the other way around.”
“Suffering can bring out the best in people as well as the worst. It all depends on what you do with it.”
“What about what we did, Horatio?” Alexx’s voice sounded troubled. “I know it’s our jobs to uncover the truth—but in this case, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better if Hector had succeeded.”
“I don’t think so, Alexx. No matter who he was or what he did, Hector Villanova had a life. He affected the people around him. To deny that, to try to just slip away unnoticed, is to do not only himself but everyone who knew him a disservice. No one’s life is entirely their own . . . and if you’re going to end that life, you owe the people who love you more than unanswered questions.”
“You’re right, Horatio. Pain is just part of the package, isn’t it? Doctors spend so much time trying to relieve suffering that sometimes they lose sight of that.”
“Not you, Alexx.”
She sighed. “I should get back to my family. A Christmas Carol is about to start, and I always watch it with my husband.”
“Holiday traditions are important,” Horatio said. “Take care.”
“You, too.”
After he hung up, Horatio sat for a while in silence. Alexx’s mention of the old movie had stirred up memories of it; the scene that came to mind was of Scrooge, all alone in his dark, empty house, huddled in front of the fire and eating his dinner— until the ghost of his former partner, Marley, showed up wrapped in chains.
“I wear the chain I forged in life,” Marley told him. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it . . .”
Chains, Horatio thought. Hector Villanova had wound chains around his body to weight it down . . . but their weight was nothing when compared to that of the chains already wrapped around his heart.
“Is its pattern strange to you?” Horatio said out loud. “Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself?”
No answer came.
Horatio turned out the lights and went home.