CHAPTER THIRTYMargaret Thackrey
December 1
Dearest Jonah,
At last I know the truth. More than one truth has come to light, in fact, and some are terribly painful, but in any event it is best to know, whatever the hurt. Your father was, indeed, murdered, and Ambrose Decker committed the crime, in attempting to kill me to prevent the possibility that I might put his crime into my book. Knowing this doesn’t bring Robert back, and Decker in prison will come no nearer making me happy than Decker out of prison.
I wanted him dead. A terrible atavistic urge almost accomplished that, going back, it may be, to our aboriginal foremothers in caves, standing off wolves with the thighbone of an aurochs to save their families. I wanted desperately to kill him, and only Bud’s coolness kept me from bei
