WHEN SHE WENT BACK TO THE INN, THE PICTURE SHE FOUND WAS totally unexpected. She opened the door and saw a trail of blood on the floor and Adelle, with a teary face, sitting on a chair. Her first thought was that the man had harmed her.
"Come here, honey," she said, standing up and taking her by the wrist. "I was waiting for you. Alan told us you'd probably gone for a walk and would be back soon."
"What happened?" asked Roxanne, suddenly heaving at the sight that she didn't seem to be injured.
"We didn't want you to be confronted with everything too abruptly, so that's why I've stayed here. The others are upstairs, in their rooms."
"What happened?" she repeated, almost demanded.
"Your father's henchman's been here."
"Mr. Harris?"
"He stabbed Joseph with a knife."
"What?"
"Alan's stitching him. He'll be all right. Alan knows what he's doing."
Roxanne rushed up the stairs.
"But there's something else," the woman told her, stopping her.
She understood from her face that it was something terrible.
"Before he attacked Joseph, he went into one of the kids' rooms."
The girl in red turned awfully white.
"He shot her. She didn't suffer."
Roxanne jumped up the stairs in pairs and opened the door. The room was empty and the beds made.
She ran to the room next door and burst in.
On one of the beds lay Violet, covered with a blanket. Only her head could be seen, resting on the pillow, eyes closed and a serene expression.
Celeste, seated on the floor, holding her knees to her chest, when she saw Roxanne, began to repeat: "He thought it was me. He thought it was me. He thought it was me".
"She keeps saying that," complained Blanche, sobbing angrily. "Tell her to stop!"
Roxanne went to Celeste and almost dragged her out of the room, gesturing the one in white to follow them.
She left them with Adelle in the kitchen and went to see Joseph, tears pricking, unable to come out, and her temples burning with hatred.
Adelle had told her the truth. Joseph was awake, stoically enduring Alan's sutures.
"Don't look," he told her. "It's not a pleasant thing to see and you might feel dizzy."
"I'm almost done," informed Alan.
Roxanne went out into the corridor and sat down with her back against the door. She tried to lift her eyes towards where she'd left Violet alone, but she couldn't. She did feel dizzy. She felt dizzy and as if she wasn't really there. That it was one of those nights when the girls were all asleep and she went to her mother's bedroom to listen to stories about the Earth. Nice stories. At night, they were always nice. If she must learn anything ugly, it was left for sunny mornings that would soften with their light the fear and the pain. With her eyes closed, it was one of those nights now, and her mother would soon give her a hug and tell her to sleep tight until tomorrow.