The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

‘You had those things because you chose to come to Blackheath,’ he says quietly, as if afraid of being overheard. ‘They did not, and that’s all I can say on the matter.’

‘If I chose to come here once, I can choose to come again,’ I say. ‘I won’t leave Anna behind.’

He begins to pace, glancing between me and the painting.

‘You’re afraid,’ I say, surprised.

‘Yes, I’m afraid,’ he snaps. ‘My superiors, they’re not... you shouldn’t defy them. I promise you, after you leave, I’ll offer Anna all the assistance it’s in my power to grant.’

‘One day, one host. She’ll never escape Blackheath, you know she won’t,’ I say. ‘I couldn’t have done this without Ravencourt’s intelligence, and Dance’s cunning. It was only because of Rashton that I started looking at the clues like evidence. Hell, even Derby and Bell played their part. She’ll need all of their skills, just as I did.’

‘Your hosts will still be in Blackheath.’

‘But I won’t be controlling them!’ I insist. ‘They won’t help a maid. I’ll be abandoning her to this place.’

‘Forget about her! This has already gone on long enough,’ he says, swinging around to confront me, swiping his hand through the air.

‘What’s gone on long enough?’

He’s looking at his gloved hand, startled by his own loss of control.

‘Only you can make me this angry,’ he says in a quieter voice. ‘It’s always been the same. Loop after loop, host after host. I’ve seen you betray friends, make alliances and die on principle. I’ve seen so many versions of Aiden Bishop, you’d probably never recognise yourself in them, but the one thing that’s never changed is your stubbornness. You pick a path, and you walk down it until the end, no matter how many holes you fall down along the way. It would be impressive if it weren’t so intensely irritating.’

‘Irritating or not, I have to know why Silver Tear went to such lengths to try to kill Anna.’

He offers me a long, appraising look, and then sighs.

‘Do you know how you can tell if a monster’s fit to walk the world again, Mr Bishop?’ he says contemplatively. ‘If they’re truly redeemed and not just telling you what you want to hear?’ He takes another slug from the hip flask. ‘You give them a day without consequences, and you watch to see what they do with it.’

My skin prickles, my blood running cold.

‘This was all a test?’ I say slowly.

‘We prefer to call it rehabilitation.’

‘Rehabilitation...’ I repeat, understanding rising within me like the sun over the house. ‘This is a prison?’

‘Yes, except instead of leaving our prisoners to rot in a cell, we give them a chance to prove themselves worthy of release every single day. Do you see the beauty of it?’ The murder of Evelyn Hardcastle was never solved, and probably never would have been. By locking prisoners inside the murder, we give them a chance to atone for their own crimes by solving somebody else’s. It’s as much a service, as a punishment.’

‘Are there other places like this?’ I say, trying to wrap my head around it.

‘Thousands,’ he says. ‘I’ve seen a village that wakes up each morning with three headless bodies in the square, and a series of murders on an ocean liner. There must be fifteen prisoners attempting to solve that one.’

‘Which makes you, what? A warden?’

‘An assessor. I decide if you’re worthy of release.’

‘But you said I chose to come to Blackheath. Why would I choose to come to a prison?’

‘You came for Anna, but you got trapped, and loop after loop Blackheath picked you apart until you forgot yourself, as it was designed to.’ His voice is tight with anger, his gloved hands clenched. ‘My superiors should never have let you inside, it was wrong. For the longest time, I thought the innocent man who’d entered here was lost, sacrificed in some futile gesture, but you’ve found your way back. That’s why I’ve been helping you. I gave you control of different hosts, searching for those who were best equipped to solve her murder, finally settling on the eight of today. I experimented with their order to ensure you got the best out of them. I even arranged to have Mr Rashton hidden in that cupboard to keep him alive. I’m bending every rule possible so that you can finally escape. Do you see now? You must leave while you’re still the person you wish to be.’

‘And Anna...?’ I say haltingly, hating the question I’m about to ask.

I’ve never allowed myself to believe that Anna belonged here, preferring to think of this place as the equivalent of being shipwrecked, or struck by lightning. By assuming her to be a victim, I took away the niggling doubt of whether this was deserved, but without that comfort, my fear is growing.

‘What did Anna do to deserve Blackheath?’ I ask.

He shakes his head, passing me the flask. ‘That’s not for me to say. Just know that the weight of the punishment is equal to the crime. The prisoners I told you about in the village and on the boat received lighter sentences than either Anna or Daniel. Those places are much less harrowing than here. Blackheath was built to break devils, not petty thieves.’