The Trial of Rufus Locke – Part 2: Case Closed

The silence was the hardest part. He had talked his whole life, in the workshop, at dinner, in bed, in the dark, and now, for the first time, he did not. He knelt on the cold flags of the cell with his hands on his knees, and the quiet closed over him like water.

It was a clean, large silence. After the first hour, he stopped composing jokes. After the second, he stopped thinking about the next thing he might say. By the third, he could hear his own heartbeat, and the slow drip of water somewhere in the vaults, and the soft step of her boots on the stone as she crossed the floor.

She came at every half hour, in her long black coat, with a lantern, and stood in front of him. She did not speak, because he could not. She tilted his chin with two fingers and looked at his face, and each time he gave the small nod they had agreed, I wish to continue, and she gave one nod in return, like a signature.

At midnight she brought the cane. He knelt, and she counted the strokes aloud, because he could not, thirty, each exact and brief, with a hand on his shoulder at every tenth. He did not make a sound beyond his breathing. At the end she knelt in front of him and held his face in both hands and said, very quietly, "You were perfect."

She fastened him in the cell as the verdict said, in soft leather cuffs, with the quick-release knots tied loose enough for him to slide a hand free in a second, and left him with the bell and the bread and the lamp. He lay on the plank bunk and looked at the vaulted roof, and found that his mind was as quiet as a pond at dawn. He slept.

At first light she came down and opened the door. He sat up, blinking. She stood in the doorway with the verdict in her hand, and her face was soft and open and very tired.

"Mr Locke," said Cordelia. "The Court has one last order."

He waited.

"You may speak."

He drew a long breath. It rattled. He found he could not think of a single thing to say.

"Case closed," said Cordelia, softly.

It was the word, and she said it for both of them. She laid the verdict on the bunk and sat beside him and put her arms round him, and he rested his head against her shoulder and, to his own astonishment, wept.

"How are you?" she said, at last.

"Quiet," said Rufus, in a rough voice. "For the first time in my life. Thank you."

"You were extraordinary." She kissed his forehead. "I have never heard a man be so eloquent in silence."

"Is the ledger burned?"

"Tonight." She smiled. "After a very large breakfast."

They sat on the bunk in the grey light, shoulders touching, while the gulls began to cry beyond the cell wall.

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