The knots in her stomach twisted more tightly. “You were a convict all that time? Doing hard labor.”
David glanced at her, realizing that he’d never even given her that much information before.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I’d like to try to figure out a way to make sure that this is the body of Collum MacDonald. Then, maybe I can figure out how and why he and I were exchanged for one another.”
“David, this man is burned beyond recognition.”
“I’d hoped for a ring, a pendant of some kind.”
Shawna shivered. Most of the corpses, so long dead, smelled musty and nothing more. But it seemed that the charred inhabitant of this coffin still carried the horrible smell of being burned to death.
“David, please, there’s nothing to be learned from this man,” Shawna whispered.
“Charming,” he muttered bitterly. “He’s been kilted in my best tartan.”
“We thought he was you!” she said, her voice trembling with emotion.
“Aye, well, there’s nothing left to tell who he might have been! Burned to bone, and not much more. I’m amazed anyone managed to dress this mess of humanity.”
“Again, I tell you, we thought that it was you.”
He sniffed.
“I awoke next to that abomination after the fire!” Shawna told him with soft, furious vehemence.
She was startled when he suddenly came back around to her, his fingers curling around her wrists. He swore softly. “It makes no sense! What happened between the time we both blacked out—and the fire raged? It seems someone wanted me dead, while someone else just wanted it believed that I was dead. You were rescued, and I was sold into bondage.” He shook his head,confused and irritated that he couldn’t seem to figure out where the missing piece to the puzzle lay.
She wrenched free from him, unnerved by his manner, backing against the gate to the vault.
“David, I swear, there is nothing more I can say that will help. After the fire, Gawain found me. He?—”
“Gawain. And Gawain instantly knew it was my corpse at your side?”
“Well, I did start shrieking and screaming and crying your name. That probably added to his belief that the corpse was you.”
He almost smiled. “What then?”
“What then? For God’s sake, what do you think, what then? I was in shock. I was sedated, but I knew that you were dead, that I?—”
“That you—what?”
Her lashes fell, sweeping her cheeks. “That I had caused your death.”
“What else, what then?”
She shook her head, not understanding. “We wrote to your father and brother. They started work on the memorial. We called the undertaker and the constable.”
“Aye, and there was an investigation.”
“Of course, there was an investigation. Your father was grief-stricken. Your brother demanded no less. He spoke with everyone. He spoke with me. You were buried. Here. In that coffin. And I wasn’t afraid to come here tonight because after the fire I came almost every day until?—”
She broke off, wincing.
“Until what?”
“I ran away.”
“You ran away?” he inquired. “From Castle Rock?”