There was no answer at Ginny's door but the detectives ran around the back and found her in the garden…burying Dorian's secret box, crying, looking very much the picture of a distraught woman. When she saw them, she grabbed the shovel and brandished it in front of her as though it were as much a shield as a weapon.

"We rang your door, Ginny," Lewis told her calmly like facing a mad woman with a shovel was not at all out of the ordinary. Lewis was able to convey a wealth of emotion in his voice when he wanted, as his sergeant well knew. But when it came to talking to people who were on the verge of madness like Hugh Mallory in that window or Ginny…It was a gift that, Hathaway thought.

(And perhaps it was. Or perhaps it was hard won having come from choosing to face death straight-on and refusing to look away. For Lewis had once brandished a shovel in much the same way as Ginny was though he'd had no hope at all that it would save him from the shotgun blast headed his way. And like he'd given Alice the choice to not stay and hear the worst of her father and uncle, Mrs. Michaels had given Lewis the choice to turn away and not see his death coming. But, he'd shaken his head and locked his eyes onto hers and stood his ground…and when Morse had arrived, when he'd walked straight into firing range and drawn Mrs. Michaels' attention, Lewis had found the courage to tell him what needed said—she's fired one barrel, Sir!—though it brought the gun straight back his way. And when Morse had redrawn her attention and said those terrifying words—Do it. Do it. Do it!—Lewis, for all his heart had been beating so wildly it was a wonder he heard the chief inspector's order, did it. And the shot had gone off so loud and so close to him that for one very long moment, Lewis hadn't known whether it had struck him or not.* Living through that might well have earned him that calm, quiet voice when all around him everything was falling apart.)

Through her tears, Ginny choked out, "I'm burying Dorian's childhood."

"May we pay our respects?" Lewis asked. He nodded to Hathaway, and the sergeant stepped to the box and said, "This is Boxlands, isn't it?" His own voice was full of accusation. He hadn't gotten the full story yet from Lewis, but that look on Lewis' face when the mention of Oedipus had sunk in and the wild ride to get there had told him he wasn't going to like the story when he finally did hear it all. He opened the box and revealed several loose papers, hand-drawn maps, and toy figures. "A whole world," he said reaching into the box.

Ginny stepped towards him menacingly. "I have a right to it!" she yelled.

Innocent announced her arrival with a questioning, "Ginny?" Her old friend stared at her with wild eyes. "Put it down," Innocent said.

"Why?"

"You're my friend," Innocent reminded her. "You remember university? You loved the stories of Borges…Uqbar?"

"Yes," Ginny said. "Imaginary land…I introduced Dorian to that wonderful story."

"And to Boxen, C.S, Lewis' imaginary land?" Hathaway asked.

"Yeah," Ginny said.

"Tell us about it," Lewis prompted.

"No one will take that world away from you," Innocent promised. "No one ever could."

"Alice wasn't Dorian's muse, was she? Whatever his publicity said…you were," Lewis said.

"I was more than that!" Ginny told him. "Did you finish the chapter?"

"Oh, yes," Lewis said. There was something final in that statement that made Hathaway look away from Ginny and at his inspector. There was something there that Hathaway had missed, something between Lewis and Ginny he'd not been privy to. While he'd been back in the office doing the paperwork, Lewis had been learning something. Something that added up to their mad rush here and that 'oh, yes' with all of its finality.

"I wasn't sure you'd realize what it meant," Ginny said. "Are you horrified?"

"I think it's fair to say that," Lewis answered though his voice didn't betray it. "If it means you had a sexual relationship with your foster son…does it?" Hathaway heard Innocent's shocked gasp even as he drew in his own. Lewis stepped toward Ginny and asked, "Did it start when your husband left?"

Ginny let the shovel fall to the ground. "He betrayed us," she said. "We comforted one another." She went on to tell the whole sad story. "We made a break of it when he came to Oxford…But, then the first book came out—I recognized our creation."

"He dedicated that one to you, but he dedicated Boxlands to Alice," Lewis said, squatting beside where she'd knelt next to Dorian's box.

"Muse and bride…bride, fine—I would have worn a nice hat and been delirious for them," she said, but the hard, angry look in her eyes gave the lie to that. "But, muse?"

"That wasn't Alice's fault."

An ugly hardness transformed Ginny as she said, "Innocent people suffer all the time!" But, her voice softened into tears as she added, "Like that poor girl I killed by mistake—I thought it was Alice in the dark." She went on then to explain why she'd gone on to kill Dorian. "I knew once they were away from here, once I had lost him forever, that he would tell her the biggest secret of all—us! Oh, Jean!" she said to Innocent, "I let my heart rule my head!" But, if that was the case her heart had been beyond wicked and only concerned with keeping that secret for it hadn't been love that had moved her to kill Dorian. "I pushed the Sword of Truth home into his heart…my…my…my…" she struggled for a word to sum up all Dorian had been to her, but even for her the words were too unthinkable to utter.

There was nothing left but to take her into custody and bring the whole ugly case to a close. As they stood there watching the chief superintendent make her disheartened way to her car, Lewis looked at his sergeant and said, "You're dying to tell me something, aren't you?"

Hathaway was, but he wasn't sure he should. It was inappropriate, surely, in the circumstances—or worse. Maybe he was more like Dr. Hobson than not. Because, two people were dead, lives left in ruins, the chief super heartbroken over her old friend, and he'd rather say what had come into his mind than give the whole thing the dignified ending it deserved…Lewis waited patiently for it and the sergeant decided, why not? "That quote about the heart and the head? Lewis, C.S."

Lewis nodded. "It would be."

"Do you know what one of the Inklings is meant to have said when Tolkien started reading them The Lord of the Rings?"

Lewis made a face and rubbed his head as though the whole thing gave him a headache. "Oh, spare me, Sergeant. I've had enough of imaginary worlds."

"You'll like it, Sir. I promise."

"Go on, then."

"They said, 'Not more flipping elves!' Only they didn't say flipping."

Lewis chuckled. "I like it," he agreed. They walked to the car and climbed in. "Home, James," Lewis said, and his sergeant decided to let that ride.

*The Way Through the Woods Inspector Morse

Author's Disclaimer: Valuing my life and having raised a houseful of children (several of whom rightly consider Brandon Sanderson a master and have read the entire Wheel of Time series multiple times) on Star Wars and all things Hobbit, it must be noted that the author does not endorse any of the views expressed herein on fantasy literature in general or Tolkien in particular.