I just loved reading your theories about what happened to Maggie and why! Thanks so much for commenting. A couple of you are half right in different ways.

Some of the answers are going to be in today's chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it.

...

'Hey, Dixon.'

Daryl looked up from his bunk. He was trying to write a letter to Beth but he'd had three false starts already. Beth hoped that this anonymous note meant something good about Maggie, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it was just the opposite. Sending an anonymous letter like that seemed like what a killer would do to taunt the loved ones. Was it better that Beth hold onto hope where they might not be any? Or should he urge her to let go and move on? Were either of these things even his place to say?

Blake was standing in the open door of their cell. 'Want to earn some money, Dixon?'

Daryl just glared at him. He'd liked Blake better when he'd just lay in his bunk and stared at the ceiling all day. Mick had told him that Blake had been talking to dozens of inmates, forging connections, doing favours and having them done back. Getting them to call him the Governor. Seemed to Daryl like no good was going to come of it.

'When's that girl of yours coming in next?' Blake asked.

'What's it to you?'

'Thought maybe she could bring in a package for me. I'd cut you in.'

Drugs, he supposed. Daryl felt anger mounting but held his temper in check. 'I'm good.'

Blake laughed. 'You haven't even heard what it is.'

'I said I'm good.'

…

Daryl was having the dream again, the one in the woods at dusk. Except it wasn't progressing as it usually did. He was stuck, staring at the couple who were holding hands, seeing them over and over, not knowing why. Even in his dream he could feel himself becoming frustrated. Why the fuck was he just standing there?

Then he saw, and his eyes snapped open in the darkness. He'd been on the cusp of sleeping and waking the entire time and the shock of what he'd seen thrust him out of the dream.

They weren't holding hands. He was holding onto her wrist, dragging her with him. The girl was Maggie. And the man was Blake.

Daryl stared at the bunk above him, listening to Blake's heavy breathing, feeling like his eyes could burn through the mattress.

In the morning Daryl hung back when the cells were opened for the inmates to go down to breakfast. When Blake had gone and the coast was clear he lifted a corner of his mattress and worked a bar free. He'd noticed it was loose the day after he'd come to the prison, and that it was hollow on the inside. A useful hiding place. He reached in and took out something that he'd been saving for a rainy day.

…

Daryl watched Blake for three days, waiting for his chance. He was happy to wait. Strike too soon and the prey would escape. He was a hunter and he knew that.

Finally he saw his chance. Daryl followed him into the shower room. It was empty.

'You married, Blake?'

Blake turned and saw Daryl, then glanced around the room as if he expected an ambush. Seeing no one else, he relaxed a little.

Mistake. I'm what you need to worry about.

'Was married. Widower. What's it to you?'

'Any reason why you'd take a girl to a hotel instead of to your house?'

Blake ducked his head and chuckled to himself. 'Maggie's sister. I saw her here with you. Wondered if she knew about us.' His expression became serious. 'Sure hope Maggie comes back some day.'

Blake spoke real nice words but Daryl wasn't fooled. His eyes were cold. Only time he thought he'd seen the real Blake was when he'd been on the phone and when he'd been talking to his lawyer. He cared about himself and his daughter, that was all.

'You go into the woods much?'

Blake's smile faded.

That's right. Drop your shitty act. 'I sure as hell did, all last summer. Lived in them woods with my brother. Saw a lot of things.' Daryl watched his face carefully. He wanted something, anything – a look of fear, a look of gloating – to confirm what he thought he remembered. A dream wasn't enough to go on. He needed to know for sure, for Beth's sake.

Blake laughed and turned to go. But Daryl wasn't done with him yet. He lunged at him, yanking Blake round and punching him in the face. Blake didn't go down. He was a big, mean motherfucker, and he pulled back and his fist connected with Daryl's left eye, making him reel. But Daryl'd taken worse punches. And he knew how to fight dirty. He reached into his shirt, ripped off the tape that concealed the shiv and pulled it out. It was a toothbrush that he'd ground into a point against the concrete floor and wedged a disposable razor blade into. Daryl'd had no intention of causing problems in the prison but he'd needed to know he could protect himself if he needed to. Or if a situation arose like this. He shoved it close to Blake's face and leaned a forearm into his throat. Hard.

'Killed a man with my bare hands, Blake. Did you know that? While you were writing dirty checks to yourself. You're gonna tell me what you know about Maggie Greene.'

'Jesus Christ, Dixon. You're fucking insane,' Blake rasped. 'I'm an embezzler, not a murderer.'

'Seemed comfortable about setting up a drugs racket in here. Pretty slick for someone who's just cooked a few books.'

'I see opportunity, I take it. I don't fucking kill people.'

Daryl looked into his eyes. The man seemed genuinely frightened. Some of his conviction dimmed. What the hell did he have to go on, anyway? That he had a strange dream and that he didn't like Blake. Reluctantly, he let him go, dropping his arm and turning away.

Blake coughed as Daryl relived the pressure on his windpipe. 'Watch yourself Dixon. I think you already know I can get close to your girl, even in here.'

MAGGIE'S ALIVE.

Sonuvabitch.

Daryl turned, swinging his right fist that still held the shiv straight at Blake's eye. It went right in, like it was a grape. Blood ran down over Daryl's fingers. Blake yelled and went down with Daryl on top of him.

He only had a few moments before someone came. 'I will take your other eye,' Daryl hissed, one knee on Blake's chest. 'I will blind you and then gut you like a fish and they can stick me on death row and fry me. I don't care. You're gonna tell me what you did to that girl.'

Blake gasped through the pain, his eyes screwed shut tight and blood all over his face. 'I'll deny everything later.'

'Be my fucking guest. You're still going to tell me. What happened to Maggie Green?'

…

July 15

Beth,

Come see me. I need to talk to you.

Daryl

…

'Daryl, what happened to you?'

Beth reached up a hand to his black eye. But he caught her hand and shook his head, making her sit down. He was twitchy from looking over his shoulder for days on end. He'd never trusted anyone on the inside and he trusted them even less now. Anyone might be working for Blake, just waiting for their chance to drop him.

He'd left Blake bleeding on the shower room floor and the man had been taken to the infirmary. He'd lost the eye, he'd heard. The guards hadn't come for Daryl so the motherfucker hadn't squealed, but that just meant Blake wanted to deal with him himself.

But none of that mattered. He'd found out what he needed to know. Beth was going to get some closure.

'Beth. Give me your hands.' She frowned and slid them toward him. He held them in his, his thumbs rubbing over her knuckles. He stared at her fingers, not able to meet her eyes. They were such small hands, white and fine in his large rough ones. He wanted to stare at them forever, because when he looked up she was going to see the truth in his eyes and he couldn't bear seeing the pain that he was about to inflict.

Daryl lifted his eyes. 'Beth. Maggie's dead.'

Beth went stiff and all the colour drained from her face. She tried to pull her hands out of his but he held them fast. 'She was murdered by someone in here. I saw them in the woods but I didn't realise what or who I was seeing till the other day. I went to this man and I got it out of him.'

He'd probably be the last person to see Maggie alive. The last person except Blake. If only he'd realised what he'd been seeing at the time, a man dragging a woman, not holding her hand. Why hadn't he seen it? Was it the light? Was it the trees? Was it the fact that he knew that his father had been asking to see him, and he dreaded that meeting more than anything in his life and had been distracted?

Beth was shaking her head, the tiny, fast shakes of someone who wasn't comprehending what they were being told.

'Beth, I'm so sorry.'

…

Poor Maggie :( I know a lot of you were hoping she was going to be all right. What do you think of the way Daryl found out the truth? Was he too violent? Just violent enough in the circumstances? And how do you think he went breaking the bad news to Beth?