Chapter 126: The Alpha's Last Charm

The hall did not go quiet. It went the other way and stayed there.

Forty wolves on their feet and the whole of it was the sound of a village that had been lied to for thirty six years and that had just been told a lie in its own hall. Tom was shouting at Hannah and Hannah was shouting at the man beside her and the woman from the post office had her hand over her mouth and Arthur was standing at the back with his stick in his hand and his old face working. The nine of them were along the wall and the whole of the nine were watching and not saying a word.

Mairéad stood at the head of the table with her silver hair down and her black coat on and her hands folded and she let it go on.

And then she put her hand up.

"There is a thing about this hall," she said, and her voice carried the way it had carried for fourteen years, low and warm and musical, and the whole of it went quiet to hear her. "There is a thing about this hall that no wolf in it has said out loud since June. It is a hall that has been in this village since 1901 and it has had a long table in it and a frame on the wall and a chair at the head of it and it has had a wolf in that chair who has kept this village alive. And there is a thing about a village that has been kept alive. It has been kept alive by a wolf who has done the things that no one else would do and who has taken the money and signed the papers and called the hunters and put a woman in a boathouse." She put her hand flat on the table. "And there is not a wolf in this hall who has not known it and who has not taken the boat and the mooring and the catch and the quiet nights and who has not said, that is the Alpha's business."

The whole hall was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said. "And I am going to say it in front of the whole of this co-op and the whole of the nine. The whole of what she has just said is true and there is a thing about a truth that a woman in a black coat says in a hall at midnight. It is a truth that is meant to make a co-op look at itself instead of at her." I put my hand on the table. "So I am going to ask the co-op to do the thing it has not done since 1961. Not look at itself. Look at the file."

The hall stirred.

"The file is in Galway and it has every name in it and it is going to be read out loud on the fourteenth," Mairéad said. "And there is a thing about the fourteenth that I have been thinking about since the co-op came into this hall tonight. It is a full moon and there is not a wolf in this village who is going to be able to shift in a hall in Galway and there is not a wolf in this village who is going to be able to run." She turned round and looked at the whole of them. "So I am going to make the co-op an offer. Not a claim. Not a vote. An offer. There is a thing about a wolf who has been in that chair for fourteen years and who is going to be put out of this territory on the fourteenth by nine wolves from nine territories. She can go quietly. She can stand up in this hall and resign and get on a boat and go to Galway and never come back and the whole of it is done and the co-op is left with a village and a hall and a file that is going to be read out loud in Galway without a single wolf from this village in the room." She put her hand out. "Or she can stay and the whole of it is going to be read out loud on the fourteenth with the whole of the co-op in a room in Galway on the night of a full moon and there is not a wolf in this hall who does not know what a full moon does to a wolf who is in a city."

The whole hall was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said, "and it is the thing that the whole of this hall has been waiting for since the garden. She is not offering a resignation. She is offering a bargain and a bargain is a thing that a wolf makes when she has nothing left. And there is a thing about a wolf who has nothing left and who makes a bargain in a hall at midnight. She is going to say the thing that a co-op wants to hear and the co-op is going to want to believe it because the co-op has been believing her for thirty six years." I put my hand on the table. "So I am going to say the thing that no wolf in this hall wants to hear. If she goes to Galway tonight and resigns in front of the court, the whole of it is still in the file and the whole of it is still going to be read out loud and the whole of the co-op is still going to be in that room on the fourteenth. A resignation does not close a file. It opens one."

The hall went up again.

And then Mairéad did a thing I had not expected.

She came round the table and she went to the woman from the post office first and she took her hand and she said a thing that only the two of them could hear. And then she went to Tom and she put her hand on his arm and she said a thing and Tom's red face went redder and he looked at the floor. And then she went to Hannah and she put her hand on the baby's head and she said a thing and Hannah turned her face away.

She went round the whole of the hall. Forty wolves and she went to every one of them and she said a thing that only that wolf could hear, and by the time she had got to the back of the hall the whole of it had changed and there was not a wolf in it who was looking at me.

And then she came back to the table and stood at the head of it with her hands folded.

"There is a thing about the money," she said. "The five hundred pounds out of the co-op's account that is in the paper that I signed tonight. I signed the paper and I told the co-op it was a forgery and I told the co-op it was a test. And there is a thing about a test that a woman in a black coat gives a co-op at midnight. It is not a test. It is a thing that is going to be in a file in Galway on the fourteenth." She put her hand on the table. "The paper is a forgery and it is signed by me and it says the woman from Dublin was paid five hundred pounds out of the co-op's account on the twenty fifth of June. And there is a thing about a paper that is signed by an Alpha and put in a file. It does not matter that it is a forgery. It matters that it is in the file."

The whole hall was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said, "and I am going to say it and then I am going to go and sit down on that bench and not say another word until the morning. The paper is a forgery and she has admitted it in front of the whole of this co-op and the whole of the nine. And there is a thing about a wolf who admits a forgery in front of a hall. She has done it because she knows the whole of it is going to be in a file and she knows that a forgery that is in a file is a thing that is going to be read out loud in a room in Galway on the fourteenth. And there is a thing about a wolf who is going to be in that room. It is not the woman from Dublin. It is the co-op. And there is not a wolf in this hall who is going to be able to say afterwards that she did not know."

I went to the bench at the back of the hall and sat down.

And then Mairéad said, "There is a thing about the woman from Dublin that the whole of this co-op has been told tonight and that I am going to say in front of the whole of the nine. She has been in this village for a month and she has been in every room in it and she has been in a church and a cellar and a hold and a court. And there is a thing about a woman who has been in every room in a village and who has not taken a penny. She is a woman who is not a thief." She put her hand on the table. "But there is a thing about a woman who is not a thief and who is standing in a hall with the whole of a co-op in front of her. She is a woman who is going to have to be believed. And there is not a wolf in this hall who is going to believe her after tonight."

The whole hall was silent.

And then Declan stood up at the back of the hall.

"There is a thing about this hall," he said, "that I have been thinking about since the boathouse. It is a hall with a long table and a frame on the wall and a chair at the head of it. And there is a thing about a wolf who has been the Beta of this pack for twenty years and who has stood at the back of it and said nothing. He is a wolf who has been a part of the whole of it and there is not a wolf in this hall who does not know it." He came down the floor. "So I am going to say the thing that no wolf in this hall has said out loud. The woman from Dublin did not take the five hundred pounds. I took it. I took it out of the co-op's account on the twenty fifth of June and I gave it to a man in Galway and the man in Galway was Kern and I did it because the Alpha told me to do it in the pack voice and because I have been doing what I am told since my father went out in a boat in 1975." He put his hand on the table. "And there is a thing about a Beta who takes five hundred pounds out of a co-op's account and puts it in the hand of a man in Galway. He is a thief and he is going to be in that room on the fourteenth and he is going to say the whole of it out loud."

The whole hall went up.