The Book of Lost Hours
by Hayley Gelfuso
Contents
Chapter 15
Overview
Moira coerces wounded James Gravel into revealing where Ernest’s stolen watches are hidden, then disposes of two bodies and stages the scene to implicate Fred. She breaks into Jack Dillinger’s office, discovers extensive files on herself and Amelia, and steals her father’s revived watch, but Patrick Brady’s confrontation proves Jack has anticipated a betrayal and is monitoring Amelia’s situation. In the time space, Amelia—stranded without a watch—softens toward Anton, learns his painful past, recovers Lisavet Levy’s missing book, and begins entering its memories with Anton’s help.
Summary
In the time space in 1965, Amelia panics when no help comes and realizes she is stranded without her watch. Anton finds Amelia, notes Amelia’s bruises, and confirms Amelia has been “asking questions.” When Amelia insists Moira didn’t kill Ernest, Anton softens and leads Amelia away, telling Amelia to sleep even though “people don’t need to sleep” in the time space.
Elsewhere, Moira waits for James Gravel to regain consciousness after shooting him. Once awake, James demands to know why Moira is there, but Moira focuses on recovering the watches Ernest stole from the department. Moira leverages the danger of two dead bodies in James’s shop—one being the head of the CIA—and threatens James with murder charges; James finally reveals the watches are hidden in a false-bottom wardrobe upstairs and implies he believed Moira had killed Ernest.
Moira retrieves the watches, then stages the crime scene to protect herself: she drives to a bridge where Amelia previously discarded evidence, drags the two bodies to the riverbank, and places Fred’s pistol to make it look like Fred did the shooting. In heavy rain, Moira drives seven hours from Boston to Washington, D.C., enters Jack’s building after claiming Jack “needed something,” and notices another car in the lot, prompting her to arm herself.
Inside Jack’s office, Moira opens his safe and finds possessions and records Jack kept: Moira’s real coat and her father’s coat, Ernest’s drawings and notes about Moira, reports from Brady and Collins, and Jack’s psychiatric-ward notes from when he imprisoned Moira. Moira also finds a thick file labeled “Amelia Duquesne,” confirming Jack has been investigating Amelia. Moira then unlocks a second box and reactivates her father’s pocket watch, feeling Time gather as it begins ticking again.
Patrick Brady interrupts Moira, revealing Jack called and warned that “things were about to go down” in Boston involving Amelia and Anton, and that Brady was waiting to ensure nothing went wrong. Realizing Brady suspects her, Moira attacks him with a lamp, locks him in Jack’s office, and escapes as Brady curses her using her real name. Meanwhile, Amelia wakes in a peaceful memory in rural Russia in 1955; Anton admits it is his childhood and recounts how his timekeeper father was killed by Americans, his sisters later died of starvation, and Anton was forced into a Moscow training program. Amelia and Anton tentatively become friends, Anton produces Lisavet Levy’s blue book, explains Ernest viewed its memories and then changed, and reveals his stolen watches are hidden in the chasm. Hand in hand, Amelia and Anton open the book together and are pulled into a memory that begins with someone putting young Lisavet to bed.
Who Appears
- Moira Donnelly (Lisavet Levy)Interrogates James for stolen watches, stages bodies, raids Jack’s safe, steals her father’s watch, flees Brady.
- Amelia DuquesneStranded in time space without a watch; bonds with Anton, seeks Lisavet’s book, enters its memories.
- AntonRussian timekeeper hiding in time space; shares childhood memory, reveals watches in chasm, helps Amelia open the book.
- James GravelWounded watchmaker; reveals Ernest’s stolen watches’ hiding place after Moira threatens murder charges.
- Patrick BradyJack’s man; confronts Moira in Jack’s office, hints at Jack’s surveillance, is locked in after Moira attacks.
- Jack DillingerOff-page antagonist; his safe holds Moira’s possessions and extensive files, including a thick dossier on Amelia.
- Ernest DuquesneMentioned as dead; stole watches and examined Lisavet’s book, after which he pushed Anton to act.
- Fred VanceDead; Moira stages the bodies to make it appear Fred carried out the shootings.
- Lisavet Levy (as child in the memory)Appears at the end as a young girl in the first memory accessed through the blue book.
- Anton’s fatherSeen in Anton’s 1955 Russian childhood memory; a timekeeper later killed by Americans, shaping Anton’s fate.