Margaret Drummond

Description

Appearance: 58 years old. Tidy. The careful self-possession of a woman who has been expected to keep a household together for 40 years and does not stop doing so because the household is now one.

Personality: Private. Protective of her husband's memory. Has spent decades respecting what Wesley did and didn't talk about from his time in Vietnam. Does not want to disturb any of it now that he is gone.

Voice / Mannerisms: Precise. Measured. Polite but not accommodating. Can shut down an intrusive line of questioning without raising her voice.

Background

Margaret was married to Wesley Drummond for long enough to know his nightmares cold, without knowing what they were about. She knew he had been in Vietnam. She knew he went to Mass every Sunday and never took confession. She knew he was a good man. She did not know what Phan Lộc was.

Three weeks before his death, he began saying a word in his sleep. "Fan lock." Over and over. She looked it up — she did not find it under that spelling. She dropped it.

Her husband had been 15 years sober. In those three weeks, he started drinking again. She did not push on that either. Then he walked into Fort Point Channel.

Back in August, one of Wesley's old Vietnam comrades stopped by for the afternoon. Roy Tillman. They sat on the porch drinking beer. Margaret prepared lunch and refreshments in the kitchen. Nothing seemed unusual. Roy left in the evening.

Roy is now also dead.

Session 02

Chandler tracked her down during his ten-day downtime investigation. An Investigation 16 surfaced her address. Detective O'Malley gave him the police statement she had provided — three sentences, heavily redacted by grief.

She received Chandler on her porch in Brookline. She gave him the critical piece of information:

"But three weeks before he died, he started saying a word in his sleep. Fan lock. Fan lock. I'd never heard it before. I looked it up and I found nothing on it. I don't know what it means or why my husband was saying it in his sleep for three weeks before he walked into that damned canal."
— Margaret Drummond

She mentioned Roy's August visit only because Chandler asked about visitors.

Chandler attempted to run one more pass on her — the classic "one more thing, ma'am" — asking to see the bedroom and Drummond's military effects. She cut it off immediately:

"Young man, I know that people think that when others age, certain needs and drives disappear — the need to be close to one another. We did not have separate rooms. I am not Lucille Ball."
— Margaret Drummond

Persuasion check failed. He thanked her and left.

What She Doesn't Know

Margaret is unaware that:

• Wesley was one of five men at the Phan Lộc massacre
• Roy Tillman is dead, as is Peter Vance
• Chandler was the journalist who wrote their cover-up
• Whatever is killing the Phan Lộc survivors is moving through dream
• She may be safer than her husband's surviving comrade (Chandler himself) — but only because what's hunting him has a list, and she isn't on it

Connections