Sixteen

By the time they got home, Kate was seeing Jack's side. They must protect Sara. With the sheriff's threat that he was going to do what he could to stop their investigation, things could get very unpleasant.

"I don't want to see her locked up," Jack said as he drove them home.

It flashed through Kate's mind that her mother would love to hear that Sara had been thrown into jail. She made herself stamp down that idea. Of course her mother wouldn't be happy if that happened. But it was guaranteed that she would go into such hysterics that Kate would have to return home to calm her down.

Jack kept glancing at her, waiting for her answer.

"I agree. But how do we exclude Sara from this one thing?"

"She's been alone for a couple of hours, so she's writing. When she's absorbed by that, an earthquake can't disturb her. One time in New York she went into her bedroom to get ready to go out to breakfast. She didn't come out until it was time for dinner."

"I thought she retired from writing."

"I think trying to make a writer retire is like persuading a lioness to pretend she's a kitten. Can't be done."

"And irritates the hell out of the bear."

"What?"

"It's just a saying about talking to a man. Can't be done and irritates the hell out of the—"

"I got it. What if I called your uncles and told them you were using bad words?"

Kate didn't laugh. "Clever pirate," she mumbled as they pulled into the garage.

She didn't want to think about her uncles. "You think Lachlan residents will ever stop calling this the Stewart Mansion?"

"Nope. Could be flattened by a hurricane and rebuilt and it'd still belong to the Stewarts." Jack reached over the side of the truck bed and handed the bags of groceries to Kate. As she opened the door into the house, he gave a conspiratorial nod. They were going to talk to Mr. Niederman alone.

They were quiet as they put the groceries away. Paper and nonrefrigerated items could be left for later. It was better to come and go quickly.

It was when Kate looked at the bulletin board that she knew something was wrong. She'd pinned Mr. Niederman's address there but it was gone. When she tapped Jack's arm, he pivoted so fast on his crutches that he nearly fell. "It's gone," Kate whispered. "The address isn't there."

"I know how to get there. It's my town, remember? We'll—" Suddenly, Jack understood what Kate was thinking. His face turned red and he let out a yell that shook the house. "Medlar!"

There was no answer.

Kate ran to Sara's bedroom, threw open the doors and ran into the little library, Sara's writing room. It was empty.

"I'm going to murder her," Jack muttered when Kate found him in the garage. He heaved himself up into the vehicle.

She jumped into the passenger seat and shut the door. "You think she went ahead of us?"

"Oh, yeah. I saw that her car was gone, but she likes to park it under the palms on the far side. Says the car enjoys the view."

"Why did she go without us?"

"Because she figured out that we were going without her." He was backing the truck out. She'd never been in a vehicle doing fifty miles an hour in Reverse. She held on to the armrest and checked her seat belt—then noticed that Jack's wasn't on. But the look on his face made her stay quiet.

She'd never seen him so angry. In fact, she'd never seen anyone look as furious as Jack did. Kate remembered Sara telling about Jack's fights with Roy. The laughing, easy-tempered man she'd come to know wasn't in the truck with her.

Thiswas what Cheryl saw that night, Kate thought. Roy Wyatt's dark good looks had been distorted into menacing, threatening rage. No wonder it was easy for people to believe that Roy had murdered two women.

Jack used back roads with little to no traffic to get to an area she'd never seen before. It was rural, with thick growth hanging down around them. Ahead of them was a crossroads with a stop sign, but Jack wasn't slowing down. There didn't seem to be any cars coming but the untrimmed shrubs made it hard to see very far. "There's a stop sign!" she yelled.

In the next second Kate saw the brilliant yellow streak of Sara's MINI Cooper coming from the side. She screamed. Jack turned the wheel so hard the truck skidded into a circle—and headed directly toward a palm tree with a trunk as thick as a stone pillar. He slammed on the brakes.

Instinctively, Kate threw her arm across her eyes. There was no way they weren't going to hit the tree.

There was another abrupt turn that threw her against the door, then the truck stopped. By the time she opened her eyes, Jack had already leaped out of the truck and grabbed a single crutch from the back.

"Sara!" Kate flung open the door and jumped to the ground.

The back of Sara's MINI was barely visible under trees and tall shrubs. Jack was fighting his way through to the door.

Kate was dazed but she was smaller than Jack and not hindered by a cast. She slipped in front of him to reach Sara's door first.

But her aunt was already out—and she looked as angry as Jack did.

"You were going to leave me out of all of it," she yelled at him.

He backed out of the bushes but his face was still like the person Kate had never seen before. "You're damn right I was! Flynn wants us to stay out of this. You—"

"If you say I'm too old for this, I'll hit you. I'll—" She gritted her teeth; her fists were clenched. "You were leaving me!"

The agony in her voice went right through Kate. She put her arm around her aunt's shoulders and began pulling her toward the road. As they passed Jack, she looked at him. "If you act like Roy Wyatt, we're going to treat you like him. Get it together!"

She escorted Sara across the road to a little clearing and helped her sit down.

The truck was nearby, turned around, and headed in the opposite direction they'd been going. There were skid marks on the pavement and a headlight was broken. The big palm was jammed against the side of the old truck. Another inch and they would have hit it hard.

Kate got three bottles of water out of the back, handed one to Sara and kept the other two. Sara was shaking so badly Kate had to open the bottle for her.

It was minutes later before Jack appeared with his single crutch. Pausing, he looked both ways before crossing the road, then dropped to the ground beside Sara.

Kate, still standing, opened a bottle of water and handed it to him. He drained half of it. As she stood there, looking down at both of them, waiting for them to start making amends, she realized she was furious. How close it had come to all of them being killed! It didn't take words to know that they were all thinking of Evan's recent death.

"You don't need me," Sara whispered.

Jack reached out an arm and pulled her to him so her head was on his shoulder. "Not true. We can't do without you."

Kate sat down on the other side of Sara and kept her mouth shut. This was Jack's bad and he needed to fix it.

"I saw what Flynn did with the purse," Sara said. "And you two went to the grocery to talk. I knew what was going on. You think I'm too old and fragile for this. But then, people think that old equals senile. I get asked if I'm ‘afraid' to sit up without help. If I forget where I put something, I'm told I'm probably in the early stages of Alzheimer's. It's as though my age is all that's left of me. Nothing I've learned in my life counts. Just age."

"It was all my fault," Jack said. "I didn't see the stop sign, and I'm the one who didn't want you to go with us. But to be fair, I wanted to leave Red out, too. I thought I could do everything alone."

Kate kept looking ahead, saying nothing.

"Okay," Jack said. "New rules. We're in this together. We're stronger as a threesome."

He was still holding Sara against him, his face hidden from hers.

Turning, Kate looked at him. His voice sounded strong, but she saw how pale he was, and his eyes were full of fear of what had almost happened.

She stood up. As always, she wanted to lighten the misery. "I'm going to get the MINI out of the bushes before an alligator crawls inside and eats the seats."

Jack nodded thanks and put both his arms around Sara. Neither of them had recovered.

It took Kate a while to get the car back onto the road. A side mirror was broken and there was some paint damage, but the car was drivable. She pulled it off to the side, fairly well concealed, and safe from traffic.

She locked the car, then went across the road to Jack's truck. He and Sara were still there, clinging to each other, but they looked better.

She needed to move the truck to the side. When Kate got behind the wheel, her hands were shaking. She put her head down on the steering wheel. She'd never been in a car accident before and the terror she'd felt had drained her of energy.

"Out," Jack said softly. He was standing in the open door, looking at her. Kate sat upright.

"I need to move the truck. I should..." Tears were starting. Jack opened his arms to her and she fell into them.

"I was really, really, really scared."

"I know." He stroked her hair. "It was all my fault. I'm sorry I got so mad."

"You were ugly-mad." She hiccupped.

"I know."

"You looked like Roy."

"I'm sure I did. But you weren't afraid of me."

"You love Sara too much to hurt her."

"I do. I—Holy crap!" He pulled away from her. "Flynn's car just went by. The idiot didn't even look this way. I bet that bastard's already been to see Niederman. I'm gonna—"

Kate didn't like that he seemed to have so quickly tossed aside his remorse. As hard as she could, with as much strength as she could muster, she kicked him in the shin. She hit his leg where the skin was the thinnest and where it would hurt the most. She was glad she had on her Coach pumps with their hard soles.

Jack hobbled backward, grabbing his leg. Between the cast and the one crutch, he fell flat on his behind onto the hard pavement, then looked up at the women in bewilderment.

Sara had stepped beside Kate and they put their arms around each other's waists. They were smiling down at him.

"You drive?" Sara asked Kate.

"Love to." She looked at Jack sprawled on the road. "Think you can get in the truck bed?"

He rolled his eyes. "Sure you don't want to tie me onto the bumper?"

Sara snapped her fingers. "I knew there was a reason I should have brought the chains." She got into the passenger side of the truck.

Kate stayed outside until Jack was in the back. He winked at her and she got in to drive.

Sara reached across the seat to squeeze Kate's hand. "I'm glad you're here."

"Me, too," Kate said. "Now, how do I get to Arthur Niederman's house? Not that the poor man will talk to us. Sheriff Flynn probably scared him to death."

"Or made him laugh in derision."

"Good point."

Jack slid the back glass open. "Are you two just going to talk all day?"

"How's your shin?" Kate started the engine.

"Bleeding. I may need stitches."

"I can sew," Sara said and the women laughed.

With a groan, Jack said, "Uncaring, unsympathetic. Is this where feminism has led?" When he turned away, he was smiling. With no thanks to him, they were safe. And they'd made vows to stay together. But then, a three-legged stool wasn't very strong with a leg missing.