Nineteen

The next morning, there was a note under Kate's door, and she picked it up.

We apologize. Jack will behave...not sure if I can.

—Jack and Sara

Kate laughed. Was this how real families worked? she wondered. Respect for each other's feelings? Apologies for making other family members angry?

Her uncles always made her furious, then they said her anger was a character flaw in her. If she was a well-adjusted person, she'd take their suggestions—i.e., their endless criticism—with a smile of gratitude.

When she opened her bedroom door, no one was about. But then she saw the toe of Jack's cast sticking out from behind the kitchen counter. She yelled, "I forgive you!"

Jack stood up. "Thank you. I think I've injured my good leg from hiding from your righteous wrath. And by the way, I love Alastair Stewart. Admire him immensely. Think he'll make a fine husband and father. Can I be your best man?"

By the time he finished, she was laughing. "Well, maybe he is trying too hard but I like the effort he's making. When this is done, I plan to see a lot more of him."

"He's so skinny you can't have missed much."

She narrowed her eyes at him and he threw up his hands.

"Sorry. I'm a sore loser, so shoot me."

Kate laughed.

After breakfast, they got into Jack's old truck and drove down to Pembroke Pines to the Chevy dealer. On the drive, Kate repeated everything Alastair had told her about what Sheriff Flynn said.

"He's telling everything he knows to outsiders," Jack said.

"Except about Evan," Kate said. "The sheriff doesn't seem to have told about your truck."

Jack nodded. "That's good. If the murderer thinks we know about that..." He didn't finish.

The dealership didn't want Jack's old pickup for a trade-in, but since he bought all his vehicles for his company there, they relented.

"I really do need to look at your finances," Kate said and Jack smiled.

She and Sara chose a beautiful truck: bright red, double cab, lots of chrome and fog headlights. Jack took one look at it, snorted, then told the dealer he wanted the black single cab.

"Sure glad we could help you choose," Kate said.

It took nearly two hours for all the paperwork. Sara said she'd pay cash if they'd do it quicker, but Jack refused her offer.

While they waited, Kate picked up a magazine. Sara went to the far side of the room and gave her full attention to her cell phone.

Jack took a seat next to Kate. "So when do you go out with him again?"

"We have an overnighter planned for this weekend." When Jack was silent, she looked up. "Someday you're going to have to deal with my having a real relationship."

Jack gave a little smile. "So this one isn't real?"

She put her magazine down. "I don't know. Alastair is lovely. A real gentleman, but there's something missing."

Jack leaned back in the chair, his leg in its cast stretched out. "Passion, maybe? That feeling where he so wants to touch you that he can't sleep? When he leans over you, the smell of your hair makes him dizzy? The way seeing you even talk to another man makes him feel so primal that he wants to hit, maim and kill? That's what's missing?"

She was blinking at him.

"Sir, your truck is ready," the dealer said.

Jack stood up. "You ready to go? We need to decide what to do next. Or if we want to stop."

Kate was still thinking about what he'd said. Jack held out his hand as though to help her stand up. She didn't take it but stood on her own.

"Let's let Aunt Sara decide."

"I'll tell you now that nothing stops her." He turned toward Sara. "Medlar! You ready to go or have you plotted a new Game of Thrones?"

She got up and went to them. "Games the Children Plot is more like it. What have you two cooked up that leaves old me out?"

"After what happened last time?" Jack said. "You'd probably drive your toy car up into the bed of my new pickup and ruin the paint job."

Kate smiled. "Her yellow, your black. You'd have a bumblebee truck. Hey! You could rename your company Bumblebee Construction. The motto would be Powerful and Fast."

"Or We Buzz to Please," Sara said.

Jack shook his head. "My two joke makers. Let's go home."

Sara lowered her voice. "Can't. We have someplace to go first. I found Verna's landlord, Lester Boggs. Or his widow, anyway. She lives in Hollywood."

"We take a plane?" Kate asked.

"Hollywood here," Jack said. "The real one. What are we supposed to find there?"

"Verna traded her nice car to Boggs for an old van, which she packed full of everything they owned," Sara explained. "We believed they were, uh, ‘taken' on Friday. Roy saw the van there on Saturday morning. But when Jack and Captain Edison went there later, the van was gone. So who took it?"

Jack and Kate stared at her in silence for a moment.

"Come on," Sara said. "Let's go see if his widow knows anything." She hurried to the door, Kate behind her, Jack on his crutches coming up last.

As always, Kate sat in the middle. She enjoyed fiddling with the new truck's radio and its GPS system. Sara gave her the Boggs address and she fed it into the system. The female voice told Jack that he needed to make "a legal U-turn" and go back the way he'd come to get on I-75. The map showed the route as going south, then across Miami, then back up I-95. They were to make a huge U to get to someplace that was straight across.

"That's helpful," Kate said.

Jack ignored the GPS and drove them directly to an old, quiet suburb. Kate read the house numbers. The one they wanted was well kept.

"Not like his tenants' places, is it?" There was a muscle working in Jack's jaw.

As soon as he pulled into the driveway, the front door opened and a young man came out. "Hi. I'm Trent, Lester's son. You wanted to see the things Dad stored?"

Sara stepped forward. "I sent the text. Yes, we'd very much like to see what you have."

"I'd love to show it to you." They followed him to the garage. He punched in the numbers and the door slowly rose. Inside was a hoarder's paradise. Boxes, bags, a basket full of wigs, toys were all jammed together from floor to ceiling to form an impenetrable wall. The mass seemed to go all the way back but they couldn't see past the outer shell.

"How old is all this?" Sara asked.

"Older than me," Trent said. "My dad couldn't part with anything."

Jack put his hand on a box at the far end and leaned on it. Things were jammed together so tightly that nothing moved. He caught Kate's eye. There was one word on the box: Morris.

Kate nudged Sara and she saw it, but she didn't give away that fact to Trent.

"What are you going to do with this?" Sara asked.

"I..." He took a breath. "I don't want to sound callous, but my mother isn't well and as soon as... Anyway, we'll go through this, sell what we can, donate some and toss the rest. My wife wants to hire a big Dumpster and get rid of it now."

"I'll give you a check for five grand for the lot of it," Sara said. "Jack's workmen will clean it out for you this afternoon."

"My wife would like that," Trent said, "but I worry that my mom will find out, then—"

"Six," Sara said. When Trent hesitated, she turned her back on him. "Let's go. We have those storage units to bid on this afternoon."

She got only two steps before Trent yelled, "Yes! I'll take it. Clean it out. It'll be my gift to my wife."

It took only minutes for Sara to write a check and Trent to give them the garage code.

"I'll be at the hospital with my mother," Trent said, "so come at any time."

The three of them got into the new truck and drove away.

"Wow." Kate hugged her aunt and kissed her cheek. "You were wonderful. Wasn't she?"

"Totally brilliant. What do you think is in that box?"

"Photos of Cheryl with the boy who impregnated her," Kate said.

"And Verna with her daughter's father," Sara said.

"You two are real dreamers." He pulled his cell out of his pocket and handed it to Kate. "Call Gil and tell him to get the men to pick it all up and take it to the Morris house. Put everything in the bedrooms and shut the doors. And don't flirt with my foreman."

"Even if he talks about my smelly hair?"

Jack glanced away from the road long enough to give her a warning squint.

"Let's lie about this," Sara said. "Too much info is getting out. We can tell Gil there's some good furniture in there, but we had to buy it all. And don't let him take any of it to the dump because that's what men with trucks like to do."

"Men with trucks, huh?" Jack murmured, shaking his head. "Talk about typecasting. Okay, I'll talk to him."

Kate held the phone while Jack told Gil what they'd decided, then hung up.

"By four today everything should be in the Morris house. We'll go over there and start going through it all. Text Gil to set up some stand lights so we can see."

"This should be interesting," Kate said.

Sara agreed eagerly. "I think so, too."

Jack said, "Let's stop at a Lowe's and get a lot of bug spray. Cockroaches love old boxes. Wait until you see a palmetto bug! The size of the palm of your hand."

Kate looked to Sara for verification that he was joking, but she nodded. Kate groaned and Jack laughed.

After they got back to the house, the three separated. Jack took off in his new truck to visit his work sites and to just plain be with men.

Sara said she wanted to write some things down. Kate had learned that her aunt Sara was like a watch that had to be wound daily. And her way of rewinding was to spend time alone with pen and paper. A true introvert.

Kate went to her suite and called her mother. It took a while to reassure her that Aunt Sara had shown no signs of a bad temper. Yes, she would soon go back to work.

Kate did her best to talk around what they were doing. Not lie but avoid.

She emphasized helping Jack choose a truck. But this upset her mother. Spending so much time with a Wyatt might cause "the young Stewart" to be lost. So Kate talked about Alastair and how he'd come to the house and had dinner with them.

"And my sister-in-law was nice to him?" Ava's voice was full of disbelief.

"Very, very nice. Aunt Sara is kind to everyone." At that, Kate crossed her fingers. Sheriff Flynn sent her aunt into a rage. But that was understandable.

There was a scary moment when she slipped and came close to telling how Jack and Sara had almost crashed into each other. Kate had to cover herself by saying that a tree branch had dented Aunt Sara's car. She just left out the fact that Aunt Sara was driving at the time.

When she finally got off the phone, Kate was so sweaty she took a quick shower. She wasn't used to lying.

At two, the doorbell rang and she met Sara in the foyer. Three big boxes had been left on the front veranda.

Kate drew in her breath. The label said Elaine Cross.

"Come on," Sara said. "Let's go to your room and see what she sent."

They carried the boxes into Kate's living room and opened them. Packed in tissue paper were glorious things: dresses, blouses, skirts, even shoes. Silks, cottons, knits, linen.

Kate flopped down onto the couch, totally overwhelmed. "I shouldn't accept this. It's too much."

"Don't be silly." Sara was holding up a striped shirt with a dozen tiny buttons down the front. "Think of it as your own personal Santa Claus come early."

"He never left anywhere near this much at my house."

"Oh?" Sara pulled out two dresses. One was white with black piping. The other was emerald green with a pale dragon on the back. "You and your mom had money problems?"

"We were always frugal. My father's life insurance policy didn't pay out too much. Mom got temporary jobs now and then, but her health didn't allow for much. Ooooh. That's nice."

The talk of Ava Medlar's finances stopped there. Kate asked if Sara minded if she tried on everything.

"Great plan and I'll find accessories."

What followed was an hour of laughter and ideas. Sara added scarves and jewelry and handbags from her own closet. She photographed every outfit Kate put on.

It was when they were putting the clothes on hangers that Sara said, "That Jack is getting back to work is a good sign. You've given both of us new life."

Kate decided to take advantage of that compliment. "Did you really take care of my father?"

"Yes and no. Randal was greatly loved by our mother. She took care of him while I took care of everything else."

"What about your father?"

"He didn't participate much with any of us."

Kate could tell from her aunt's closed jaw that she wasn't going to get more information than that. She changed the subject. "What do you really think we'll find in that stuff from the garage?"

"Old tax records. Probably that damn toaster Jack keeps talking about."

Kate paused, hanger in hand. "Do you think we'll ever find the killer?"

"The truth? No. It's been too long and the evidence has been destroyed. I think Cheryl and her mother kept their secrets so well that no one can find out now."

"What about Mrs. Ellerbee?"

"I think she knew at least one of the secrets. Probably the identity of either Cheryl's boyfriend or Verna's lover. Or both. With her gone, it leaves only the killer with the secret. In my opinion, he knows he's safe. We've found out a lot about the victims but nothing whatever about him."

"Or her."

"Killed two women, buried their bodies, then planted a tree? And this time around, disabled Jack's truck and killed Mary in her nursing home? I don't see that being done by a woman."

"Two killers?" Kate said.

"‘A secret can only be kept by one person. More people than that know and it leaks out.'"

"Who said that?"

"Me in Morning Stars."

"Oh, yeah. They knew too much and it almost got them killed. I loved that book."

They heard a door slam.

"Looks like he's home," Sara said. "As soon as he's been fed and watered, let's go back to the Morris house and start rummaging through the old stuff."

"Great idea. What are palmetto bugs?"

"Uglies."

"Where is everyone?" Jack shouted.

Sara went to the doors, but Kate didn't move. "I better put on something for getting dirty."

"Good. I've saved some info to tell you both for when Jack got back. Come out when you're ready."

Minutes later, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, Kate went into the kitchen. Jack was on a stool eating jalape?o poppers that Sara had set out for him.

"I hear you got a lot of new clothes," he said.

"I did. Beautiful things. Enough for a hundred dates with Alastair."

"While I get that!" He nodded at what she was wearing.

Her T-shirt read Windy Refers to the Politicians. Chicago Weather is Zen. There was a picture of an angry man shoveling his car out from under snow. The shirt was faded from many washings. "This is—"

Sara interrupted. "Before you two get started on your bons mots, Heather called me today."

"What did Mom have to say?"

"That she'd had a long conversation—which she recorded—with Verna's best friend in Baltimore."

Both Kate and Jack halted, staring at her. "So?" Jack ate another popper.

"Aren't those things hot?" Kate asked.

"Kiss me and you can find out."

With a smile, Kate ate one. Then she grabbed Jack's glass of ice water and drained it.

Smiling, he turned to Sara. "What did the woman say?"

"Unfortunately, there was nothing new from what Arthur told us. The whole conversation is on my phone, so you can listen, but it's sad. Verna fell in love with some guy from Lachlan and had his child. Years later she left a very good life to return here with their daughter."

"And he dumped her," Kate said.

"We need a name," Jack said.

"Verna never gave one," Sara answered. "Kept it a secret even from her very good friend. The woman's name is Margaret Cheryl Wheeler. She named her son James Vernon."

"They named their children after each other," Kate said with a sigh. "It must have been some love affair to make Verna leave such a close friend."

"Something that struck me," Sara said, "was the question of this guy's wife. Did she know about the affair? If so, why didn't she let him go?"

Jack was holding up the last popper. "Like you did Granddad after he married my grandmother?"

"Exactly like that." Sara eyes were steely.

"Granddad used to go away on long fishing trips, but at home I never saw him touch a pole."

"He probably needed to get away from Donna's inability to carry on an intelligent conversation."

"I'm sure that's what it was." Jack put the popper in his mouth. He was staring at Sara but she didn't blink.

"Wow," Kate said to her aunt. "I wish I could lie as well as you. It's a real talent." For a second Sara looked like she might be offended, but then she laughed.

"Keep trying. It's a goal you can achieve because your father could outlie any person on earth."

"Yeah?" Kate's eyes were wide. "Did he—?"

"Are you two ready to go or not?" Sara hurried out the front door.

"That's all you get today," Jack said.

"I'm collecting every piece of knowledge. Another seven or eight years and I might have an eighth of a picture of my father."

"Better yours than mine. Help me with my crutches, will you?"

"You wish. Race you to the truck." She ran out the door.

"Don't touch that GPS system!" he called as he followed her out. "I don't want to end up in Orlando."

"Ooooh, Disney," Kate said back to him. "Can't wait."