Twenty-Six

While Mrs. Stewart had told the story, Kate had twisted and pulled on the bindings around her wrists until her skin was raw. In a way, the pain helped her deal with what she was hearing. The cruelty, the total lack of empathy, made her feel sick.

It was when Mrs. Stewart told about killing Cheryl in such a cool, detached way that Kate thought her fate was sealed. There was no way the woman was going to let someone hear the story and then continue to live.

When she told of planting the aconites, Kate stopped pulling against the bindings. Even she knew those plants were poisonous. Alastair had impregnated his sister and it was highly likely that his mother had poisoned her husband. No, she wasn't going to risk that story coming out.

The woman was looking at Kate as though expecting a sympathetic response for what she'd told her. Kate drew in her breath. "I can see what happened. It was just like now, with you and Alastair. A mother will do anything to protect her child."

Mrs. Stewart gave a small smile. "That's exactly right. It was Alastair's one mistake and I had to fix it."

"But then, the whole thing was his father's fault."

Mrs. Stewart gave a genuine smile. "You do understand."

Kate blinked. The woman sounded as though an orangutan had just solved a calculus problem. She glanced at the window. It was dark outside. No streetlights. No car headlights. No humans with flashlights. Sympathy! Kate told herself. Give the insane woman understanding, pity, and agree with every terrifying word she says. And keep her talking!

"I bet Alastair had trouble finding out about those brakes."

Mrs. Stewart gave a dry laugh. "Did he! He said I had confused him with a gardener and now a truck mechanic. My son has a delightful sense of humor."

The tree he planted, Kate thought. "So Evan wasn't...?" She couldn't think how to phrase her question.

"He wasn't supposed to be there. That Jack Wyatt always did cause problems. I knew where he came from. No one could believe that he'd grow up to own a business. I told people he probably stole the money."

Just as you spread gossip about Verna, Kate thought. Aunt Sara was right in hiding her involvement with Jack's finances. If that had been known, this vindictive woman would have made it into something dirty.

Suddenly, Kate remembered something in the woman's story. The gardening tool she'd used to stab Verna. She remembered opening a box of books at the Morris house. On top was a rusty old weeder. Rusty or covered in twenty-year-old blood? "That was nice of Alastair to plant that beautiful tree. It was a memorial."

"That's how we saw it."

"I guess Mrs. Ellerbee knew too much."

"I didn't think anyone would believe her story of having seen a Stewart at that house but I wasn't sure."

"Better safe than sorry."

Mrs. Stewart's smile left her and she looked at Kate as though to ask if she was making fun of her. "I bet you think I'm the bad person for telling people about that Morris woman. All I wanted was for her to take her Lolita of a daughter and leave the town. But she wouldn't go away—and worse, I had to see them all the time. At church, at fairs. Whenever there was anything going on in the town, there she was. Flaunting that odd daughter of hers. Verna Morris may not have been sleeping with a lot of men, but she was a slut, so I told people that. Where's the harm in that?"

"None at all." Kate nearly choked on the words.

For a long, nerve-racking minute, Mrs. Stewart stared at Kate. "You're clever, aren't you? The question is if you're more like your aunt or your father?"

Kate's eyes widened. "You knew him?"

"Everyone knew Randal Medlar—and liked him. His sister always thought she was smarter than everyone else, too good to join in with people. But Randal! Now, there was a lovely young man. So kind and thoughtful. He used to send me flowers on my birthday, and I invited him to all my parties. He was like you and got me to tell him all my secrets. But he never betrayed them. If your aunt heard of a secret, say a messy old tool that was accidentally left behind, she'd run to the police. But Randal would have taken a bullet to the head before he told. So which are you?"

"A clone of my father," Kate said with so much sincerity that her head nearly exploded.

When Kate saw her aunt Sara's face appear at the window, she had a hard time not crying out in pure happiness. How had they found her? But now was not the time to think of that.

She kept her eyes on Mrs. Stewart. "I don't think anyone could convict you of murder. It was all an accident."

"Are you patronizing me?"

"No! Not at all." In the background, Aunt Sara was making gestures but Kate didn't dare look to see what they were. Instead, she quickly turned her head to the side. "Is that Alastair?"

When Mrs. Stewart hurried to the window, Kate looked at her aunt. She was holding up three fingers and making a sideways motion. Kate nodded. She understood. She was to get out of the way of whatever was about to happen.

Mrs. Stewart seemed to sense that something was happening. She turned just as Kate pushed hard with her feet and made the chair slam on its side to the floor.

Besides the boom of the chair, there was a sound she wasn't quite sure of, but she thought maybe it was a gunshot.

From the floor, Kate looked up at Mrs. Stewart and saw that she was halfway across the room, her hand outstretched as she reached for the pistol on the table.

But the woman stopped abruptly and looked down at her white blouse. Blood was on her upper arm and she looked at it in disbelief. She seemed to be thinking "Who in the world had the audacity to do such a thing to me?"

In the next second, her eyes rolled back and she hit the wooden floor so hard that dust went flying up.

At the same moment, Aunt Sara ran through the front door, Sheriff Flynn behind her, Jack on his crutches and cursing in the rear.

Sara knelt down to Kate. "I need a knife!" she bellowed and both men handed her one. She took Jack's and cut the plastic ties around her niece's wrists.

"You—you... We didn't know..." Sara was choking on tears.

"Not now!" Jack snapped. "Save it for later." He looked at Kate. "Can you walk?"

"Better and faster than you can." Kate stood up.

For a moment Jack looked like he, too, was going to cry, but he recovered to give a smirk. "Sounds like you're fine."

Sheriff Flynn was putting handcuffs on Mrs. Stewart, who was facedown on the floor.

"I think she's been shot," Kate said. "Shouldn't she—?"

"Ambulance is on its way," the sheriff said. "Right now I just want her secure." He pulled the woman up.

"How dare you—" Mrs. Stewart began, but the sheriff cut her off.

"Shut up, Noreen. Oh, but I wish Hamish had had the balls to tell you that when he was alive."

"So do I," Noreen growled at him.

"I think you need to exhume him," Kate said. All of them stopped and stared at her.

"You didn't by chance get any info out of her, did you?" the sheriff asked.

"Lots," Kate said. "A huge, enormous amount."

"She's a liar," Mrs. Stewart said. "Just like her aunt, she makes up stories that have no basis in reality." She sneered at Kate. "You aren't at all like your father."

Sara put her arm around Kate's shoulders. "I guess you mean all the parties Randal went to at your house. I don't know for sure, but you better have a jeweler check your diamonds. My brother probably switched them for glass."

Jack and Kate and Mrs. Stewart looked at Sara in disbelief but Sheriff Flynn laughed. "I sure do miss that man."

Chuckling, he gave Mrs. Stewart a shove in her lower back and pushed her toward the door. In the distance they could hear a siren.

"Isn't he worried about charges of police brutality?" Kate asked. "Treating a wounded, alleged criminal like that?"

"She isn't really hurt," Sara said. "That's why he gave the rifle to Jack."

Jack gave a modest shrug. "I do tend to hit where I aim. You ready to go home?"

"Yes, I am." Kate's adrenaline was waning and she could feel the shakes coming on. "I just..." She nodded toward the bathroom.

She was out in a few minutes and there was an EMT waiting for her.

"I need to test your vitals," he said.

"I don't want to stay in a hospital."

"And we don't want to make you." He was a very nice-looking young man.

"I saved you," Jack said, "but you're flirting with him?"

The EMT stepped back. "Sorry, Jack, I didn't know—"

"Could you act like a grown-up for even one minute?" Kate said as she went to the door, Jack right behind her.

"Old enough to shoot my way in and save your ungrateful neck. And I was the one who saw that your car was parked on the street but you were nowhere to be seen."

"You were stalking me?"

They left the cabin and went down the stairs together. Jack helped Kate because she was still wobbling from her ordeal and she helped him with his crutches and cast. They bickered all the way down.

"Wow," the EMT said. "They're..."

"Yes," Sara said. "They are."