Chapter Twelve

Kate was nervous about asking Reid to lunch. He seemed like a nice guy, but as all women know, some men misinterpret any invitation from a woman. She'd just be careful that they went to a public place. Or maybe they should stay there at Lachlan House. She could make it into a picnic. Outside where Lenny could see them.

She found him on his way back from the cottage. He'd been working on the landscape and had just emerged, showered and in fresh clothes. With great effort, she controlled her nervousness and asked him to have lunch with her.

He smiled. "Thank you, but I can't go. Maybe tomorrow." He turned away.

Kate was annoyed with herself for being ego-hurt. She was quite a bit younger than he was, and well, she was attractive. It took her a moment to get herself under control, then she hurried after him. "I can't tomorrow. Today is the only day I can go."

He frowned but then his face cleared. "You've been assigned to ask me questions, haven't you?"

She could feel her face turn red. She would never make a spy! She gave a curt nod.

"How about later? This afternoon about four? We can have tea."

All Kate could think about was telling the others that she'd failed. "Couldn't you change your appointment?"

"I'm having lunch with my grandmother. It would upset her if I canceled. I hardly see her anymore."

Kate had to bite her tongue to keep from saying, The woman whose husband was executed? "I'd love to meet her," she managed to say.

Reid hesitated, but then smiled. "She might like that. Can you be ready quickly?"

Kate opened her arms to say she was ready now. "I'll meet you in the front."

He turned away to go around the house, while Kate went inside to get her handbag. She paused by Lenny to say, "I'm going with Reid to see his grandmother." She'd learned to let people know where she was going to be. Lenny nodded. She saw no one else as she went through to the front.

Reid was standing by a rental car, a Toyota. He didn't open her door and she was glad. She didn't want this to seem like a date.

"I hope you like haggis and Guinness," he said as he pulled out of the driveway. He smiled at the look on her face. "Just kidding. I got her a cook to come in, but it'll still probably be soup and a sandwich."

"She lives alone?"

"That's what she wants. I've tried to get her to go to one of those places with other people her age, but she won't do it. The house I got her—" He broke off. "I mean, her house is nice, and she's happy there."

"What do you do?"

"The most boring job in the world. I sell insurance. Or at least the men who work for me do." He paused. "Sorry. I guess I'm blowing my own horn."

"I think you should be proud of your accomplishments. What about your parents?"

He instantly looked sad. "They were killed in a multicar pileup just after I graduated from high school. What about you? I've met your father but not your mother."

Kate's supply of mothers was too complicated to go into. "She's around. Tell me about your grandmother."

His face softened. "She hasn't had an easy life. She was widowed early, then her only child, my father, was killed in that car crash."

"And Greer?" Kate was watching him intently.

He took a deep breath. "That was the worst blow. Grans was so afraid of losing anyone else that she kept Greer at home with her. She felt she'd be safe there, but she wasn't. My grandmother has lost everyone."

"Except you."

He shook his head. "It's not easy being someone's ‘Only.' I'm her only surviving relative."

"But you take care of her."

"I do my best, but I live in St. Pete. I'm going to try to stay here more often. This trip has made me see how frail she is."

He pulled into the driveway of a very pretty house. Light brown Florida stucco with palm trees and shrubs. Everything was perfectly trimmed. As a Realtor, Kate knew the house was worth about three hundred grand. Not cheap.

Reid didn't open the door but turned to Kate. "My grandmother is quite old and her mind isn't always stable. In the last few years she's reverted to what she knew when she was a girl. Sometimes she still thinks she's living in that remote Scottish village."

Kate wasn't sure how to reply to that. "It sounds charming."

"Yes and no. For some reason, she recently decided she has Second Sight. Do you know what that is?"

"Premonitions? Able to read minds?"

"Whatever she is or not depends on the day. I just hope she doesn't decide she's a tight rope walker and climb on the roof." He gave a weak smile. "Sure you can handle this?"

Kate gave a little snort. "Are you kidding? Someday I'll tell you about the woman who raised me. I can handle anything."

He was pleased by that. "Then let the adventure begin."

Kate followed him into the house, and his grandmother was standing there waiting for them. Kate's first impression of her was how mobile she was. She didn't shuffle, didn't use a cane. She was short and stout, but not fat. Her face was lined, but not badly. Kate doubted if she had ever been a pretty woman. Her teeth were all capped—or were dentures—and her nose was large. There were several big moles on her face.

That she reminded her of Greer, made Kate instantly like her. Her eyes were bright and alert as she listened to Reid explain who Kate was. He left out everything about the murder and the investigation. Instead, he said she and her family were guests of Billy. He made it sound like a party.

When Kate shook her hand, she was pleased to find it was quite strong. "Thank you for having me, Mrs. Graham."

"Call me Alish." She pronounced it with a long A.

"Alish," Kate said, and would have liked to sit with her and talk about her life. She must have seen a lot. But Reid told them lunch was ready.

The dining area was to one side of the living room, so they had a view of it all.

Reid must have called ahead as there were three place settings, and as he'd predicted, they had soup and a sandwich. There was no sign of a cook. Reid did all the talking. He was fairly entertaining as he told his grandmother about Lachlan House and how it looked now. He raved about what the Medlar-Wyatt team had done to it. "They did it very fast and Kate decorated it all."

Part of her was glad to hear that he liked the house so much. It wouldn't be long before he found out that it was his. Another part was sad as she remembered Jack's idea of living there.

As Reid went on, Kate looked about the house. All the furniture was old, but not antiques. If a movie script called for a "grandmother's house" this would be it. There were a few knickknacks, mostly Scottish, but not many. No plastic Eiffel Tower, nothing from a trip to the Grand Canyon. In fact, there wasn't anything personal anywhere. As Reid kept talking, Kate realized that there were no photos. On the walls were scenic pictures, the kind you see for sale in a frame shop.

When Reid paused in talking, Kate turned back to him. He and his grandmother were staring at her. She wasn't sure what to say. "Thank you. It was my first decorating experience. I wanted them to get Jack's sister to do it, but she was on a job, so..." She trailed off and the silence was awkward.

They left the table, the dirty dishes staying where they were, and went into the living room.

"Reid, dear," Alish said in her Scottish accent, "I think someone was trying to break into my bedroom. Would you please look at the windows?"

He hesitated, then turned and gave a rolled eye look at Kate, telling her his grandmother was prone to imagining things.

When he was out of sight, Alish opened a little wooden box on the coffee table and took out something round and silver. There was a spark of green as she took Kate's hand and pressed it into her palm. "Take this, and it will make you dream of your true love."

"I've already found him." Kate was smiling.

"Yes, you have. I can feel that your heart is full now, but it hasn't always been."

From down the hall, Reid shouted, "Which window?"

"The one by the yellow cabinet," Alish yelled back.

Kate's eyes widened at the strength of her voice.

"That's in the guest bedroom!" He sounded annoyed.

"Yes, it is." Alish's eyes were twinkling with mischief. She was holding her hand curled around Kate's that held the disk. "Then give it to the storyteller. Her mind is open to all. It is never full. Put it under her pillow and it will help her listen."

"That's Aunt Sara all right. You should visit us. Or all of us can come here. We'd love to—"

Alish dropped Kate's hand and stepped back. Her eyes lost their twinkle. "No! Do not do that. I could not—" At the sound of Reid's footsteps, she dropped her shoulders and looked down. Kate thought that if Aunt Sara was there she would have called it Old Woman Pose.

Reid came into the room and looked from one woman to the other. "You two all right?"

"Great," Kate said. "Your grandmother is going to show me how to do tatting."

"What?" he asked.

"Lace making," Alish said. "The storyteller likes it."

"Story—? Oh," he said. "Sara. She and I have become friends. Perhaps you can meet her. But now you look tired. Should I help you to your room?"

"Yes, please." She gave a glance at Kate, then turned back to Reid, and they left, with her leaning heavily on his arm.

Kate wanted to look at what was in her hand, but she didn't want Reid to see it. She wasn't sure why. She grabbed her handbag and dropped it into the inside pocket.

Minutes later, she and Reid left the house. As they drove away, Kate was silent. She wasn't sure what she'd seen or felt. She wished Sara or Jack or her father had been with her and heard it all.

She assumed he was going back to Lachlan House but instead, he pulled into the parking lot of a small group of stores.

"There's a coffee shop here. Mind if we sit and talk? Or do you need to get back?"

"I have time." She wanted to know what he had to say.

The shop had outside tables to take advantage of South Florida's divine weather. Kate ordered a matcha latte and Reid had a tall black coffee. He wouldn't allow her to pay for theirs or even her own.

As soon as they sat down, he said, "I want to apologize for today. Grans put on her ‘timid old lady' act. In spite of her age, she is the least timid person on the planet. The truth is that right now she's very angry at me."

"About where she lives?"

"Yes! You're perceptive."

"I just imagine telling Aunt Sara that she should move into an old folks' home. Bombs would go off."

"So you do understand. Last night she and I had another big argument. I want her to live with me but she refuses. She says I have to move my entire business and all my employees here. Can you imagine how much that would cost?"

"Give me some numbers and in twenty minutes I can give you a spreadsheet."

He laughed. "It's too much! But Grans won't bend. She refuses to leave Lachlan. I don't know how to solve this. We were going to talk about it more today, but..."

"I invited myself," Kate said.

"You were a welcome break in the tension. Sorry I talked so much, but if I'd let Grans say anything, she would have had no qualms about bringing up our personal problems in front of you."

Kate was sipping her drink. "Why won't she leave?"

"Ah," he said. "That. The grave of my grandfather is here. She says she owes him and that someone must remember him and be with him forever—or as long as she lives, that is."

"True love," Kate said.

"I guess."

Kate didn't know how to ask what she wanted to. Aunt Sara would have blurted it out. "You said your grandmother was widowed early."

He gave her a look so intense that Kate turned away.

"You know how he died, don't you?"

"Billy did mention the Lonely Laird story." She didn't add that they knew of Reid's connection to James Lachlan.

Reid took his time answering. "I guess it was bound to come out. Grans and I don't talk about it." He took a breath. "Yes, my grandfather, Reid Graham, the first of that name, was hanged for murder."

She wanted to know more but how did she ask without being invasive? "Premeditated?"

He gave a half smile. "I don't think any of us Grahams are that clever. My father, the second Reid, managed to get through law school and pass the bar, but he didn't win many cases." He paused. "All I really know is what Grans told me. It's purely one-sided and I have no idea if it's true or not."

"I'd like to hear any version."

"Of course my grandfather was innocent."

"I wouldn't have thought otherwise."

"Okay," he said. "There was a bar fight and a man was killed. Same old story."

Kate tried to keep the look of surprise off her face. A bar fight? A man killed? Was it the same murder she'd overheard Barbara speak of years ago? It didn't make sense that it could be the same one, but still... "You wouldn't by chance know who was killed, would you?"

"Tom Skellit. Grans told me the name. According to her, he was a drunken lout, and he deserved to be killed."

"Hanging for an accidental death seems harsh. Wouldn't it have been manslaughter?"

"That is the part Grans is most angry about. She said it was all James Lachlan's fault."

"How?"

"He wasn't in the US when it happened. He was in Russia selling oranges and got caught there by snow. The judge in the case was one of the families who'd come over from Scotland. I guess you know about them."

"Not at all."

"There were eight families who arrived here, all of them broke, but only James went on to become wealthy. The most wise thing my family ever did was to hitch themselves to him from the very beginning. We were always comfortable. Not rich, but good. Mr. Lachlan took care of his people. Even today it seems to be a tradition that I cut his lawn."

"But I guess the judge went his own way."

"Yes. As soon as they arrived in the US, James offered him a partnership. But the man laughed at him and said his fruit trees were ridiculous."

"I can see where this is going," Kate said. "The judge did not succeed in any endeavor."

"That's right. He failed at every business he tried, except being made a local judge. People said his bitterness was legendary. He'd give ten years for stealing a bunch of bananas."

"And death for a barroom brawl."

"Yes, he did. He sentenced my grandfather to be hanged. Even the begging of his pregnant wife wouldn't change his mind. Grans was determined to delay it until Mr. Lachlan returned, but the judge was more determined to carry out the sentence before he got back."

"And the judge won."

"He did."

"What an ugly story," Kate said. "I'm beginning to understand why your grandmother won't leave here." She was starting to see that Reid and Alish deserved Lachlan House. "James's son disappeared."

"Yes. Aran, that was his name, ran away. He and my grandfather were raised together. Aran couldn't take his cousin's death. No one knows what happened to him. Probably joined the war. Maybe he's in one of the tombs of an unknown soldier. I guess we'll never know."

"So you're Reid Graham the third."

"I am. Pretentious as it is."

They sat in silence for a moment, then he said, "We better get back. Jack may think I've kidnapped you. If he's like his father, he'll punch a man in the face before he asks questions."

Kate felt defensive, but said, "Jack would wait for the answer, and if he doesn't like it, then he'd hit you."

Again, Reid laughed. It was a nice sound.

She gathered her courage. "You probably want to get back to Rachel."

His shock showed on his face. He was a good-looking man. If his eyes were a bit different and his nose narrower, he might be handsome. "You people don't miss anything, do you? Did Sara tell you that I was in love with her?"

Kate didn't answer that. "Are you still?"

"Maybe," he said as he got up. "I hope to find out. Are you ready?"

Kate didn't move. "Who do you think killed Derek Oliver?"

He sat back down. "The million-dollar question. I'm sure you've been told that I wasn't in the house much, but I did go in to check on my little sister."

"So you saw things."

"Enough to know that everyone hated the man."

She took a breath. "Including your sister. I remember that much."

His eyes widened. "You remember? You were four years old."

Kate wished she hadn't said that. "Only vague images. I remember that I liked Greer."

He grimaced. "You and I were the only ones. They made fun of her. Not when I was around, but twice I found her crying."

Kate frowned. "I can't imagine that Roy or Barbara or Lea would hurt her."

"I don't think they did it intentionally, but she was excluded from things. People went silent when she showed up."

"I thought she was fun!" Kate again felt that she was four years old. Greer was her friend.

Reid smiled in a reassuring way. "She adored you. She talked nonstop about you to Grans. Greer used to say she wanted to get married and have a dozen children just like you. We never told her that was impossible."

"Why was it?" Kate asked quickly.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to upset you. I loved my sister very much but her mind wasn't...wasn't the highest functioning. That's why Grans and I—" He abruptly stopped.

"Why you what?"

"Protected her as much as possible." He took a while before speaking. "You have to understand that Derek Oliver was a very nasty man. He believed that putting a person down made him rise higher. I don't know how Oliver was killed, but my sister was a big girl. Strong. Grans and I are afraid that she..." He didn't finish.

"Like what happened in the barroom brawl?" Kate asked softly. "He drove her too far and she snapped? Hit him with something?"

Reid gave a shrug of not knowing. "Grans and I really and truly hope that you find out who committed the murder. She and I want to be sure it wasn't our dear Greer. As for the others, I have no idea. They probably all had a reason to get rid of him. Their lives seem to have gone well without him. Maybe that's a coincidence, or maybe the good happened because he was no longer around. I don't know."

He reached across the table to put his hand over hers. "Please. Grans and I beg you to find out who killed Derek Oliver. We want Greer's name cleared."

"We will do our best." Kate pulled her hand away and looked at her watch. It was almost four. "I need to get back."

"Of course," he said as she stood up. He put their empty cups in the trash. "Whatever happens, thank you for bringing all this to the light."

Kate just nodded. Her mind was full of a hundred thoughts and facts.

When they got back to Lachlan House, Kate texted Billy:

James Lachlan's nephew, Reid Graham, was hanged for murder in a barroom brawl. Don't know the year but his wife Alish was pregnant with Reid II, a lawyer in town. Lachlan's son was named Aran.

She sent a second text to Sara:

Young Greer seems to be a possibility. Reid's granny sent you a gift. I got Billy and co looking at the execution. See you at four.

Like her father, she included the texts she'd exchanged with Billy.