Chapter Sixteen

When they got to Shadow Palms, Sara was happy to feel an atmosphere that was very different from the first visit. Now there was energy in the place. They could hear laughter down the hall. In the communal living room were boxes full of tapes and bound scripts taken from Lachlan House. The residents were rummaging through everything. There were murmurs of "I remember this movie" and "This was one of my favorites." Troy was smiling proudly.

Billy was in his wheelchair and an orderly rolled him to Sara. He was looking at Troy, who was helping them unload the boxes. Billy nodded toward him, his eyes asking questions.

Sara grinned. "Roy's son. Created at your house."

Billy looked at Troy, a beautiful young man, and said, "Then my life has not been in vain."

Sara laughed. "He's here to hook up machines, and to entertain. I'm going to hide away with my notebook."

"Use my lovely new room," Billy said. "Did I tell you thank you?"

"A time or two." She headed down the hall but then stopped. She couldn't resist listening to what Troy had to say. As she would have thought, the son of a famous movie producer, and an even more famous actress, wasn't shy. He was a born performer. He introduced himself as Troy Adair and said the movies were made by his father.

"Wait a minute," a man said. "Wasn't he married to Barbara Adair?"

"Yes." Troy spoke with a perfect blend of humility and pride.

"She's your mother?"

Troy nodded. Modestly.

"Can we—?" about six people said in unison.

Troy raised his hand to cut them off. "Yes. You help with this, and I'll get Mom to come here, sign autographs, take photos, and do the monologue from Tomorrow is Forever."

There was a moment of shocked silence, then a man said, "When do we begin?"

Sara leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment. She could see Jack in the young man. But it was a Jack who hadn't been subjected to a childhood of abuse and degradation. This young man hadn't had enormous responsibility dumped on him when he was still a teenager.

Sara started to go to Billy's room but then Troy began to explain what was needed. She listened.

"Here's the true story: Two young men got into an argument and one killed the other. The killer walked out and was never found. We believe there was a movie made about this or maybe a script was written. The problem is that the original story seems to have been hidden. Maybe it was changed into being about two women, or a couple. It could be a subplot of a larger story. Or maybe it's just one of multiple murders. The possibilities are endless, but underneath, it's the same story. We want you to watch the movies and see if it's in there in some form. The same goes for the readers who want to go through the scripts. I can attest that what is written is often different from what goes on screen."

Pleased with what she'd heard, Sara went to Billy's room. It was now much larger and filled with good furniture and linens. She shut the door and gave a sigh of contentment as she sat down in a plush chair.

A funny thing about writing is that it doesn't understand the concept of time. A lot of writers say, "If I don't have the whole day, I don't even begin." That was understandable. The self-hypnosis of writing, where your mind goes to another world with settings and people, hearing them talk, seeing them move, took massive amounts of time. And being interrupted during a scene could make it disappear in a second.

Sara wrote what had been percolating in her mind since her dream. Her first question was whether or not to physically transform the not-pretty young woman. She could make it so someone loved her the way she was, but that brought outside problems. People weren't kind. A handsome husband with a less-than-pretty wife would set off every Mean Girl they met.

Or did Sara sell out and fix the girl's face?

She couldn't come up with a solution, so she began writing background on the young men who looked alike. Were they half brothers? No! First cousins.

Sara delved deeper into that. The mothers were sisters. Twin sisters. It was almost as though she could see them. Pretty girls but with very different personalities. One was a real hot pants. She was in love with a... A what? A criminal of sorts. He—

"Here you are." Kate was standing in the doorway.

It took Sara a few moments to come out of her trance and realize where she was. She closed her notebook. "Is it time for the meeting?"

Kate sat down on a chair. "You missed it. The boys didn't mind. Dad ran off with Lea, and Jack strapped on a tool belt and went to help Gil. Lenny told me where you went. So who's the kid outside?"

Sara smiled. "Roy's son. Jack's half brother. Cal's grandson."

Kate's eyes widened. "Is that all?"

"Heather's stepson?"

Kate laughed. "Does he have a mother?"

"Barbara."

"I see," Kate said. "And she's been hiding his existence from us. But he escaped his playpen and came here. I take it Jack hasn't seen him." She smiled. "He's the guy Jack thought was Evan."

"You are a clever girl," Sara said proudly. "So how'd your interview with Reid go?"

"Very interesting. Did you see the texts I sent?"

"Of course. Another barroom murder, but this one ended in a hanging. And Greer is a suspect. Randal agrees with that."

Kate held out the brooch Alish had given her. She hadn't had time to study it. Her first impression was that it was old, like belongs-in-a-museum old. It was silver, made in a thistle design, with a large green stone in the middle. The stone hadn't been cut but looked like it had just been taken from the ground. "Reid's grandmother sent this to you. She called you ‘the storyteller.' You're to put it under your pillow at night. She believes she has Second Sight, but Reid says she doesn't. It's your choice of what to do with it."

Sara was looking at it. "I like it." She started to put it in her pants pocket but instead, pinned it inside her shirt, over her heart. "I'll take all the help I can get. Did you learn anything else?"

"I was told a good story but I have no idea how it can possibly be connected to anything. It's about James Lachlan, so maybe it helps somehow."

When Kate said no more, Sara said, "Well?"

"Shouldn't we wait for the others and tell it to everyone?"

"No," Sara said. "Tell me now, then tell them later. On the second round you might remember new details."

"Ha! You're just too impatient to wait. First of all, Mr. Lachlan came from Scotland in a group of eight families. They—"

"Hello." Troy was standing in the open doorway.

"Are they all settled?" Sara asked.

"They're now on their second movie, but no luck so far. Billy had three more tape machines delivered from some place in Miami and—" He broke off as he looked at Kate, who was staring at him.

"I see Jack in you," she said softly.

Troy pulled up a wooden chair and sat down. "Is he with you?" He sounded hopeful.

"He's on a roof."

They were staring at each other without blinking, neither of them saying a word.

"Hey!" Sara said. "This is Troy—this is Kate. Now get on with the story."

Kate hesitated. "Should we...?" She meant "tell it in front of Troy?"

"Yes," Sara said. "Now tell."

Kate had learned a lot about storytelling from years with her aunt, and unlike Reid, she put it in chronological order. She started with the arrival of the eight families in the US. "James Lachlan offered a partnership to one of the men, but he refused and went out on his own. Unfortunately, the man failed at everything he tried—except being elected as a judge. Reid's family stayed with Mr. Lachlan."

"And James succeeded," Sara said. "I guess he took Reid's family upward with him."

"Yes, he did," Kate said. She went on to tell that Alish married James's nephew, son of his wife's sister. Then there was a fight in a bar. She told that James was on a business trip in Russia and the spiteful judge hanged the nephew soon after he was tried and found guilty.

"It was manslaughter," Troy said. "Not a murder."

"True," Sara said, "but that doesn't change what happened." She looked at Kate. "And after that, James's son ran away and his wife died."

"And Alish gave birth to the nephew's son," Kate said. "He was Reid the second. This one is the third Reid."

"And he's still with Lachlan House," Troy said. "I've seen him with the weed whacker. What's he do for a living?"

"Sells insurance," Sara said. "He came back to see if he and Rachel could still be an item."

"And are they?" Kate asked.

"Who knows? Slaps and kisses both. Maybe that's how they interact." When Kate started to ask for an explanation, Sara waved her hand. "It doesn't matter. Did you find out anything else?"

Kate looked at Troy, obviously wondering if it was safe to talk in front of him.

"You can say anything except against my mother," he said. "My job is to prove that she's never killed anyone. Except when a camera was aimed at her."

Kate didn't smile. "Back then, if evidence had shown that your father murdered someone, he could have been tried and sent to jail. Your mother would have wanted to prevent that from happening."

Troy didn't blink. "What did she do with the body? Pick it up and throw it out the window? Drag it somewhere? Dig a hole and bury it?"

Neither Sara or Kate spoke, but they looked at him hard.

"Oh," Troy said. "My bio dad. Think he would have helped Mom?"

Again, the women were silent.

Troy grimaced. "That's a look of, You don't know everything. Give me more facts. Where did you find the body? What was left of it, that is? Is there anything that would make you think that Roy did it?"

Acting like he hadn't spoken, Kate turned to her aunt. "I thought you were going to interview Rachel."

Sara jolted upright. "I forgot. I had food ready and everything."

"If it was from Bessie's, it's still in the fridge. Anyway, I saw Lenny and Rachel under a tree. They were drinking beer."

"A sinful lot, for sure," Troy murmured, annoyed that they hadn't answered him.

Kate looked at him. "You might be too much like Jack. This isn't a joke. It's serious."

"You mean I'm like my brother? The love of your life? When he was nearly hit by bricks, I thought you were going to die on the spot."

"Were you snooping?" Kate sounded outraged.

"Yes," he said cheerfully. "I was hiding from Mom, and doing a great job as she still hasn't found me."

Sara ignored their banter. "Lenny was with Rachel?"

"They parted just as I got there, so I don't know if they talked or not," Kate said. "But I think they did because she didn't look happy. I couldn't tell what Lenny was feeling because of..."

"His Quasimodo face," Troy said. "He likes me, so I'll ask him what went on with her."

"I think you should keep out of this," Kate said. "Let us handle it."

He gave a fake smile. "So it's true that big sisters boss you around all the time?"

Before Kate could reply, Sara stood up. "I don't know what Lenny was doing, but I need to talk to Rachel—not that I want to." She looked at Troy. "You stay here. Those old tapes are bound to get tangled, so you can fix them. Kate, find out what Randal was told. We need to put information together."

Kate stood up. "I don't want to say this, but Greer..."

"I know," Sara said. "She was a big, angry girl."

Troy was still seated. "Another woman? How did they dispose of the body?"

Sara put up her hand. "Whoever did it left the body on the nursery floor. Billy found it and put it in a closet."

"Then he had to move to the far side of the house because of the, you know." Kate looked at Sara. "We'll stop at Bessie's and get scones. It's late but you and Rachel can have tea."

Sara gave a one-sided smile. "In the nursery. Maybe it'll spark memories."

"Where the body was," Troy said. "So you guys opened a closet and there was a skeleton?"

"Yes," Kate said.

"Was it tied up?" His eyes were wide.

"Hooked by his suspenders," Sara said. "They broke away and the skeleton rolled across the floor. Let's go," she said to Kate.

"Wow," Troy said. "My dad would have loved this."

Kate narrowed her eyes at him. "If you tell your mother any of this—" She didn't finish her threat.

He stood up. "Okay. Got it. I'm to stay here and try to prove that my dad murdered someone and got away with it."

"And your mother may have killed a man and left him lying on the nursery floor," Kate said.

"And if she did, your bio dad must have helped her," Sara said happily.

"You two have a dark sense of humor," he said firmly.

The women laughed as they left.