Chapter Twenty

The Brigade was quiet, but one of the band members was setting up to go onstage. Everyone knew they were making an unscheduled appearance because Jack was there. Within an hour everyone in Lachlan under the age of thirty would have heard what was going to happen at the Brigade. Live music and Jack Wyatt singing. It was going to be a profitable night.

Halfway down the narrow bar, Jack, Kate, and Troy were in a booth. The table was full of food and beer. It was Mexican with a Florida touch: seafood and chili. Divine.

Kate was on one side, Jack and Troy across from her. The brothers were absorbed in each other. If Kate were a different person, she might have been angry at being ignored, but she was like her aunt. Sara said the jealousy gene had skipped her. Kate was deeply glad that Jack and Troy had found each other.

The men were sitting close together and quietly asking each other about every detail of their lives. Troy told of having a celebrity mother, and Jack talked of spending time with Sara in New York. The only thing Jack sugarcoated was about their father. Roy Wyatt had been brutal to Jack. Kate knew that if Sara hadn't come along, Jack would probably be in prison. His juvenile record wasn't something to be proud of.

As Kate sipped her drink, she noted how much they looked alike. Troy wasn't as dark as Jack, and he didn't have the cautious look that Jack always wore, but they both favored their father. She could see Barbara's softer jawline in Troy, but the eyes were like the photos she'd seen of Roy.

Whatever else you did, Roy Wyatt, Kate thought, that you created these two makes up for it.

As she looked at them, so happy to be together, she thought how sad Jack was going to be when Troy went back to California. "What do you do?" she blurted out to Troy. She hadn't meant to interrupt them, but it just came out.

They turned to her and Troy smiled. "I have a rich, famous mother. I don't do anything."

He said it with so much good humor that Kate laughed.

"I invited him to work with Gil and me." Jack wasn't smiling and Kate knew he was upset at the idea of Troy leaving.

"Get on a roof in a Florida summer?" Troy said. "I can't see that. Maybe—" He broke off as the door opened and in came a long line of firefighters. One by one, they went past the booth, each smiling at Kate and her smiling back.

They were a truly beautiful group of men, all in perfect physical shape, their uniforms pristine.

"No suspenders?" Kate asked.

The captain said, "When they heard you were here, I had to force them to wear shirts."

"Spoilsport!" Kate called after him.

When the parade ended, Jack groaned.

"They like you," Troy said to Kate.

"It's mutual," Jack said. The jealousy gene had not bypassed him.

"Maybe I'll become a firefighter," Troy said.

"There's a lot of training," Kate said. "Hauling equipment up ladders, carrying women and children out of burning buildings, driving that big, long, heavy truck. It takes muscles and brains."

Troy looked at Jack, who was giving Kate looks to cut it out, and grinned. "Guess I hit a sore spot."

Jack grimaced. "I sing—she dances."

Kate smiled. "With every one of them."

She sounded so happy that even Jack laughed.

He looked around the booth toward the stage. The band was almost set up, and the lead guitarist nodded to Jack. When he sat back, he turned to Troy. "Sure you can do this? We've had no rehearsals, nothing. Sometimes I'm slower on songs, sometimes faster."

"You lead and I'll follow."

Kate loudly groaned. "Don't tell him that! Next thing you know, he'll be expecting me to do that."

"I gave up on that long ago," Jack said, eyes sparkling.

"Let's go before you two do it on the table," Troy said.

"What do you know about such things?" Jack shot back.

"Well, Dad, I'm not a virgin."

Laughing, Jack got up. "Okay, kid, see if you can follow along."

Kate leaned back against the booth and watched as the two of them walked toward the stage together. From the back, they looked so much alike—and that thought made her frown. It seemed to bring back a memory, but she couldn't quite grasp it.

When Jack and Troy got on the stage, there was applause of anticipation. The bar was beginning to fill up. "This is my little brother," Jack said into the mic. "He says he can sing but I haven't heard him, so let's see what he can do." Jack spoke to the head of the band, then he handed the mic to his brother and stepped away.

They played "The Way You Look Tonight." Sinatra, long and slow.

Many of the people there had never heard the song before. Some slow danced, but most just listened. Troy had a beautiful voice and, like Jack, he seemed to have an excellent memory for lyrics.

As he sang the old song, Kate's head seemed to spin. A memory was coming to her, but it wasn't the one she'd briefly glimpsed when she saw Jack and Troy walking away together. This one was different. That song had been playing that night. It was one of Mr. Billy's favorites.

She closed her eyes. It was Lachlan House, she was with Greer, and they were doing something they shouldn't. Spying, she thought. The grownups were having a party, and she and Greer were hiding behind the door, peeping around it, and watching. Greer was nearly grownup, but they treated her like she was as young as Kate. Mr. Oliver had used a word Kate had never heard before: retarded.

It must be the night Derek Oliver wasn't there, Kate thought as the memory became more clear. And some of them knew he was dead.

Billy came into the vision, a big green bottle of champagne in his hand. "Drink up, my dear friends," he said over the loud music. "Tonight we party as though it is our last."

And he knew it would be, Kate thought. He'd found the body and put it in the closet. He knew there would be no more parties. He wouldn't even be able to occupy the whole house. It was his last night of joy.

Lea saw them peeping around the corner. "You're too young to be here," she said, frowning as she escorted them into the hall. In the next minute, she smiled and handed them a grocery bag. "I put in sparkling apple juice and pastries. Now take it upstairs and let no one see you."

Grinning, Kate and Greer ran through the kitchen and up the steep stairs to the nursery. It was their favorite place.

They quickly unloaded the bag of treasures. Cream puffs, chocolate truffles, two big slices of pie, little cakes, and two bottles of what they liked to pretend was champagne. There were even a couple of pretty glasses.

"Do you like cake or pie better?" Kate asked as she picked up a little cake with lavender icing with a pink rosebud on top.

Greer was looking around and frowning. "Someone has been here."

"The woman who cleans?" Kate asked. "I like her. Sometimes she lets me help. I got inside Mr. Oliver's tub and scrubbed away the gray ring. He's a dirty man."

"Look at that closet. There's a white line around it. That's glue. And your dog's string is caught under it."

"Oh no!" Kate started to get up but Greer stopped her.

"That door is sealed. Leave it alone. And the turtle rug is gone. Who did this?"

Kate saw that she was right. "You should get your grandmother. You said she was magic and can see things that are going to happen. Maybe someone told Mr. Oliver something bad, and he went away and took things with him."

"I don't think he left," Greer said. "Reid drove his car away." She took a deep breath. "And I think my grandmother was here."

"When?" Kate's eyes were wide. She'd heard a lot about the magical grandmother.

"Today. I don't know why she came here, but I know she has secrets. She's why I never went to a real school. Reid said that if I stayed home, Grans would behave herself."

"Did she do something bad?"

"I guess so."

"Did she do something to Mr. Oliver?"

"I don't know. I know that man was saying bad things to Reid, and that made Grans angry. She gets real mad. I went to school at first, but a boy was mean to me. I told Grans and she picked him up and threw him across the playground. He flew very far."

Kate's eyebrows were almost up to her hairline. "Did the boy stop being mean?"

Greer looked sad. "All the children stopped speaking to me. No one got near me, not even the teachers."

Kate came out of her memory-trance with a jolt. And the next morning, everyone left, she thought. It was as though they all knew that something bad had happened. When Kate went downstairs, her father was packing clothes, and the house had that eerie feeling of being empty. The first thing she looked for was her hedgehog. Her dad said they didn't have time to look, that they had to leave for home immediately. Kate knew that meant leaving Greer and Lea and all the fun and laughter. "Home" was her sad, complaining mother. It was Lea who held Kate while she cried. Not long after that, Lea also left—and Kate didn't see her again for twenty-five years.

She looked up to see Garth standing at the end of the table. He was a firefighter, married with kids, and he was a fabulous dancer. He didn't say anything, just held out his hand. She took it, and they went to the dance floor.

Jack and Troy started a duet, and as she'd hoped, they were perfectly in sync. She'd never seen Jack look so happy. When he saw her gyrating with Garth, his scowl lasted only seconds.

It was nearly two hours later that Kate left the dance floor. As she'd promised, she'd danced with each firefighter, all while laughing and teasing. When she needed a break, she went back to their booth and downed a mug of beer in one drink. When she put the mug down, Sheriff Daryl Flynn was sitting beside her. That he hadn't taken the seat across from her meant he had something private to tell her. They'd always been friends.

The sheriff helped himself to salsa and chips and the waitress brought him a beer. "So how's the investigation going?" His head was close to hers so they could hear each other.

"Great." Kate held out her left hand to show her ring. "Jack and I are engaged."

"That's a shock. I never thought you two would become a couple."

She ignored his sarcasm. "Aunt Sara says we can have the wedding at Lachlan House."

"Wasn't there a murder there? I'm not sure, since I've heard next to nothing about it."

Kate groaned. "You're not going to let me have even one night off, are you?"

Daryl looked at Jack and Troy on the stage, singing about old-time rock and roll. "They look like father and son."

"Jack is just twelve years older than Troy."

"I could believe that," the sheriff said.

Kate laughed. He was implying that at twelve, Jack was sexually active. Considering that, at the time, he'd been in love with a high school girl who... She didn't want to think about what happened then. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"Yeah. Years ago I kept a kid out of jail. His dad said if I ever needed a favor to call him."

"Hmmm," Kate said. "Just one kid? One favor?"

He'd finished the whole basket of chips and another one was put on the table. "So maybe I have a boxful of what I call Favor Cards."

She smiled at him. "Which one was this?"

"Big deal investment guy. Knows everyone in that world." He paused to chew. "It's been bothering me about Billy. Why didn't he report finding the dead body?"

"Because of his brothers," Kate said.

"Right. Those brothers. We've been told they're monsters, yet Sara got them to pay for everything. Doesn't sound all that monstrous to me."

"I see. There are always two sides to everything. So you asked someone who might be able to find out the other side."

"You're a smart girl. I called in the favor and got some answers. Did you know that when Billy was in his twenties he was a tennis superstar?"

Her face showed her surprise. "I can hardly imagine him outdoors."

"We all have that impression, don't we? I saw what you guys did to where he lives now. Movie machines, popcorn, all of it. You've turned that sad old place upside down."

"It's all from Aunt Sara," Kate said. "What about Billy and tennis? And not reporting a dead body?"

"Billy won every competition match—until one day he didn't. He got so mad about losing that he beat the winner to a pulp. Put the kid in a coma. He woke up, but he was never the same. The brothers kept Billy out of prison by paying the family millions not to identify their little brother as the assailant. After they got the case settled, the brothers told him it was time for him to go to work."

"They put him in the accounting department," Kate said.

"Yes, they did. And I can tell that you know how that went."

"He helped himself to the money that came in. So then they made Billy spend a year in construction."

"Yes," the sheriff said. "They showed him what his life would be like if he didn't behave. After that, they sent him to Lachlan House and told him that if he ever got into any trouble again, they'd throw him on the street. By the time Billy found the body, he was already hiding the fact that he was illegally selling the furniture."

"So the brothers didn't do that," Kate said. "If Billy reported finding a dead body, the brothers were sure to classify that as ‘trouble.'" Her head came up. "Was Oliver blackmailing Billy too? Was he was going to tell the brothers what Billy was doing?"

"I don't know."

"What about the skull being sawed open? Did Billy do that? And the brain...?" She grimaced. "You know, removing it."

"I don't know for sure, but my source said the brothers hinted that Billy had some serious psychological problems as a kid."

Kate swallowed. "Small animals harmed? That sort of thing?" Her stomach clenched.

"Possibly."

She leaned back against the booth. "Alish and now Billy."

"Who's that?"

"A magic grandmother who was very strong. And had a serious anger problem."

For a moment, the sheriff was quiet as he watched the singers. "Roy would be proud of his sons."

"Who told you about Troy's parentage?" She held up her hand. "Of course it was Dad. Did you tell him about Billy?"

"No. Just you. So when are you going to solve this thing? And how is Sara? Randal said she's been wandering around kind of mindless."

"She has a book idea and it's obsessing her."

"A book about what?"

Kate was surprised at the question. "I don't know."

He crunched a hot tortilla chip loaded with salsa. "My wife has read all her books. She says Sara writes about her life. When Jack was remodeling that big house, Sara wrote four books about restoring old houses."

"She did." Kate's voice was rising. "Do you think that she's filling her notebook about the murder? But she hasn't told us?"

He shrugged. "What do I know? It's just that you guys are taking a lot of time to figure out nothing at all."

Kate felt defensive. "Jack and I have been busy. And Dad and Lea have found each other. So maybe we have been a wee bit neglectful, but..." She trailed off.

"Sure. Love comes first. Beats the heck out of working on the murder of a man everybody hated."

Onstage, Jack said, "My brother and I are going to take a break."

"I'm outta here," the sheriff said. "I don't need two Roys interrogating me."

"Ah, come on, Troy is nice."

Her insinuation that the man she was going to marry wasn't "nice" made him laugh. In the next second he'd left the building.

Jack and Troy took their seats, cold beers were put in front of them, they drained them, then more were served. The Brigade took care of their free entertainment guests.

"Had enough dancing?" Jack asked.

"Not nearly enough."

"Was that the sheriff?" Troy asked.

"Yes." Kate gave a look to Jack to let him know that Sheriff Flynn had told her something important.

"Now there's a job I might like," Troy said.

Kate and Jack looked at him with interest.

"He's retiring," Kate said quietly. "He needs a replacement."

"Does he?" Troy reached for more chips and salsa. "Does he really?"