A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery #2)(12)

“Was she?” Kate poured another cup of tea.

“I don’t know. She says she wasn’t, but... Anyway, Kyle wasn’t in the best of moods. One night he was reading their two sons a bedtime story and it had a witch in it.”

“Ah,” Jack said and they looked at him. “You mentioned witches. Go on.”

“Brandon, the oldest and a very serious boy even at eight, asked my brother about witches. Were they always women? What did they look like? That sort of thing.”

Megan took a drink of her tea. “Kyle told me that he didn’t mean to, but what he said was a bit harsh. He...well, he described their next-door neighbor, Mrs. Beeson, as what a witch looked like. But then, just that day, she had again returned a soccer ball the boys kicked over the little fence. It had landed in her flower beds. Mrs. Beeson said that her garden was a memorial to her friend and it was important that she keep it the way it always had been. Kyle said she was nice about it all but with his bad mood...” Megan looked at them, waiting for their nod of understanding.

“So he equated Mrs. Beeson with a witch?” Sara encouraged.

“Yes. And that caused my nephews to...to...”

“What did the kids do?” Jack asked.

Megan took a gulp of her rum drink but there was only melted ice in the glass. “The next day the boys—” she swallowed “—got a spray can of red paint and wrote witch in three-foot-high letters on Mrs. Beeson’s garage door.”

For a moment they were silent, then Kate spoke. “What did your brother do about it?”

“The good thing was that the incident snapped him out of his jealousy streak. He and Carolyn were mortified. They apologized profusely, then made the boys scrub at the paint.”

“Fat lot of good that would do,” Jack said. “Soap doesn’t erase paint.”

“But I bet it taught them a lesson,” Sara said. “Including your brother.”

“It did! The boys thought the world was ending. And Kyle felt really bad about it all. I felt soooo sorry for them.”

“What about Mrs. Beeson?” Jack asked.

“She was nice and understanding. Kyle paid someone to remove all the paint from her garage door then repaint it.”

Sara was leaning back against the couch and frowning in concentration. “And that was the incident that made Janet put up the steel wall around her house?”

“Yes,” Megan said. “The paint wasn’t dry on the garage door before the men came in with their machines. Kyle and Carolyn hated that she’d felt she had to imprison herself against them.”

“When did this happen?” Jack asked.

“About a year ago.” Megan put her face in her hands and began softly crying.

“You think this is why Kyle is going to be charged with murder?” Jack asked.

“Yes. Janet Beeson was the nicest person in the world. She helped everybody. Wasn’t she a big part of working with you on the Morris case?”

“Yes she was, but...” There was caution in Sara’s voice.

“So now you can find out who really killed her and clear my brother’s name.” Megan exhaled in relief and looked like she was about to leave.

“Wait a minute!” Jack said. “We are not some sort of local detectives. We don’t go around solving murders.”

“Besides,” Kate said, “some graffiti from a year ago isn’t enough to charge someone with murder! I mean, really. Kids doing rotten things is normal. Am I right?”

Jack nodded, but Sara looked at Megan. “What’s the real reason you think your brother will be charged?”

Megan swallowed. “Kyle said Mrs. Beeson never forgave him.”

“I wouldn’t either,” Sara said. “That must have hurt her deeply. Today, living alone is considered to be an almost criminal act. We’re all supposed to be club members and partygoers and filled with love at the very thought of a huge Thanksgiving. And don’t even get me started on Christmas! Poor Janet must have been traumatized by being called a witch by people who frequently desecrated her garden. She...”

At the looks they were giving her, Sara trailed off. “Sorry, but I’m on Janet’s side. Older women living alone are the target of too many jokes and snide remarks for me to sympathize with other people.”

“I know,” Megan said softly. “I think everyone will feel that way. And since absolutely no one else in this town has done anything bad to her and since everyone saw witch painted on her door, they’ll go after Kyle.”

“I think the sheriff will probably talk to him,” Kate said. “But I imagine he’ll talk to a lot of people.”

“Like who?” Megan snapped. “Janet Beeson was a gentle, kind woman whose best friend killed herself. I remember how she looked after Mrs. Alden died. Sylvia was Kyle and Carolyn’s next-door neighbor and they adored her. She used to bake brownies and she made Halloween costumes for the boys. We were all devastated by her death. The boys felt like they’d lost a grandmother.”

Megan’s tears began again. “Then Mrs. Beeson bought the house and I guess we expected her to be like Sylvia.”

“But she wasn’t?” Sara asked.

“Mrs. Beeson was quieter, but then she was grieving over the loss of her friend. When she wasn’t helping around town, she stayed inside her house, not bothering anyone. She gave but didn’t receive.”