A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery #2)(26)

But rotten houses were no match for Kate’s fear. Months of workouts under Jack’s tutelage had given her new strength. She lifted her knee to her chest and slammed her foot into the old door so hard that it came off one hinge. As Kate climbed over the sagging door, the second hinge gave way under her weight. She went down with the door.

But that didn’t stop her forward motion. She was running by the time she and the door hit the ground.

The house was long and narrow and surrounded by years of undergrowth. She had to fight her way around the corner to where she’d seen the light.

When she reached the edge of what was left of the old pergola, she stopped and listened. Silence. Even the birds had stopped their chatter.

“I’m here.”

It was Jack’s voice and he sounded disgusted. As she tore her way through the plants, Jack turned his cell phone flashlight toward her. “Just stay there, I’ll come to you.”

She ignored him and kept pushing her way through.

Jack was sitting on a stump, blood running down the side of his head. “I lost him. Tripped over an old wheelbarrow. I think it was put in my way. I feel like a fool.” He let out a sigh of exasperation. “Come on, let’s go home.”

When Kate turned, her foot caught on a tree root and Jack reached out for her. He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “You’re shaking!”

“No, I’m not.”

Jack pulled back to look at her, his hands on her shoulders. It was quite dark but they were in front of the dining room windows and some candlelight came through. “Everything is fine. I just ran into something with my head. No damage done.”

Kate nodded but said nothing.

“On second thought, I think I’m seriously injured. How about if you take your shirt off and wrap it around my head?”

His joke snapped her back to reality and she pushed his hands away. “Who was it?”

“I’ve never seen him before. Skinny little guy. Older. Look.” Jack held up his cell, touched the screen, and up came a photo of the top half of a man. He was thin to the point of emaciation, but his eyes were glittering in merriment, as though he’d just pulled off some great joke. Since the photo was taken from below, Jack must have been on the ground when he shot it.

“Smart-aleck bastard,” he said.

“I know him. I showed him a house today. He—”

“No! Don’t tell me. Let’s go home and tell Sara.”

In spite of the fact that Jack’s head was still bleeding, they only stayed long enough to put out the candles, then hurried to get out of there.

On the quick trip home, Kate texted Sara to meet them in the living room. “In case she went to bed early,” she told Jack. “I told her to get the bandages out so she’ll be wide-awake.”

She was right. Sara met them at the door. On the dining table were enough first aid supplies to perform surgery. She had Jack sit down while she and Kate filled a glass bowl full of hot water and began to clean the cut on his head. It wasn’t bad.

He smiled at them as they hovered and fussed over him. “I like this. Can we do this every night?”

The women didn’t speak until they’d finished.

Sara stepped back. “I want to hear every word of what happened.”

Kate motioned for Jack to tell the story. They moved to the couches as he started by telling about the romantic dinner he’d created.

“Your mother is a good cook.” Kate wasn’t going to comment on the romantic feel of the evening. “Get to the man.”

“What man?” Sara asked.

Jack and Kate talked over each other as they told what had happened. Kate saw the man; Jack chased him. “When I fell, Kate knocked down a door to get to me.” His voice held pride.

“It was rotting on its hinges. I barely touched it.”

“Ha! I heard you, and I saw the door. That was one powerful kick. You must have been terrified that I’d been hurt.” He was smiling in a smirking sort of way.

“The man!” Sara said. “Who was spying on you?”

“Him.” Jack held up his phone to the photo. “Ever see him before?”

“No.”

“Our Kate knows all about him.” They looked at her.

“This afternoon about two, I showed a house over on Kingfish to a couple, but they weren’t interested. After they left, I went back to lock the door and the man stepped out from behind a tall pine shrub. He startled me and he apologized. He said he hadn’t been hiding but was picking up cigarette butts. He had a handful of them.”

“Weird,” Sara said as she transferred the photo to the big TV so they could look at it.

“Considering tonight, I think he was hiding,” Jack said.

“I thought so too but he said he’d seen the house online and liked it and that he just happened to arrive when I was leaving. He said he’d really like to see the inside.”

“So you went inside a vacant house with a complete stranger?” Jack’s temper was rising.

“It’s her job,” Sara snapped. “What happened?”

“He didn’t really look at the house. He mostly told me about Sedona, Arizona, and how utterly beautiful it is and how he’d lived there for years and how the climate is so different from Florida’s.”