A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery #2)(67)

Jack started to correct her but Kate put her hand on his arm. She was right, his temper was about to explode.

“I think you mean foxtail palms. The fronds are indeed quite heavy.”

“The what? What kind of word is that? You mean the leaves?” She started laughing in such a derogatory way that Jack had to lead Kate away before she told the woman off.

After that, they just worked to keep calm as Zelly talked and talked and talked some more.

When they finally reached land, Jack jumped onto the dock. The first thing he was going to do was go to the management company he paid to look after his boat. Kate grabbed his arm. She didn’t have to say anything but he knew what she meant. Keep the Wyatt temper under control.

He did. He didn’t yell, didn’t curse. Instead, his tone was what he’d used when one of his men had forgotten to lock up a chain saw over the weekend. When Charlene came by to get the lumber left for her, one of her clever sons managed to start the thing. Nothing bad happened but it could have. By the time a calm, quiet-spoken Jack finished, the guy was shaking in fear. He never returned to the job.

Jack went back to the two women waiting for him and they went to the truck. Zelly tried to sit in the middle but Jack wouldn’t allow it. He put her on the end, next to the door.

On the drive across Fort Lauderdale to Lachlan on the west side, Zelly kept up a chatter about her future life. Seems that Janet had rhapsodized about Asheville. “I don’t know why we have to live here,” Zelly said. “Gil could build us a house in Asheville. I have friends there. And Mom is buried there. It’s my home.”

“It’s where the marijuana dealers live?” Jack asked.

Kate gave him a look to stop it but the woman didn’t seem to realize that he was being sarcastic.

“Yes!” Zelly said. “They do. I could—”

Jack tuned her out. His mind was on his friend Gil. This is what he was facing. A lifetime with this greedy, stupid woman. If he didn’t put up with her he could lose his son. No paperwork! Jack grimaced at that thought. There wasn’t a shred of evidence saying Gil hadn’t taken the child from a bereft mother.

Zelly had told them that Janet said she would help her in any way possible, even to paying her lawyer’s fees. “She was an angel,” Zelly said. “Put on this earth to help others.”

“I don’t think that’s the way Gil sees it,” Jack mumbled. With all this going on, no wonder Gil shot a nail through his foot, he thought. No wonder he’d driven away cursing.

Why didn’t he tell me? Jack asked himself. Why didn’t Gil come to him and tell him of the situation?

Because of what Kate called “the legendary Wyatt temper”? Or because Gil thought he could handle everything himself? How? By killing Janet Beeson? Without her backing, the idiot Zelly wouldn’t be able to pay a lawyer, wouldn’t have the courage to pursue a goal she only thought she wanted. He couldn’t imagine her living in Gil’s new house, helping Quinn with his homework, and going to church on Sundays. She wouldn’t last two weeks!

When they got to the house, Jack saw that Chet’s van was still under the trees. In the garage was Sara’s MINI.

They went through the courtyard and into Kate’s suite. He turned to Zelly. “I want you to stay in here. Take a bath. Wash your hair. Watch TV. Whatever you do, don’t leave here until Kate or I come and get you. Do you understand me?”

“Sure. You want time to tell the old lady about me. She—”

“Do not call her that.” Kate’s tone was of repressed anger.

Zelly looked at both of them. “Okay, I get it.” She looked out at the canal with a clump of palm trees to one side. “Are there alligators in there? And what about falling coconuts?”

“Yes,” Kate said. “Lots of danger out there. Stay in here.”

Jack opened the door into the house and let Kate go first. He closed the door behind her.

“No jury will convict Gil,” she mumbled.

“I wish that were true,” he said.

They were standing by the kitchen and neither of them wanted to go any further. The original idea of the boat trip had been to get away from thoughts of the murder.

But Zelly had taken over everything. Their time together had been all about her.

“Ready to see our houseguest?” Jack asked softly.

“I guess so. You wouldn’t start acting like a dad with a shotgun and Sara as your virginal daughter, would you?”

Jack smiled. “You should help Sara write her books. I swear that I’ll behave. I’ll—”

He broke off when the doorbell rang. They heard a door inside the house open and the house was filled with the sound of a man’s weeping. Loud, full of agony—and they’d heard it before.

They looked at each other. “Everett,” they said in unison.

They hurried into the house. Sara and Chet were standing in front of the round, pudgy Everett. He had his hands over his face and tears were squeezing through his fingers.

When Chet turned, he blinked a few times in surprise when he saw Jack and Kate, but Sara didn’t.

“Get him a cold drink,” she said to Jack. “Cold washcloth,” to Kate.

It took a while to get the weeping man to a couch in the living room. Chet sat at the end, and Sara took her place on the couch.