A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery #2)(75)

Sara looked at Kate and Jack. It was their turn to speak. They went over every word that had been spoken in Tayla’s jail cell. Then they told her that Chet was going away for a while. It made them breathe a sigh of relief.

“I think we should stay out of this. It’s what Tayla told us to do,” Kate said. “She seemed really afraid.”

“And leave her to the wolves? Or worse, to the lawyers?” Jack asked.

Kate looked at him. “I thought you were planning to marry Chet’s lawyer daughter.”

“I am. We can have a double wedding with you and Chris.”

“I’m holding out for Garth. We’ll dance all night.”

“Oh yeah? And who is going to sing for you?”

“Could you two please take a break?” Sara said. “The problem now is Tayla. We have to do something to help her.”

The faces of Kate and Jack said they knew she’d solve the problem.

“I do know a few lawyers. One of them deals with criminals.”

“Think he’ll take her for a client?” Kate asked.

“He likes cases that he can’t possibly win, so when he does, he’s jubilant.”

“I like him already,” Jack said. “Maybe he can get Tayla to stop telling everyone that she’s guilty.”

“Did she say anything about stabbing or shooting?” Sara asked.

“Nothing,” Kate said. “Tayla said she poisoned Janet. Swore she did it.”

“Interesting,” Sara said. “If I were writing this...”

“Yes?” Kate and Jack said in unison.

“I’d have an autopsy prove that the poison didn’t kill the victim, so Tayla would be freed.”

“So who would be punished?” Jack asked.

“I’d have to start on page one to find that out. I’d make up some really bad guys, but of course no one would know they were bad until I revealed it.”

“That’s what Tayla said. Nobody is what they seem.”

“I can believe that,” Sara said. “Sweet-tempered Gil has turned into an angry bull.”

“Sylvia—who everyone adored—had a daughter who packs a weapon,” Kate said.

They looked at Jack. “Chet seems sane but with Tayla he was...”

“Feral,” Kate supplied. “Pushy, demanding, aggressive. I wanted to hug her. Well, I wanted to hug her even without his snapping, but that doesn’t matter.”

Sara was thoughtful. “Who else is not what he or she seems?”

“We wouldn’t know, would we?” Kate said. “Until someone lets us inside their minds, we can’t know. It’s like when you read that some man killed his wife and kids. You’re astonished. You just didn’t see it.”

“But it was all there,” Sara said. “When you know the answer, you can look back and see what the clues were. The question now is What have we seen that we paid no attention to?”

They had no answer for that.

“I think I’ll write all this down,” Sara said. “See if I can make sense of it.”

“And I need to go to work,” Kate said.

“Me too,” Jack added.

But they didn’t move. Someone they knew was in jail. She was freely admitting that she’d poisoned a woman—but they didn’t believe her.

“And you have to call the lawyer,” Jack said.

“Yes, of course,” Sara answered.

When they separated, they were silent. The feeling of “unfinished” hung heavily over them.

Kirkwood Realty was like a funeral parlor. Worse, everyone looked at Kate with accusing eyes. But no one said anything. Even Melissa was quiet—for about an hour.

“You found out who killed those Morris women, but Tayla doesn’t matter to you enough to take this case?” Her voice was pure venom. “I bet you want this place for your own. Is that what you’re hoping? To make it into Medlar Realty?”

Kate saw that the others in the office agreed with Melissa. She knew she should do the “strong woman act” and stand up for herself, but instead, she grabbed her handbag and left the office. She practically ran to her car. She wasn’t sure where she was going until she realized that she was about a mile from Jack’s job site.

As she pulled into the drive, her phone began ringing. She picked it up just as Jack opened the door and got into the passenger seat. “Gil is about to go after me with a sledgehammer. He—”

“It’s Everett.” Kate put the phone on speaker and leaned toward Jack. “Hello?”

Everett talked so fast they could hardly understand him. This time, he was in hysterics. Chet had been there. It looked like he’d lied to them about going to Atlanta. But then, they hadn’t exactly been honest with him either.

“It was like the Gestapo,” Everett was saying. “No. The Spanish Inquisition. I expected him to send me to the rack if I didn’t answer him.”

“What was he asking you?”

“Is that Jack? Do you two spend every second together?”

“Gage!” Jack snapped.

“He wanted me to tell him all about Tayla. Where, when, what. I told him what I remember, but he still went through my notes.”

“What did he find out?” Jack asked.