A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery #2)(97)

“Janet must have found out the truth because things began happening to Elaine. Someone smashed her car. Her purse was stolen. It was nothing big, just annoying. But one day her ten-year-old son didn’t come home from school. Elaine panicked. By that time she knew it was Janet. She told me she loved me but her fear of Janet was stronger than her love—and she had to protect her son. She wrote Janet a formal note saying You win. I concede. She quit her job and left the state.

“After that, I began throwing money at Janet to make her sign the divorce papers. When I sold my company that seemed to satisfy her and she signed.”

“But that wasn’t the end of it, was it?” Sara asked.

“No. She found me wherever I went. If I made friends they soon looked at me with fear, so I knew Janet had found them and lied to them about me.”

He paused, getting his breath. “Seven months ago, I was told that I had no more than six months to live. The doctor said that if I had anything I really wanted to do, now was the time. I had some money that I’d been able to hide from Janet and I thought about traveling. Go see the Taj.”

“But you wanted something more than that,” Sara said.

“Yes,” Carl said. “I wanted to see Janet. I’m not sure why. Maybe I wanted to reassure myself that she had only taken her anger out on me. I knew she was living in Lachlan, Florida, so I flew here. On the first day I was sitting in an outdoor restaurant reading a local brochure and telling myself I was stupid. I should book a cruise. Then I saw Janet sitting at another table, her face hidden inside one of Sylvia’s books. My hair stood on end and I expected her to plop down in front of me, but she didn’t.

“It took me a while to realize that she didn’t recognize me. I’d lost a lot of weight and I had a small beard.”

Carl closed his eyes for a moment. “I watched Janet staring at three pretty women who were laughing. She went to them and said hello. But they didn’t invite her to join them. I knew that would set her off.” He shook his head. “I saw Janet drop a pill into the drink of one of the women. Ten minutes later she grabbed her stomach and ran to the restroom. It was Janet who called for an ambulance. The next day I heard what a hero she was.

“I knew then what my bucket list was. I wanted to expose her. Maybe put her in jail. I rented a house through Tayla. I hired Dora to clean my apartment. She’s a great gossip. She loved Sylvia and never believed she committed suicide. I studied social media sites. It’s amazing what people tell online. I saw that no one connected the bad with the good. If they did something bad to Janet, bad happened to them, then Janet showed up to be the hero. It was a pattern, but I seemed to be the only one who saw it.”

He paused. “Or was I? When Dora told me that Janet and Tayla argued, I pursued that. I got Tayla to tell me about Gil and how he might lose his son.”

“We met Zelly,” Kate said.

“Ghastly, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is,” Sara said. “And Charlene?”

“That took some time to get Tayla to tell about her. I’m sorry I didn’t come forward at first but Tayla swore that you three would find out the truth. When they arrested her, I wanted it stopped, but Tayla said no. Janet had to be exposed, and she knew that if she was being arrested for the crime, you three wouldn’t stop until you found the truth.”

“But she told us to stay out of it!” Kate said. “She talked about great evil.”

Carl nodded. “Tayla was willing to take the blame, but she also wanted the truth about Janet exposed. She told you to do what was right, but she knew—prayed—that you’d keep looking. She told me that you three were the only ones who could protect Charlene and Gil.”

“She trusted us that much?” Kate asked.

He looked at Sara. “She said she owes you in a very big way and that maybe this would help you forgive her.”

They all looked at Sara but she made no reply.

“What about Chet?” Jack asked.

All the energy seemed to leave Carl. “I am sorry for that. Very, very sorry.”

“He would have exposed Charlene,” Sara said. “You killed him to stop that from happening.”

“Yes.” Carl was squeezing his eyes shut and there were tears coming out.

“His death was declared an accident,” Jack said. “There isn’t going to be an investigation.”

Carl nodded but he didn’t speak.

Sara stood up. “I think we better go.”

Carl whispered, “I just wanted a family. My wife and I wanted children so very much. A family. That’s all I wanted in my entire life. But I didn’t get it.”

There was nothing they could reply to that, so they left the hospital room without another word. Outside, Sara said, “And Chet won’t see his grandchildren.”

“Nothing but pain because one woman wanted to win,” Kate said.

“Come on, let’s go home,” Jack said. “This is done.”

It was a week later that Sara was in her little library, computer on her lap, and going over what she’d written for Sylvia’s book.

The book stopped right after Lisa left, and it told how happy Sylvia was that the misery she’d been enduring would soon be over. When her daughter’s divorce was final, they could leave. Sylvia wrote of all she’d done to prepare for their escape. She’d transferred every photo she had of her life with her husband and daughter onto a single three-terabyte hard drive. She’d secretly mailed it and several sentimental items to a friend who lived in Boston, someone Janet didn’t know about. Sylvia put a couple of packed suitcases in a storage locker, along with two open-ended plane tickets to London. Her passport and five grand cash were in her bag. She would be able to walk out the door with nothing in her hand and leave the country.