Kate held out the brooch Alish had given her. She hadn’t had time to study it. Her first impression was that it was old, like belongs-in-a-museum old. It was silver, made in a thistle design, with a large green stone in the middle. The stone hadn’t been cut but looked like it had just been taken from the ground. “Reid’s grandmother sent this to you. She called you ‘the storyteller.’ You’re to put it under your pillow at night. She believes she has Second Sight, but Reid says she doesn’t. It’s your choice of what to do with it.”
Sara was looking at it. “I like it.” She started to put it in her pants pocket but instead, pinned it inside her shirt, over her heart. “I’ll take all the help I can get. Did you learn anything else?”
“I was told a good story but I have no idea how it can possibly be connected to anything. It’s about James Lachlan, so maybe it helps somehow.”
When Kate said no more, Sara said, “Well?”
“Shouldn’t we wait for the others and tell it to everyone?”
“No,” Sara said. “Tell me now, then tell them later. On the second round you might remember new details.”
“Ha! You’re just too impatient to wait. First of all, Mr. Lachlan came from Scotland in a group of eight families. They—”
“Hello.” Troy was standing in the open doorway.
“Are they all settled?” Sara asked.
“They’re now on their second movie, but no luck so far. Billy had three more tape machines delivered from some place in Miami and—” He broke off as he looked at Kate, who was staring at him.
“I see Jack in you,” she said softly.
Troy pulled up a wooden chair and sat down. “Is he with you?” He sounded hopeful.
“He’s on a roof.”
They were staring at each other without blinking, neither of them saying a word.
“Hey!” Sara said. “This is Troy—this is Kate. Now get on with the story.”
Kate hesitated. “Should we...?” She meant “tell it in front of Troy?”
“Yes,” Sara said. “Now tell.”
Kate had learned a lot about storytelling from years with her aunt, and unlike Reid, she put it in chronological order. She started with the arrival of the eight families in the US. “James Lachlan offered a partnership to one of the men, but he refused and went out on his own. Unfortunately, the man failed at everything he tried—except being elected as a judge. Reid’s family stayed with Mr. Lachlan.”
“And James succeeded,” Sara said. “I guess he took Reid’s family upward with him.”
“Yes, he did,” Kate said. She went on to tell that Alish married James’s nephew, son of his wife’s sister. Then there was a fight in a bar. She told that James was on a business trip in Russia and the spiteful judge hanged the nephew soon after he was tried and found guilty.
“It was manslaughter,” Troy said. “Not a murder.”
“True,” Sara said, “but that doesn’t change what happened.” She looked at Kate. “And after that, James’s son ran away and his wife died.”
“And Alish gave birth to the nephew’s son,” Kate said. “He was Reid the second. This one is the third Reid.”
“And he’s still with Lachlan House,” Troy said. “I’ve seen him with the weed whacker. What’s he do for a living?”
“Sells insurance,” Sara said. “He came back to see if he and Rachel could still be an item.”
“And are they?” Kate asked.
“Who knows? Slaps and kisses both. Maybe that’s how they interact.” When Kate started to ask for an explanation, Sara waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. Did you find out anything else?”
Kate looked at Troy, obviously wondering if it was safe to talk in front of him.
“You can say anything except against my mother,” he said. “My job is to prove that she’s never killed anyone. Except when a camera was aimed at her.”
Kate didn’t smile. “Back then, if evidence had shown that your father murdered someone, he could have been tried and sent to jail. Your mother would have wanted to prevent that from happening.”
