For a moment, they stared at Sara. She was getting angry.
“What have you been writing?” Kate asked.
“What?”
“You heard me. You write about your life, so what are you putting in your notebook? A love story about Jack and me?”
“No!” Jack said.
The two women were staring at each other, oblivious of the men.
Sara’s face was turning red. “Nothing important,” she muttered. “Just some thoughts on the 1944 murder.”
“The one Harry Adair committed?” Randal asked.
Sara nodded. “And the execution. I think everything is connected.”
“None of the people at Billy’s place have found anything,” Jack said. “Troy keeps in contact with them. They’ve seen every movie three times and read all the scripts, but they haven’t found anything like what we told them.”
“Maybe Adair didn’t write about it,” Randal said.
In unison, the others turned to look at him. Their faces said,“A writer has a story and doesn’t tell it?! Impossible!”
Randal put his hands up in protection. “Okay, just a thought. But Troy doesn’t know of any movie that fits the bill, and he’s seen everything.”
Sara looked at her brother. “If you’d killed someone and made a movie about it, would you let Kate see it?”
Randal grimaced. “She read that damned book aboutme. If I could have stopped that, I would have.” He looked at Sara in understanding. “Maybe Harry hid his story. Have you figured out anything? Something you aren’t telling us?”
“A marriage for murder,” she said, then held up her hand. “Don’t ask me what that means. I don’t know.”
“But you’re the one who made it up,” Jack said.
Kate was staring hard at her aunt. “If Alish does have Second Sight, I wonder what the depth of it is.” She nodded to the brooch on the table. “I’ve read of people being able to transmit thoughts through objects. Especiallyoldartifacts.”
Sara wasn’t ready to tell of the clarity of her dreams. But she was rather good at spinning the facts. She could say lots and tell nothing. “All this has made me think of a possible book. What happened to James Lachlan’s son? Why did he run away after his cousin’s execution? Didanyoneknow where he went? We keep hearing about a movie but it doesn’t seem to exist—or does it?” She took a breath. “We don’t know why Derek Oliver was murdered, but my mind keeps going to the past, and yes, I’ve been writing it all down. Any more questions?”
They could tell that Sara had been pushed as far as they dared.
“You haven’t told us about your time with Rachel,” Randal said. “Did you learn anything new?”
“No. I failed completely. She said what we already knew, that someone had yet again ransacked the nursery. She was quite upset about it, and while we were there, she started putting things back in order—just as Kate did. Since that area was closed off for twenty-five years, it could have been rearranged a long time ago. Maybe by a cleaning crew.”
“No,” Kate said. “I was in there during the renovation. The room was in the correct order. I’m sure that one of our guests went through it. It’s just a gut feeling, but I believe that person was looking for my hedgehog.”
“Then it was probably Rachel, since she was seen with it,” Randal said.
“But she was bellyaching about things being out of place,” Jack said. “If she made the mess, complaining about it makes no sense.”
“Maybe she was lying and covering up what she’d done,” Kate said. “I wish Greer were here. She’d know.”
They were silent as they thought of the death of the poor, sad young woman. She’d not had much of a life.
“We may not solve this one and I’m not sure I care,” Sara said. “Everyone is better off that the man was gone. And it appears to be a one-off. A crime of passion.”
“Except for the chimney nearly killing me,” Jack said.
“That could have been an accident,” Sara said.
