“Oh” was all Kate could say. The man they had turned in to the sheriff as a murderer was to decide her fate. “Whodidkill the Morris women?”
“Oh. That.” Mrs. Stewart put the big pistol down on the table. “No one killed them. Not really.” She walked to the far side of the room and turned on two lamps. “I hate this place. Always did. Hamish wanted us to spend our honeymoon here. Can you imagine?”
Kate thought that with a good cleaning she’d love to stay there, but decided not to say so. “You’ve lived in Lachlan a long time.”
“Too long, but in my day, children obeyed their parents. My father—now,therewas a man! He told me where I was to live, who I was to marry, and I did it.”
“But your husband wasn’t the right man for you?”
“Hamish was a fool. Weak beyond imagining. I hated him. But he did give me Alastair. My beautiful son only made one mistake in his whole life, but I managed to repair the damage—until Jack Wyatt and you and...and that Sara Medlar came along. Did you know that in high school she used to make fun of me? She told Hamish not to marry me. Me! Can you imagine?”
“Tell me about the error Alastair made. I mean, there’s nothing to do while we wait.”
She toyed with the gun for a moment, seeming to try to decide what to do. “My son explained the truth of it all to me. Theywilledwhat happened to them. It was as though she—the older one—wantedme to finish it for her. It was like she was done. She’d had enough.”
“I’d really like to hear that story.” Kate’s voice was sincere. “I want to understand.”
Mrs. Stewart checked her phone again and gave a sigh. No calls. Kate wondered if there was a signal and if Mrs. Stewart knew how to tell if there was. Kate didn’t know South Florida well enough to be able to guess how far they were from Lachlan. She’d slept through the drive and couldn’t calculate. “Have you ever told anyone?”
“Of course not.”
“Then the truth must be building inside you.”
The woman sat down in a big padded chair near the window. “Actually, it’s all been a relief. Before all this happened, I thought about the past a great deal. But afterward, with each one, I felt better.”
Each one?Kate thought but didn’t say out loud. “As hard as we searched, we could find out very little.”
“Of course not. It was all taken care of long ago. There were loose ends but we managed to tie them off.”
We?Kate thought. “Would you tell me the truth? While we wait? Please?”
Mrs. Stewart took a moment to decide. “I will tell you what my darling son told me.” She took a breath. “Then me. It was not my fault. My husband... That woman...”
“Yes,” Kate whispered. “I understand.”
Noreen sneered. “No one can understand what was done to me. No one seems to think aboutmein all this.”
“Alastair does,” Kate said softly.
She smiled. “Yes, he does.” For a moment she closed her eyes. “I guess I should start at the beginning of that night. Start with what my son told me.”
TWENTY-FIVE
5 SEPTEMBER, 1997
CHERYLMORRIS’SSIXTEENTHBIRTHDAY
As he knew she would be, Cheryl was waiting for him beside that old rusty farm thing at the back of her house. For a moment he hid behind a big palm tree and watched her. She was a pretty girl but in a way that drew too much attention. She certainly wasn’t the kind he could be seen in public with.
He’d tried to fix her. He’d tutored her, mentored her, did his best to tone her down while raising her up. He’d introduced her to silk, makeup, heels. But they hadn’t helped much. He liked old movies and in his mind he compared her to Brigitte Bardot. You could put her in the most conservative clothes and she’d still ooze sex.
He leaned back against the tree. He’d leave for college soon, so he’d have to get away from her. She wasn’t someone he could show to Mother. But maybe he could tell his father. Maybe this would change his father’s attitude toward his son.
When Alastair turned back, he saw that she had her hand on something at her neck, and he recognized it. The local jeweler was making a mint off selling initial necklaces to the high-school males to give to their girlfriends. Alastair had been asked who he was giving one to and he’d made a remark about needing a half dozen of them.
Like he’d shell out two hundred and fifty bucks for a necklace for some girl.
He saw her move her hand. Damn if she didn’t seem to be caressing the thing. So who had given her the necklace? One of the guys on the team? Hadn’t he trained her better than to keep gifts from other people?
