Sara nodded, but she looked like she was agreeing to her execution.
Jack spoke up. “People will come if there’s food but how do we weed out the ones who know nothing about Cheryl or her mom?”
“Good point,” Kate said. “What man is going to say that he was insane with lust for the sweet, innocent Cheryl? Or was a client of Verna?”
Sara walked around the counter. “If you offer people something they really, really want, you can usually get them to give you somethingyouwant.”
“I don’t mean to be a downer,” Kate said, “but a pretty house and a free book aren’t going to make people confess to murder.”
“Jack!” Sara said. “How much do people of this town want to see what you did to the Stewart Mansion?”
“An arm’s worth. And maybe a leg. Definitely give up their firstborn.”
Kate opened her mouth to ask why, but Sara put up her hand. “The Stewart family used to own all the land that the town’s built on. Take it from someone who’s written eleven medieval novels, this place was a fiefdom. Old Judge Stewart was a tyrant—but he was a good despot. Fair and just, as well as ruthless.”
She took a step away. “His son was in my class in high school. Nice guy, but he wimped out and married a snob of a girl from old money. It was the judge’s idea. He wanted to upgrade the family name.”
“She’s talking about your Viking’s parents.” Jack was smiling.
“People in glass houses,” Kate snapped, then looked at Sara. “You’re saying the peasants would dearly love to see the castle.”
“Exactly!” Sara said.
“So we lower the drawbridge and let the great unwashed enter,” Jack said. “Then what?”
“We can’t let just anyone in,” Kate said. “Even for a memorial service, it would be worse than an open house at a mansion.Wehave to vet people.” She got off the stool. “It must be invitation-only. We send out invitations to Cheryl’s classmates and to anyone we can find who knew Verna. Surely someone in town knew them well enough to know their secrets.”
“Mom,” Jack said and they looked at him. “She runs the Lachlan High School Alumni Association. She has addresses of people who attended in what year.”
“All right,” Sara said. “This is good. But how do we get them totalk?”
“Charge them,” Jack said. He was rubbing hard under his cast. “In order to get in to view the castle, get a free autographed book and lots of cheese and bacon, they have to tell what they know about the Morris girls.”
Kate and Sara were staring at him.
“A pirate with a brain,” Kate said. “Will wonders never cease?”
It was such an odd remark that they laughed. This was something they coulddo. Not sit and accept what was being handed out to them, but an action. At the very least, it would honor two women whose lives had been cut short.
“We can try,” Kate said and they agreed.
Jack took out his phone, called his mother and filled her in.
“Of course I’ll do it,” she said. “What’s Sara’s niece like?”
“Stop trying to matchmake.” Jack was watching Kate put pans in the dishwasher. “Ol’ Alastair Stewart has already laid claim to her.”
“Is that jealousy I hear?”
Jack didn’t answer. “Could you go to the funeral home and set this up?”
“For Tuesday morning at ten, right? I guess you guys got the sheriff’s permission for all this, didn’t you?” When her son was silent, Heather groaned. “Really, Jack! That man thinks he’s the king of this town. You can’t put on a huge funeral and a memorial service for the victims in his case and not tell him. He’ll be so mad he’ll give you speeding tickets for walking too fast.”
“The pirate’s mother isn’t dumb,” he said.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing. It’s just Kate’s sense of humor. She likes to make fun of me.”
