“Barton’s father and the former chief of police were planning to write a book about Youngstown’s first murders. Mr. Harvey kept the notes in that journal. Then when Chief Boggus passed away, Mr. Harvey decided not to move forward with the project. All this time, Barton thought his father was a killer and he was trying to protect him.”
There was still a part missing. “But why did he make Valerie Gerard cry?” Melody had told her about that. Funny Sarah could remember that, but she couldn’t remember the innkeeper hitting her in the head with a shovel.
“Apparently, he found Valerie at his desk, and he yelled at her. It was nothing. But even his daughter was worried that you suspected her father, and she broke into your room to check up on your activities.” Kale shook his head. “She fell apart when August questioned her and said it was her fault because she told you what happened with Valerie. The whole family’s been walking an emotional tightrope since you got here.”
The really dumb part was that it was their reactions to Sarah that made her suspicious in the first place. “So it wasn’t Harvey who was involved with Valerie?”
Kale moved his head from side to side. “It was Reverend Mahaney.”
So that was the reason Valerie stopped going to his church. Wait, Tamara had told her something about that. “Did his niece turn him in?”
Kale frowned. “His niece? No. His wife had gotten worried that his secret would be discovered so she decided to take care of the situation. She gave him an overdose of his heart medication.”
That was seriously screwed up. “Is he dead?”
“No, Deborah saw where Pope was arrested and she called nine-one-one. Just in time.”
Sarah was sure she would absorb and assimilate all this later. Right now it was just too overwhelming. The memory of Lynda forcing her to take those pills bobbed to the murky surface of Sarah’s mind. “Lynda gave me an overdose of her drug—the same one she gave Alicia.” As if she’d only just remembered and the symptoms had been delayed by her lost memory, she suddenly couldn’t breathe.
“We know.” Kale squeezed her hand. “You don’t know how close we came to losing you. We were almost too late.”
Sarah blinked, didn’t understand.
“I went to the inn looking for you and found Mr. Harvey. We started searching for you then. I knew you’d been right all along. I couldn’t find the chief, and I had a hell of a time convincing August, but he finally came around.”
Sarah searched her memory banks. “I beat the crap out of Lynda. Then I tried to help the chief.”
Kale nodded, his eyes suspiciously bright. “I know. We found you face down in the snow ... I ...” He cleared his throat, looked away. “You were barely alive. It took a hell of a lot of prayer and some skilled work here at the ER to reverse the effects of the drug. The doc said if you hadn’t thrown up ... you might not have made it.”
“I’m lucky you found me in time.” She didn’t want to think about the fact that she’d prayed for the first time in about twenty years.
She would keep that part to herself. For now.
“Luck had nothing to do with it.”
Wait. That was right. Matilda had found her. “Did Matilda tell you where I was?”
Kale frowned. “Matilda? No.” He hitched a thumb toward the door on the other side of the room. “She’s here. She wants to see you.”
Sarah didn’t understand. “But she was there. She must have told you where I was. She told me to stay awake but I couldn’t.”
The confusion in Kale’s eyes told her he had no idea what she was talking about. “I talked to Pope.” He fell silent a moment; judging by the quiver of his lips, he was conquering his emotions.
“You talked to Pope?”
He nodded. “I told him what you suspected and that if he didn’t help me, you would become one more victim of the women in his life. I wasn’t sure which one it was.”
“And?” Damn, this man had to learn how to get to the point.
“He told us where you’d likely be. Said he felt compelled to do the right thing.”
So, she owed her life to God and to Jerald Pope.
This was all too strange.
“I guess the investigation is closed, then?”
Kale nodded. “August left as soon as he knew you were out of the woods.”
