“I guess Mrs. Ellerbee knew too much.”
“I didn’t think anyone would believe her story of having seen a Stewart at that house but I wasn’t sure.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
Mrs. Stewart’s smile left her and she looked at Kate as though to ask if she was making fun of her. “I bet you think I’m the bad person for telling people about that Morris woman. All I wanted was for her to take her Lolita of a daughter and leave the town. But she wouldn’t go away—and worse, I had to see them all the time. At church, at fairs. Whenever there was anything going on in the town, there she was. Flaunting that odd daughter of hers. Verna Morris may not have been sleeping with a lot of men, but she was a slut, so I told people that. Where’s the harm in that?”
“None at all.” Kate nearly choked on the words.
For a long, nerve-racking minute, Mrs. Stewart stared at Kate. “You’re clever, aren’t you? The question is if you’re more like your aunt or your father?”
Kate’s eyes widened. “You knew him?”
“Everyone knew Randal Medlar—and liked him. His sister always thought she was smarter than everyone else, too good to join in with people. But Randal! Now, there was a lovely young man. So kind and thoughtful. He used to send me flowers on my birthday, and I invited him to all my parties. He was like you and got me to tell him all my secrets. But he never betrayed them. If your aunt heard of a secret, say a messy old tool that was accidentally left behind, she’d run to the police. But Randal would have taken a bullet to the head before he told. So which are you?”
“A clone of my father,” Kate said with so much sincerity that her head nearly exploded.
When Kate saw her aunt Sara’s face appear at the window, she had a hard time not crying out in pure happiness. How had they found her? But now was not the time to think of that.
She kept her eyes on Mrs. Stewart. “I don’t think anyone could convict you of murder. It was all an accident.”
“Are you patronizing me?”
“No! Not at all.” In the background, Aunt Sara was making gestures but Kate didn’t dare look to see what they were. Instead, she quickly turned her head to the side. “Is that Alastair?”
When Mrs. Stewart hurried to the window, Kate looked at her aunt. She was holding up three fingers and making a sideways motion. Kate nodded. She understood. She was to get out of the way of whatever was about to happen.
Mrs. Stewart seemed to sense that something was happening. She turned just as Kate pushed hard with her feet and made the chair slam on its side to the floor.
Besides the boom of the chair, there was a sound she wasn’t quite sure of, but she thought maybe it was a gunshot.
From the floor, Kate looked up at Mrs. Stewart and saw that she was halfway across the room, her hand outstretched as she reached for the pistol on the table.
But the woman stopped abruptly and looked down at her white blouse. Blood was on her upper arm and she looked at it in disbelief. She seemed to be thinking “Who in the world had the audacity to do such a thing to me?”
In the next second, her eyes rolled back and she hit the wooden floor so hard that dust went flying up.
At the same moment, Aunt Sara ran through the front door, Sheriff Flynn behind her, Jack on his crutches and cursing in the rear.
Sara knelt down to Kate. “I need a knife!” she bellowed and both men handed her one. She took Jack’s and cut the plastic ties around her niece’s wrists.
“You—you... We didn’t know...” Sara was choking on tears.
“Not now!” Jack snapped. “Save it for later.” He looked at Kate. “Can you walk?”
“Better and faster than you can.” Kate stood up.
For a moment Jack looked like he, too, was going to cry, but he recovered to give a smirk. “Sounds like you’re fine.”
Sheriff Flynn was putting handcuffs on Mrs. Stewart, who was facedown on the floor.
“I think she’s been shot,” Kate said. “Shouldn’t she—?”
“Ambulance is on its way,” the sheriff said. “Right now I just want her secure.” He pulled the woman up.
“How dare you—” Mrs. Stewart began, but the sheriff cut her off.
“Shut up, Noreen. Oh, but I wish Hamish had had the balls to tell you that when he was alive.”