“Of course. You’ve been through a trauma and—”
“And me,” Jack said.
“I can’t—” Detective Cotilla gritted his teeth. “I will try to get permission.”
With a smile, Jack slipped a card into the breast pocket of the detective’s suit. It was from the clinic that worked with sexually abused children. “Never needed that.” Jack patted the man’s pocket.
Detective Cotilla still refused to look at him.
They took only a few steps when the double glass front doors burst open and they heard voices. In came half a dozen officers in uniform. In the middle of them was a handcuffed Alastair Stewart.
He was perfectly groomed, neatly dressed...and furious. His eyes were pits of blue fire. He halted only a few feet from Kate. “You!” he said.
The officers went to the long desk to deal with paperwork, leaving only two men with Alastair.
The roomful of tall, broad-shouldered people paid no attention to five-foot-tall Sara. Only Jack and Sheriff Flynn saw her slip away and disappear behind two lumberjack-sized men in brown.
“You thought there could be something between a Medlar and a Stewart,” Alastair said to Kate. “I couldn’t even bear to allow you inside my car.”
As Sara silently walked past a deputy’s desk, she picked up his heavy motorcycle gloves and kept going.
Sheriff Flynn elbowed Jack to quit staring in wide-eyed fascination at whatever the little woman was doing. Don’t draw attention to her, he seemed to be saying.
“That’s enough,” one of the deputies said to Alastair and started to pull him away.
But Sheriff Flynn shook his head. “The man should be allowed to have his say.”
Alastair smiled smugly. “Kirkwoods were always our friends.” He looked back at Kate. Even though Alastair’s hands were handcuffed behind him, he still managed to look triumphant. “Your mundane, plebeian wishes sickened me. To create more Medlars! The earth should be cleansed of people like you.”
Behind him, Sara went to the water fountain and picked up a wooden two-step stool. She put the gloves on top and carried the steps to place them just behind Alastair.
One of the bewildered officers started to stop her, but a look from Detective Cotilla made him step back.
Alastair sneered at Jack. “You should have known that I would never have a Wyatt’s used goods.”
Jack slipped his arm around Kate’s shoulders but no one said anything.
Sara climbed up the two steps, put the gloves on, turned sideways, hands up in boxer position. “Hey, Stewart!” She was on his level and very close to him.
When he turned, Sara drew back her arm and used every ounce of muscle she had, from her toes to her neck. She hit him in the face with a right cross powered by rage. The sound of Alastair’s nose crunching was so loud that people winced.
With his hands behind him, Alastair was unable to balance and he hit the floor hard. When blood came gushing out of his nose, he couldn’t wipe it away.
Like a miniature Rocky at the top of the steps, Sara stood there, her small hands covered in the big leather gloves.
Jack started for her, but Detective Cotilla got there first. He went to help her down, but instead he raised Sara’s arm. Sheriff Flynn raised her other arm. She was a fighter who had won the match.
The room erupted in laughter and applause—and a dozen cell phones snapped a photo.
Alastair was on the floor and shouting, but the cheering was so loud that no one heard him. For all that, publicly, no credit was going to be given to them, they all knew the truth. These untrained amateurs had solved a twenty-year-old double homicide and had stopped the killing spree of the Stewart duo. Already, the evil mother and son were becoming infamous.
Jack pushed past Detective Cotilla, put his hands on Sara’s waist and swung her down. She threw her arms around him. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head.
Finally, someone helped Alastair stand up. But no one blotted the blood off his face. “Better let a doctor do that,” Sheriff Flynn said.
“I’m going to sue all of you,” Alastair said. “I’ll destroy this entire department.” His eyes were already beginning to blacken, and his voice was thick from the smashed nose. Blood covered the lower half of his face.
The room grew quiet.