“Yes, definitely,” Jack said. “I’m sure that will make everyone feel at ease and tell us all they know.”
With a grimace at his sarcasm, she climbed up the ladder.
* * *
Minutes later, they were in Puck’s house. Puck and Sara were at the big oak table with a laptop and looking at the photos taken in the pit.
Jack and Kate were on the far side of the room, cups of strong, black tea in their hands. They’d seen all they wanted to and now needed time to calm down.
“What do we do?” Kate asked.
He knew what her real question was. Did they leave Sara there while they went on holiday? But everything was different now.
“The Pack is coming,” Kate whispered as she glanced at Sara. “They’re going to guess that we have a reason for calling them together. And what else could it be but that we found the body?”
“The irony is that we didn’t have a reason, just Sara snooping. But now all they have to do is look around the area. Flattened grass will show that people have been there lately.”
“Since the hotel is almost empty, they’ll know it was us.”
“And Puck,” Jack said.
Kate nodded. “Her shoes were down there, but no one found them. Whoever hid the poor man probably hasn’t been here in a while.”
“But now they’ve been invited here.” Jack ran his hand over his face. “All of this is done. If we called and canceled, they’d know something was up. Puck would be in danger.”
“And us. Even if we go home, we might be in danger. We’ve seen a big secret. A deadly secret.” She got up and refilled their mugs with hot water and new tea bags. She sat back down beside Jack. “I guess Scotland is out.” There was a little sniff in her voice.
“There’s no way Sara will leave, and I won’t leave her.” He looked at Kate. “And I have no hope that you will have sense enough to get the hell away from here.” He sounded so forlorn that she put her hand over his.
“I really wanted to go,” she said.
He squeezed her hand, then let go and sipped his tea. “Do we contact the police or not?”
“You think they’ll take the time to dig into something that happened twenty years ago?”
“I’m sure they’d love to hear about Nicky who loved Diana and—”
“Bertie who didn’t love his son.”
“And maybe Diana dumped Nicky and ran off with the stable lad.”
“Not a ‘lad.’ He looked like you, so he was one virile stud,” Kate said.
Jack nearly spit tea at that. “Thanks. You made my day. What the hell do we do?”
“Lie,” Kate said. “Act dumb. Pretend we’re so in awe of Lady Nadine and Byon the Magnificent that we can hardly speak. We just listen and ask really stupid questions.”
“So we act natural?”
She smiled. “Above all, we protect Aunt Sara.”
“And you too since you’re worse than she is. You cannot go anywhere by yourself. You understand me?”
“Are we talking about showers or bathtubs?”
He didn’t smile. “I want a promise.”
“I’ll do my best.”