A Willing Murder Read online

  As she stepped back from the mirror, she said, “What do you think, Cheryl?” For a moment she paused and blinked back more tears. How involved her life had become with those two women! She opened the door.

  Sara had come out of her room and she was with Jack and Alastair in the kitchen. Alastair had a glass of cola and Kate would bet that Jack hadn’t poured it for him.

  Jack was still chopping things and he gave Kate a look as though he was being greatly imposed upon.

  “Hi,” Alastair said to Kate. His eyes swiftly moved up and down her in an approving way.

  Kate smiled demurely. “It’s lovely to see you again.”

  Jack rolled his eyes at her formality. Ignoring him, she went forward and exchanged double-cheek kisses with Alastair.

  “Alastair brought something from high school to show you,” Sara said.

  “Honor-roll certificate?” Jack had been moving about the kitchen quite well, but now he made a big display of using his crutches.

  “I didn’t mean to just show up,” Alastair said to Kate, “but I did send you some text messages.”

  “Sorry, but I didn’t look at my phone. Today has been, uh, very busy.”

  “Bet your mother is frantic with worry,” Jack said. “You should call her.”

  “She’ll live,” Sara said. “Alastair, please, let’s sit down and you can show us what you brought. Jack doesn’t need us to use a grill.”

  Jack mumbled something but they couldn’t hear what it was. He stayed in the kitchen while Sara, Kate and Alastair went a few feet away and sat down on the sofa.

  Immediately, Alastair’s eyes went to the wall. On both sides of the big TV, they’d taped photos enlarged from the high-school yearbook, and the names of people they had talked to or wanted to interview. In large letters was printed Cheryl’s Birthday.

  “I see you’ve made some progress in your investigation,” Alastair said.

  Sara gave a little laugh. “’Fraid it has all come to a permanent standstill. Happened too long ago to find out anything now, and besides, Sheriff Flynn was threatening us that we had better stop. I’ve decided to use the work we did as inspiration for a new book.”

  Alastair was sitting between them and Kate looked around him to stare wide-eyed at Sara. She was certainly good at lying!

  “So what do you have to show us?” Sara asked.

  Alastair leaned back on the couch. “My mother found a high-school clipping that I’d like to show you.” He turned to Jack, who was frowning in the kitchen. “Actually, I came to see you.”

  It was a moment before Jack looked up to see them staring at him. “Me?”

  “Yes. Last night I had dinner with my mother and three of her lady friends. I don’t mean to sound elitist, but they are all rich widows, and they don’t like condo living. Too many young people, too much noise. They’ve decided that they’d like to buy your houses, all six of them. After you’ve remodeled them, of course. And they’d like to buy some more houses there, too. For more friends. They also want one of the houses made into a kind of gym-cum-spa and to put in a pool. Basically, they’ve dreamed up a retirement living community, but where they get their own homes instead of being cooped up in apartments.”

  Through all this, Jack had been listening with his knife aloft. He put it down and grabbed his crutches. “Kate! Finish this up. And add some more veggies. Alastair, would you please stay for dinner? It’s not much but we’ll do our best.”

  Kate got up, and as she passed Jack on her way to the kitchen, she murmured, “Money sings a new song.”

  Jack was smiling at Alastair too broadly to pay any attention to her snarkiness. Minutes later they moved to the outdoor kitchen and the big grill. Jack went with Alastair and left the women to bring out the food and drinks.

  Once they were outside, Jack became the ultimate host. He crushed ice in a big blender and made a pitcher of margaritas. He served Alastair first.

  “This is a nice layout.” Alastair swerved around on his stool to look at the pool and covered lanai. “Mom and her ladies would love this. When I lived here—” He waved his hand. “You don’t want to hear about the olden days.”

  Kate and Sara were sipping their drinks. “We’d love to hear.”

  “Everything in the house was very formal. Mom was raised in a family in Philadelphia that sat down every night to a dinner with three forks. To her, the Florida lifestyle was almost too informal to bear.”

  “And now?” Kate asked.

  “She’s adjusted well. Yesterday I had lunch at her condo and each plate had just one fork—with a bamboo handle!”

  “Downright decadent.” Kate was looking at him over her glass.

  “And what about Hamish?” Sara was on a stool beside Kate.

  Alastair shrugged. “You know what Dad was like. He was at home anywhere. Very easygoing, affable man. Everyone liked him.”

  “That’s true.” Sara was smiling in memory. “He used to visit Cal and me at our houses.”

  No one said it aloud but the thought that the man who’d grown up in the Stewart Mansion would visit the run-down houses of the Wyatts and Medlars said a lot about him.

  “He sounds nice,” Kate said.

  “And so is my mother,” Alastair said. “Except when she’s nagging me to get married and give her grandchildren. Then she’s a terror.”

  There was silence as Alastair and Kate smiled at each other over their drinks.

  Jack’s voice, so loud the birds stopped singing, broke the silence. “So how much say do you want in the remodeling? If you buy the houses, that is?”

  Alastair whirled his stool to face him. “I’d love to say none. From what I see of this place, I’d give you carte blanche. But four rich widows with empty days... Sorry, but I’m sure they’ll drive you insane. Think you can handle it?”

  “Easily,” Jack said.

  “Mind if I look at this?” Sara asked. The envelope he’d brought was on the bar.

  “Please do,” Alastair said. “I think I should warn you that Sheriff Flynn has kept my mother informed of everything he knows.” He looked at Jack. “Sorry to tell you this, but your stepmother and grandmother have practically camped out in his office. They want Roy’s name cleared. And Gena Upton has come out of the woodwork to set herself up as someone who needs 24/7 protection. She suggested Deputy Pete for the job.”

  “The hunk at the desk,” Sara said.

  “That’s the one. Anyway, once the sheriff gave us a date for the murder, it was easy to find out where I was at the time.” When Kate started to speak, he smiled. “It’s okay. It didn’t take much deduction to realize that every person in the school is a suspect. But then, everyone on the planet who was alive then remembers that weekend.”

  Kate wasn’t sure what he meant, but Sara’s and Jack’s faces were also blank. They had no idea what he was talking about.

  “The funeral of Princess Diana,” Alastair said. “I remember it clearly. The team and I were in Naples that weekend for a training boot camp. The coaches were having fun seeing how much they could put us through before we fell down dead.” He looked at Jack. “You remember those camps, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  Sara had pulled out the contents of the envelope. There were two newspaper clippings inside plastic slipcovers. Some of the players, like Alastair, were preparing for college in the fall, and they were the best from three counties. There was a banquet photo for the Friday night they were pretty sure Cheryl and her mother were murdered. The next morning Roy and Krystal had gone to the house. It was open and empty, the packed van in the driveway. It was possible that the bodies were buried just a few feet away. Had the tree been planted already?

  Sara flipped through the pages. There was a copy of the week’s schedule. It went hour by hour, from early to late. The last page was a certificate saying that Alastair