“So do I,” Noreen growled at him.
“I think you need to exhume him,” Kate said. All of them stopped and stared at her.
“You didn’t by chance get any info out of her, did you?” the sheriff asked.
“Lots,” Kate said. “A huge, enormous amount.”
“She’s a liar,
” Mrs. Stewart said. “Just like her aunt, she makes up stories that have no basis in reality.” She sneered at Kate. “You aren’t at all like your father.”
Sara put her arm around Kate’s shoulders. “I guess you mean all the parties Randal went to at your house. I don’t know for sure, but you better have a jeweler check your diamonds. My brother probably switched them for glass.”
Jack and Kate and Mrs. Stewart looked at Sara in disbelief but Sheriff Flynn laughed. “I sure do miss that man.”
Chuckling, he gave Mrs. Stewart a shove in her lower back and pushed her toward the door. In the distance they could hear a siren.
“Isn’t he worried about charges of police brutality?” Kate asked. “Treating a wounded, alleged criminal like that?”
“She isn’t really hurt,” Sara said. “That’s why he gave the rifle to Jack.”
Jack gave a modest shrug. “I do tend to hit where I aim. You ready to go home?”
“Yes, I am.” Kate’s adrenaline was waning and she could feel the shakes coming on. “I just...” She nodded toward the bathroom.
She was out in a few minutes and there was an EMT waiting for her.
“I need to test your vitals,” he said.
“I don’t want to stay in a hospital.”
“And we don’t want to make you.” He was a very nice-looking young man.
“I saved you,” Jack said, “but you’re flirting with him?”
The EMT stepped back. “Sorry, Jack, I didn’t know—”
“Could you act like a grown-up for even one minute?” Kate said as she went to the door, Jack right behind her.
“Old enough to shoot my way in and save your ungrateful neck. And I was the one who saw that your car was parked on the street but you were nowhere to be seen.”
“You were stalking me?”
They left the cabin and went down the stairs together. Jack helped Kate because she was still wobbling from her ordeal and she helped him with his crutches and cast. They bickered all the way down.
“Wow,” the EMT said. “They’re...”
“Yes,” Sara said. “They are.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Hi.” Jack sat down on the side of Kate’s bed and held out a plate piled high with blueberry pancakes oozing butter and maple syrup.
She was still mostly asleep. “I can’t eat—”
He put a bite in her mouth.
“Just this once.” She sat up and took the plate from him.