A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery 2)

“As I said, I just glanced at it. Very quickly. I didn’t see her very well,” Chet said softly.

Kate said, “If she’d just lost a baby and that had driven her to kidnapping, I’d say that at that moment she wasn’t in her right mind.”

Sara said, “Okay, so you realized you may have seen the kidnapper. What did you do next?”

“I got a sketch artist to draw a picture for me. I lied, said it was for another case.” He got up, went into the dining room, and opened a box. When he returned, he held out a drawing. It did indeed look like a Renaissance painting. The head was too long, too perfect. No one looked like that in real life.

“It’s a bit fanciful, I know, but that’s how I remember her,” Chet said.

“You’re right.” Sara was looking at the drawing. “No one looks like this. You didn’t see anything identifiable?”

Chet took his time answering. “She had a heart-shaped birthmark very low on her left breast.”

“You can identify her!” Kate said.

“So who do we arrest? Women with faces like an angel and a heart-shaped birthmark in a place that isn’t exposed in public? That lineup would draw most of the squad in to look.”

They took a while to imagine that. No, it wouldn’t have worked.

Kate changed the subject. “Okay, so let’s look at the facts. Janet Beeson had a bootie that was part of an old kidnapping.”

“A very brief, long-ago kidnapping,” Sara said.

“Right,” Chet said. “The statute

s on it ran out years ago.”

“That means there’s no danger to the person who did it?” Kate asked.

“Maybe not jail time but morally...” Sara said.

“Yeah,” Chet said. “Morals and misery. If Gage reveals who did it, her life is over. She’d have to move to Timbuktu to keep the press off her door.”

Sara smiled at Chet. “I’ve been there.”

“Have you? I’d love to see the world. I’ve been to London and that’s all.”

“I’ve been—”

“Excuse me!” Jack said loudly. “We’re trying to solve a murder. You two can visit the Outer Hebrides later.”

“I’ve been there too,” Sara said. “It’s—” She cut off at Jack’s look. “So where did someone as bland as Janet Beeson get a baby’s slipper that was part of a kidnapping?” She glanced at Kate’s disapproving expression. “Really! The woman was a bully’s delight. Picked on by everyone. Humiliated when she was noticed, but mostly ignored.”

“Poor woman,” Kate said.

“She sounds like the perfect serial killer profile,” Chet said.

“Only she was killed, not the other way around,” Kate retorted.

“Darn!” Chet said. “And here I thought I’d solved the case.”

Even Kate smiled at his joke.

Jack spoke up. “My guess is that she found out something she shouldn’t have and stupidly opened her mouth. Probably told the people involved that they should ‘do the right thing.’”

“How’d she find out what she shouldn’t have?” Chet asked. “I didn’t have time to do a search of her recent life. Did she have a job in Lachlan?”

“Church secretary,” Sara said.