A Justified Murder (Medlar Mystery 2)

“Well, Janet said—”

“No. From the real beginning. With Gil.”

She was picking through the bags, pulling out sandwiches and salads, cheeses and crackers, fruit. She sneered at all of it. “No hot dogs? No cheese doodles?”

No one answered.

She took out a roast beef sandwich, peeled off the plastic, then leaned back against the seat. “Okay, so I guess it started with my mom. She was sick—cancer, but not too bad—and I took care of her. She had some money so I didn’t have to get a job. That suited me. It was all fine until I broke my wrist.” She was chewing, her mouth full. “It hurt like hell. You have any ketchup?”

“No.” Jack was glaring at her.

“So Mom shared her pain pills with me, and it felt so good to not hurt that she bought me some more pills. She got them from a guy that lived downstairs. He and I were a couple for a while but it didn’t work out. He still wanted me to pay for the pills. Can you imagine?” She took a bite. “So one night I met Gil at a bar. You’re his friend, right?”

Jack nodded, but didn’t speak.

“I’d had a few drinks—they made the pain pills work better—and this big guy asked me to dance. He was just so clean and he smelled so good. Well, we ended up back at his motel. I guess we never would have seen each other again, but the next morning he drove me home in his truck. I picked up a bill off the seat. It was for wood for fifteen grand so I knew he was rich. I got him to give me his email address.”

“It wasn’t his bill.” Jack’s jaw was clenched shut. “It was for my company.”

“Oh?” She looked at Kate. “You’re smart to go after him. All that money!”

“I don’t—” Kate decided not to put herself on the defensive. She waited for Zelly to go on.

“Six weeks later I was throwing up. I was preggers. I thought I’d go to a clinic and you know, have it out, but Mom said she really wanted a grandbaby and we could raise it together. By that time her cancer was...” She looked at Kate to supply the word.

“In remission.”

“That’s right. You a doctor?”

“No. What happened?”

Zelly looked annoyed. “My mom made me eat foods I don’t like. She loved green. Anything green and she made me eat it. And no pills of any kind. She even flushed the Tylenol. And I’m not sure but I think maybe she was the one who called the police on the guy downstairs. He didn’t come back.”

“I like your mother,” Kate said.

For a moment, Zelly turned away to look out at the water. “Yeah, me too,” she said, then looked back at them. “I had the baby. He was...” She waved her hand. “Needy. Every minute of every day he needed something. Then my mom got sick again and...and...”

“So you contacted Gil,” Jack said.

“Mom did. She said the baby deserved better than the two of us. She asked me about the father and I told her about Gil, how clean he was and all that. Mom was afraid he was like Joe downstairs, but I told her he wasn’t.”

“And Gil came right away.”

“Yeah, he did.” Zelly shook her head in wonder. “He took one look at that baby and wouldn’t put him down. Even when the kid smelled bad, he still held him.”

“What about the money?” There was anger in Jack’s voice.

“Well... Everything costs a lot now.”

Kate spoke before Jack could. She could see his anger rising. “Gil had a DNA test done, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. He and Mom did all that. They talked about money and she wouldn’t let Gil take the baby with him to his motel. Gil kept saying no to the money but when the test came back and he saw that he was the father, he...” Zelly shrugged.

“Gil gave you every penny he had in his savings, sold the stocks in his retirement plan, and later put a second mortgage on his house. He sent you that money too.”

Zelly was unperturbed by the anger of Jack’s tone. “Gil got what he wanted so he was happy.”

“Were there any papers signed? A lawyer involved?” Jack asked.