A Willing Murder (Medlar Mystery 1)

The reply came back almost instantly:

Yes! I’ve done a lot, but Lachlan still needs much more work. There’s a whole section of the town that’s practically a slum. I’d love to have your help. That you’re a hometown girl who has come back will mean a lot.

Tayla made Kate feel wanted and needed. And truthfully, becoming part of bringing a town back to life excited her. It was better than selling the same suburban homes over and over.

After Kate had the job offer, she asked Tayla for a favor. Would she please see that a letter got to her aunt Sara Medlar? Kate figured that sending a note through Sara’s publishing house was no guarantee that it would ever reach her. Tayla had agreed.

Kate wrote a simple letter to her aunt saying that she had a job in Lachlan and could she possibly stay with her for a few days while she got settled. She didn’t mention that she’d only recently found out Sara existed, as that might be a disparagement of her mother.

The response Kate received was enthusiastic and welcoming:

You must stay with me until you find a place of your own. There is a self-contained apartment on the side of my house and it’s yours for as long as you want it.

It had all been easy, actually. She had a job and a place to live. The only thing left was to deal with her mother. Ava Medlar’s nerves and fears, not to mention her odious older brothers, had been a big part of Kate’s twenty-three years of life.

She gathered up her courage and told her mother what she was going to do.

Ava had not reacted as Kate thought she would. To Kate’s surprise, she’d said, “That’s a good idea. You can help her. The poor thing had to give up writing because her mind couldn’t do it anymore. Not that her books ever had any literary merit, but she does need some brainpower to pump them out. And it’s good that you’ll be living with her. She has a mansion and lots of servants. You need to make sure that none of them are stealing her blind.”

Kate was shocked that her mother knew so much about the sister-in-law she’d never once mentioned. How? When? Why? All her questions were answered with variations of the fact that Sara Medlar had cut them out of her life when her brother died. It wasn’t Ava’s doing, but the aunt’s. And Ava had thought it was better to never tell her daughter about a woman who wanted nothing to do with them. “To save you more heartache,” she said.

Ava’s story was so dire that Kate began to doubt her plan to stay with her famous aunt and move to Lachlan. But by then she and Tayla were exchanging daily emails and sharing photos and telling about their daily activities. Cyber friends.

Kate told Tayla of her hesitation. Maybe it would be better if she rented an apartment and just visited her old aunt.

Tayla wrote back that she had a listing for a second-floor apartment that would be perfect for her. Coincidently, it was vacant because the young man who used to live there had just moved in with her aunt Sara. “‘She must be lonely living in that big house and Jack has always had a way with women,’” Kate said, reading the email aloud to her mother. “‘Such a personable young man! And rumor has it that Sara has started financing his business. It looks like it’s working out well for both of them.’”

When she’d finished reading, Ava had given her the “I told you so” look. Kate began to think her aunt needed her protection. Who knew all the ways this Jack character might be planning to take advantage of Sara? She would stay with her aunt.

The next day Ava helped Kate clean out her room.

Three days later, Kate was on her way. The goodbye to her mother had been tearful. It had always been just the two of them and Kate was the strong one. By necessity she’d had to cope with her mother’s bouts of depression over the loss of her husband. Kate had had to learn how to take care of herself.

“You’ll be all right?” she asked her mother as she got into her car. “You won’t let the uncles bully you?”

“I’ll be fine. You’ll email me?”

“Every day. Just look at the green message app on your phone. Check for texts from me.”

Ava, biting her lip to stave off the tears, said, “Don’t let her be nasty to you. Stand up to her. She has a horrible temper. She used to scare me half to death.”

This was the first Kate had heard of a temper. “She—?”

“And put her on a diet.” Ava shut the car door. “Two hundred pounds is too much for her. She’s not even five feet tall. If she lost weight, she might not be so bad-tempered all the time.” Ava stepped back and blew a kiss. “I love you. Have a good time.” She hurried back into the house as Kate drove away.

For the first day of the drive, Kate kept muttering, “What the hell have I done?”

Now she was almost there, and her bravado was draining. New town, new job, new home with a new relative.

What was that list of the ten most stressful events in a person’s life? She was facing at least four of them.

She paid and left the diner.

At her car, she halted. “I can do this,” she told herself. “I have a job. I even have a friend in Tayla. And I’m...” She swallowed. “I’m staying with, uh...” She took a breath. “With a senile old aunt who has a fierce temper and is living with some guy who’s conned her into buying him a business. I can do this.” She got in her car. “And if I can’t, I can run home to mommy. As a failure.”

She got back on the highway, and when the exit for Lachlan came up, she went down the ramp. But her heart was pounding so hard that she had to pull to the side of the road, lean back and try to calm herself.

It would be courteous to first go to her aunt’s house. Or rather, her mansion, as her mother called it. But when Kate put the street address into the GPS system, it said there was no such place. She had a map but it didn’t show Stewart Lane, either.