“Now that my father is gone,” Julia began, “we thought it would be safe to return here. But, after everything that has happened, we’re thinking we’ll just stay in Chicago. There are too many bad memories here.” Her voice was soft and, when she finally looked up, it was to nodding heads and sniffles from Mom.
Milo went on to tell us that Mac knew about it even all those years ago. As a new police officer, he’d gone out to the Wyatt house on domestic disturbance calls. But there was never enough evidence, and until Julia was eighteen, she would have nowhere to go, so she didn’t press charges. She just tried to stay out of trouble and avoided her dad if he’d been drinking. Milo hatched the disappearance plan after a particularly violent outburst from Julia’s father when she’d talked about going away to college.
Although they couldn’t get married because Julia didn’t want any paperwork to trigger a renewed search, they’d been living happily in Chicago. Then, Milo talked to Tish and began his quest to reveal his father’s killer.
*
After Milo and Julia left, I sent a text to Tom to see how things were progressing at the station. Rather than text back, he arrived on the doorstep ten minutes later. We had all reconvened in the kitchen, and I led Tom there to fill us all in at the same time.
Vi greeted him as he sat down at the table. “What’s the news, Tom?”
Tom shook his head. “It’s all sort of confused right now, but everyone is busy trying to compile the evidence and avoid Mac. He wants the case against Joe and Cecile to be airtight, and he wants it yesterday.”
“Have they confessed?” Mom asked.
“No, they asked for lawyers the minute we got them to the station, so a confession is unlikely. We did just get a report back on the gun Stark had with him in the woods. It’s the same gun that killed both Tish and Sara. Unfortunately, it has all sorts of fingerprints on it, including yours, Clyde.”
“They must have other evidence against him,” I said.
“Mac has a couple of people in the woods digging in the area where Joe had started. I’m not sure what he’s looking for. . . .”
“He probably thinks Joe was digging up the rifle that killed Milo’s dad.” Seth’s head was down, examining Tuffy’s cast, but he was apparently paying attention.
“What about Gary?” I asked.
“He’s off the hook. He came down last night to volunteer the information that he had been threatening Sara on her website. He wanted to scare her into selling her land to Milo so he could get the money to pay off his gambling debts.” Tom nodded thanks as my mother slid a mug of coffee in front of him.
“Poor Sara. She probably would have given him the money if she knew he needed it.” Mom pushed the cream and sugar toward Tom.
“What about Clyde’s car? Who cut her brake line?” Seth asked.
“Once we got fingerprints from the Starks, we checked them against a partial print found under the car. It matched Cecile.”
“I knew it!” Vi slammed Mac’s cane against the floor. Tom jumped. “Cecile would be mortified if anyone knew that she used to work in her dad’s garage. She could probably cut a brake line in her sleep.”
Seth and Mom nodded. Tom looked confused.
“Thanks for coming to the rescue in the woods, Tom.” I smiled at him. Seth sighed, and I imagined the accompanying eye roll.
“I wish I could say it was my idea, but Mac knew you were in danger once we saw that the Starks weren’t at home. I don’t know how he figured it out.”
“Tish had reported them back when she was a kid. No one listened to her then, but Mac must have found the report and put it together with the articles we found at Sara’s,” Seth said, and all eyes shifted to him.
“What?” Seth said.
“How did you know all that?” Tom said.
“It’s obvious, now that we know who did it.”
“Oh, this is for you.” Tom slid a folded piece of notebook paper across the table.
I opened it with shaky hands. Meet me at the bridge tomorrow. Ten a.m. Please?
“What? What is it?” Mom said, as I slipped the note into my pocket and smiled.
The rest of the day was quiet. Vi had called all my Friday clients and cancelled. Not one of them had an issue with the lack of a dog walker, but they all wanted details of the arrest in the woods. Alex and Diana stopped by to check on everyone. They said the gossip in town was that I had led the police to the killer using my psychic ability. Mom fielded phone calls and gave me pointed looks as she told people I was not open for business.
30
On Saturday morning, I waited on the bridge for Mac. The sun was bright, but the light filtered through the trees on the water below. The stream bubbled brightly under the bridge. It had been a long time since I’d felt this light and free. I realized I was happy. I was going to see Mac, and the dream that I thought predicted his injury or death had been wrong. I had been wrong. He was going to be fine.
I spotted him coming along the path. He wasn’t using his cane, since he’d given it to Vi, and seemed to be moving more easily without it. He walked up to meet me at the top of the small rounded bridge. He put out his arms and smiled. It was a smile I had seen so many times before, mostly when I was asleep.
“Hi,” he said.