Chapter 20
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Katy said. She waved a hand in the air. “All this proves is what I’ve been saying all along: This investigation is a waste of time.” She turned to Mallory and Greg. “It’s time to go.”
“I know you were at the house the night of the fire,” I said as if she hadn’t spoken.
I glanced at Mr. P., who gave me a small nod of encouragement. I reached under the footstool and pulled out an enlargement of a section of the crime scene photo that Nick had showed us earlier. Mr. P. had worked his computer magic on it and I had a fairly sharp image of Austin Pearson’s teddy bear. It was clear from the photograph that the stuffed toy had been too burned to be salvaged.
“Mallory told me that Austin wouldn’t sleep with his bear anymore because even though you’d washed it three times it didn’t smell right. She thought it was because there was some lingering smoke smell from the fire, but that wasn’t it, was it?” I said. “The bear smelled wrong because it was a different bear. It smelled new, not like smoke and not like the old one.”
“I don’t understand,” Mallory said.
I turned to look at her. “My dad died when I was five. For months I dragged around one of his sweaters the way some kids drag around an old baby blanket. Finally my mother washed it and I cried for days. It smelled wrong to me because it didn’t smell like him anymore.”
“So I bought Austin a new bear,” Katy said. “He treated it like it was a person. I didn’t want him to know it had been destroyed in the fire.”
“The night of the fire you went to the house to get that teddy bear,” I said. “Greg said that Austin cried himself to sleep. You thought he’d feel better when he woke up if it was there.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Your hair was shorter then and you wore Mike’s ball cap and a similar dark jacket. Was there a reason you didn’t want anyone to know you were there?”
Once I’d seen the burned toy in the photo everything had fallen into place. Katy was the only person who had something to gain. Katy, who was always stepping in to take care of her best friend’s children, Katy, who had lost another chance to be a mother.
“I think you got there just after Greg left,” I continued. “Gina had seen Jia Allison in the grocery store earlier in the day and she’d had that confrontation with Gavin Pace. But I think it was Greg who finally got through to her. For the first time Gina accepted that she was a drunk.”
I was guessing, speculating, but something in Katy’s eyes told me I was right.
“Judge Halloran had gotten her a place in a rehab center in Maine. She told you that in the morning she was going and this time she was going to be the mother and wife her family deserved.”
Mallory was on her feet. “What did you do to my mom?” she shouted.
Charlotte wrapped her arms around Mallory.
Katy was staring straight ahead, looking at nothing. “This was just like the other times; she wasn’t going to change,” she said. “I know she said she was, but once a drunk always a drunk.” She looked up at Mallory then. “She tried to tell me that she could see in Greg’s eyes just what she’d done to him and you and Austin. But she didn’t mean it. She was just going to let you down again.”
Tears were sliding down Mallory’s face and dripping off her chin. Greg had gotten to his feet and, like Charlotte, folded his arms around his sister.
“I was just trying to shake some sense in to her,” Katy said. “And then I don’t know how it happened but she wasn’t breathing.”
“You started the fire to cover up what you’d done. You knew that Gina had tried to hang herself a couple of days before so you figured no one would look too closely at the bruises on her neck.”
Katy looked at Mallory and Greg. “I’m sorry your father is in jail. I didn’t mean for that to happen, but it’s not for that long and I can be your mother, a better one than Gina ever was. You’re better off with her dead. You’ll see that.” She got to her feet and made a move toward Mallory, holding her arms out.
Mallory shrank against Charlotte. “You’re not my mother,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re not my mother and you never could be. Get away from me!”
Michelle came out of the kitchen then and began to read Katy her rights. It was over. I just wished it felt better.
Chapter 21
The police took Katy away.
Michelle retrieved the microphone that had been hidden beside the chair Katy had been sitting in. “Tomorrow I’m going to need everything that you have,” she said to Mr. P.
He handed her a brown envelope and a flash drive. “If you need anything else, Detective,” he said with a smile, “please let me know.”
Michelle turned to me. “I’ll talk to the prosecutor and the medical examiner first thing tomorrow. I’ll do everything I can to get Mike Pearson out of jail as fast as possible.” She looked toward the front door, shaking her head. “Do you really think she went there to kill Gina Pearson?”
I laced my fingers on top of my head. “I’m not sure. But I do know that she went out of her way to make it look like Mike was there.” I gestured at the flash drive. “Mr. P. got security footage from one of the Pearsons’ neighbors. The camera caught Katy heading for the house. She’s wearing a dark jacket and Mike Pearson’s cap.”
“Judge Halloran called me this afternoon,” she said. “Did you have anything to do with that?”
“I actually didn’t,” I said. “But I’m not surprised he got in touch with you. He’s that kind of person.”
Michelle nodded. “His influence can only help.”
I wrapped her in a hug. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Without all of you the truth might never have come out.” She smiled. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Charlotte was sitting on the sofa with Mallory and Greg. They looked shell-shocked. Rose had gone to the kitchen to make tea and hot chocolate.
As soon as I’d seen the burned teddy bear I’d realized Katy had bought a new one. Not a big deal, but why had she made a point of telling Mallory she’d washed the old one three times to get the smoke smell out? In fact, why not tell Mallory the truth about the toy? It was almost as if Katy wanted everyone to see what a good parent she could be.
Who benefitted?
The problem was all we had was a lie about a teddy bear and some footage of a person who might or might not be Katy cutting across the Pearson’s backyard. As Nick had pointed out, it wasn’t enough.
We’d needed to get Katy to confess and the only way to get her to talk to us was to let her stay while we talked to Mallory and Greg.
I went over to them now, pulled the footstool closer to the sofa and sat down. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t imagine how awful that was for both of you.”
Mallory shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize for anything,” she said. “If it wasn’t for you, Katy would have gotten away with killing our mom.”
“Do you really think this time would have been different?” Greg asked.
I knew he was referring to Gina going to rehab again. I nodded. “I do. I think that’s why Katy felt so threatened. Your mother loved you. She just ran out of time to show you.”
He nodded, swallowing hard.
Mallory flung her arms around me. Surprised, I hugged her back. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“It gets better,” I said. “I promise.”
Charlotte and Nick took Mallory and Greg back to their grandmother.