No Escape Claws

Chapter 16

I hated the idea that Jia Allison could be responsible for Gina Pearson’s death. I should have gone and talked to her, one-on-one, I realized. Until I did, I didn’t feel I could share my suspicions with anyone.

Rose and Charlotte had already gone into the shop. I put my arm around Liz’s shoulders. “How about a cup of tea?”

“That does sound good,” she said. She glanced over her shoulder. “I can’t believe that child actually thought she could get away with pretending to be her mother.”

“I’m not excusing what she did,” I said. “But you have to admit she was pretty creative.”

“I don’t have to admit anything,” Liz said, but a hint of a smile played on her lips.

I made the tea. Elvis watched me, whiskers twitching when I found one lone oatmeal cookie in the can on the counter. I broke off a tiny piece and fed it to him. “You are so spoiled,” I told him, giving the top of his head a scratch.

“Mrr,” he said. It seemed he didn’t care.

Mallory Pearson was in the shop talking to Liz when I went back downstairs. Katy was with her. I walked over to them. It turned out that Greg had texted his sister to tell her he was helping Avery with her “punishment.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. French,” she was saying. “This is my fault.”

“No, it isn’t,” Katy said. She looked at Liz. “It’s your fault. Please just stop this. I know you mean well but you’re just making things worse, not better, for Mallory and her brothers.”

Mallory put a hand on the woman’s arm. “Thank you for the ride over here,” she said. “You can go now. I can handle this.”

“We can just get your brother and leave,” Katy said. “You don’t have to stay here.”

Mallory forced a smile. She put her arms around Katy and gave her a hug. “Thank you for caring. But everything’s okay. Go home. I’ll call you later.”

She was very mature for her age, probably because life had forced her to be.

Katy looked from Mallory to Liz. “If you need me, you call me.”

Mallory nodded. “I promise.” She kept the smile on her face until Katy was gone then she turned to Liz. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “Katy just doesn’t know when to let go.”

“Gina was her best friend,” I said. “It’s understandable that she’d worry about you and your brothers.”

She gave me a wry smile. “She drives Greg crazy, but I kind of feel sad for her.” She played with a strand of hair, twisting it around one finger. “A couple of months before the fire Katy was set to adopt a baby and it didn’t happen because the birth mother changed her mind.”

“That had to be very painful,” Liz said.

Mallory nodded. “The night of the fire, the night Dad took us to her house, I slept in the living room because the baby’s room was, well, still the baby’s room with a crib and everything.”

Katy’s overprotectiveness toward her best friend’s children made a little more sense now.

Mallory looked at Liz. “Would it be all right if I talked to Greg for a sec?” she asked.

“Of course,” Liz said.

“They’re out in the garage,” Charlotte said. She put an arm around Mallory’s shoulders. “I’ll show you.”

“I’ll come with you,” I said. I looked at Liz. “Go get some hot for your cup. I’ll be right back.”

Greg was moving things and Avery was wielding the shop vac when we got to the garage work space.

“They’re doing a good job,” I whispered to Charlotte. “This space hasn’t been this clean in I don’t know how long.”

Avery caught sight of us and turned off the vacuum. She tapped Greg on the arm and he turned around. Mallory walked over to her brother. She hugged him and then smacked his arm. “What the heck were you thinking?” she asked. “Were you trying to get suspended?” She gestured at Avery. “Were you trying to get her suspended?”

“They don’t suspend people at our school,” Avery said.

Charlotte shook her head.

“Not helping,” I said quietly.

Avery stared at her feet. “Fine,” she muttered.

“I was doing the same thing you are,” Greg said defiantly. “Trying to get Dad out of jail. Avery and I talked to most of the people at our end of the street and no one else saw Dad when the fire started, which means that judge guy is wrong. Why did they listen to him anyway?”

“He’s a good witness,” I said. “He’s careful, not impulsive. He knew your dad as a neighbor. He even recognized your father’s ball cap.” I didn’t say that I was starting to think that maybe someone had gone to a lot of effort to make Neill Halloran think he’d seen Mike Pearson.

Greg shoved his hair back out of his eyes. “Yeah, well, he isn’t always careful. About a week before . . . before the fire, he had his barbecue going in the snow and then forgot about it. He almost set his house on fire.”

Mallory wasn’t following the conversation, I realized. She was eyeing me, a frown knotting her forehead. “So the judge said Dad was wearing his ball cap?” she said slowly, like she was testing each word.

I nodded.

“Which one? Do you know?”

“The baseball cap from the Melbourne Olympics.”

“The blue and red one?” A smile was starting to spread across her face and she slowly shook her head. “He’s wrong,” she said. “He didn’t see Dad.” She grabbed Charlotte’s arm. “Mrs. Elliot, the judge didn’t see Dad. He’s wrong. He has to be.” She looked at us, the smile lighting up her face.

“Hang on a minute,” Charlotte said. “What makes you so sure?” She looked at me over Mallory’s head, a frown creasing her forehead.

“I know because I was wearing that hat,” Mallory said. She looked at her brother. “Greg, do you remember?”

I saw his expression change and his face light up as the memory came back. “Yeah. Dad was mad because you were washing your hair instead of getting ready to go. I would have given you my hat but Mom had taken it.”

Mallory nodded. “And my hair was still wet and then when we got outside it was cold and he put his hat on my head in the car on the way to Katy’s.” Her words were falling over one another. She turned back to Charlotte. “You see? This proves the judge is wrong. We can go to the police. We can get Dad out of jail!”

I could almost feel the excitement coming off of her.

“It’s not that simple,” Charlotte said.

Mallory looked confused. “What do you mean? I remember what happened and so does Greg. That’s two against one. They can’t keep Dad in jail now.”

“But you two are his children. It’s not the same as two strangers contradicting what Judge Halloran says he saw.”

“We’re not lying!” Greg said, a stubborn jut to his chin.

“We know that,” I said. “But the police, the prosecutor, they’ll say you two have more of a reason to lie than the judge does.”

“That bites!” Avery exclaimed.

I nodded. “Yes, it does.”

Mallory crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay fine,” she said. “I’ll just go talk to Judge Halloran myself. I’ll tell him he’s wrong. I’ll tell him about the hat and he can just go to the police and take back what he said.” She looked at the door and I realized she intended to go over there right now and confront the judge. From what I’d seen he was a kind man and I believed he’d listen to Mallory and treat her with respect, but he’d been a judge for a long time. He knew people would do or say anything to protect the people they loved and in the end I felt sure he’d dismiss Mallory’s story.

The thing was, I believed her. “I’ll go,” I said.

Mallory shook her head. “I’m not a child,” she said. “You don’t have to go with me and hold my hand or anything.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” I said. “Let me go talk to Judge Halloran by myself.” I held up both hands to hopefully hold off her objections. I saw Greg make a face and Avery roll her eyes. “I believe you. I think if this were some kind of made-up story to get your dad out of prison you would have used it months ago.”

“So that’s something, right?” Avery said.

I rubbed my neck with one hand. “It is. But just for a minute, think about how many people must have stood in front of the judge, sworn to tell the truth and then lied. Not because they’re bad people, but because someone they loved was in trouble and they didn’t know what else to do.”

“But that’s not fair,” Greg said. “We’re not lying.”

“No it isn’t,” Charlotte said. “But sometimes that’s how life works. I’m with Sarah. I believe you. But everyone else is going to be harder to convince. Fair or not, that’s the way it is. Let Sarah go talk to the judge and make your case. If she doesn’t get anywhere, then you go. We won’t try to stop you.”

Mallory was looking past us toward the open door. I was pretty sure she was chewing the inside of her lip.

“I know this has nothing to do with me, but let Sarah go talk to that judge guy,” Avery said. She was still holding on to the vacuum cleaner hose, her other arm folded over her midsection. Her head was tilted to one side. “She’s really good at talking to people, even when they don’t want to listen. I’ve seen her do it. It’s like her superpower.”

I looked at Mallory.

“All right,” she said. “But if he won’t take it back—”

“__then I’ll call my friend who is a police detective and you can tell her what you just told us.”

“Okay,” she said.

I looked at Charlotte. “We can handle things here,” she said.

I went back inside, told Rose and Liz where I was going and promised Charlotte would fill in the blanks. I went upstairs and grabbed my purse and keys. When I came down Liz was waiting at the bottom of the steps.

She raised an eyebrow. “Need a sidekick, Warrior Princess?” she asked.

I had once gone with Liz to confront businessman Daniel Swift at his office, which ironically had been located in the same building as Judge Halloran’s law office. She’d been fierce that day and I’d nicknamed her Xena after the heroine of the campy ’90s TV show. This time it seemed I was the Warrior Princess.

Xena had Gabrielle. I had Liz.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We took my SUV. “Do you mind if I make a quick stop at Glenn’s for a cup of coffee?” I asked. “I never did get one when we got back from Rockport.”

“It’s fine with me,” Liz said. “And it’s probably better that we don’t go see the judge when you’re down half a quart of caffeine.”

“Charlotte told you what happened?” I asked, slowing down for the stop sign ahead.

“She did.”

From the corner of my eye I could see that she was eyeing me. “You don’t think those two are stretching the truth just to get their father out of jail?”

I shook my head. “No. I think if they were, well, lying, they would have done it a lot sooner.”

“The same thing occurred to me,” Liz said.

I shot a quick sideways glance at her. “If you’d seen Mallory’s face when she thought she had a way to get her father out of jail . . . I don’t think she was acting.”

We drove in silence for a couple of minutes. Even though I’d decided to keep my suspicions to myself for the time being about Mike having been set up, I was having second thoughts. “I need your opinion on something,” I said.

“That’s what a sidekick is for.”

I suddenly remembered what Gram had said about Rose wanting to find the perfect table at Sam’s when I was teasing her about how we’d all conspired to get her and John together. She wanted to make sure John saw us.

“I think it’s possible that someone set Mike up, wore the same ball cap as he did and made sure to be seen by Judge Halloran.”

“I thought that might be what was in your mind when you asked what he looked like,” she said. “The problem is, young Mr. Pace was sleeping it off in a jail cell, Ben Allison was with his daughter and a dozen other witnesses and Molly Pace wasn’t even in town.”

I blew out a breath.

“You have someone in mind,” Liz said. “Don’t you?”

“Ben Allison has an alibi. His wife doesn’t.”

I glanced at Liz again.

She was nodding her head. “It makes sense. Gina Pearson almost killed that child.”

“Jia Allison keeps all her anger in here,” I said, tapping the middle of my chest with a loose fist. “When it gets out I think she could be capable of anything.”

“So what are you going to do?” Liz asked.

I pulled to the curb in front of McNamara’s. “For now I’m going to see if I can float the possibility to Judge Halloran that the person he saw wasn’t Mike Pearson. After that I need to talk to Jia Allison.”

Glenn was at the counter when we stepped inside the little bakery and sandwich shop. “Perfect timing,” he said with a smile. “I have two lemon tarts left.”

“I actually came for coffee,” I said. “Large, please.”

Liz put a hand on my arm. “Let’s not be hasty,” she said. “Glenn will think we don’t like his lemon tarts. Do you want to hurt his feelings?”

“Yeah,” Glenn said. “Do you want to hurt my feelings?”

“Fine,” I said. “One large coffee and two lemon tarts.” I looked at Liz. “Would you like anything?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Glenn nestled the two tarts in a small cardboard box. “Sarah, I keep meaning to say thank you for taking on Clayton’s place. It’s a hell of a lot more livable since you cleared it out and sold all that stuff.”

“Clayton was easy to work with,” I said. “We have a few more things left on consignment—a lamp, a couple of chairs and some dishes. They should sell once the leaf peepers show up.”

Glenn smiled. “Most of those dishes belonged to Mary.”

“Clayton’s wife,” Liz said.

He nodded. “Beth took a few pieces for sentimental reasons, but it’s just not her taste. I’m glad things will at least be with people who appreciate them.”

Beth was Glenn’s cousin, Clayton’s only daughter. She didn’t live in North Harbor.

“She had a good eye for things,” I said.

“Mary could set a table so it looked like something from a magazine,” Glenn said. “And cook a meal to match.” He shook his head. “It was so cruel. When her mind went, the first thing she forgot how to do was cook. She’d get out all the ingredients for a cake and not know what to do with them.”

“She had dementia?”

He nodded. “I’d go to see her and she’d call me Clayton. That was one of the first things we noticed. She kept mixing people up.” He handed me my coffee. I paid for it and the lemon tarts and we left.

We got back in the SUV and I set my coffee in the cup holder after taking a long drink. I looked at Liz. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked.

She nodded. “I am.” She looked sad.

“So what do we do?”

“What we set out to do. Get some answers.”

I thought about something else Gram had said at dinner: You can’t get the right answers if you don’t ask the right questions.