No Escape Claws

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.