Justice for Sara Read Online Free PDF Page B

people in my position.”
    “In your position?” He thought of his dad. “You mean, acquitted of a crime the general public is convinced you committed?”
    “That’s the one.” She smiled slightly. “They also said that the type of person who writes threatening letters rarely takes it any further. The letters satisfy their aggression. If they’d wanted to physically attack me, they knew where I lived.
    “At first, I didn’t trust them and I moved. Somehow they found me. The letters started again. After the third move, I figured the cops were right and went on with my life.”
    “How did this fan keep finding you? Didn’t you change your name?”
    She shook her head.
    “Why not?”
    “My name was all I had left of my past. The good part of my past.” She met his gaze, the expression in hers defiant. “And I didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “Why’d you come back?”
    “It was time.”
    Time for what, he wondered. To set the record straight? Face her accusers. He thought of the message: Justice for Sara.
    Could that be why she was here? For justice?
    But for whom? Her or her sister?
    “Did the police warn you that this type of perpetrator often escalates their campaign of terror?”
    “Yes. But they haven’t.”
    “Until now.”
    She frowned and he turned to fully face her. She had her hands folded in her lap; he covered them with his. She looked startled, which was good. He’d wanted her full attention.
    “Kat, whoever this person is, they were in your home. They left you that bat. Why?”
    “Sara was beaten to death with a bat. One just like that.”
    He waited for the information to sink in. For her to realize that this message was unlike any that had come before it.
    Her fan had escalated his campaign of terror.
    He knew the moment the realization hit, when her hands trembled beneath his. She jerked them away and jumped to her feet. “Why’d you have to tell me that? This whole thing, coming back here to … it’s hard enough. I didn’t think I’d have to worry about this … freak.”
    He stood to face her. “I’m not trying to scare you, or make your life more difficult. But in this case, ignorance is not bliss. You need to be careful.”
    “Dammit. I’d rather be pissed.”
    “Go ahead. Just be careful while you’re at it.” He shifted his gaze to the front door, then from one window to the next. An old place like this had a lot of them. In the days before air-conditioning, folks relied on fans and a crossbreeze.
    “How’d this person get in? Your doors were locked?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “Windows?”
    She hesitated. “I can’t say positively because I haven’t had any open.”
    They checked. And found two unlatched. The first was a small window in the kitchen, above the sink. The second was in the back bath, above the old-fashioned claw-footed tub.
    “This is the window I used to sneak out of at night.”
    The tub had been rigged with a spray nozzle and circular curtain rod to create a shower. Luke pushed aside the curtain, lifted the window and peered down.
    It was a bit of a drop. Even though a single-story home, like many of the homes in Liberty, it had been built on brick pilings because of the threat of flooding.
    “Okay,” he said, nodding, “you stood on the edge of the tub and pulled yourself through. You were young.” He looked over his shoulder at her. “But how’d you get back in?”
    “I’ll show you.”
    He followed her outside and around to the back of the house. The top of a brick piling jutted out from under the house, creating a step.
    “I’d grab here”—she showed him a notched piece of siding—“use this as a step, then pull myself up and through.”
    “Who knew about this?”
    “All my friends. My boyfriend.” She lifted a shoulder. “I was pretty much a complete asshole.”
    The words were flip, but the emotion behind them heartfelt. He heard her regret in them and felt bad for her. He’d been a jerk at seventeen, too. But his parents