Part 25 (1/2)
Bradford clouded up for a second, but he finally said, ”I give up. You two can listen, but not a word out of either one of you, I expect your promises.”
After they both pledged their solemn oaths, Bradford looked at me, and said, ”Go ahead.”
”Do you want to hear what happened, or how I figured it out?” I asked, ”Why don't you start with your reasoning, and I'll interrupt if I have to. And Jennifer, make it as succinct as you can,”
I looked at him and said, ”Kaye Jansen killed Eliza and Bailey, then tried to kill me. Thad shot her before she could do that, though.”
He shook his head. ”I know that much.”
”You said to be brief,” I reminded him.
”Okay, then,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair. ”Let's hear the long version.”
”Kaye was cheating her father-in-law by falsifying the books and failing to ring up sales. Eliza must have caught her doing it while she was working on her fraud, and gave Kaye time to make rest.i.tution. She started stealing from the store to make up the money, and Eliza probably called her on it. Kaye killed Eliza, and for some reason she thought Bailey witnessed it. Maybe she saw him leaving, or just thought she did. I don't suppose we'll ever know. Anyway, for whatever reason, Kaye tracked Bailey down, found him at Whispering Oak, then she killed him.” I glanced over at Sara Lynn, but she looked like she was taking the news as well as could be expected. ”Kaye thought I was upstairs, so she started the fire to take care of both of us. When I confronted Kaye about the theft, she tried to kill me, then Thad stepped in.”
”But how did you know she'd been stealing?” Lillian asked, then immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.
Bradford didn't say a word, so I answered. ”She was wearing a diamond necklace when she came to ask me for money, and Kaye was always complaining about how little money she had. Then when I went by to talk to her one day, I noticed that she failed to ring up a sale, and a pretty large one, at that.”
”That wasn't much to go on,” Bradford said.