Justice for Sara by Erica Spindler Read Free Book Online

wouldn’t give it her.
    The bat had belonged to Kat. Four days before the murder, Sara had discovered her sister had been lying to her about going to softball practice. She had confronted Kat and grounded her, which had led to a shouting match on Sara’s front porch.
    Four days later, Sara was dead. Beaten to death with the softball bat.
    But that was all they’d had. No bloody fingerprints. No bloody tracks leading from the home. No blood-spattered clothes. No DNA evidence on the bat. And Luminol tests on all but the kitchen sink had been negative. If Kat had been covered in blood, she hadn’t showered it off at the scene.
    Luke sat back. Circumstantial. All of it. Weak. In his opinion, if the jury had found her guilty, it would have been a huge miscarriage of justice.
    Yet everyone in this town, including his dad, thought she’d gotten away with murder. They’d been so convinced, they never pursued other suspects. Why?
    He frowned, remembering something she’d said. She’d used the bathroom window to sneak out to meet her boyfriend. But no boyfriend was mentioned anywhere in the case notes.
    “You look like hell.”
    He glanced up. His father stood in the doorway, using a cane for support. “Like father, like son.”
    He snorted and made his way into the office. He lowered himself into a chair, bushy eyebrows drawn into a scowl. He gestured the cluttered desktop. “What’re you up to?”
    “Familiarizing myself with the McCall case.”
    “I heard you were over there last night.”
    “Did you?” Luke folded his hands on the desk in front of him. “How, Pops?”
    He bristled. “You think I’m so old and sick I don’t have eyes and ears anymore? That I don’t have friends anymore?”
    Why wouldn’t he give him a straight answer?
    The anonymous call. There’s trouble over at the McCall place .
    “I’m worried about you, boy.”
    “Me,” Luke said, surprised. “Why?”
    “You’re my son. The only one I have left.”
    Several emotions hit Luke at once, anger the strongest of them. He struggled to keep it leashed. “Really, Pops? You’re going to pull out the ‘only son I have left’ card? Already?”
    “You could at least listen to what I have to say.”
    “Fine. I’m listening.”
    “Don’t get sucked into her stories. She’s a liar.” His motioned the paperwork strewn across the desk. “Read the transcripts.”
    “I have.”
    “Then you saw how many times she changed her story.”
    “Katherine McCall was seventeen years old,” Luke said, indicating the information spread out on the desk between them. “And, I imagine, pretty damn traumatized.”
    His dad made a sound of disgust. “I should have known you’d take the opposite stance from mine. You always do.”
    Luke narrowed his eyes. “Nobody can have a different opinion, right, Dad?”
    “I don’t have to take this crap.” He got up, his gruff words belied by the way he struggled to gain his footing. “If I wanted someone chewing on my ear, I’d have stayed home with your mother.”
    “This isn’t about you.”
    “To hell with this.” He started for the door.
    “Why didn’t you interview her boyfriend?” Luke called.
    His old man stopped. Turned. “She didn’t have one.”
    “That’s not what she told me. She used to sneak out of the house to meet him.”
    “Or so she told you. She changed her version of what happened the night of the murder four times!”
    “The notes here say three times.” He paused. “I’m reopening the case.”
    The words flew out of his mouth, surprising him. Until that very moment, he hadn’t realized that’s what he intended to do. “In fact, I’m reopening both of them.”
    With his free hand, his dad grabbed the doorjamb for support. “How could you do this to me?”
    “Do to you, Dad? You should be pleased. McCall was Liberty’s only unsolved murder. And Wally Clark was one of your men.”
    “I know who Wally was and what a black mark McCall was against me. I don’t need