The chubby girl pulled her off just as May spotted a teacher charging toward them.
“All right, in the principal’s office. Now!” the teacher yelled. “All three of you!”
Sherilynn got to her feet, holding her side with one hand and her face with the other. “She started it!”
“Yeah, she hit me first,” the chubby girl said.
“Is that true?” the teacher asked.
“Yeah. They were calling me names! I’m not a whore!”
“You’re just like your slutty mother,” Sherilynn said.
May lunged for her again.
The teacher stepped in her way, though, so all May could do was glare at the girl around her shoulder. “Wait ’til after school. I’ll finish you off.”
“May Masterson.” The teacher grabbed both her shoulders. “You will stop this right now!”
“Make them stop. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Fighting isn’t the answer.”
“Her mom fought all the time,” the chubby girl said snidely.
“How would you know, you weren’t here,” May retorted.
“No, but my mom was. She told me everything.”
“My mom isn’t like that anymore. You need to mind your own damn business.”
“May, you don’t swear in this school.”
She zeroed in on the teacher’s gaze. “Tell them to back off then.”
“Why don’t you tell the principal to do that.” Moving one of her hands to May’s elbow, she held tight and walked her down the hall, saying over her shoulder, “You girls are coming, too. Follow me.”
Three days after seeing Lily, Wes walked into the West End Café in Deer Lodge, Montana. He’d searched for Karla Harrison, the victims’ officer who’d come out of the prison after Lily had wrecked his SUV and had finally gotten hold of her. Once he told her who he was, she’d agreed to meet him here. She remembered him, but more importantly, she remembered Lily. He could tell she genuinely cared about her and was sure that was the only reason she was meeting him.
A few other tables were filled and talking joined the sound of dishes clanking and workers busy in the kitchen. The wood tables and chairs were scratched with age and the blue linoleum floor needed updating, and he was sure some women liked the lacy white valances above the front windows but he thought they could go with the floor.
The entry door opened and Karla walked into the small café. When he’d called her he’d asked if she’d meet him here rather than the prison. He didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing, least of all Lily.
When she saw him, recognition showed on her face and she headed for his table.
“Sheriff Colton?” she asked.
He stood and took her hand in a shake. “Thanks for meeting me.”
She sat down. “I have to admit, you have me curious. You didn’t really say why you wanted to talk about Lily.”
He sat across from her. “She’s grown important to me since the accident.”
Karla smiled softly. “I could tell there was something going on there.” Then she sobered. “She seemed like such a strong woman when I first met her. I thought she’d do all right going to that parole hearing all by herself, but I could tell it was hard on her afterward.”
There it was, the missing piece. “What parole hearing?”
“Oh…I thought you knew.” Her expression turned worried. The waitress came and he ordered coffee. So did Karla, but in an absentminded way.
“Lily told me she went to the prison to see a friend,” he reminded her when the waitress left.
“Oh,” Karla hedged. “Yes, I remember.”
“I could tell that wasn’t the truth.”
“I see.” She poured sugar into her coffee and stirred. “I thought she’d have told you by now.”
“She hasn’t. I think it’s too difficult for her. I was hoping you could tell me the real reason she was there.”
Stopping her spoon, Karla stared at him, her hesitance etched over her expression. “I’m not sure how much I should tell you. What if she doesn’t want me to?”
“Like I said, she’s grown important to me. I want to help if I can.”
Slowly Karla’s expression smoothed. “That’s very kind of you, Sheriff.”
“If you aren’t comfortable talking to me, you can give me the name of the inmate case manager.”
He watched her process that. He was a sheriff. He had his ways of finding out what he needed with or without her help. Now that he knew Lily had gone to a parole hearing, and what day, he wouldn’t have much trouble tracking down the case manager.
“No, no need for that. Lily’s one of those special victims to me. A real fighter when all’s said and done. I care about what happens to her, and I would love to know that she’s happy. You want to know why she was there that day? She testified at Brandon Gates’s parole hearing. She was the only victim who had the nerve to come forward out of all those women who testified at his trial.”
Wes didn’t like where this was heading. Out of all those women…
“Who is Brandon Gates? What was he in for?” he asked, fearing he already knew.
“Sexual assault.”
“He raped her?” He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised, as wary as Lily was around him, and as reluctant as she was to go out with him. Being with men had to be hard for her. Trusting them even harder.
Karla nodded. “It’s so sad working with some of those women. And then the ones who seem so strong come along, like Lily, and you think they’ll be all right, but…”
“When did that happen?” His mind raced to catch up. She’d left the area so long ago.
“Fifteen years ago, I think.”
He could only stare at Karla. No wonder Lily had run into him with her truck. It must have killed her going to that hearing and having to face the man who’d hurt her so seriously so long ago. Surely she hadn’t seen him since the trial. It must have brought it all back.
I was just visiting a friend, she’d said. That meant she didn’t want anyone to know why she’d gone to the prison. It also meant she was ashamed of it. Why?
May was fourteen. He inwardly cursed. What she must have gone through if a rapist had fathered her child…
“You care about her.”
His focus returned to Karla, but he decided not to answer her. “Was he released?”
Her eyes grew sad. “Yes.”
It explained so much. “Where is he now?”
“He has family in North Carolina. One of the guards told me he was going to live there and stay with his brother. Apparently, his father has a remodeling company.”
He nodded. Good. He was far away from here.
The waitress came to refill the coffee and he sipped.
“What happened?” It was a question he didn’t want to ask, but had to. He needed to know. If he wanted to see Lily, he had to know what he was dealing with. She might be the first genuine woman he’d met in a long time. What kind of cruel irony would it be to discover she couldn’t get past her tragic experience?
“She was out drinking with a friend one night. The friend went home with someone, a man. Brandon Gates abducted Lily in the parking lot and drove her to a remote cabin, and…”
He was glad she didn’t elaborate. “How did she get away?”
“Late that night, she got free of the rope he used to tie her and left him sleeping. She hiked ten miles down the mountain to a main road and got help.”
It took real grit to do something like that. Hike in the dark after being raped. Survival instinct had to have taken over, but not many women would be able to do something like that. She must have had experience in the back country before. Probably followed a stream or found her direction with the moon or stars. Given all the stories he’d heard about her adventurous escapades, he wasn’t the least surprised.
Maybe he did have a shot with her after all. She was certainly brave enough.
“You’d be good for her.”
Wes emerged from thought to look at Karla. He appreciated her concern for Lily and her devotion to her job, but this was getting too personal.
“You being sheriff and all,” Karla went on. “She’d feel safe with a man like you.”
As corny as that sounded, he had to agree.
Lily walked into the main office of the high school and went to the counter where a woman waited.
“Are you May’s mother?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t believe this. She was so angry she could spit.
“Right this way.”
Lily followed the woman down a short hall just past the counter and entered the principal’s office. The short-haired blonde woman in her fifties behind the desk looked up at her with obvious disdain. May sat in a chair in front of the desk. She looked sullen, causing Lily to check her anger.
The principal didn’t smile. “Have a seat.”
Lily sat in the chair next to May.
“They started it,” May said right off the bat.
Lily pointed at her. “You be quiet.” Then to the principal, “What happened?”
“Your daughter got into a fight with two other girls over a boy.”
“That isn’t true!”
Lily snapped a look at her daughter. May saw it and pursed her lips before looking away.
“They argued. May hit a girl named Brit Andrews first and they started to fight. Sherilynn McTeague tried to stop her but May hit her, too. Broke Brit’s nose. Her mother is contemplating pressing charges.”
“They called me a ho,” May cut in.
Lily sent her daughter a warning look before turning back to the principal. “Is that true? Did they call her names?”
“They claim they didn’t.”
“That is a stinking lie!” May shouted.
“May?”
May sulked, her mouth downturned and her gaze dropping to the principal’s desk.
Lily turned back to the principal. “So you’ve questioned the other girls?” It was all she could do not to get in the woman’s face. But she didn’t want to exacerbate May’s situation and start another round of gossip about how her daughter was following her mother’s footsteps.
“Yes.”
“And what disciplinary action have you taken with them?”
“She let them go,” May snarled, eyes on fire again.
“I suspended them,” the principal corrected, eyeing May with impatience.
“As if that’s going to stop them,” May sneered.
Lily ignored her daughter’s outbursts. At least the other girls were being reprimanded. But May had thrown the first punch. What kind of punishment did the principal have in mind and how much of it would be influenced by Lily’s reputation?
She looked down at her daughter. “How many times have I told you not to get violent?”
“What am I supposed to do? Let them call me names and taunt me? No! I’m not going to anymore.” She’d leaned over the arm of her chair, putting her face defiantly closer to Lily’s.
Lily saw May’s passion and decided to table the argument for now. She didn’t really blame May for being upset, but she had to learn to do things the right way.
She turned to the principal. “I’m really sorry about this. I’ll discipline her myself.”
“I’m considering expulsion.”
Lily lowered her head, feeling rage and disappointment. She wanted to tear into this biased woman for not understanding what prompted May to fight back. And she wished May would have shown more decorum. The worst part was that Lily could relate to her daughter’s predicament. The familiarity stung. She’d been in this type of situation so many times. She’d deserved her punishments, and May was in danger of following the same path.
She slid her gaze to her daughter, who met it with another flash of defiance, but that quickly turned to contrition, as if she’d seen how this was affecting her mother.
Lily looked at the principal. “I’m asking you to give us one more chance. Just one. I’ll work with May. She’s having a hard time adjusting, that’s all. This won’t happen again.”
“It will if they keep getting in my face about the way you were when you lived here before!” May retorted. “They think I’m the same way. I’m sick of taking it.”
“We’ve talked about this.”
“They’re mean to me!”
Lily turned back to the principal. “Please.”
The woman met her eyes for a while and Lily could see her seriously considering what to do. Here the woman was, staring the town Jezebel in the face, thinking she was raising another one, and thinking she should come down hard enough so that it made a solid enough impression on May that she wouldn’t do this again.
“May is nothing like I was when I went to school here, and after,” Lily said. “She knows better. She’ll come around. Please give us another chance. All I’m asking for is one. If she does it again, I’ll expel her myself.”
The principal’s eyes blinked but Lily saw how they softened. She waited.
“All right,” she finally said. “One more chance. I gave the other girls a week of suspension. May will have the same.”
Lily sighed and sank back against her chair.
“That is so unfair,” May said.
“You can go now,” the principal said.
May stood up with all the attitude of a slighted teenager and marched out the door ahead of Lily.
Lily followed more slowly, reaching her truck after May, who now stood at the passenger door with her arms folded, glaring at her mother. Lily felt worry slither through her.
Oh, God. What would she do if her daughter rebelled to the extent she had? She’d been so careful to raise her with an open mind, not the way her parents had raised her. Had she miscalculated somehow?
She climbed into the truck and waited before starting the engine.
“You don’t get it.”
Lily took in her daughter’s fiery blue eyes. She had to get through to her somehow. “May, do you realize you’re acting exactly the way the other kids expect you to?”
That only seemed to inflame her further. “What did you do when you went to school? When everyone called you names, what did you do?”
“I fought and got suspended. More than once.”
“See?”
“See what? The answer to this isn’t fighting. It didn’t do me any good getting into fights and it didn’t stop the talk. If anything, it made it worse.”
“I’m not going to end up like you, but I can’t let those girls walk all over me, either. They won’t stop unless I make them.”
“May…”
“You want me to be a wimp.”
“No, I don’t. I want you to be mature. You can’t make anyone think the way you want them to. They’ll form their own opinions no matter how many times you punch them in the nose.”
“See? You don’t get it.”
Lily sighed, struggling to come up with something to say that would reach her.
“I’m not going to sleep around and go wild like everybody says you did,” May said.
“No, but you’re going to slug your way through high school and end up with a bad reputation anyway.”
“I already have a bad reputation. Just being your daughter does that.”
Lily had to catch her breath. That hurt so much. She’d worried coming back here would stir up talk, but she’d hoped it would fade as soon as they saw her working at the library and not going out to the bars and out with lots of men or on wild adventure trips.
She started the engine and began driving.
“I’m sorry.”
Surprise made her glance at May, who met her brief look with the apology still in her eyes. It touched Lily. Maybe there was hope after all.
“I know you aren’t like that anymore.”
“Promise me you won’t get into any more fights. If for nothing else, at least to prevent an expulsion.”
May turned her face toward the window as Lily drove toward home.
/>
“May?”
She looked at her but didn’t say anything.
“I won’t tolerate your being expelled from school. Do you understand that?”
“Yes.”
“Then no more fights.”
“Okay.”
“Okay” wasn’t a promise, but that was all she’d get for now. Lily knew her daughter. She just hoped May would have the good sense to listen to her.
Chapter 4
Wes left his office after talking on the phone with the new FBI agent assigned to their money-laundering investigation. The agent worked remotely and had an informant somewhere in town. Wes had tried to get him to say who that was, but he’d made a song and dance about needing to protect his informant. Wes was the sheriff. Did the agent really think he’d jeopardize the investigation? The agent was keeping the informant secret for a reason. Safety was one thing, but there was more to it than that. The agent wanted an ace in the hole, which meant the identity of the informant would come as a surprise to everyone. Maybe that person was someone prominent in town, someone everyone knew. Someone who could do a lot of damage or cause a scandal. And in Honey Creek, that meant it could be just about anyone.
What Wes wouldn’t give to have Jake Pierson back on the case. But Jake had his own issues to deal with, the best one being his wife, Mary. Mary was one of Mark Walsh’s daughters and had a vested interest in finding her father’s killer. Mary and Jake had fallen in love when he was working the investigation, which ran into a few problems when Walsh was murdered.
Walsh was supposed to contact Jake with information about a potential money-laundering operation at Walsh Enterprises, but someone had gotten to him first. Jake had tapped into computers at the company, but nothing conclusive had turned up. Who was behind it? Now that Walsh was dead for good this time, they might never know. Jake had gotten close, but his and Mary’s probing had led to his partner’s death. And losing Jake’s partner was a hard blow to everyone close to the investigation.
Wes climbed into his Jeep and started driving. All he needed was a break, just one big break. Some clue that would tell him who was behind Walsh’s murder. He had a hunch that the murders of Jake’s partner and Mark Walsh were connected to something big enough to make Mark disappear. Maybe it was the money-laundering operation. He was hoping the new agent and his informant would be able to shed some light on that. And soon.
The Librarian’s Secret Scandal Page 5