Jennifer Morey - The Librarian's Secret Scandal

Lily looked at Bonnie Gene. Great. Just what she needed.

“She asked him why,” Bonnie Gene said.

Remembering what he’d said, she wondered if he’d stayed true to his word. She hadn’t seen him around town since that day, despite all his charm in asking her out. But maybe he wasn’t on a timetable. He was a man, after all. And it had only been a week.

“What did he say?” she asked.

“That you ran into him outside of town.”

She couldn’t help smiling. That wasn’t exactly a lie. Montana State Prison was outside of town.

“That’s what I thought,” Bonnie Gene said, and Lily knew her smile had given her away. “Spill it, girlfriend.”

“There’s nothing to spill. I wasn’t paying attention and I ran into him and wrecked his SUV so I drove him to work.”

Her friend’s mouth dropped open. “What? You got in a wreck? What happened?”

“I wasn’t going fast, only about twenty miles an hour.” Which was pretty fast in a parking lot.

“What happened?” Bonnie Gene repeated.

Lily didn’t want to tell her too much. What if it got around town?

“Come on. It’s me.” Bonnie Gene pointed at herself and looked injured. “You ran into our hunky sheriff and you didn’t even tell me.”

“It was no big deal.”

“Did he ask you out?”

“Bonnie Gene …”

“Oh, this is getting good. Where were you when you ran into him?”

Lily cocked her head, not wanting to talk about this. She’d much rather lie and get on with her day. But it was so hard lying to Bonnie Gene, her one true friend through everything.

The waitress returned with their food and left.

“Where?” Bonnie Gene demanded, scooping up a forkfull of eggs.

“Outside of town.” She pushed her eggs around on the plate.

“Wes just said that to protect you.” Lily watched Bonnie Gene’s eyes and knew she was starting to figure things out.

“When did you run into him?” she asked.

“A few days ago.”

“What day?” Bonnie ate more eggs, chewing and looking at her expectantly.

Darn it! “A week ago.” She hesitated. “Today.”

Bonnie Gene swallowed as her puzzle came together. “A week ago today? Was it the day of the parole hearing? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Wes driving his SUV since….”

“Oh, all right. It was the parking lot of the prison, okay? He doesn’t know why I was there, though, so don’t be spreading any rumors. I don’t want anyone to know.”

She set her fork down. “Honey, have I ever failed you yet?”

Lily relaxed. “No. I’m sorry.”

“You’re just a little rattled right now. I understand.”

Before Lily could respond, a woman appeared next to their table. Her pear-shaped body was stuffed into peach-colored stretch pants and a dark purple T-shirt that clung to rolls of fat. Shoulder-length red hair framed angry pale green eyes adorned by too much makeup.

“You have a lot of nerve,” she said to Lily.

Lily tried to place the woman but didn’t recognize her. She looked at Bonnie Gene, who shrugged her shoulders.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t remember me,” the woman said.

Oh, no. Another piece of her past was about to rear its ugly head.

“Karen. Andy Hathaway is my husband?” The woman said it like a question.

Then memory came rushing back. A brief affair packed with lots of naked writhing at a downtown hotel. Andy Hathaway had been hung like a Hoover hose.

And, my oh, my, was she uncomfortable now. “Karen, I …” What could she possibly say? Sorry for humping your husband? But it was so long ago..

“Save it. You think anybody is glad to see you back? I don’t know why you bothered.”

“It’s been a long time,” she said, knowing it was feeble.

Sure enough, that only managed to anger Karen more. “It would be better if you left town. I never wanted to have to lay eyes on you again after what you did.”

“I can understand how you feel, but—”

Karen leaned over and pointed her finger in front of Lily’s face. “You don’t know the first thing about how I feel.”

Lily moved her head back as Karen jabbed her finger too close.

“You didn’t give a rat’s ass how I felt back then and you don’t give a rat’s ass now. I want you gone from here.”

Lily wanted to tell her she was being ridiculous after so much time had passed.

“Lily’s not the same as she was before she left,” Bonnie Gene said.

“You stay out of this. It’s none of your business.”

“Karen … I don’t know how to say this but … I’m sorry. I really am.”

Karen’s mouth tightened until her lips turned white. She picked up a glass of water from the table and tossed it toward Lily’s head. Water splashed and ran down her hair and face. She wiped her eyes and looked up at Karen.

“I want you gone, you hear me?” Karen hissed, and then turned her back and marched out of the restaurant.

Still numb, Lily noticed the entire café had gone silent and everyone was staring at her.

“Does she really think she can make you leave town?” Bonnie Gene asked. “Seeing you must have really riled her.”

Dabbing her face with a napkin, Lily didn’t know what to say to that. She felt bad and yet … there wasn’t a thing she could do. People started whispering around them.

“You ready to go?” Bonnie Gene asked.

“Yeah. Now would be good.”

Bonnie Gene put down enough cash to cover their check and stood. Taking the napkin with her, Lily followed her outside, wiping the front of her shirt.

“Good thing it’s just water,” Bonnie Gene said.

“Yeah, it could have been a gun.”

She exchanged a look with Bonnie Gene.

Lily pushed the library door open and dug in her purse for her ringing cell phone. The strap slipped down her arm, causing her to adjust her hands like a juggler. She found the phone.

“Lily Masterson?” a woman queried.

“Yes.” She slung her purse strap back over her shoulder. It slipped back down to her elbow, nearly yanking the phone away from her ear.

Some days nothing ever went right.

“This is Karla Harrison from Montana State Prison?” the caller said, her inflection rising at the end.

The mention of the prison stopped Lily’s breath and a tiny shock wave made her stomach turn and her heart jump into faster beats. She stopped walking.

“Yes?” She remembered the woman. The victims’ officer who’d walked her to the parking lot.

“Is now a good time to talk?” Karla asked in an overly gentle tone, as if she had to walk on eggshells in order to talk to a poor, helplessly traumatized woman.

Lily hated being treated like that. She started walking again.

“Of course.” This was turning out to be a real crapper of a day. She kicked her office door open. It bounced against the stopper and swung back toward her, tapping her arm and knocking her purse off her shoulder again.

“The parole board has reached a decision in Brandon Gates’s hearing.”

Now consumed with apprehension, Lily walked to her desk and sat down, letting her purse slip to the floor beside her chair. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but they’ve decided to release him. You’ll be getting a letter in the mail.”

“You’re releasing him?” How could they?

“It was the board’s decision.”

Apprehension morphed into outrage. “What did they base it on?” Prison overpopulation?

“He went through treatment while he was incarcerated and according to the board, has a valid plan for reentering society.”

“Plan?” she all but shouted. Valid plan? It was maddening. “What plan? A rapist tells you he’s moving to North Carolina and that’s enough for you to set him free?”