Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,52
swallowed back the lump that threatened to leave her speechless. “You’re right, it is . . . and I’m sorry.” She reached out, rested her hand atop the woman’s forearm. “I can only imagine how hard this is for you right now.”
“You have no idea.” Regina hoisted her purse higher on her arm. “One minute you’re moving through life under one assumption and the next . . . Well, you realize you were wrong. About everything and everyone.”
“Regina, I know you’re upset. I know that what happened to Ashley is horrific and that justice needs to be served but I can assure you that no one at Sally’s party had anything to do—”
“People you thought were your friends—or at the very least had your back—can turn on you in an instant.” The woman’s eyes glazed over as she fixed on a spot somewhere over Tori’s head. “I mean, you see someone at church or across the table during lunch or while pursuing a common goal, and you just don’t imagine they can hurt you in that way.”
“I’m sorry, Regina, I really am.” She knew the words were lame when spoken against the kind of hurt that played across every facet of the woman’s face, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. Regina wasn’t ready to hear the truth. Not yet, anyway. “Have they released her body so her family can plan the funeral?”
Pulling her focus back to Tori, Regina stared at her. “Why? Would that make you and your friends feel better?”
She stepped back, the woman’s anger akin to a slap across the face. “Of course not! I just wondered—”
“Well, don’t.” Regina pulled her purse from her arm and thumped it on the counter. “None of this is your business.”
“But I—”
Regina’s hand stopped just shy of Tori’s mouth. “You belong in jail.”
Tori’s mouth grew dry as heads in the neighboring checkout lane turned in their direction. Not wanting to cause Ashley’s friend any more hurt, she searched for just the right words—words that would take the sting out of a truth that wasn’t ready to be accepted. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Regina, I truly am. Like you, I hope that justice is served sooner rather than later. But I also know that punishing the wrong people isn’t the justice Ashley or the Lawson family needs at this time. Two wrongs don’t make a right. They never have and they never will.”
She was halfway through her sandwich when she spotted them on the other side of the Green—Beth in a pair of white skintight jeans with a flowery blouse and Milo in darker denim with a navy and white rugby shirt. They were stretched across the red and white checked picnic blanket Tori had given Milo a few months earlier as a hint of things to come when spring finally revealed itself again.
Only she’d intended it for a picnic of their own.
“Nice lookin’ couple, wouldn’t you say?”
Tori peeked around the other side of the tree. “Oh, hi, Mr. Downing. I didn’t see you there.”
“Been sittin’ here ’bout ten minutes or so. Thought ’bout sayin’ something sooner but you seemed lost in thought with your eyes closed and your head ’gainst that there tree.” The man bobbed his head to the side. “Seemed silly to interrupt your quiet time on account of chitchat.”
She shrugged. “I always like to chat with you.” And she did. The elderly man was one of her most loyal patrons at the library, his twice weekly visits something she not only looking forward to, but treasured as well. “I guess you’re right. I was just lost in thought is all.”
Mr. Downing chuckled. “Least you were ’til that bee buzzed you out of your respite.”
The bee.
“Then you got sidetracked by that young couple over there same as I did.” He gestured her attention back to the sight she’d rather forget. “Reminds me of you and your young man.”
That’s because it is.
Shaking her head free from a path she didn’t want to explore, she forced a laugh into her voice. “I guess I just hadn’t noticed them before now.”
“I confess I didn’t either until I followed the path of that bee. Seems he was attracted by their relationship as well.”
Their relationship. Milo’s and Beth’s.
She swung her focus back toward the picnic blanket as the man continued on, his words bringing a catch to her throat. “That’s the way me and my Evelyn were nearly every day we had together. We laughed. We joked. We talked. We