Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
The bell above the door of The End Zone jingled as Kelly stepped inside, the strong aroma of food hitting her immediately. Her stomach twisted in her abdomen, but she tried to ignore the physical reminder of her current mental anguish.
Everything in her world had tilted on its axis since yesterday, and she didn’t know where to turn or what to cling to.
Did I ever really even know Lori? Am I remembering it all wrong?
It didn’t feel like she was misremembering things. If anything, some of those memories from high school were as sharp and clear as the day they’d happened. Lori’s untimely death had placed a stark bookmark in Kelly’s life, segregating the before and after.
Lori, why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have judged you.
Had Lori been so used to being judged by family and their uptight little town that she’d assumed that Kelly would do the same? Or had she been going to tell her secret that day they met at the mall?
Kelly would probably never know.
Ben followed close behind as they headed to a quiet corner booth, his hand lightly brushing her shoulder.
That simple touch anchored her, reminding her she wasn't facing this alone.
They'd barely spoken on the drive from the nursing home, both lost in their own thoughts about what Mrs. Whitfield had confirmed. But what was there left to say?
Lori had been pregnant.
The words kept repeating in Kelly's head like a skipping record. Eight weeks along. Her best friend had been carrying a child when someone strangled her and left her in a ditch.
"Kelly! Over here!"
Hannah waved from the doorway to the kitchen, her smile wide and welcoming. Kelly should have known that they’d never get in and out for lunch without talking to her old friend. It wouldn’t take long. The place was busy with the lunch rush.
"Change of plans," she murmured to Ben as they sat down at the booth.
"Roll with it," he replied quietly. "Might be useful."
Maybe. Kelly wasn’t thinking about telling Hannah about what they’d learned. Hannah knew all the good town gossip because…Hannah was a gossip. If this got around town, the truth coming out might spook the murderer.
There was also a part of her that still wanted to protect Lori, even though her best friend had been gone for a long time and didn’t need protecting anymore. They were long past that. Nothing the good citizens had to say about Lori could hurt her now.
You probably forgive them, don’t you? You were always a better person than me.
A waitress showed up at the table at the same time as Hannah slid in next to Kelly.
“The salmon is good today,’ Hannah said. “And of course, our burgers are the best in the county.”
Ben ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, and Kelly ordered the salmon. The waitress left to put in their order, leaving the three of them to talk.
“I saw your face when you walked in,” Hannah said to Kelly. “You looked like you’d seen a ghost. What’s the deal? Is the wedding off or something?”
For a moment, Kelly had forgotten that the wedding was the reason she was here in Bergen. They were supposed to attend the rehearsal dinner tonight and then the actual wedding tomorrow afternoon.
She kept her gaze on Hannah, not wanting to give anything away by looking at Ben. She wasn't ready to share what they'd learned from Mrs. Whitfield.
Not until she'd processed it herself. Not until they'd spoken with Cal.
"We've discovered some things," she said carefully. "Nothing concrete yet, but something that puts a new spin on things."
Hannah nodded, seeming to accept the vague answer.
"You’re being quite vague,” Hannah said. “Is it bad?”
“I’m not sure it’s good to discuss something when we haven’t had a chance to decide what, if anything, it means in this investigation,” Kelly carefully replied.
Hannah’s eyes narrowed, and then she nodded, a smile playing on her lips.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it has anything to do with Lori’s murder,” Hannah said. “In the long run, it’s meaningless, right? Just a blip. Meaningless.”
Hannah was looking at Kelly like she knew. But…she couldn’t know, right? Unless Lori had talked to Hannah. They were close as well, good friends. But Kelly couldn’t believe that Lori talked to Hannah first.
But I’m getting surprised at every turn, so what do I know?
“Meaningless,” Kelly echoed. “A blip.”
The waitress returned with three iced teas before bustling away again to another table.
"I’m guessing you found out Lori was cheating on Cal that summer and fall, right?"
Kelly's glass froze halfway to her lips, her knuckles whitening around the handle. The words hit her like a physical blow, knocking the air from her lungs. She felt Ben place a steadying hand on her thigh, but it seemed far away, disconnected.
Lori. Cheating on Cal. And pregnant.
What in the ever-loving hell?
“Yes,” she heard Ben reply, although his voice sounded like it was coming from inside a tunnel, far away and faint. “Although, as you can expect, we couldn’t be sure of it. We’re not planning on discussing it until we know hard facts.”
"Well, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I’m pretty sure,” Hannah said.
“But I get why you’d want to not say anything.
I don’t think it has a thing to do with her murder, though.
Looking back, she was just doing what teenagers do.
Have some fun and push some boundaries. It was really just mostly a summer fling, I think.
I confronted her about it a few weeks after school started.
She was acting strange, canceling plans, and being secretive with her phone. Very unlike her."
"What did she say when you confronted her?" Kelly found her voice again, though it sounded strange to her own ears.
"She didn't admit it outright," Sarah said. "But she didn't deny it either. She just said she and Cal were having issues and probably wouldn't last past Homecoming anyway."
Pretty much what Cal had said.
Kelly forced herself to take a sip of iced tea, concentrating on not choking while doing so. She was so shocked, she wasn’t even sure what to do or ask next. This hadn’t been on her Lori Powell Murder Bingo Card.
"Did she say who?" Ben asked.
At least Ben hadn’t lost the ability to think and speak. Thank goodness she’d had the good sense to bring him along.
“Not specifically,” Hannah said with a shake of her head.
“But she made comments about how there were other guys out there that were better.
How Cal was leaving for college and didn't want to be tied down anyway.
I remember she said something about finding someone who actually wanted the same things she did. "
The same things.
Like marriage.
Like a family.
And a father for her unborn child?
"When exactly was this conversation?" Kelly asked, trying to piece together a timeline in her head.
"Maybe three weeks before she died? It was after the Harvest Festival but before Homecoming preparations got into full swing."
Lori had been acting strangely, but Kelly had assumed it was about the stomach flu that wouldn’t go away.
Scratch that…the morning sickness.
"Did anyone else know?" Ben asked.
"Not that I'm aware of," Hannah replied.
"Maybe her aunt that she was staying with that summer? I never told anyone. Didn't seem right after she died, you know? It would have just hurt Cal more, and what would be the point? In the long run, it wasn’t important at all. You know, it’s kind of a relief that you know now. "
Kelly nodded mechanically. images of those weeks before Lori’s death filling her head. She understood her friend’s reasoning all too well. Bergen protected its own, buried its secrets. Just like Dr. Whitfield had buried the truth about Lori's pregnancy.
"Did Cal ever seem suspicious?" Kelly asked.
"Not that I noticed. He was pretty wrapped up in football and college visits that fall." Hannah’s expression softened with sympathy. "Let’s face it. We all pretty much didn’t notice because we were self-involved teenagers who didn’t look much further than ourselves.
The only reason I even sort of noticed was because Lori’s flakiness was inconveniencing me.
If it didn’t affect you, why would you think that something was going on?
Look, Kelly, I know this must be hard to hear.
Lori was your best friend. But nobody's perfect, not even her. "
"I know that," Kelly said sharply, then immediately regretted her tone. "I'm sorry. This is just... a lot. Are you sure she never actually admitted to cheating? She didn’t say anything else about it later?”
"She never said she was cheating, but it was pretty clear from how she talked.”
Kelly's mind was already racing through possibilities. Who in their small town would Lori have turned to? Someone who wanted what she wanted. Someone who might have fathered her child. Someone who might have killed her when things got complicated.
That didn’t narrow down the field much.
Who had her friend been seeing that summer? This was a brand new version of Lori that Kelly had never seen. Cheating on Cal. Seeing someone else. Planning to break up. It was like learning about a stranger wearing her best friend's face.
"You've kept this secret all this time?" Kelly asked, her voice barely audible above the restaurant’s background chatter.
Hannah shrugged, taking a sip of her iced tea before answering.
"What good would it have done to tell anyone after she died? It would have just tarnished her memory. And I’m not the type to rat out my friends.
I wasn’t going to tell anyone, and I told Lori that even when she didn’t outwardly admit it.
She acted like it didn’t matter. And her parents were devastated enough. I didn’t want to add to that."
The Powells. Robert Powell's insistence that the pregnancy be kept out of the autopsy report. What else had they known? What else had they hidden to protect their daughter's reputation?